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We would like to get your views on the a few investing issues and we have put together a quick on line survey. We would really appreciate if you would take 90 seconds to complete the survey which will help us to improve the service we offer you.

To thank you for your time, the names of all who complete the short questionnaire will be entered into a free prize draw to win a hot air balloon flight for two people, at one of over a hundred launch sites through out the UK, on a date to suit you, valid for 12 months.

To complete the questionnaire click here now:

I felt compelled to write about this because it is just so so inspiring. I’m going to give it to you straight -

“In the first 8 weeks of our latest Mastermind Programme, one of our members has already bought 11 properties.”

That’s more than 1 property EVERY SINGLE WEEK. And she has another 10 months of the Programme to go!

Here’s the breakdown -

And that’s not even counting the 5-figure sums she’s making in equity
from these deals

Basically, she is now financially free, after just 8 weeks.

— So why I am I telling you this? —

If you are anything like me you made a New Year Resolution to make more money in 2008.

Now ask yourself honestly – it is 4th February today, 35 days into the New Year, and have you done anything to make inroads into that goal?? I’m not talking big bold moves here, just the baby steps?

The example above shows what is achievable in such a short space of time. That’s the shocking reality right there.

So my message to you in this email is this:

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JUST GET STARTED, NO MATTER HOW SMALL YOUR FIRST STEPS ARE
—————————————————————————

And I’ve made the first steps real easy for you – after finding out about this success story, I wanted to share the methods involved with as many people as possible, so I’ve just released a 2 hour video on the exact strategies my Mastermind Members
are using to buy millions of pounds of property with none of their own money.

——————————————-
Even better, it is free.
——————————————-

And even better than that, you can watch it right now on your computer…

Here’s the link:

http://www.propertyinvestorsnetwork.co.uk/quickstart/video/

Enjoy,

Simon

January is a great time to find new tenants. Lots of people on the move, and in particular many young professional seem to be starting new jobs. This is great for me, as most of the tenants in my Multi let properties are young professionals. I thought you might like some tips on how to save yourself time, and stress when looking for new tenants. [Read more →]

I have just come back from a six day trip to Las Vegas. Before you ask…I was not there for the Big Fight, or The Spice Girls (who were also in town last weekend) or even the gambling. I was there for a three day Entrepreneur’s Master Class hosted by Brad Sugars. More on that next week but in the meantime I just wanted to share with you some lessons I gained when I was there.

Well the first lesson is if you have a system, with rules….don’t break the rules. If you are investing in property, stocks or just gambling on the spin of a wheel or turn of a card, unfortunately those two natural human emotions of greed and fear start to play tricks with your mind.

When making any investments you need to set your strategy, [Read more →]

Over the last 18 months we have seen five quarter point interest rates rises such that the bank of England base rate is currently 5.75%. Many experts have speculated that we could see interest rates rise to 6% but the opinion has started to change and the general consensus in the City is that next year interest rates may fall to as low as [Read more →]

As you may know my particular focus at the moment and areas of expertise is buying property below market value from motivated sellers.

It seems that everyone wants to use this strategy at the moment. And why not? With the promise of No money down, tenants from day one, potential positive cash flow and even cash back, surly this has to be the way to go. If you check your local free newspaper you will see lots of people advertising “ Sell your house fast for cash”. It appears that there is lots of competition, or is that just a perception? How many of them actually know what they are doing?

I regularly speak to motivated sellers who say that they have contacted a number of companies about selling their house. I hear all sorts of stories such as sellers waiting to hear back from these companies for weeks. One seller yesterday said that he had given up on one company as they had taken 10 weeks to try and buy his property so he had pulled the plug on them. What are these companies doing? Don’t they realise that the only reason the property is being sold below market value is due to the speed required?

So yes there is lots of competition out there but I get the impression most of the people doing it are amateurs. If you are professional, know what you are doing, build a rapport with the seller and act quickly , there is still an absolute killing to be made using this strategy.

There will be an increasing number of motivated sellers over the next 12 months and those position to help these people in An ethical win-win manner will do very well.

I am sure you have heard me talk many times about the importance of networking. Networking not only helps you to build up your contacts, it can also help you to learn from other successful investors and occasionally it can pay you as well. What do I mean?

Well I have been approached by a developer who has asked me if I know anyone who would like to buy a piece of land which he has for sale in Estonia. He is prepared to pay a generous commission!

I must admit that no one springs to mind instantly, but then I thought that I am sure I must know someone, who know someone who may be interested in such an investment. So I thought I would ask for your help. If you know someone who would be interested in the development below talk to me as I am prepared to PAY YOU up to £100k if your contact ends up purchasing this piece of land.

Just to stop the phone ringing off the hock from people who want to earn an easy £100k this investment may only be right for a few people. Here is an outline of the details:

The plot of land is in Tallinn which is the capital of Estonia. The project is in the final stage of planning with only the environmental search to be done which takes about 3 months.

The total sales value once buildings have been completed will be £42.4 million. With a build cost of £20.9 million and a land cost of £10.5 million will give a net profit of £11 million. Too rich for me but maybe you know someone who plays in this level of investment.

Here are some key points about this development opportunity:

• Prime river location
• 20 minutes from airport
• Within city boundary
• European investment into nearby roads
• Easy access to St Petersburg highway
• Countries top architect working on the project
• English speaking project manager

The first question I asked the developer was why he is selling such a prime bit of land? His answer, a good one I felt, was that he did not have the £20.9 Million required to develop it, but by selling this plot (worth about £10.5 Million would help raise some capital from him to build some of his other plots.

So no time wasters please but if you have genuine contacts who would be interested in this kind of development then let me know ASAP.

