Don’t believe the doomsayers on house prices – but we are in for a rocky ride says Lawrenson of LettingFocus

A few of the clients I have consulted with are right now buying property to let. Some of them have asked me if they should now re-negotiate on the price they offered.
My response is “it all depends on what is happening in your local market” – however in general my answer would be to say “No”, just as long as you got a good price in the first place.
No wonder they are spooked.
It seems that doom and gloom really is all around us in the media at the moment and the press seem to be doing their best to talk up a house price crash.
The editors of Money Week, The Sunday Mail property section and the Daily Telegraph are all especially gloomy on house price prospects. Only David Smith at the Sunday Times (who writes a new small but fascinating section in their Home supplement) seems ready to offer a counter view.
If you have read my other blogs, you will know that I think that providing the government does not end up being forced to put up interest rates too far (by more than 1% above current levels), then I don’t think there will be an across the board big fall in house prices.
Part of the reason that I don’t think there will be a crash is that don’t share the view that houses are currently as unaffordable as some commentators think.
For example, I note that the Council of Mortgage lenders stats on affordability of mortgages (see the site at www.CML.org.uk) shows that the % of average mortgage borrowers’ incomes that is accounted for by mortgage interest is currently about 18% - and falling.
Looking at this data on an historical basis, we can see that from 1980 to 1985 this figure was occasionally above 18% (and often above 15%) without there being a major fall in house prices. (The big fall, of course, came later in 1990, when due to rapidly rising interest rates, this measure hit a massive 27.1%)
Clearly, we now have a different picture today from that which prevailed in the early 90s. Back then, interest rates went up very high very fast as the government of the day struggled to keep the UK in the ERM.
Today, we have a serious credit strike by the banks which accounts for the weak housing market.
It’s my view that a combination of rising earnings and a lack of new house building (the lowest new house building starts since 1945 has just been recorded) will together act to keep house prices from falling off a cliff –though I expect falls of about 3% - 7% from here until the end of 2009.
At some point within the next 2 -3 years the mortgage markets will unfreeze. At that time the slow rate of new house building starts will have translated into a shortage of property on the ground.
And the combination of increased earnings and lack of property to buy will push house prices upwards.
This scenario all assumes we don’t see the government lose control of the economy leading to rises in unemployment and interest rates. Such a scenario would lead all bets on the future direction of house prices to be off (including my own).
But hey, investing in property is not a risk free game. If it was then everybody would be doing it – and many would be making a mess of it – as we have witnessed in the scandal where novice investors bought off plan over supplied new build flats fin inner cities from property clubs.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of landlord consultants lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title - buy the UK's top selling property investment book.
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value.
I’m an expert freelance property journalist , property speaker and a well known buy to let blogger
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide landlords advice
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property coaching because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week.
Want to be kept updated on our blogs?
It’s easy. The link to the RSS feed is at the bottom right of every blog we publish. Simply click where it says, “Link to this post.” Once you have done this, this will take you to the latest blog which will have a 'Subscribe' button at top of the page.
Once clicked, this link is added to your Bookmarks (or Favourites) drop down menu in the top toolbar. Thereafter, every blog published automatically appears in this drop down menu.
This means you won't have to visit the site to pick up latest blog, the headline of which will appear in your toolbar menu.
You can then click the headline and copy and paste the full article or a synopsis into your Latest News section - some software may be able to automate this process.
Please note we require the full links shown in each blog to also be shown at your site. Please contact us via our main site www.lettingfocus.com if you have any queries about this.

