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

Yes it is a shame that VAT is going up to 20% which is very high but will that extra 2.5% have a real impact n your purchases? Probably not! Capital Gains Tax has gone up to 28% for higher tax payers but remember you only pay that when you sell your property. If you don’t sell you don’t pay it so that will not affect many long term buy and hold property investors!

But there was one change in the Budget which could make a massive different to all the switched on Property investors

Not many property investors know this but there is a way to massively reduce your personal income tax liability, thanks to a change in the Capital Allowance scheme a few years ago.

Basically if you buy a property that is used as a house of multiple occupation (3 or more people sharing) you can get a capital allowance against all of the “plant and machinery” in the communal areas. Usually this allowance is about 20% of the purchase price which you can offset directly against your personal income tax liability in that tax year. This means you could claim all your tax back from the tax man each year!

For example: If you buy a Multi let property for £200k you could get a capital allowance of approx £40k to offset against your income. If you PAYE income was £40k you would get back all of the Tax you had paid that year. In the 2009 to 2010 tax year you could offset up to £50k against your personal Tax. In the last Budget the former Chancellor raised this to £100k per year. This was a great strategy as it meant if you earn up to £100k income per year and you could PAY NO tax on that income by purchasing up to £500k worth of multi let properties in that Tax year. This was a strategy we shared earlier this year on one of my free tele seminars.

The Bad news in the Budget on 22nd June 2010 was that the maximum you can offset against your income for the 2010 to 2011 tax year is being slashed to just £25k.

So the important point here is that if you are thinking about buying a Multi let property in the near future make sure you do it before the end of this current tax year to get the maximum you can offset against your personal tax. You may want to wait until after 1st October 2010 as this is when the new Planning permission requirement for HMOs introduced on 6th April 2010 is being relaxed. Alternatively you could purchase existing HMOs from retiring landlords as these automatically have the planning permission.

I suppose a lesson here is that the property market is changing so fast when you learn a new strategy, as long as it is appropriate for you, then you should apply it straight away because if you sit on it and fail to take action, by the time you get around to it, the market may have changed and it may no longer be appropriate. This is why I have just completed the third edition of the Amazon No 1 Best Seller property book “Property Magic” which should be available next week. This edition has been revised for successful investing in 2010 and beyond.

It will still be a valid strategy buying multi let properties after the end of the tax year but you just won’t be able to get such a huge tax benefit as you will if your purchase them this year. So take action now!

Kind regards

Simon Zutshi
Founder Property investors network

To start with I want to tell you about the two most important things you need to Master if you want to become rich!

Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad) was very clear when he said there are two key areas you need to master if you want to come rich. These are managing debt and tax.

The quickest way to put more money in your pocket right now without doing any more work is to pay less tax. Many people focus on making as much money as they can but then go and unnecessarily give most of it away to the tax man. Tax laws have been set up specifically so that the rich pay less tax. Taxation in many cases is optional. The problem is many people rely on their accountants to advise them on how to save money. Most accounts (but not all) are reactive rather than proactive. They will give you the right answer, but you need to ask the then right questions, which means you need to educate yourself as to the correct questions to ask them.

I have spent a fortune on my personal Tax education and as a direct result I don’t pay much tax now. I legally use the tax laws in my favour as do all rich people. Luckily for you, my personal tax experts also regularly speak at the property investors network meetings which we hold every month all round UK. If you want to find out about the closest pin meeting to where you live check here www.pinmeeting.co.uk

The other key point was about managing debt. By using debt to purchase assets you can make a lot of money. As successful property investors we understand the concept of using other people’s money to buy investment properties. It was encouraging to hear Robert Kiyosaki share his investment strategy which is the exactly the same as the one I teach on my one day property investing Quick start seminar. The idea being that you buy an asset below market value and then you refinance as soon as possible to get your deposit back out. (even better if you uses someone else’s money for the deposit). This means you have an infinite return on investment if you don’t have any money left in the deal.

The main risk involved in this strategy is what happens if interest ratres go up. Well the fact is that interest rates will go up in the future so in the next article I am going to share what I learn from World Economist Richard Duncan and his top tips for investing in the next few years.

