Why My Website Is Simple, Why I don’t Advise On Tax And Why I Am Pleased to Have It That Way
A long time ago I decided that, whilst my buy to let book was very successful and was often in the top one thousand books by rank of sales on Amazon (no mean feat when there are about 5 million books you could buy on Amazon) and whilst I did have a strong presence as a speaker at property shows and was often quoted in the media on residential landlord matters, I was never going to go to the trouble of building an all-singing all-dancing website encompassing “everything landlord”.
It was just too much like hard work. And I hate that.
People who do this often structure their sites to make lots of money from all kinds of landlord products and services. And why not? This is simply capitalising on their knowledge and monetising it. Huge respect to them.
Lots of these sites have excellent news and content sections too. All of them will make money in some way or other. But it is a lot of work – setting up the site, maintaining it, adding content endlessly, dealing with advertisers, moderating forums etc. It just seemed all too much for me.
Plus, I always thought why bother, as I was so successful at being a residential landlord. I did not need any more money or stress that having a big property site would inevitably bring. In fact, I stopped buying any more properties six years ago. And I was never too tech savvy either, so the whole business of setting up and running a big landlord website seemed daunting anyway.
I still look at some of these sites from time to time. Their forums are usually particularly good with smart people sharing their knowledge and expertise for free.
And there are great articles too. I guess some of the writers of these, who are often also owners of the site, might have been working out their ego a bit on some of the pieces but hey, I get that, though for me having a successful book published and it then selling well was more than enough of an ego trip.
But some property websites are admittedly pretty crap. They are all “rah rah and let’s make a pile of money on property fast and use unethical methods and psychological techniques at tub thumping live events to do that”.
These less nice sites often attract the ire of the straighter sites – whose founders and readers are often all too aware of the damage caused by the less honest sites to amateur investors, plus the bad reputation that brings to property investing in general and landlording in particular.
I have observed a particularly nasty spat between the site, Property Tribes and one Samuel Leeds. I have observed others too.
I am not saying anything negative about Samuel Leeds because as Property Tribes have found out, he is very litigious. I simply won’t comment on anything he is accused of. It is not worth it. For all I know, he may have been unfairly maligned.
But for me, that sort of spat is yet more vindication of why it was a smart move to keep my own site simple – all this site you are looking at has is just a bit about me, some links to my books, a listing of where I have been quoted in the media, (less common these days due to my truth-telling about other matters), and my regular blogs.
I like it simple; I like it that way. And my property investments still bring in more than enough to keep me very happy. No one is chucking law suits my way!
Tax Advice – and Why I don’t Do it
Another site that seems to be involved in a bit of an online battle, with legal claims flying about right now is Property 118.
Like Property Tribes, it is full of great information – and I go there from time to time, though my main go-to sources of information are the NRLA magazine, a magazine called “Property Investor News” and “Your Property News” (YPN)” – the latter whom I still write for.
Founder of Property 118, the ebullient and charismatic Mark Alexander, is a bit of a hero in landlord circles for clobbering The West Brom – the building society, not the football team or the place – when they tried to renege on some historic buy to let base-rate-for-life-of-term mortgage contracts. He organised a kind of class action of affected borrowers and they finally won at the Court of Appeal. This cost The West Brom a lot of cash, smashing their PIBS price – and I guess it may have made him some enemies.
(By the way, the CEO of The West Brom, one Mr Westhoff went on to be chair of the Building Societies Association too, so I guess he is one of those Teflon-like top bods who seem to go on to great things no matter how much they screwed up. Clearly, a sort of minor Dido Harding-like figure).
Anyway, well done to Mark Alexander as it was a monumental battle, which I was pleased to support and cover here on many occasions. I also attended the case, both in the High Court and in The Court of Appeal, in the public gallery.
Partly off the back of that success, Property 118 have built a bit of a business helping landlords with their tax, a lot of it seemingly about converting to a business to escape the nasties that go with being taxed on a personal basis – in particular the way interest on loans is accounted for. I won’t go into it more than that, as it is a subject I have covered here widely before.
This tax adjunct appears to have been successful for Property 118.
However, recently a man called Dan Neidle has been claiming their schemes fall foul of HMRC rules and thus a string of legal letters have ensued.
Dan Neidle is indeed a fearsome adversary having previously been more than a thorn in the side of no less than the PM’s wife and former minister, Nadim Zahawi over their tax affairs. He even has his own Wiki page and is quite the darling of “The Grauniad”.
Not sure why he has gone after a relative minnow like Property 118. Maybe it is an anti-landlord thing?
Again, no further comment from me on this. I will happily stay well clear, but for me it is another reason to vindicate my decision to steer clear of setting up a complex property website where I could fall foul of other experts like Mr. Neidle or just inadvertently p*ssing off a rival.
Most people who consult on a one-to-one basis with me often want to get some advice from me about tax. I always tell them that I don’t do that because I am not qualified to, which is true.
However, I do point them to my book, which has a decent chapter all about landlord taxes (though some parts need updating now). I also tell them to get hold of and read one or more of Carl Bayley’s great books on property tax and only then consult an IFA and accountant who is expert in landlord taxation matters. Stephen Faye is also a good name to look up – he has also impressed me with his knowledge.
So, there we are.
By the way, I have no financial links to any of the companies listed here nor receive any commissions from any of them. I do write for YPN, however.
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