Take care referencing and checking tenants even if you use a letting agent says David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com

So far the credit crunch has not led to any large increases in unemployment.
However, I see the press is now carrying more stories of lay offs here and there - so we can expect some rises in unemployment to start to filter through to the official figures before too long.
How does this affect landlords?
Well, I would say that today more than ever, you need to make sure that the tenants you get are good ones and are fully referenced plus that they are in the type of sector of the economy where they are less likely to lose their jobs.
Why?
Well, if they lose their jobs they may struggle to pay the rent and / or have to move to less expensive accommodation – which is bad for them and whichever way you look at it, also means more hassle and expense for you the landlord.
In the worst case, it could also mean that they could stay put and just not pay any rent at all – meaning you have to seek repossession - and that process can take months, often with little chance of you ever recovering the money owed.
In the current environment, if I had to choose between equally good tenant candidates – one of whom worked in an economically shaky sector and another who worked in a slightly safer public sector job as a teacher or a civil servant, I know which one I would sooner go for.
Yes, it’s tough on some – but hey I’m not the one who was responsible for the state the economy is supposedly in.
Also, if you use a letting agent, don’t fully trust to them on this issue unless you have used them for a while and know they are reputable and can be trusted on this. Sadly, there are a few rogue agents out there who cut corners on referencing and don’t do it properly.
Remember it will be you, not the agent, who is the one who loses out financially if the tenant turns bad.
So ask the agent to let you see references they obtained.
And don’t listen to all the guff some letting agents will give you about the Data Protection Act because your tenant should have authorised for you, the landlord, to see the references on the application form he filled in when applying to rent the property.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of landlord advisors lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title - buy the UK's top selling property investment book.
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value.
I’m an expert freelance property journalist , property speaker and a well known property blogger
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide landlords advice
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week.
Want to be kept updated on our blogs?
It’s easy. The link to the RSS feed is at the bottom right of every blog we publish. Simply click where it says, “Link to this post.” Once you have done this, this will take you to the latest blog which will have a 'Subscribe' button at top of the page.
Once clicked, this link is added to your Bookmarks (or Favourites) drop down menu in the top toolbar. Thereafter, every blog published automatically appears in this drop down menu.
This means you won't have to visit the site to pick up latest blog, the headline of which will appear in your toolbar menu.
You can then click the headline and copy and paste the full article or a synopsis into your Latest News section - some software may be able to automate this process.
Please note we require the full links shown in each blog to also be shown at your site. Please contact us via our main site http://www.lettingfocus.com/ if you have any queries about this.

