As we run property networking event all around the UK, I thought it may be useful to give you some tips on how to get the most of attending network events.

Here are 3 steps to maximise your networking experience;

1. Before you go to the event: Work out what you want to achieve by attending. Maybe you want to find someone who can recommend a good handyman or letting agent in your area, or you want an investor to put some money into a joint venture. Whatever it is, write down a clear intention so that when you meet people at the event you can clearly explain what you are looking for. Also think about any other investors who you know who might be interested in attending such an event and invite them to come along with you. Finally make sure you have some business cards to take with you for when people want your contact details. They don’t have to be fancy or expensive cards just something with all your details on. You can get some free business cards from people like www.VistaPrint.co.uk

2. At the event: Plan to arrive early and leave late. Speak to as many people as you can. Of course you should say hello to the people you already know but make sure you also speak to people who you don’t know. When you meet someone ask them what their name is, where they are from, what they want to get out of the meeting and how you can help them. Be interested in them first rather than telling all about you. Look for how you can help the people you meet. Also think about people you already know who may like to meet them. Make sure you also collect cards from all the people you meet. You may also like to write a little note on the card to remind you what they were interested in and how you might be able to help.

3. After the event: When you get home go through all of the business cards you have collected. Send a follow up email or text to everyone you met. Reconnect with them and send them any information and contact details you promised to give them. It is best to do this follow up the day after the event so that people remember you and the conversation. Keep in touch with them and build your personal contact list. There is no doubt the more people you know the more successful you will be because you will have a number of people you can call or email for advice and help.

If you would like to attend any of our property networking events you can find full details at www.pinmeeting.co.uk
Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, property investors network

I was speaking to Joseph the night before and we were discussing why some property investors just don’t get the results they want no matter what they do and some people achieve incredible success with that seems like ease!

We recorded the Tele semianr and you can download the MP3 file here for free!
http://attendthisevent.com/?eventID=13716390

Joseph made a great offer for an event he is running in January 2011. Details are on the tele semianr recording above.

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder Property Investors Network

As a property investor, one of the critical skills you need to develop is the ability to quickly assess a particular opportunity to decide if it is a good investment and suitable for you or not. Many investor just don’t know how to do this, so I thought I would make it as simple as possible for you in this blog.

When researching any potential investment there are two main factors we are concerned with.

We want to determine:
A) The true market value of the property
B) The realistic market rent that could be achieved.

This is the information that a mortgage company would want a chartered surveyor to collect on their behalf, in order to assess whether to grant you a buy to let mortgage on a particular property. You need this information a long time before you even apply for the mortgage, to decide if it is the right kind of investment for you.

With these two pieces of information you can ascertain whether you are going to make a profit each month after covering all of the expenses. The main expense you will incur on a monthly basis is the interest on your buy to let mortgage.

I have a very simple rule of thumb which you can use to asses this monthly expense. For every £20,000 you borrow, at an interest rate of 6%, you will pay £100 per calendar month (pcm) in interest. For example, if you were to borrow £80,000 it would cost you £400 pcm.

This is based on a 6% annual interest rate for two reasons: First of all it’s the average rate I’ve had over the last 15 years. Secondly, it keeps the numbers easy to calculate because every £20,000 you borrow cost just £100 pcm. I like to keep thing as simple as possible.

If the average cost of a mortgage is only 5% per annum then this rule of thumb is very conservative. This means that in reality £20k will not cost you as much as £100 pcm but by using this in your calculations you are being very cautions which is good because you don’t want to be too optimistic.

When working out the cash flow many investors are too optimistic on what the costs will be and they don’t get it right. It’s better to be pessimistic and have a nice surprise to make more money than expected.

The mortgage lender will then use a rent multiplier to make sure that the rent is going to be enough to cover the monthly interest and the other cost associated with the property. This rent multiplier can vary from lender to lender but most will uses something like 125%. This means that the lender wants to check that the monthly rent is 125% of the monthly interest payment. (Rent > Monthly interest x 125%).

