Buy to Let Tips and Advice from Letting Focus and David Lawrenson

I found something on the Internet that I had written a few months ago for Kate Faulkner’s site over at Designs on Property and thought it would be good to put in on the last blog of the year as the advice still makes good sound sense and should really be the first principles for anyone new to buying property to let out. So, here they are - my top ten tips for buy to let.

1. Buy into the right location. Look at areas that are getting or have just got faster transport links such as Folkestone in Kent or regeneration money such as Elephant & Castle in London. Also, look for areas where new employers are moving in or existing employers are hiring workers. There is lots of information on all this on the Internet and the publication Estates Gazzette, available in most libraries, has lots of news on planned regeneration. Do your research.

2. Use today’s weak market to make “hard ball” offers at below the asking price. If the vendor won’t play, simply walk away and make a cheeky offer somewhere else.

3. Buy the type of property that is in demand from tenants and for which there will be a strong resale market when you eventually come to sell. Ask letting agents for their view of what type of house is in demand locally.

4. Read up and understand your legal responsibilities as a landlord. Get my book – still the UK’s top selling property title.

5. Try to build up a deposit of at least 25 per cent to allow you access to the best mortgage rates.

6. Carefully check all prospective tenants’ references to avoid the “tenant from hell”. If your agent does this for you ask to see the references they obtained. Don’t fully trust to an agent until you have worked with them for a while and they have aerend that trust.

7. Treat tenants as you would like to be treated.

8. Keep all receipts and invoices and have a good administration system.

9. Have a sense of humour. You’ll need it from time to time.

10. If you need advice, make sure it is independent advice and not provided by someone also looking to sell a property or finance package to you.

Happy New Year to all you LettingFocus.com blog readers.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of landlord information.

Hi, I’m David Lawrenson.
I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and am author of “Successful Property Letting” – which has been the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.
At LettingFocus.com, we help landlords and property investors make money in property by coaching them in ways that work, which are ethical and which involve minimal risk to the investor.


We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased buy to let advice on either a one to one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars.
Unfortunately, in the UK today, property advice in the UK is still largely unregulated and what counts as “good advice” is too often more about making the promoter money than giving useful information to the investor.
With no links to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers we can advise on where and what type of property to buy for investment and when to buy it. We also show you how to manage tenants properly.
At a corporate level, we also provide consultancy for banks, local authorities and social housing providers – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies. We also write for property websites and are regularly quoted by the media.
We have written articles for numerous publications including The Independent, The Telegraph and quality landlord websites.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog
THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page
ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY click here: Property Mentoring
NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event
We have OFFERS on a range of services and products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords
For general info on our SEMINARS AND CONSULTING click here: Property Seminars, Networking Evenings and Consulting
TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – both commercial and private click here: Testimonials
BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else you fancy at Amazon.co.uk

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com - Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?
IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

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Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2009. This blog is updated roughly once a week usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

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Mortgage lenders fees are often unfair / Advice on buy to let by Lawrenson of LettingFcous.com

Just recently I was working with a client whose mortgage company had written enclosing his mortgage statement and, as usual, they had included a costing for redeeming his mortgage.
I pointed out that he would do well to check the closing charge they quoted against the tariff the lender said would apply when he first took out the mortgage many years ago.
Unsurprisingly it was quite a bit higher now than it was back then.
I referred the client to my article on this: Unfair Mortgage Fees and he got a big reduction in the fee and an apology from his mortgage lender.
How many other people are being ripped off by their mortgage lender in this way I wonder?
ADVICE ON BUY TO LET
Increasingly, people are now coming to me for advice on buy to let as an investment because their pensions have been decimated and they live in areas where the local schools are so bad they have to plan for private school fees as well.
They see property as a way out – and it is - if they ignore the charlatans and do it right, that is.
What a shame our state education system is in such a mess and that these people, having saved all their lives, still face lousy returns from private sector pensions.
Many of these clients have scanned the web and are rightly concerned about some of the snake oil sellers they see who claim they can become property millionaires overnight and many are particularly curious about Buying Below Market Value and buying with No Money Down – both of which are areas I try to provide level headed advice on.
IGNORE LETTING ADS WHEN SETTING RENTS
You should think twice about looking at Rightmove or some other big property sites to gauge how much rent to charge.
Unlike in property sales, there is no requirement to take down an ad for a property that has long since been let.
So as a result, many of the ads are ages out of date and reflect rent levels that are no longer achievable.
BOOK FAIRS AND PROPERTY SHOWS
During this last few weeks I have done a bit of hobnobbing with some publishers including attending the London Book Fair and going to a Society of Authors shindig.
The Book Fair makes a nice change from property shows.
Publishing has to be one of the most unequal areas with respect to the sexes in business. It is heavily dominated by women, which appeals to me a lot, but most of the people at the actual top of the big publishers are men.
I have often been amazed at how low paid writers are - whether they write books or for papers, mags or the net. But so too are the editors and the publishers.
If you have a book in you as a new writer you have to realise that many many junior people are employed at publishers just to tell would-be writers to get lost. And you still get ignored or told to go away or ignored even if you are an experienced or proven writer!
JK Rowling was famously rejected quite a few times, so if you want to write don’t give up. But, boy, you’ll need a tough skin.
But writers are a delightful bunch. Some weird and wacky, some businesslike - but pretty well all are highly educated. And all but the lucky few are as poor as church mice.
A few months ago I was a bit bored (and had a good wine assisted lunch) so thought I would get my own back - JK Rowling style - by sending the rejection notes to all the publishers that rejected me four years ago along with my first book, Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let - the KTel of books (private joke!)
But when I looked at it, the poor sods who sent the letters were all junior assistants, so I didn’t bother in the end.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com - the property letting experts. Read Property Articles.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting” which for the last 3 years has been the UK’s top selling property book - buy Property Investing Book.
The new edition is for accidental and experienced landlords and is fully up to date with all the recent changes to tenancy deposit schemes, HMOs, licensing and capital gains taxes.
I’m an expert property writer and property speaker - and I run the well known property letting blog that you are reading now.
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I provide general advice on property letting and consulting to anyone looking to buy property for themselves or to let out. I can help private individuals with any aspect of buying property or buy to let.
What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer independent unbiased property investment advice because unlike most people in the buy to let and property “advice” business we are not linked to a property company, developer, agent or bridging loan financier and do not receive commissions from these sources.
On the contrary, we are often asked to evaluate other property investments.
Find out about some great deals we have arranged at our Landlords Links page.
Copyright: David Lawrenson 2009. This blog is updated roughly once a week.
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Buy to Let Compares Well with the Stock Market

