Singing Pig

C Browne says  "" but since buying the book I now do not have to research anything, Andy and Greg do all that for me, they tell me which is the best mortgages at the moment, they tell me why credit cards a good, they tell me how to go and speak to EA's, go and talk to builders, tell me what it would cost to refurb, how to tell me about valuers. ""

i cringed horribly when reading this  - especially that "Andy and Greg do all that for me"   -   this is sooooooooooo dangerous  -  is putting ALL your eggs, all your money, all your faith in ONE organisation  which has a vested interest in making you see things THEIR way 

i implore you to read " PBS"  thread on here - 

 http://www.singingpig.co.uk/forums/thread/43181.aspx

and  ANY thread about Inside Track  

for goodness sakes dont stop thinking for yourself - dont accept ANY other persons views without researching things for your self - this is the way to lose lots of money very fast

abrogating ALL responsibility to another person is the way to fail  ......   

Many Property Finding Companies have a seriously awful reputation on this forum - 

there is NOTHING "easy" about making money in property  -  i have had dozens of jobs in my life and the property business is the one that has taken me the most time to research - it is a huge business  -  if you give up your control of your own destiny to anyone  -  you then have no control over your own finances and decisions  -   dont do it ........

 
read, read, do more reading, read again and find your own deals  -  you will be MUCH more satisfied in the long run 

Agree totally with Clottie - you need to analyse every potential deal that you look at on an individual basis and make sure that YOU are happy with the risk and that all the figures add up.

I don't post in general because I class myself as a property newbie, and I like to hear the views of those more experienced than talk myself ... however I read the same quote that Clottie picked up on and felt I had to dive in.

 "Money for Nothing" was the first property book I bought, and it gave me a lot of food for thought.  Like Andy, I like to crunch numbers, and the numbers he gives are good.  The thing that many people miss though, is that what Andy did, he did in a rising market.  Now the market is falling, which spells good times for those more experienced with lots of cashflow behind them, but will be a minefield for new investors who are not fully up to their game, I think.  Property is always going to go up in the end (at least UK property, and other established markets) but you might have to hold onto it for a long time to get those gains, and you need to make sure you can cashflow it during that time (as I seem to remember Andy stresses too).

For background, I started in property part time last summer.  I have four UK properties, all of which I purchased at 80% of their current valuation, and a holiday let.  I wouldn't buy anything now at above 75% in the UK, and unless the rental value was high I'd be looking at 70%.  I also won't buy anything that won't cover itself on rent, and I won't touch UK new build apartments because I have no idea how you would work out the "real" discount.  (This si my own personal thoughts though, not a recommendation).  I've got 18 months until I need to remortgage, hopefully rates will be better then, if not I have some safety net behind me.  Beware the fact that now is a bad time to sell, if you are buying anything make sure you can cover cashflow it, and don't look for short term profit with remortgage.  I would like to have got into property sooner...I still believe in property as in investment, but you need to be a lot more experienced than I am to be getting Ferraris out of it any time soon.

I've also got some overseas stuff going on, slightly more risky than what I have in the UK (and to be honest slightly riskier than I would like, but I am totally risk averse and if I stayed in my comfort zone I would still be in my 9-5 in 10 years!)  I have done what research I can into markets, got what guarantees I can, checked planning permission etc in place, looked into management charges and rents in the areas....I was limited because I did indeed start with a very small amount which I had to maximise.  On the bright side, the figures will have to be a long way out for me to get into trouble.  However I guess any investment is a risk, I just try to make investments not speculations where possible.

People have asked me what profit I have made - well, on paper, over £100K equity in six months, but as far as I am concerned in current markets it's Mickey Mouse money because I'm not going to sell to turn it into hard cash .... I am looking at least two years I think before I can think about seeing that benefit, and quite possibly much longer.  I am not giving the day job up yet (although I would like to!)

 Anyway, that's quite enough from me, I will go back to reading the opinions of the experienced now :)

"but since buying the book I now do not have to research anything, Andy and Greg do all that for me,"

 this really sums it up, this is the worst excess of this type of marketing. You can never, never, ever give up personal responsibility for your actions and god forbid let someone else take decisions for you

those who know me, know i am a bit of a control freak, i make the decisions. Ownership is key in all business, if you do not 'own' your decisions or actions, how can you hope to prosper from the decisions made??

the problem is that there are never ending stream of people 'wanting to believe' that thay have found the golden goose, and salesmen and marketeers focus their full attention on them

i have the book and read about half of it after i got bored of the style and the fact that it is very basic, buy property in a rising market, wait and remortgage (perhaps do up a bit) the value added seems to be the rise in the market value because of the rising market rather than creating value by doing something.

he openly admits that he thought property was undervalued when he started, but now.....

Good luck, but you will not see me beating a path to Passives' course

Rik

You may well claim to be inexperienced Lindsey, but it is absolutely clear that extreme modesty is one of your assets !

Don't sell yourself so short, because that is one of the best summaries of current prospects and sound policy that I've seen in a long time - and that includes the "experts" making pronouncements on various websites and other forums like Sky News, Daily Express, Mail, etc.

It is abundantly clear that, to quote an old Norfolk saying, "you have got your head screwed on properly".

The only area where I would disagree is over foreign property, which I wouldn't touch with a bargepole because, if anything goes wrong (and it frequently does - look at what's happening in coastal areas of Spain right now!) you end up dealing with the government of another country, and a second and unfamiliar legal system. And that can be very, very expensive. Plus, of course, provided that one is in it for the long haul, there is no property market like the UK property market for making profits. A small country, an ever-increasing population (now at a virtually uncontrolled rate), and the strictest planning controls in Europe mean that the fundamental law of Supply and Demand will ensure that property prices only go one way in the medium to long term - up ! It is these people who dive in expecting to make a quick fortune in a couple of years who catch a cold when a temporary chill wind starts blowing and they find that they paid too much for a property for which demand has evaporated..

P.S. - I cannot understand why anyone with any sense would pay someone thousands to "source" an investment property for them. Look at Inside Track - the "professional" doing the sourcing was an unqualified amateur with little property experience, and a relative of the company owner !

One might well ask what superior qualifications or experience others offering similar "sourcing" services hold, and whether they are more qualified to do it than the buyer himself. It is, after all, more common sense and caution than rocket science.

 As for somebody needing someone else to tell them which credit card offers the best deal, well, they shouldn't be involved in any business at all ... unless it's cleaning the cars of others capable of working that out for themselves

"It seems to me that I have tickled the interests of some of the members on this site, in regards to the book Money For Nothing & Your Property For Free."

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It seems to me that you have totally failed to recognise SP members' lack of acceptance of your sales pitch, which we have heard before from other affiliates of the same outfit, and that your above misinterpretation is almost worthy of that other fella Brown (without the "e" on the end) !

The failure to recognise or respond to valid questions and criticism is also an idiosyncracy of the PM.

You may well claim to be inexperienced Lindsey, but it is absolutely clear that extreme modesty is one of your assets !

Don't sell yourself so short, because that is one of the best summaries of current prospects and sound policy that I've seen in a long time - and that includes the "experts" making pronouncements on various websites and other forums like Sky News, Daily Express, Mail, etc.

It is abundantly clear that, to quote an old Norfolk saying, "you have got your head screwed on properly".""

i could not agree more  -  Lindsey - you may be a relative newcomer to the business - but you are NOT a newbie  !!!! 

Thank you to LPA and Clottie for the vote of confidence.

 Having chosen an "interesting" time to get into the market, all votes of confidence in my strategy are very welcome!