With a mortgage of £80,000 and a monthly interest charge of £400 your lender would generally want to see a monthly rental income of at least £500 pcm (£400 x 125%). The extra 25% over and above the interest payments is an approximation of the other monthly costs. Using this rent multiplier will help you to very quickly asses if a property is going to make monthly cash flow for you.

With a monthly interest cost of £400, if the monthly rent was just £500, it may only just about covers the costs. However, if the monthly rent was £550, then it means you would probably make some cash flow from this property each month. If the rent was just £450, you wouldn’t be making positive cash flow, in fact we know it’s going to cost you month each month. In reality the lender may not lend the full amount.

To summarise, you can quickly work out if a property stacks up as follows:

1. Work out how much is the mortgage going to cost you
2. Multiply the monthly interest by 125% to give the required rent
3. Check that the actual rent is more than the required rent.

Having used this quick approximation, if the property does not stack up you can move on to the next one without wasting too much time. If however it looks like it does stack up well, it may be worth spending a little more time to properly work out the true cash flow to help decide if you want to purchase it.

This article has been taken from the new “2010 and Beyond” edition of Property Magic which is an Amazon No 1 Best seller. This new edition is available on Amazon now. Click here to Buy Property Magic 2010 now!

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder property investors network

It is a real shame that traditional education fails to prepare us for life in the real world. There are so many things that we learnt at school which we will never use in life and yet no one every teaches us about important life skills such making money, debt management , or cash flow.

Unfortunately, most people in the UK don’t understand the importance of investing in themselves. Part of the problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know. I see this problem all the time, especially with experienced landlords who might have owned property for a number of years and thus feel that the already know it all because they have been successful.

In contrast to this, it is interesting to observe that, the really successful people are often very open minded and are always looking to improve their skills and knowledge to make sure they stay at the top of their game.

Successful people know they don’t have to learn the hard way but rather it is much smarter to find someone who has already been successful and copy what they did.

I have been investing in myself (and continue to do so) since 1998 when I attended a 3 day Jay Abraham marketing seminar. At the time I invested about £2500 which seemed like a lot of money to me but I believe the knowledge I gained at that event and subsequently applied has earned me close to £1M over the last 12 years. I still have that knowledge and will still benefit from it for the rest of my life.

Even though I have been investing in property since 1995, speak all over the world about property investing, and have written an Amazon No 1 best-selling book, I don’t claim to know it all. No one can, especially when the market has changed as much as it has over the last 18 months. People are often surprised when they see me at seminars as a delegate (especially property seminars) but I know that I will ALWAYS learn something because I am looking for what I don’t know rather than what I already know. If I pick up just one thing that will make me more successful, or save me time, money, or effort, then it is well worth the time and money to attend.

I believe it was Robert Kiyosaki who said: “Poor people will spend their time to save money. Rich people spend their money to save time!”

A great example of this was on one of my recent seminars when a delegate put on his feedback form that he had learnt more in one day with me than he had learnt in an entire year looking on the internet trying to piece all the information together for free. He was frustrated that he had wasted a whole year and potentially missed loads of deals in those 12 months because all because he did not want to invest £500 in his own education, as he thought he could do it himself for free.

I would not be surprised if all the information you will ever need is already on the internet and available for free. The problem is how long it will take you to pull it all together, digest it and then apply it! Some people insist on learning the hard way. They believe that instead of educating themselves they would rather learn from their own mistakes. This is a false economy when you weigh up the wasted time, money and effort. Really smart people find someone who has already achieved success in the area they want to be successful and copy what the successful person does.

There are many different ways of learning from successful people: through books, DVDs, audio programs and home study courses, but my preferred method of learning is through seminars because I love the learning environment and the opportunity to ask questions.

There are generally two types of seminars you can attend.

First of all there are the content specific seminars which teach you particular skills, knowledge and strategies such as Internet marketing, FOREX, Business skills or Property Investing.

Then there are the second type of seminars which help with mindset, beliefs and motivation. Personally I think it is worthless having the technical knowhow if you don’t have the motivation to apply it which is why I have a large proportion of mindset in all my seminars.

There are so many great seminars out there that it can be confusing which one is the most appropriate for you.