Although I write and consult about property another “bit of fun” that I have is investing in the stock market. It gives me something else to do.
When it comes to the stock market right now, I have to say that I think there are some great dividend yields about and I have been buying up one or two of the shares of the top 200 companies to get these nice yields.
However, as the world economic outlook has weakened somewhat over the last few months, some of the share prices of the stocks I have bought have taken a bit of a dive recently.
In particular, Electrocomponents and Amstrad have done me no favours at all and I just hope they can at least hold their dividend!
So, how does this compare with property right now?
Well, looking at yields, it seems demand from tenants for rented homes is continuing to place upward pressure on rents for the sixth month in a row.
The private rented sector is buoyant as demand from tenants continues to be strong. Many parts of the community, such as students, migrants, people on housing benefit, and first jobbers, rely on rented accommodation for their housing needs, and the sector is set to continue this growth over the next five to ten years.
In a recent survey by Paragon, 63% of residential property investors reported that tenant demand was either stable or growing and that they were responding by growing their buy-to-let portfolios.

Rental Yields
Gross rental yields have been stable at about 6% for the past year (with net yields probably averaging about 4.4%,) which is of course about the same as some top shares are paying.
The fact that rental yields are holding up is of course, in the face of rising house prices, thus providing further evidence that demand for buy-to-let is well underpinned.
Of course, a 4.4% net yield is less than the average buy to let mortgage rate, which, once you factor in lenders’ increasingly daft “arrangement fees” is actually around 6.5%.
So, while landlords are losing money on the “current account” and are hoping that capital gains will continue – which is much the same as investors in the stock market are doing!

CHECK OUT OUR SITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog
THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page
ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTING click here: Property Mentoring
NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investing Seminar and Networking Event
We have GREAT OFFERS on a range of services and products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords
For general info on our SEMINARS AND CONSULTING click here: Property Seminars, Networking Evenings and Consulting

TO READ PAST CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – both commercial and private click here: Testimonials
BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon

ABOUT US

LettingFocus.com are the experts on landlord issues and I’m David Lawrenson. I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and am author of “Successful Property Letting” – which has been the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.

We help landlords and property investors make money in property by coaching them in ways that work, which are ethical and which involve minimal risk.

At LettingFocus we pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased buy to let advice for property buyers and landlords both on a one to one mentoring and coaching basis as well as through occasional group seminars.

Property syndicates and property advice in the UK is still largely unregulated and what counts as “advice” is too often more about making the promoter money than giving useful information to the investor.

With no link to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers, at LettingFocus, we can advise on where and what type of property to buy for investment, when to buy and how to buy property at a low price. We also show you how to manage tenants properly and in ways that take up as little of your time as possible.

We also do consultancy and writing for companies such as banks, local authorities, property websites and social housing providers – helping them with their landlord or buy to let facing strategy.

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com - Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!
IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR OUR WEBSITE?

SELLING STUFF TO LANDLORDS – YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

TO VIEW RELATED POSTS select a “Category” at the bottom of this page.
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To add a comment or view other people's comments on this post, simply click on “link to this post.”