WHY I’M STILL NOT INVESTING IN FLATS BY DAVID LAWRENSON OF LETTINGFOCUS.COM

At present all the talk is about the credit crunch and falling house prices and as usual with the press, the “headline grab” often obscures the finer details.
In reality, there are huge differences between the relative performances of different property types.
Even before the credit crunch took hold, government figures showed that between the year 2000 and 2007 the shortage of family houses led to detached homes doubling in value while the prices of new flats went up by just 18%.
The reason for this huge difference lies in the planning system which allowed or forced - choose your verb depending on whose side you are on - the UK’s developers to build too many flats and not enough family sized houses.
There has also recently been a smattering of TV programmes about how some novice buy to let investors lost money by investing in some of the many me-too-identikit-city-centre-new-build flats mainly in parts of northern England and the English midlands. Often these were flats they had never seen but they were somehow encouraged to by them at seminars hosted by property companies who persuaded them that they could not lose.
However, with too many of these flats being built and not enough tenants to go round, rents have been flat at best and prices, particularly for the identikit flats in large developments have been falling very heavily just at the same time that re-mortgages at decent rates have become very hard to find.
In some cases flats are now coming up at auctions at over a third less than what the investors paid and auctioneers report they are awash with repossessed flats many of which are not even making their auction reserve prices.
THE TYPICAL LANDLORD DOES NOT HAVE MANY FLATS
However, the novice investors who bought into such properties are actually a long way from what constitutes the typical landlord. For example, a survey last year by Mortgage Trust found that 77% of landlords have no new build in their portfolio at all. With landlords’ average loan to value around 60 percent and with landlord professionals (with more than five properties) owning 97% of the buy to let stock the typical landlord is not hemmed in by falling rents or lacking access to finance to build his portfolio further as the media would have us believe.
My own experience is that most professional landlords prefer bread and butter houses in established residential areas. And that’s not surprising, given that the lender, Paragon recently reported that rents on flats were up 6 per cent in the past 12 months but terraced house rents jumped by a whopping 20 per cent. The same survey also showed that gross rental yields on terraces are 6.9% compared with 5.7% for flats. With an increasing number of families renting, the added space and flexibility that a house with a garden gives, is something that landords know will continue to be in high demand from tenants.
Figures from ARLA also show that about half of all buy to let investors expect to increase their portfolios over the coming 12 months and the vast majority of investment landlords said they would not sell if house prices should fall.
The facts are that smart landlords are investing. They know financially stretched sellers will listen to low ball offers and that rents will continue to rise fast as first time buyers are either unwilling to invest or unable to get mortgages. And, whilst the credit crunch means that these landlords now need to find at least 20% of a property’s value to get a decent mortgage deal, since many of them have lots of cash available from their existing portfolios that’s not a problem for many.
GIVEN THE BIG FALLS IN PRICES OF INNER CITY FLATS, COULD THEY BE WORTH ANOTHER LOOK AT TODAY?
But could the identikit flats being sold off cheap at auction today represent good value for buyers - whether landlords or for people buying for themselves?
For me, the answer to this just comes down to simple local future demand and supply. If there are many more flats about to come on stream in your area then avoid them like the plague.
At my consultancy, about 18 months ago I advised an investor client of mine with a large number of flats on a single huge development in Manchester to sell his portfolio because Manchester had given the green light to yet more flats in his local area - a fact that was easy to establish by just looking at the local authority’s website.
If there is not a problem with future supply, then maybe these flats could just be a good investment in the long term. However, all too often these identikit flats are full of short terms tenants and absentee landlords. And with no one around to push the managing agents to maintain the properties properly, they are often in a very poor state of repair and destined to become the poor ghettoes of the future.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a landlord advisors lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value.
I’m an expert freelance property journalist and property speaker a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide landlords advice
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

DID MORTGAGE EXPRESS AND BRADFORD & BINGLEY CATCH A COLD WITH BACK TO BACK RE-MORTGAGING asks LAWRENSON OF LETTINGFOCUS.COM

For a long time the only lender that did re-mortgage loans back to back against bridging finance was the B&B buy to let lender, the Mortgage Express. I wonder if this could explain some part of their current travails.
As I said in an earlier blog, at a recent property trade show where I was speaking I heard a few scare stories about Below Market Value (BMV). It seems some of the novice investors have got themselves in a bit of a mess with below market value purchases from distressed sellers - and here is how they did it.
I’ll just explain for those who don’t know that buying BMV can sometimes involve buying from indebted (and hence motivated) sellers who are about to be repossessed by the mortgage company.
BMV buyers will seek out and then buy from these kinds of “motivated distressed sellers” at a discount sometimes using bridging loans to buy with “No money down” which they then sometimes rent back the property to the seller who becomes their tenant.
So far so good!
But one of the big dangers is that the kind of property seller who is prepared to do this type of deal - and sell their home at below its true price- will by definition have what we could call “a bad credit history” In other words, they have defaulted on their mortgage already, so the chances are arguably higher that they will default on their new tenancy too than a normal tenant would.
Most BMV investors would say that if they do, well it is bad for them but by doing so, it will allow the investor to evict if the arrears are bad enough.
And that is true, though some will have ethical issues with all this – but let’s leave that aside for now
The only trouble with eviction because of arrears is that it typically takes about 5 months to go through if you have to ultimately enforce the eviction notice with a bailiff.
First, you need there to be 2 months of no rent before you can even start a possession action and it takes another 3 months for the court processes to slowly grind through.
Oh and don’t expect an evicted tenant to leave the property spotless – chances are very high that they wont. And we won’t even mention the stress that comes with having to evict someone.
I have anecdotally heard reports of cases of some BMV operators who are in difficulties with their mortgages because the investor is struggling with many of these types of properties where he is receiving nil rent.
As some of the less reputable operators in the market promote BMV deals on the basis of “becoming a property millionaire overnight” with “nil (of your own money) down” using bridging loans and as by definition many of the investors who do this have a very high loan to value, the affect of tenant default can be crippling.
And that’s why we hear stories of BMV investors being repossessed themselves - leaving their tenants homeless.
And with the Bradford and Bingley buy to let arm, the Mortgage Express being the last player left in this market, until they too pulled out back in March, one wonders how much bad debt they took on by being an active player in this rather curious re-mortgage market where many investors were novices?
Could this explain some of their current problems?
Who knows but one thing is for sure and that is that for now the Mortgage Express’s problems will considerably reduce the finance options available for landlords.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a landlord experts lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value.
I’m an expert property speaker and a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide help for landlords
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Don’t Czech this out says Overseas Property Expert Lawrenson of LettingFoucs.com

