Landlords Meeting & Property Seminar with LettingFocus on Tuesday

If you have not already booked, don’t miss our Evening Seminar Event for landlords on Tues 9 March starting at 530pm.
We have anywhere between 20 and 30 people at these events which tend to be fun and informal and now only take place twice a year.
The attendees are always a mix of friendly experienced and novice landlords.
As usual, we will have guest speakers along including James Davis of Online letting portal UPAD, speaking about how to “Avoid the Void.”
Plus there will be another speaker too.
And there will be lots of opportunities to ask me about a range of property letting and investing topics.
Though it will be a busy event, there will be some time for networking during the course of the evening.
We open at 530pm.
The first talk is at about 630pm and we will end at about 9pm at the latest.
To book a place for this event please just reply to this email us at David@LettingFocus.com with your full name and write “Reserve a Place” in the subject box.
Payment is on the night - £30 if you email to reserve a place before lunchtime Tuesday or £35 otherwise. Hurry - there are just 8 places left.
More details including venue details here…..LettingFocus Event 9th March
Not in London?
Click here to find out about our Private One to One Phone or Meeting Based Consulting
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Kind regards
David Lawrenson
www.LettingFocus.com Consulting and Independent Property Advice
Author: “Successful Property Letting – How to Make Money in Buy to Let” –the UK’s top selling property title for the last three years.

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Property Seminars and a Word on HMOs by Letting Focus

For our NEXT SEMINAR AND NETWORKING EVENT for Landlords and Property Investors click here:
Next Property Investing Seminar and Networking Event
Our latest seminar event took place on 4th November 2009. Sorry, if you just missed it!
These events take place only once every 6 months and at each event we have somewhere between 18 and 30 people - so it is all very small and informal and a world away from the big property shows.
At our events, unlike some "Landlord Meets" and "Property Meets", no one will try a hard sell on you but you will learn a lot from our very eloquent speakers and from other attendees in the hour before we start the talks, in the short breaks between the talks and afterwards.
To reserve a place at the next event, please email me David@LettingFocus.com

Speaking At the Property Shows
As usual, over the autumn, I have been speaking at the big property and landlord shows.
They are well worth going to but you sometimes do have to work hard to find the good people to listen to.
If you go, the Old Grand Daddies of property investment and fountains of knowledge Tom Entwistle and Richard Bowser should not be missed.
And it’s always worth listening to Paul Shamplina of Landlord Action too. I’m pleased to say that Paul came down to speak at our Seminar Event on the 4th November.
Paul’s business is mainly about recovering property for landlords from defaulting tenants for a fixed fee but recently he has also been recovering money from property firms too who supplied less than value "below market value" leads on property to wpuld be investors.
You an see Paul on BBC1 Iplayer on the "Inside Out" Programme. He is seen doing a recovery from a property sourcing firm who supplied leads for below market value properties for investors.

Duff Property Leads
Some of these property firms have been in the business of supplying leads for what were supposedly below market value property.
What happened was that would-be Landlord-Investors seeking the Holy Grail of “financial freedom fast” paid property firms up front cash for access to high quality “below market value” property deals –which turned out not to be er, well, not that much below market value at all.

Paul Shamplina’s Talks
Paul Shamplina is a real mine of information. He usually talks about how to recover property from non-paying tenants, how to avoid getting a problem tenant in the first place and also on the danger of using property finders and sourcing companies to get access to “great property deals”
(There are good sourcing companies - just make sure you use one.)

Tax and Landlords
Another speaker, Geoff Everett talked about tax and how it affects landlords.
And this is an area that has got very interesting recently.
In my view, taxation on landlords is relatively light.
Capital gains tax was reduced 2 years ago to 18% and there are lots of legitimate ways a landlord can ameliorate (and often completely reduce) the impact of tax with a bit of forward planning.
Now that there is real talk of the Government stopping higher rate tax relief on contributions to pension schemes, property as an investment will become relatively more attractive still.

