Property Gurus Do Not Help Other Property Investors Out of Kindness

LettingFocus observed that property gurus usually do not help other property investors out of the kindness of their hearts. It never ceases to amaze us at LettingFocus that some would-be property investors, instead of getting a good book on property development/investment/letting and then speaking to independent experts, choose instead to go on expensive education courses costing tens of thousands of […]

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Wrong Housing, Wrong Investment and Bad Mortgage Lending

Thamesmead encapsulates a lot of what has gone wrong with housing over the years – from poor local planning, to bad mortgage lending to yet worse property investment decisions by amateur investors says David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com A few weeks’ ago I had cause to visit Thamesmead where my boy was playing in a kids’ football match. I mention the […]

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Single Room Rate Changes and HMOs Houses in Multiple Occupation

The thirst from “property investors” for supposedly great returns from houses in multi occupation will make for a harder job for town halls housing departments. Often the returns from HMOs are illusory says David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com Every day at the town halls, junior front-line housing staffers spend a lot of their time dealing with single adults who “present” as […]

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Private Landlords Don’t Sell Their Time for Money but Must Beware of Other Risks in Letting to Achieve Success

At the end of a recent speaking engagement to a group of building society buy to let lending staff in the North of England, none of whom were landlords; I asked them, “So, do you think you might be interested in becoming landlords then.” I was a bit surprised when all said, “No” That got me thinking. Recently a peer […]

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Mortgage Fraud and Below Market Value Property Plenty of Scams About

Though I try very hard to make sure I’m not on mailing lists for the “Buy Property Below Market Value with None of Your Own Money Down” brigade, I still get the odd email coming through. Naturally, once you are on one mailing list, you quickly end up on lots of others – most of them flogging the same “Get […]

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Mortgage Fraud Buy to Let Lending and Property Clubs

My blog post last week (about what mortgage companies could do to support landlords more), generated 27 emails from managers at buy to let mortgage lenders and ten from landlords. One aspect that I referred to, in passing, was how the mortgage lenders had been “behind the play” in terms of understanding how bad buy to let mortgage lending and […]

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Next Day Remortgages Legal Questions and Another Property Investment Firm Bites the Dust

Next Property Investment Seminar and Networking Event One of my mentors in property investment is Richard Bowser of “Property Investor News.” He’s been around property investing even longer than me, wears a white hat and really knows his stuff in the residential property investment sector. Also, like me, he’s seen lots of the “Get Rich Quick in Property” people come […]

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