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

I was speaking at an event in London last week and at the end I was approached by a gentleman who for privacy we shall call Mark. Mark asked me if I could help because his mother’s property was due to be repossessed this week!

He asked me to come and look at the property to see if I could help them. It is a large four bed property in North London in need of some work but a fantastic location. Mark explained that his mother lives in the property but that he, his sister and his mother were all on the mortgage.

The loan was with a subprime lender who was charging them 10.5% per annum and they were finding it very hard to keep up the payments and so had decided to sell. Another brother and sister had been helping to pay this mortgage but had decided enough was enough and they had to sell

So the house was put on the market and as a sale had been agreed the lawyer representing Mark’s sister (let’s call them “Bungle & Scarper”) had suggested that the family members stop paying the mortgage and the arrears that build up could be paid off when the revenue comes in from the sale.

This is a risky strategy in the event that the sale could fall through, which surprise, surprise it did. We all know what happens if you do not pay your mortgage (or maybe we don’t all know) …eventually you will get repossessed. Mark had already been to court with his mother and the Judge advised that the property had to be sold.

Mark was a very motivated seller. He and his mother agreed that they would rather sell the house at a discount, to clear all the debt and walk out with £100k rather than get repossessed, have their credit records trashed and potentially not get much money after all the associated legal costs. Mark had an investor lined up ready to buy the property who also went to court with them to present the solution.

Unfortunately, Mark’s sister and the other brother and sister had a different view. On the advice of their lawyers, Bungle & Scarper, they thought the best solution would be good to get repossessed and then do a deal with the lenders solicitors to sell the property on the open market get the best possible price and then hopefully they would get more money from the sale, not to mention the trashed credit rating or maybe they are unaware of the full implications.

Incredibly the judge thought that the investors offer was too low (even though it would clear all the debt and give the family £100k plus), and agreed to give possession to the lenders solicitors. How can being reposed be the best solution for the property owners? Maybe the judge was thinking that they will get more money by selling the property on the open market. Well, whilst I agree they may receive a higher offer I wonder if the Judge has conserved all the associated costs. For a start an estate agent in London would want 2.5% of the sales price. I am sure the lenders lawyers and Bungle & Scarper will also have very high costs associated with their time involved in the sale, not to mention all the interest and penalties building up whilst the property is marketed and sold.

This cannot be right! Maybe I have a simplistic view of this. Maybe I have had a bias account of the facts from Mark but this does not seem right to me. Is this fair? What do you think?

I wonder if Bungle & Scarper were more concerned about the fees they can earn from the prolonged case rather than the best interests of their clients. It looks to me as if this lawyer has been giving financial advice to their clients. Interesting as I don’t think they can do that. I wonder what the law society would have to say about this?

The lessons I would like you to draw from this are as follows:
1. Most sellers do not understand the implication of getting repossessed. Often the bury their head in the sand and think everything will be better once the property is repossessed
2. You need to be aware the advice that sellers are given may not be the best course of action for them.
3. When you are dealing with sellers always put their interests first ahead of your own and try to come up with an ethical win win solution.
4. When there is a disagreement between family members the judge can decide the course of action he sees fit.

Feel free to post what you think about this case study.

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, property investors network

I have been fortunate enough to learn from some of the most successful people in the world over the last 12 years, but until last year I had not had the opportunity to learn personally from Robert Kiyosaki. So when a friend of mine tipped me off that Robert was doing a big seminar in Singapore with all of his Rich Dad Poor Dad advisers and that if I wanted them, I could buy some VIP front row seats, needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Singapore with my team and a small number of clients.

I must say, I think Singapore is an incredible place (so much so that I went there three times last year) and the event, the National Achievers Congress organised by the wonderful Richard and Veronica Tan of Success Resources, was attended by almost 3000 participants which itself was a real sight to see.

My friend who had secured the VIP tickets also managed to arrange for us to meet Robert in person which was fantastic given that there were so many delegates there. As VIPs we were invited to have lunch each day with one of the Rich Dad Poor Dad advisors. This was a priceless experience! If you want to be successful you need to spend as much time as possible other with successful people.