I’m just back from a nice week in Prague.
Prague was a city I had considered buying in a few years ago.
But according to Czech friends there is quite a land grab going on and it is quite easy to get land to build on. This is certainly the case in Cernosice 10 miles or so to the south west of Prague where lots of new stuff had sprung up since I was last there.
Why can this be a problem?
As I always say, the first thing when looking to buy anywhere and this is especially true when buying abroad is to check out the availability of land to build on. Why? Well if land is easy to acquire then there is little to stop lots of new developments springing up - and the supply of that new stock will always act as a constraint on property prices and rental levels.
Another thought that was very top of my mind at 130am at Stansted as I waited in an interminable queue for immigration & after suffering a 3.5 hour delay at Prague airport is to think about how you will manage something far away. Will you want to or HAVE TO visit often to check out your investment and sort out problems?
After our experience last night with “NotEasyJet” and the shambles that passes for Stansted Airport (Note to BAA – please sort this mess out!), the interminable delays in getting to and from places abroad is another reason why I would definitely think twice about buying abroad unless it looked like a really good investment in the first place.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a buy to let experts from lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value. I’m an expert property speaker and a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide help for landlords
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer overseas property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Get a Mortgage Valuation Direct – Cut out the Middleman says Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com

As a former strategist and project manager who worked at Direct Line and Lloyds TSB I know all the clever ways that banks have for relieving customers of money even without them actually realising they have been relieved of it.
One very smart way that mortgage firms have of making money on mortgages is by taking a juicy cut on valuations.
Here is my story. A year ago I talked to a badly briefed person at a call centre of the UK biggest buy to let mortgage companies. He said “Yes, I could arrange my own valuation direct with a RICS surveyor.” Actually that turned out to not be company policy but I took a record of the time and date of call –and so I had the lender over a barrel – so they let me go ahead and do it. The cost was £175 through E Surv surveyors.
Fast forward a year and this time I’m with another lender – this time a big high street bank – and taking out a mortgage for an identical property – but unfortunately for me their call centre is better briefed and the lender insists I do it through them. The cost is £270 – or £95 more than the year before.
Also, unlike last time I don’t actually get to see the copy of the report – if I had been offered that option (which I wasn’t as it happened) then that would have been another £25 apparently.
So there we are folks.
That is another nice earner for the mortgage lenders – making money on valuations.
Of course the lenders will say “Oh the cost of administering it is so much”
Mmmm, in these days of electronic transfer of data, I don’t think so somehow.
Sure there are costs involved but none that justify sticking 30% on the fee they are charged by the surveyors व्हो cannot do much about all this. Make a sound and they will find themselves thrown off the lender’s panel of approved surveyors. And it won’t matter which ahem “club” they are in.
My message to you is if you are getting a mortgage always try to see if you can arrange a survey direct. Try it on with the call centre. With a bit of luck you’ll get someone who is badly briefed and they will say yes. Take a note of the time of the call in case they try to dispute they ever agreed to it.
And my message to the press is it’s about time you did a story on this.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a buy to let experts from lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value. I’m an expert property speaker and a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide help for landlords
Check out where I was recently featured in the Daily Telegraph: http://propertyclub.telegraph.co.uk/Page/View/266
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Mortgage Lenders Cutting Out Brokers and a Comment on Gumtree from Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com