So I have put together a check list for you to use to make sure you make the right choice to make the most of your investment.

Top Tips for picking the right seminar for you:
• First of all identify the specific training, knowledge or skills that you want to acquire. Make sure the seminar is going to give you what you are looking for.
• Ask who is going to be delivering the training. Will it be the expert with years of experience or just a presenter who is delivering someone else’s material.
• Can you find and speak to other people who have already done the seminar to get their independent opinion of it.
• Are there any money back guarantees if it does not deliver what was advertised.
• What is the post seminar support if any?

The final but probably the most important tip on how to make the most on your investment in you, is that you need to take action. I know that may seem obvious but it is incredible how many people fail to put what they have been taught into action.

Here are a few points to help avoid overwhelm and actually apply what you learn from the seminar.
• Work out what actions you need to take
• Prioritise this action list
• Do at least one thing a day from your action list
• Schedule time to take action into your diary to make sure it happens.

People often think they can go on just one seminar and that will be then sorted for life. Well it does not usually work like that. If you go to the gym once you won’t suddenly become muscular and toned. You need to keep working your muscles on a regular basis. In the same way to become truly successful you need High Impact, High Frequency and then on-going support!

Going to a seminar gives you high impact. It is a very time efficient way for you to gain a significant amount of knowledge in a short period of time. When someone attends one of my seminars they are not getting just a day of my time but rather 15 years of my experienced condensed into the very best bits delivered in the most efficient way.

If you would like more details about my one day Property Investing Quick start Seminar then click here.

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, Property Investors Network

This means that I had to get up early every morning (before 6.30am) which I must admit I found a real shock to my system as I am just not used to it any more. It is just me or is it unnatural to be getting out of bed when it is still dark?

One morning I suddenly realised that this is what most people have to do every day! Even worse, most people then have to spend at least an hour travelling to and from work every day.
Of course this is obvious but I have become so used to my lifestyle where generally I get up when I want and I don’t have to travel into work, that I had genuinely forgotten how hard normal working life can be.

I consider myself very lucky that I spend my time doing what I want to do. Yes I have a business that I need to put time and effort into but I chose when and how much. My property portfolio is set up to pretty much look after itself. I am not the kind of person who can sit around doing nothing but I am very much the master of my own destiny.

Let me make it clear that I am not telling you this to impress you but impress upon you that you can do this as well. It took me 7 years to get to the point of financial independence where I no longer had to work but I did it the hard way by trail and terror.
It does not have to be that hard or long for you. There are plenty of people (myself included) who can show you how you can do it in about 3 to 5 years or even less if you really go for it. The point is that you chose the life you lead. If you are fed up with getting up early and commuting to work and not really having much to show for it at the end of the month then you need to make the decision to do something about it.

The biggest problem I believe is that most people accept life the way it is. They don’t know what they can do to change things. They believe that they need money time and experience to be able to make money though property. This simple is not true. Yes if you have all of these it is much easier but with the correct knowledge and action you can achieve anything you want.

If you don’t know what is possible or need to have the light switched on for you then a very good place to start would be with my Amazon No 1 best selling property book “Property Magic”.
It has recently been revised and updated for the current property market. You can get it here now:

I wish I had access to this information when I was first starting to invest back in 1995. I would not have made half of the mistakes which I have made and I would have saved myself a fortune in wasted time money and effort.

I am very grateful to all my mentors and coaches over the years from whom I have learned so much and continue to do so. I feel privileged to be able to share my knowledge and experience with people like you and help people to make a real difference in their lives.

You need to recognise what a fantastic opportunity there is to invest in property right now. There is a fairly short time frame so you need to do something about it now. Take action, change your life for the better and enjoy more lie ins, whilst everyone else is getting up to go to work when it is still dark!

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, property investors network

Last weekend saw the return of the Property Investor Show at ExCel in London. I was not sure what to expect but I have to admit I was blown away by the reaction! This was the first large Property Investor Show since September 2008.

Understandably, with house prices falling, unemployment rising, and all the doom and gloom peddled in the national press, the average person in the UK has not been that interested in property investing over the last 18 months. In reality, the UK falling house prices have created a buyers market and the serious investors have been snapping up incredible bargains whilst “the sale has been on”.