So what did I learn by attending this event? Well as you might expect there was lots of valuable information about different aspects of wealth creation but the biggest benefit for me was the powerful impact on my mindset. I experienced a real shift in my personal believe in what I can achieve in my business and property investments. I would like to think I already have a very open mind as to what can be achieved but my thinking was definitely expanded to a whole new, higher level thanks to this event. I would go as far as saying that I believe I will make millions of extra pounds over the next ten years as a direct result of being at that one event.

One of the significant lessons for me, that I would like to share with you, was the concept of adding noughts to the size of deals you do. It takes about as much work to buy a large property as it does a small one. Maybe a bit more confidence required to do bigger deals but not much more time. For the same amount of time and effort you can make much more money by finding bigger deals. This may be common sense and theoretically I already know the concept but even if you think you know something, if you are not doing it, do you really know it?

As a result of this flash of the blinding obvious, I am currently looking for a really big deal to do, probably with the help of my friend and mentor Dolf de Roos. People are often surprised when I say that I still have mentors and coaches because I have been investing since 1995. Maybe they expect me to already know it all, but of course I don’t and no one can, especially when the property market has changed so much over the last 2 years. The importance of having a mentor was another key message that I was reminded of at this event.

In case you have not already heard, the great news is that Success Resources are bringing their incredible National Achievers Congress event to the UK this June with, for the very first time, Robert Kiyosaki and 4 of his Rich Dad Advisors. This will be the biggest ever wealth creation event in the UK with 4000 delegates at the new purpose build auditorium at Excel.

Right now Tickets are just £300 + VAT which in my view is an absolute bargain. However, be advised that the price will be going up as it gets closer to the event so I recommend you buy your tickets as soon as you can to pay the best price. I believe the next price rise will be to £450 + VAT from 1st May.
Click here for full details about the event here.

I will be going to this event again and I know many of the property experts are also going to be there. I do hope you can join us.

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 one day property investing seminar is being organised by Maria Davis and will feature the top property experts in the UK including Kevin Green and Gill Fielding both of whom have been on Channel Four’s Secret Millionaire TV programme.

There will be no sales pitches just, good property investing education, tips and advice. If you want to have a great day of property education and property networking whilst helping to raise money for a good cause then book your ticket now. Tickets are just £97 will all profits going to charity. Book your ticket here now:

I hope to see you there

Simon Zutshi
Founder property investors network

Richard explained that he has met many successful people in business and politics all of whom had just two factors in common:

1) They started
2) They never stopped

Many people have a great business idea or want to invest in property but never take the first step. Often that first leap of faith can be difficult but it is all you need to get you started. You can make it easier and safer with education and market research to minimise the risks.

To be successful in anything, once you have started, you need to keep going and never give up. Richard was keen to point out that if you are not making any progress then there is no point in banging your head against a brick wall but rather you need to find a way around, over or under any obstacles in your way.

Far too often people give up just before they would achieve success. When they started Innocent drinks and were looking to raise finance, Richard said they were turned down by 20 main banks and every venture capitalist in London. They were about to give up when in a final desperate attempt they sent an email to everyone they knew in London with the subject “Do you know anyone who is Rich”. Incredible this email marketing campaign worked and they found an investor who agreed to back their company.

This reminded me of one of the tips I share with the property investors on my one day Property Investing Quick Start Seminar. I believe that one of the easiest ways to find motivated sellers who will sell their property below market value (BMV) is to tell everyone what you do. I mean tell everyone that you invest in property. Whenever you meet people and they ask you what you do tell them you are a property problem solver. It always helps if you have some property business cards with you so that you look professional.

Anyway back to Richard Reed, who also shared that he considers himself very lucky that he had two other partners to help him build the Innocent drinks business. They were able to bounce ideas off each other and focus on just the things they were good at. Again this is true in property investing.

Smart property investors recognise that it can be difficult and lonely trying to build a property portfolio on their own. They realise it is much easier and quicker if you get other people to help you. This is why many investors come to our property investors network (pin) meetings every month, to meet like-minded people, to learn from other property investors and find the people they need to help them.

Finally Richard said that they have writing a book about Innocent drinks. If it is half as good as Richard Reed’s presentation it will be fantastic. I have just ordered my copy on Amazon.

Kind regards,

Simon Zutshi
Founder, property investors network
Author of the Amazon No 1 best-seller “Property Magic”