If you are reading this thinking you don’t have many investor contacts then you need to get to some more property networking events. From January we want to list as many property networking events on our website as possible to give you more opportunities to build your personal network. We need your help to keep this information updated. If you know of an event that we have not listed please email us to let us know about it.

Did you see the Channel 4 “Dispatches” TV program last night? More doom and gloom for the property market. To be fair, they did make some good points and come to some reasonable conclusion but there was also a lot of negative hype. Wouldn’t it be better for TV programs to tell people what they can do rather than want they cant?

Unfortunately, it is programs like this that cause their predictions of gloom and doom to become a self fulfilling prophecy. The overriding message that I picked up from the program, was how difficult it is for first time buyers to purchase now for two reasons: 1) Prices are so high, 2) Interest rates are high and so people can not afford the mortgage payments. The suggestion that the program made was for First Time Buyers not to buy now, but instead to wait until prices come down further next year and then buy then.

This is one of the reasons why rental demand and rental rates always increase when house prices are coming down, because more people decide to rent rather than buy. This is of course good news for all of us who have properties we are renting out!

These type of programs are always pitched at the level of the mass audience. Most people are not property investors, they do not think like us and so the message is understandably from the point of view of home owners. It is important that as investors we recognise this. The challenge is when we get all the negative stuff thrown at us by friends and family who believe all the information they hear and see on TV but have no personal investing experience to think any differently.

The fact is that the UK property growth rate has slowed, stalled and in some places has already started to decline. I am sure we will see further price FALLS due to the current oversupply of property and lack of buyers. This means that it is a buyers market. As investors we are buying property not selling it. Of course it is even more important to do your research to make sure you are buying the right investment but as long as you know what you are doing, right now there is a great opportunity to get some real bargains. You have to accept that you need to wait a few years for the capital growth to return and so you need to make sure your investments pay for themselves and you can afford to cover any holding costs.

When investors get into trouble it is usually because they overstretch themselves, and have too many properties that they need to support. This is dangerous as a few void periods or interest rate rises can be too much for them to carry. My recommendation is that you MUST always keep a cash reserve to cover unexpected void periods and interest rate rises. This reserve should be proportional to the amount of property you own and the borrowing on it.

Don’t expect to see good capital growth in the UK over the next few years. Property investing is a long term strategy. I believe that most of my properties will at least double again in value with in 10 years. So I am buying now, prepared to hang onto them. To balance my portfolio I am buying overseas properties which are still enjoying very good capital growth. If this is of interest to you may want to come to our Investors Den events around the country this weekend.

So anyway, back to the “Dispatches” program. They had a financial adviser who was explaining to the First Time Buyers how much they would have to pay to the mortgage company each month. The amounts she was quoting seemed very high but then I realised she must be talking about repayment mortgages, and of course as investors we are used to interest only mortgages. My question would be why not start on interest only payments and then in a few years when income increase and you can afford to do it, change to a repayment mortgage.

I remember when I purchased my first property back in 1995. I had just started work at Cadbury in Birmingham and my monthly mortgage payments seemed a real stretch but I wanted to buy the biggest house I could. It was only a two bed terraced house but it was a stretch for me. I am sure it was a stretch for you, when you purchased your first property. I expected to rent out two of the rooms in my house to help cover the mortgage payments. As time went on and my salary increased the mortgage payment become far more affordable and I then moved up to a bigger house which again, at first, was more of a stretch, but that’s the way it works.

I sympathise with young families who are struggling to get on the property ladder as understandably they can not really rent out rooms in their home, but if people are living alone, why don’t more people think about renting out a spare room? I think one of the problems, is that many young people have very high aspirations and so want to live in their own place on there own. No wonder they can not afford it. On the “Dispatches” program they made a real fuss about this single guy who was going to HAVE to rent out his second room to make the figures work. That is not a problem that is a solution.

The program also talked about people who had to get help from their parents to be able to get a deposit. What is so strange about this? Any parent who has owned their own home for the last five years will have seen fantastic growth in their property and so should have more than enough equity to help their kids out. I have met many investors who have got into property for this very reason of being able to help their children get onto the property ladder.

So in conclusion, if you know any first time buyers here are my tips to help get them on the property ladder:

1. Get to know the market where you want to buy so that you have a good understanding of the local values and so can spot a bargain.
2. Use the current market conditions to negotiate a good price
3. Buy the largest property you can with spare rooms which you can rent out to friends to help cover the cost of the mortgage.
4. Borrow the deposit from a family member who you can repay in the future by re-mortgaging when property prices start to rise.
5. Consider buying with interest only mortgages until you can afford to switch to repayments.

Please feel free to post your comment about this article.

We are looking for a new office assistant to help us manage the day-to-day running of the office. This would be a 4 day a week role (in our Birmingham office) with the possibility of flexible working hours.

The type of person we are looking for would be.

• Confident and friendly
• Positive and can-do attitude
• Great telephone manner.
• Eye for detail.
• Good IT skills or ability to learn them.
• Able to work on their own initiative.
• Flexible and adaptable

As you can imagine at PIN it will be a varied and interesting role. Varying from organising events and travel for Simon and the team, to proof reading presentations and everything in-between! What better way to learn about investing than to immerse yourself around the best in the business??

If you are interested or know of anyone who you think would be interested then ask them to send their CV to events@propertyinvestorsnetwork.co.uk before Wednesday the 7th of November.

Have you stopped to consider whether the TDS (Tenancy Deposit Scheme) is actually beneficial to tenants? Or whether there are ways of avoiding this Government red-tape, for both yours and your tenants benefit?

Our resident HMO expert Jim Haliburton has some quite heated views on the topic, and suggests 12 loopholes to the TDS.

[Read more →]