However, over the last few months we have seen a noticeable increase in the level of interest in property investing. This was definitely our experience at the Property Investor Show last weekend. I have been speaking and exhibiting at these shows since 2004 and I can honestly say we have never received as many enquires as we did at this particular show. All of the 5 seminars I held were standing room only and we have had a lot of interest in our monthly network meetings currently in 8 cities around the UK, our one day property seminars and of course my Property Mastermind Programme.

There were less people at this show than in previous years but the quality of the investors was much higher than previously.

The feeling amongst most investors I spoke to at the Property Investor Show is that the market has bottomed out and there is a genuine feeling that prices are on the rise. There were still two major concerns and they were:

1) The availability of mortgages (which I agree may be a limiting factor on the recovery of the market).

2) The high probability of interest rate rises in the future.

Whilst these are both genuine concerns let’s considered each of them in turn. First of all, banks only make money when the lend money so as the UK property market starts to recover and the banks gain confidence they will have to make lending easier and more available if they are going to survive.

Secondly, interest rates are relatively very low at the moment but as the UK economy recovers I am sure the Bank of England will increase interest rates to control inflation. The view of most finance professionals is that interest rates will probably stay where they are for the next 2 years or so before they start to rise. It is important that as investors we do not spend all the extra cash flow we are getting at the moment. Also fixing interest rates in the next 18 months or so before they start to rise would be another way to protect yourself against potential interest rate rises.

It is worth remembering that inflation is actually a good thing for property investors as it means that rents and property prices all increase whilst in real terms the value of mortgage debt decreases.

We shall have to wait and see what happens but I believe we have a unique opportunity over the next 12 months to make the most of the current market conditions before everyone jumps back into the property market.

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, property investors network

The reason I ask, is because I want to share with you a post which was put onto my Property Mastermind Forum by one of the home study delegates:

“I’m a newbie at this – I’ve only been learning this BMV stuff for 10 weeks and I have been struggling to fit in the time recently, as my shops are so busy and we’re doing almost £60k a week at the moment, we suffered an armed robbery in June (which knackered everything up for a few weeks) and my children have been off school for the past 5-weeks on their summer holiday and I have been trying to keep them entertained with days-out, cinema trips, zoo days, theme parks, etc…

Also, my 6-year old son has been quite ill in recent months and in-and-out of hospital almost on a weekly basis, seeing various consultants and trying various treatments for his condition. In the past week too, my baby son (aged 7months) has been really ill and his neck looks like he has two golf balls under his skin as his glands are so swollen and we’ve been in and out of A&E 3 times since last Friday – we thought it was mumps, or worse.

I feel that I haven’t given as much time as I should as I have been distracted recently”

I think we would all agree there are some valid reasons why this newbie could not take as much action as he would have liked, given all this stuff happening in his life right now. However he went on to say:

“Yet Simon thinks I’m doing well and participating fully with the programme and following the steps as laid out.

So far, I’ve viewed around 40 houses and I have got 5 deals now.

One was a packaged up deal bought from a sourcer and the other 4 deals are ones that I have found by using Simon’s Estate Agent strategy. I’ve gone from nothing to having FIVE deals in the past 10 weeks. The last 4 deals have come in the past 4-weeks, as I have gone out there, met estate agents, done viewings, made offers and got the deals.

I’m nobody special. I have just followed the programme. If I can do it… I’m pretty sure anybody can…”

Although he is busy, this newbie has made his property business a priority, he has kept it simple, followed the programme, taken action and had a crystal clear vision of what he wants to achieve.

What changes do you need to make to get the results you want?

Discover the secrets behind the Property Mastermind Programme in my Amazon No 1 best-selling book “Property Magic”. Available now at: www.propertymagicbook.com

Kind regards

Simon Zutshi

The lucky winner will not have to wait until October to start buying lots of property as the winner, (and all the other investors who have already reserved their place on the next PMP) will attend my one day BMV Quick Start seminar in August, and the winner will also receive the Brain Transplant Pack (pre course study material) so that he/she can get their first deals even before they start in October.