MORTGAGE FIRMS CUT OUT MORTGAGE BROKERS
Another rather laughable consequence of the credit crunch and how UK mortgage lenders have responded to it is the way that lenders have now closed some of their best mortgage deals to brokers.
The fact is that most buy to let mortgages have hitherto been arranged mostly through mortgage brokers. This might seem strange in itself as volumes now match the numbers of first time buyer mortgages taken out. In other words, buy to let ought to by now be a core part of many banks and building societies business.
But go into any high street branch or ring one of their dark satanic call centres and ask about a buy to let mortgage and then ask them a simple question, for example “What is a tenancy deposit scheme?” and you will draw a complete blank along the lines of “Sorry, Computer says No”
Try it, its fun!
The fact is that most bank and building society staff have not got a clue about buy to let. So it will be interesting to see whether they try to completely cut the mortgage broker out of the buy to let arena. Unless they massively improve the training of their staff and the quality of the info they provide directly, they will be on to a loser if they do! And if I were a broker I would not forget any bank or building society that messes them around now when the good times roll again. HOW GOOD IS GUM TREE?
Gumtree is a popular free site where landlords can directly advertise property to let for no charge without having to go through an agent.
OK, you need to update your ad every day to stay top of the list so would-be tenants can find you but hey, nothing is without cost.
Gumtree is very strong in London and I understand it also works in Manchester quite well, though it is a bit weak (or even non existent) in one or two other spots where I have property.
I’m telling you all this because I have been marketing one of my properties on it recently and have got a high level of response - and much better in terms of numbers than I’m getting from some of the other “only available to letting agencies portals”
But anecdotally I often hear that the sites that are only available to agents DO tend to get tenants who are able to pay a higher rent. Maybe that is a function of the demographic of tenants and the success of Rightmove’s and other portals branding. I’m not sure.
The facts often seem to be that a good letting agent will be able to get a higher rent than you can doing it yourself & often more than covering your fee to them -which should be no more than 8% on a 12 month tenancy term by the way.
But back to Gumtree and the like….If you are letting directly using one of these free to landlord sites, you’ll come up against the Great British Public (well if you are in London, the would-be tenants wont actually be from Britain, but the same “people based rules” still apply!)
Inevitably, you’ll get calls from people who say, “It sounds great, we just have to see it today.”
They always sound all super-keen and naturally have immaculate refs & I have often gone out of my way to do a viewing.
Now, I have learned my lesson because inevitably, these sorts of people always turn out to be the most dreadful timewasters who will want you to knock 10% off the rent and actually have very poor references indeed.
It does not matter where in the world they come from, there seems to be in all populations and peoples an equal number of people who are very pushy but very wasteful of others time.
I have found that the ones who will REALLY want to rent my places and who are straight talking and positive are always those who are polite and a bit laid back on the phone. They are not pushy but easy going and will view the property when you can fit them in.
We are taking a break for a week. Next post will be in 2 weeks time.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a buy to let experts from lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 2 years has been the UK’s top selling property title: buy the UK's top selling property investment book
It is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on buying property below market value. I’m an expert property speaker and a well known property blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide help for landlords
Check out where I was recently featured in the Daily Telegraph: http://propertyclub.telegraph.co.uk/Page/View/266
I also work as a consultant helping banks, building societies, housing associations and web portals with their buy to let and property products and services and am a regular speaker at property shows.
You can read more of my blog & find details of my networking, advice, property investors networking programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer property investment mentoring because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, a developer, an agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from any of these sources.If a property investment is lousy – We’ll tell you straight and we will tell you all about buy to let and property investment - the good and the bad and we won’t make silly promises that you’ll become a millionaire overnight.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2008. This blog is updated once a week. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.