Welcome! Use the popout menu < left to explore the site. You are welcome to join the Forums to chat. Property Menu | Mortgages | No Money Down | Calculate Yield | Free B2L Book UK property investment seminar So you are thinking about going on a property seminar in the UK? Well based on my own personal experience of market flooding and too many people doing the same thing, and the experience of others close to me - it could be the worst decision you make .. Read on. Who makes the money you or the seminar company? Most of the property investment seminar companies now are "selling" you a style of investing that is followed through with offers of deals and further services. This can only mean one thing, that they are teaching you to take their deals and help them to make more money. Questions to ask the property seminar companies
If they do find out what they are, and if they involve things that offer them a kick back or other money like deals, solicitors, accountants and , you should concider if that is the reason they are offering the service. If the speakers have less than 3 years property experience and less than 5 properties, then they are not likely to have been through very much in the way of the "ups and downs" in property nor do they have proper hands on to pass on to you, they may have good theory knowledge .... but its never a substitute for experience. Free resources There are so many investors out there freely sharing information, and networking at pub meetings and other property events - you just need to get your networking skills together and tap into these valuable resources. Before seminars When I first started investing there were no seminars around - you basically had to go down the residential mortgage route and buy it then get permission to rent it out. You don't actually NEED a property seminar to learn about property investing. Granted, you can fast track into investing if you have all the tools laid out before you, and a path to follow, but rushing into something so risky is dangerous gamble. Free Tips I can simplify the basics of investing for you right here and now - on this page - for nothing. As with any service or market, there can be no service or market if there is no demand. So with property investing and Buy to Let, quite simply you need to find a demand, a real waiting list of people that want to rent property - then you need to buy them what they want! It's not complicated. It can get complicated if you go about things the opposite way - as most do, by looking for properties first and then seeking the advice of letting agents and selling agents when you have your eye on what you perceive to be the perfect two bedroom luxury apartment in walking distance from the tube that could not possibly have any trouble renting out. Well think again. You could find the perfect property, perfect location - but sunshine, if there is no demand in the area, and people are no queuing up outside to rent it - what is the point? So that perfect property is not so perfect. If you want to get in the right way, you need to be contacting your local letting agents, taking them out for a cup of their favourite coffee and asking them what they actually need. Questions to help your research
You see to me, property investing is about investing in your area - in the people, in the team and putting YOUR money into something that will give you a return.
Who am I to say all that? Investing and refurbishing property since the age of 19 (1992), I have learned many of the advantages and pitfalls in different types of investing. I have written some of these pitfalls and put them online for people to access freely. My property investments have so far included off plan, starter homes, student flats, student houses, inner city luxury penthouses, ex-local authority flats, large family homes in the suburbs and northern terraced properties. As well as the many styles of properties I have owned and tenants I have rented too, I have done lots of different styles of financing. When I started investing, Buy to let mortgages were not widely known, and my initial portfolio was built using 100% residential mortgages (in a time when growth was fast). Once I had several of these, and buy to let was introduced, I wanted to still buy without putting money down, so found ways of doing more no money down deals. Most of the deals I have done have been creative and challenging and I have done back to back deals, selling on contracts, cash back deals, loan to value purchases. Sourcing property was easy when I first started, finding deals with local agent in the times before lots of investors were knocking on their doors. As this became harder I turned to auctions and advertising - having some hugely successful purchases of 30% BMV. My "needaquicksale" website brought in many deals and I sold the site to a fellow investor, when I started to get too many calls. I made this site to help peope who want a website I did a rather large amount of off plan investing in a 3 month period in 2002 that went quite wrong. Everything that could go wrong in off plan happened to me in around 100 separate deals all over the UK with different developments. This 3 months of investing haunted me for 3 years, and I have now recovered. Now in 2006, with no properties right now, I exited the market in November 2005 declaring bankruptcy. I hope to continue consultancy and to develop my websites. My knowledge and contacts have been pulled together to make an incredible resource of free information for would be property investors all through the website. And you can post property investing question up in the discussion forum. Revealed - Why most free property seminars are a complete and utter waste of time! Life Secrets - October 2003 - Lady Lea National and local newspapers have been packed full of ads for property seminars in recent weeks. These seminars are free and incredibly tempting as they offer you the chance to become a multi-millionaire! But do they work? This is what you need to know if you're considering attending one. 1 - Think about the skills you'll need to succeed in property investment. Most property investors profit by buying something that's both easy to let and will also increase in value. You need to knowhow to find properties that will meet both criteria. You also want to be able to assess an investment to suit your own finances and strategies. You need to know about financing your property investments - the ins and outs of no money down deals, gifted deposits and cashbacks. You should be familiar with the risks involved in these types of deals. You should be shown how to prepare a property to let - regulations, furnishing, decor and so on. You also want to know how to advertise properties to let, handle letting agent relationships and build a team of professionals. You need to know how to build a property portfolio, researching supply and demand, spreading your risks and making profits. These are all basic skills! 2 - Understand the bottom line of these free property seminars. The businesses behind them pull in people in tow ways.
3 - Spot the bottom line - see if you can spot the warning signs. Does the seminar comapny offer you deals? If so, you will find they are most likely going to tell you about one particular way of investing - and will offer you these deals as the icing on the cake (for them). This does not help you become a successful property investor - you're just helping them to make more money. Are you being offered too good to be true 100% finance? - many people have been promised finance but have come away with what they went with; NOTHING!. The criteria are hard to meet - not least because they want you to give them money, not vice versa. Does the seminar company offer ongoing training? If so, you are only likely to get only a fraction of the information need so that you have to pay and keep paying to go onto the next level. Does the seminar company offer you a power team of various professionals? This can be because they are recieveing commission on any deals. 4 - Know what happens at these full seminars. Some of these seminars reveal how speakers have made money from property in the US. Sadly, the property market and systems in the US and UK are very diffferent. Take tax deed sales. In the US, property owners pay property taxes each year. If they don't, a tax certificate can be sold by the tax collector. Someone who's bought that can sometimes force the same of the property if the debt remains unsettled. You can't do that here. Other seminars focus on gifted deposits, whereby some developers can be persuaded to pay the deposit on a property. But developers are wise to these ideas now and often load any arrangement into the asking price. A number of seminars invite you to invest in bulk off plan deals where you buy one of 300 or so new flats to be built. That may sound profitable if the property market is rising. But it may prove otherwise when 300 properties all come up for rent at the same time! 5 - Discover whether the seminar you're considering teaches the basic must have skills you need. As the seminar company in advance to give you a breakdown of what's involved. Most will be vague on facts but strong on rhetoric. You also need to know what is involved. Generally, you are looking for speakers who at least have the how to know how - those who have been there, done that. Most property seminars will have lots of speakers from finance providers through solicitors to insurance brokers. Most are less concerned with giving you the 'how to' and more interested in selling you products for commission. Ask the seminar company if you can speak to other people who have attended their course. Expect them to say 'no' with the excuse of not breaching Data Protection Act. The reality is that those who have attended won't speak highly of them! Click here to read about my own personal style of seminar. It won't waste your time.
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