HMO, Houses in Multi Let Properties
Finally, I would like to say something about HMOs
Many people think you can get a much greater return by letting rooms in big houses individually to tenants (i.e. room by room) rather than putting them all on one agreement.
Well, I have done it both ways over many years with a “mid market, nothing special” 6 roomed house in S London.
I can tell you that the excess on NET RENT of individually let rooms compared with doing it via a “single let” is about 18%.
But what about net PROFITS?
Well, the downside of letting room by room is that there is definitely more work as tenants change over quite a lot and you sometimes have to get involved when they don’t “get on” - which is a a real pain, very time consuming and a real “no win situation”

Disputes
You also have more wear and tear and more disputes over inventory with singly let rooms, sometimes an HMO licence fee to pay too (though on the plus side you do normally have less voids overall).
Based on my long experience and the type of property I have, there is not much in it profit wise, certainly after allowing for the cost of your own time.
Letting individual rooms in big multiple let properties is not a panacea to riches, nor a way to huge yields compared to other property investment opportunities.
But it would be good to hear what others experiences with singly let rooms in HMOs is in different types of market is – especially more up market places and properties in different locations.
Click on the Categories box at the bottom of this post for more posts by me on HMOs and Houses in Multiple Occupation.

ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
We are LettingFocus.com - the landlords’ expert and I’m David Lawrenson, the author of “Successful Property Letting” - the UK’s top selling property and buy to let book for the last 3 years.
I have been a landlord and property investor myself for over 25 years.
At LettingFocus we offer independent unbiased seminars for buy to let investors and landlords as well as one to one advice covering all aspects of being a landlord and investing in property.
Unlike many in the still largely unregulated buy to let and property “advice” business I am not linked to a property company, developer, estate agency or bridging loan provider.
As such I am able to give unbiased independent advice on where to buy (which areas), what type of property to buy, when to buy and how to buy property at a low price. I can also explain how to reduce the risk of getting a bad tenant.

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http://www.landlords.org.uk/conference/nlaconference.asp

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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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Buying Below Market Value Property with No Money Down - Does it Work asks Lawrenson of Letting Focus?

The answer is yes, of course it can.
But to buy with “No Money Down” you have to find someone desparate and willing to sell you their property for at least 20% below its true market value so you can make the financing work. And that’s the hard bit, of course!
The fact is it’s really hard to find a seller willing to sell you property at 15% below market value (or BMV as it’s called in the trade!) let alone more that that.
OK, the credit crunch has meant it has got a bit easier but its still very hard work to find these deals.
Sure, professional investors can find ‘em at 25% BMV if they spend many hours a week and lots of marketing costs ……and if property investing is their full time job too… but even for them, their own time has to be factored into the equation.
For some property investors it IS definitely worth it and I personally know of a few property millionaires who do this type of investing for a living & many of them read this column. Some have been to my seminars. Many are friends.
But for every one of these, there are many other people who buy with no money down, because they are stretched financially and they think that buy to let is somehow going to be their financial salvation and route to fast riches.
Many of these people have no other siginificant assets and they don’t understand what being a landlord is all about - the hassles, the costs, the laws.
For these people, I’d really question whether they should be in property anyway, because for many new investors who don’t have spare accessible capital, I’d argue the risks of property investment with no money down are just too high.
The fact is that professional BMV investors I know have lots of equity in existing properties or in shares, just ready to pounce in the credit freeze – they don’t have to go No Money Down.
OK, they sometimes do No Money Down deals to buy property when cash flow is tight but the fact is they can access cash, if things get hard and stuff goes wrong – the roof falls in, tenants default -that kind of thing.
For the newbie investor I would say unless you have got £20,000 stashed away for a rainy day or a very kind Uncle who can help you out if things get tough, I would be wary of buying No Money Down.
If you do, you could end up with a house on a very high loan relative to value and if your “Sale and rent back tenant” defaults on the rent you or the boiler needs replacing, you are really going to have hard times indeed।
We are away for a week’s holidays -see you in 2 weeks!
ABOUT LETTINGFOCUS.COM and DAVID LAWRENSON
I’m David Lawrenson of 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 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 mentor programme at my website.What’s unique about lettingfocus.com is that we offer you help as an independent property 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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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:

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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
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Copyright: David Lawrenson 2007