“Financial Freedom” or “Passive Income” via property. If you see these words, leave the room says LettingFocus.com

One of the nicest back handed compliments I get is the fact that when one searches for LettingFocus or David Lawrenson on Google one gets a load of sponsored ad results appearing at the top of the search results and down the side.
These sponsored links are usually slightly shaded in on the windows internet browser.
For those who are uninitiated in the black arts of search engines, what’s happened here is that other companies have bought google adwords for “David Lawrenson” and “LettingFocus.com” so that every time someone searches for those words on Google, that companies sponsored (advert) entry comes up too.
It will cost them X number of pence every time someone clicks on one of their entries.
There is nothing illegal about them doing this. Well, not unless one has trademarked one’s name, possibly.
These firms do it because they have no worthwhile content of their own on their sites, so have to piggy back off the likes of real experts.
Actually, it is all a bit of a waste of money for them as about 70% of people never click on sponored search results, preferring instead to click on results that have been earned on merit in the organic (non-paid for, non-sponsored) search engine results – where I come pretty near the top anyway for these search terms.
Actually I was quite pleased that even more of these duff property firms are trying to “bum” off the back of my name than they are for TV property personalities like Gary Mclausland or Sarah Beeney.
A real back handed compliment.
But I’m not alone. The names of other respected property people like Tessa Shepperson and Richard Bowser are similarly targeted by these guys who have bought google adwords for their names too.

FINANCIAL FREEDOM WHILST SITTING ON THE LOO
Now, one of the enduring features of many of these companies is that they always have a teaser free course – available for a limited period only, natch.
And they are always giving out gifts allegedly worth £X thousand pounds – only available for the next few days, of course.
They often have a chap or lady with a smooth sales patter and good looks appearing on a video.
But most of all they promise you financial freedom with a passive property income within a few months just by going on their course.
So, no more daily grind to work to a boring job, getting stuck in traffic or under someones sweaty arm on the tube… become a property millionaire in a year, blah blah.
Just sit back, do nothing at all and watch the rent roll in.
Oh, and if anyone tells you it’s not that easy (i.e. real people like me, I guess) and that you are wasting time and your £6,000 signing up for their course, you should ignore them as people like me are negative and NOT TO BE LISTENED to.
I think the Moonies and the like used similar tactics.
Not all the companies that have paid for google adwords using my name do this, but a lot do.
For the record, I have no links with any of the companies who have paid for sponsored search results under my name or the term “LettingFocus”
And if you have lost money as a result of going with a property company like one of the ones I have described here and you would like it featured in the press, please let me know and we will pass it on to interested journalists in the press or on TV.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com - the property letting experts. Read Landlords 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 Landlords 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, capital gains taxes and it has new sections on sale and rent back.
I’m an expert property writer and property speaker - and I run the well known landlords 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 property letting advice 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 are independent property investment advisors 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.
We simply give one to one unbiased advice and 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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Property Seminars often Poor Value says Letting Focus

We all know that many property seminars are very poor value indeed.
Many people complain to me about some of the lousy ones they have been on (and tell me I should run a good, useful trustworthy all day seminar where people will learn the real facts!)
The typical deal with most of the worst seminars is that people are promised they will become property millionaires overnight without using any of their own money so they can achieve “financial freedom”.
The whole pitch is, of course, designed to appeal to some people’s greed and naivety.
The promises are often delivered by a man in a shiny suit and a great line in patter who promises to reveal all the “secrets of successful property investing” for just £4,000 (or £2,000 if you sign up today, natch!)
All you have to do is hand over your £2K and you will go to a weekend property seminar / boot camp for a weekend and come back wiser and in no time at all, very rich indeed.
Absolute cobblers!
Well someone recently posted me a very fine article about these seminars in the ThisisMoney website.
On a recent post to the article dated 12th September, someone even mentioned me - in a very positive light, I’m pleased to say
I suggest you read the article – and all the posts attached to it very carefully if you are even thinking of going on one of these seminars.
In the meantime I have finally succumbed to pressure and am pleased to announce that on Saturday Nov 29th we will run our own first all day property seminar.
The seminar will build on and extend beyond the teaching in my top selling book about buy to let and will be called “Beyond Successful Property Letting”
It will cost just £495, take place in London (venue to be announced) and will be open to a maximum of just 15 people.
There will be no silly promises - just the detailed facts about buy to let delivered in a sensible and straightforward way that you can really profit from.
I expect it will sell out fast, so if you are interested please send me an email to david@lettingfocus.com as soon as possible
Oh, here is the thisismoney article……Read it and all the posts that people have written on it and do your best to avoid the duff courses that are out there.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/buy-to-let/article.html?in_article_id=421346&in_page_id=56&expand=true#StartComments
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of property investment experts lettingfocus.com.
I’m the author of “Successful Property Letting - How to Make Money in Buy to Let” which for the last 3 years has been the UK’s top selling property title - buy the UK's top selling landlord 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 journalist, property speaker and a well known property investment blogger
I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a number of columns in the press and I can provide landlords education
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 training programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer you help as an independent property investors coach 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.
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INSIDE TRACK STOP THEIR SEMINARS says LAWRENSON OF LETTINGFOCUS.COM