So thank you to everyone who entered.

The winner is……Jane Russell.

Congratulations Jane. I will be calling you later today.

Kind regards

Simon Zutshi
http://www.facebook.com/simon.zutshi
http://twitter.com/simonzutshi

What I loved about “Real Estate Riches” was the way Dolf De Roos explained the simple concept of looking for the angle in any property deal. Most amateur property investors just see the property and don’t thnk creatively about how the cash flow could be increased. Dolf is a master at this, on both residential and commercial property.

Last year after the success of my book “Property Magic”, which became an Amazon No 1 Best seller, we held a 2 day seminar called Property Magic Live in October, at which Dolf was the guest speaker. Dolf is back over in the UK this week for our “Cash Flow Dynamics” event in London.

I spent a few hours with him Dolf today and my head is buzzing with ideas of how to increase the cash flow on some of my properties. Personally I have only invested in residential property but I am keen to look at commercial property as well which has many advantages over residential.

Of course it is important to make sure you buy the correct type of commercial investment given the current economic climate. Thus the importance of educating yourself properly and I consider myself lucky to have a commercial expert such as Dolf to learn from. The quickest way to be successful in any filed is to find an expert who has already been incredibly successful and learn from them.

If you get a chance to see Dolf De Roos live, take it as he is also a world class speaker. I think Dolf will be Back in the UK later this year as I hope he will be speaking at Property Magic Live 2009 which is on 26th and 27th September.

Kind Regards,

Simon Zutshi

I had a day off yesterday (which meant that I had do lots of jobs around the house), and my wife Lorraine wanted me to help drop off her sewing machine which needed a service as it stopped working properly. Lorraine had telephoned a sewing machine shop in the morning to check they could do services and that they were open when we intended to pop in. The lady on the phone (we will call her Mrs Happy) was rather short with Lorraine and not particularly helpful or friendly. Even so, as it was the closest shop we decided to drop the sewing machine in, to see what they thought about it.

We arrived at the shop and Mrs Happy came over to look at the machine. Seeing that it was a very old machine (older than me), she said it would not be worth repairing, and we would be better off buying a new one. Mrs Happy may have been correct as it may well be cheaper to buy a new one rather than fix the old one, but that should be our decision. Instead of presenting the different options and then maybe making a suggestion, Mrs Happy took it upon herself to tell us what was best for us without taking our views into account.

It was not just what she said, but also the dismissive way she said it. Lorraine and I looked at each other and were shocked at her “poor attitude”. We picked the machine up and left the shop. As Lorraine was given this machine by her mother, she would prefer to pay a reasonable amount to get it fixed rather than buy a new cheap model. After the Mrs Happy encounter, Lorraine concluded that if she does have to buy a new machine she will not buy it from Mrs happy, but would rather go to another shop instead to spend her money. Maybe Mrs happy was having a bad day! We all have those occasionally. Unfortunately, Mrs Happy let her bad attitude come before her customer service. She did not find out what was important to us, her potential customers?

So what on earth has this got to do with property investing? Well, property is a people business. The better you are at dealing with people the more successful you will be. Consider for a minute how you deal with your customers? Customers, what customers? you may be thinking.

As a property investor, your most important customers are your tenants, the people who come back to you and buy (accommodation) from you every month. How do you treat and speak to you tenants or potential tenants? Are you looking after them and their accommodation (which after all is your investment). Look after your tenants and the property, and they could be with your for years and even provide new tenants through recommendation. This will help to reduce your void periods which will save you lots of time, effort and money.

What about people you speak to who want to sell their property? In that case you are the buyer, but if you are going to be buying the property well below market value (as you should be doing) then you need to sell the concept to the vendor, that they sell the property to you, rather than to another investor. If it is really a good deal other investors will be interested in it. So again you need to find out from the vendor what is important to them. You need to build the rapport with them such that they want to deal with you. Property is a people business. Make sure you are professional, courteous and friendly with everyone you deal with and people will want to deal with you.

Kind regards

Simon Zutshi