David Lawrenson Quoted in Today's Sunday Telegraph

I was quoted in today's paper as part of a longer article on buy to let......
David Lawrenson, a buy-to-let consultant (http://www.lettingfocus.com/), advises looking at properties with family appeal, particularly in rural or coastal areas. “Two to three-bedroom terraces have a better yield than flats,” he says. “The reality is that families are choosing to rent countrywide.” He cites immigration and job relocations as key factors in demand for rental properties.
And the future of buy-to-let? “We could be in for a rocky road, but long term it could turn out attractive,” says David. If you’re in doubt, he suggests, put an ad in the local paper for the property you’re planning to buy, saying “available to rent soon”. If you get no response, pull out.
Full article link is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of landlord information.

Hello, I’m David Lawrenson.
I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and am author of “Successful Property Letting” – which has been the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.
At LettingFocus.com, we help landlords and property investors make money in property by coaching them in ways that work, which are ethical and which involve minimal risk to the investor.
We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased buy to let advice on either a one to one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars.
Unfortunately, in the UK today, property advice in the UK is still largely unregulated and what counts as “good advice” is too often more about making the promoter money than giving useful information to the investor.
With no links to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers we can advise on where and what type of property to buy for investment and when to buy it. We also show you how to manage tenants properly.
At a corporate level, we also provide consultancy for banks, local authorities and social housing providers – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies. We also write for property websites and are regularly quoted by the media.
We have written articles for numerous publications including The Independent, The Telegraph and quality landlord websites.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog
THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page
ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY click here: Property Mentoring
NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event
We have OFFERS on a range of services and products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords
For general info on our SEMINARS AND CONSULTING click here: Property Seminars, Networking Evenings and Consulting
TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – both commercial and private click here: Testimonials
BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else you fancy at Amazon.co.uk

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com - Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?
IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

See our Twitter page: http://twitter.com/LettingFocus

Buy to Let Investors Are Not In Trouble

Lots of people think the buy to let boom is about to burst as house prices move ever higher.
Maybe there is something in this, maybe not.
The funny thing is it's easy to make an argument one way or the other, especially if like me, all you do is read and write about investing in residential property.
On balance, though, I think that as long as interest rates don't go up too much, buy to let investors will be OK.
For example, here's an interesting statistic from the Council of Mortgage lenders. They say that the number of buy to let mortgages that are more than 3 month in arrears fell from 0.64% at end June 06 to 0.59% at end December.
Oh, and this was lower than the overall mortgage market where the number in arrears was a shade under 0.90%.
Of course, the low BTL arrears statistic could mean that a lot of buy to let property investors are just cross subsidising what in some areas are fairly miserly rental yields with other sources of income (in the hope of long term capital gains)
But these figures hardly show a market in crisis, just as long as those base rates don't go up too high.
And as we are only spending about 17% of our incomes on mortgages it's not too scary - yet.
The Alliance and Leicester has said base rates would need to hit 8.5% before we see the same pain as we did in 1990 when interest rates hit 15% (and we were spending 30% of our incomes meeting mortgage payments.)
I don't think that interest rates will hit those levels soon, so I think buy to let mortgages are safe for now.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of landlord information.

I’m David Lawrenson, a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years.

Services to Businesses and the Public Sector

Primarily I am a consultant to banks, local authorities, social housing providers and other organisations – helping them with their landlord facing or buy to let product strategies and services.

For example, I help banks improve their buy to let mortgage lending practices and I help housing association / local authorities find private landlords (private rented access schemes, local letting agency models etc.)
I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the broadcast media.

Services for Private Landlords

We also find some spare time to help landlords and property investors by coaching them in how to make money in the private rented sector using ways that work, which are ethical, fair to tenants and which involve minimal risk to the investor.
We pride ourselves on giving independent unbiased buy to let advice on either a one-to-one mentoring / coaching basis or through our occasional group seminars. With no links to property firms, developers or bridging loan providers we can advise on where and what type of property to buy for investment and when to buy it. We also show you how to manage tenants properly.

AT OUR WEBSITE LETTINGFOCUS.COM:

THE HOME PAGE OF THIS BLOG click here: Blog

THE HOME PAGE OF OUR MAIN SITE click here: LettingFocus Home Page

For general info on our CONSULTING click here: Consultancy and Seminars

ONE TO ONE PRIVATE CONSULTANCY click here: Property Mentoring

NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors:
Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event

We have OFFERS on a range of services and products for landlords too; click here including landlords insurance, tenant referencing, tenancy agreements and more: Services and Products for Landlords

TO READ CLIENT TESTIMONIALS – both commercial and private click here: Testimonials

BUY “SUCCESSFUL PROPERTY LETTING” click here: Buy the Book at Amazon plus anything else you fancy at Amazon.co.uk

To JOIN our Free QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER simply send an email to david@LettingFocus.com - Please note we WILL NOT send spam or sell our mailing list to advertisers!

IF YOU HAVE A SITE WHY NOT LINK TO THIS BLOG OR TO OUR WEBSITE?

IF YOU SELL SERVICES TO LANDLORDS, YOU COULD BE A PARTNER ON OUR AFFILIATE PROGRAMME.

PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!

See our TWITTER PAGE: http://twitter.com/LettingFocus

Copyright of Blog: David Lawrenson 2007.