Well what a fascinating few weeks we have had.
Coming hot on the heels of Mortgage Express’s pull out of “next day re-mortgages” which has put a big hole in the potential ability to buy property “with no money down” (see last blog) we now have the demise of the property advice company Inside Track - who have pulled the plug on doing their seminars.
Well, this was kind of expected by property people in the business.
Inside Track traded on the premise that people could get rich quick in property by buying “discounted” new build flats.
Well, as we all know, new build flats in most areas have not been the best investment one could have made in property over the last few years (to put it mildly) - and defeat has been rather staring Inside Track in the face for quite a while now.
Still, for many years their property weekend seminars at a reported £2495 a pop (no, I’m not kidding!) were full to the gunnels with hopeful property investors and much money was made by Inside Track and their related companies for quite a long time.
But when mortgage lenders finally woke up from their slumbers and became reluctant to lend on often overpriced new build flats, Inside Track was always looking a bit doomed.
Plus they latterly did suffer from quite a bit of bad publicity when some of their disgruntled investors popped up on TV and in the press to say that the performance of the flats they had been sold had been poor.
As I have said many times before in this column, the wonder is that anyone paid so much to go on one of these seminars in the first place and I have to say, I still struggle to understand exactly why they did!
I guess it is partly it is the power of Inside Track’s admittedly brilliant marketing combined with some people’s belief that they can get rich by not actually doing much work. To see the latter effect in action just watch TV’s “The Real Hustle”!
As far as I can tell too, the attraction of Inside Track was that people wanted to learn all about it and then have a company say to them, “Here you are, we have found the property for you, so you don’t actually have to do any work.” (They had to shell out a few thousand more to actually be on the “inside track” to get these great deals)
If only life was so easy.
In fairness to Inside Track, their seminars were, I understand, quite informative but one investor I know well who went on one said they did not tell him anything that was not in a good property book.
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson a buy to let and landlord expert 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 buy to let 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 investment speaker and a well known property investment blogger and I contribute to newspapers and a host of property websites, write a property investment blog, a number of columns in the press and I can provide advice for landlords
Check out where I was recently featured in the Daily Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/24/cmbuy24.xml&page=1
http://propertyclub.telegraph.co.uk/Page/View/222
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 independent 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. Permission must be sought before using the material in the blog.

Property Millionaire in Months - And other Lies and Nonsense

Here is a reality check.
You can do well in property if you follow some sound principles but you can’t become a millionaire almost overnight. (Well you can, but you will also have a mortgage for a million pounds too!)
And yet, lots of very expensive seminars tell you it’s possible.
This is utter nonsense.
It cannot be done without taking silly risks.

The only people getting rich here are the seminar givers themselves - who also make money by selling property, arranging finance, conveyancing work and so on, right down the line.
Of the people I know who have been to these expensive property firm seminars, the biggest beef they have – apart from the high fees - was that the property they bought could not be let out for anywhere near the rent the promoters claimed.
In many cases there was no one to rent them to at all.
In last weeks’ broadsheet papers, I see lots of journos are writing about overseas property.
Their editors like these stories because it’s a chance to print a pretty picture of a beach somewhere – and the writers like them because the article copy can be cut and pasted from the property developer’s blurb.
But too few of these writers ever have a good look at who is actually going to rent these new builds and for what rent.
As you may know, I try to tell it like it is – which is what I will be doing at my speeches, seminars and consultancy.

MORE ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS AND WHAT WE DO

LettingFocus.com is the home of landlord information.
Hello, I’m David Lawrenson.
I’ve been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years and am author of “Successful Property Letting” – the UK’s top selling commercially published property book for the last 3 years.
I help private landlord investors (see more on this below) but these days I’m mainly 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.
I also write for property websites and am regularly quoted by the media.
I have written articles, guides and documents on letting property and property investing for numerous publications including The Independent, The Telegraph and for quality landlord and property websites.

Services for Private Landlords
For private landlords and other investors in the private rented sector, we do two London seminars each year.
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

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This blog is updated roughly once a week usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

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Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007