you seem to be a litle prickly daniel ... not sure why? i'll answer point (6) first (!) .... i am not "anti-NMD" as you say. i am anti-fraud. there is a significant difference, as i'm sure you realise. i have used myself the MX 1 day remortgage approach, no problems with that at all ... why would I? i do have a problem with dodgy "NMD techniques" that essentially rely on defrauding the lender and / or "compliant" solicitors, and that expose the borrower to the risk of mortgage fraud. i'm sure that all your brokering is all above board though ... but there are brokers who are not making the risks clear to their clients.
i am very open to people using their own deposits ... why would i not be? why would any lender not be? regardless of whether you have no money tied up in a property, or a 15% cash deposit, or have paid cash, if the property has fallen in value you as an investor have LOST if the market falls .......... this is a really important point. a loss is a loss, regardless of how its funded. whether i choose to put a deposit in or not, i am concerned about the soundness of the underlying investment .... buyers lose either way, whether it be their own cash deposit, or the bank's money. buyers shouln't make the mistake of thinking that because they have none of their own money tied up, they haven't lost.
(1) i can assure you that prospects (that, by the way, is a generally used sales term for "potential clients") are very concerned and influenced by the media. a key part of the BMV negotiation process is conditioning prospects of the realistic OMV of their prop, and the general state of the market. the media is now doing us a favour .... prospects see and hear about the state of the market, and its therefore easier to get to a realistic OMV (as well as explaining the risk we are taking by holding a falling knife ... which helps justify the profit).
however, yuo are right that there will be fewer people who can afford to take a BMV offer as prices fall .... these are the people who will have problems if they can't afford their repayments, can't afford to re-finance & can't afford to sell to a trader. their only options are to sell on the open market & pray for a buyer, or be repo'd. gulp.
(2) i am not finding that my rental assessments are disagreed with by surveyors .... or at least no moer than they have ever been! maybe thats a regional thing, maybe its becasue i know the 2 or 3 surveyors in my area & they know i don;t shoot too high.
(3) you are missing the point. in these times, there are more and more BMV prospects for you to aim at. you should be filtering out the non-starters on the phone ... a 5-10 minute job. if a prospect calls, i deduct 25% from the prop value they give me (it will alwasy be inflated), and if the mortgage is higher than this, i wish them well, & ask if my broker and estate agent can call them, as sadly, i am unable to help. a larger % of calls end like this, but since i am getting far more calls, the actual number of viewings is increasing ... and most importantly, the % BMV is higher. my point was if we are having problems in the current market, think of the plight of many BMV prospects ... it is disproportionately worse in my experience.
(4) i don't expect that the "flood" of BMV props hitting the markets will have any real effect. BMV is a tiny, tiny section of the housing market. maybe you deal with BMV every day, but i wouldn;t expect the numbers of landlords selling BMVs that they can't re-finance to affect the entire housing market by -15% ... it is inconceivable. you also asked how i think 25% BMV discounts will affect the housing market ... my answer is, "not at all". again, the proportion of props sold BMV (and i mean true, true BMV) is tiny ... the impact on the general market is negligible.
(5) i didn't give any "advice" on property prices?! my point was simply that if an investor expects there to be a short-term blip in prices, he can choose a mortgage product that protects him from the need to re-mortgage until prices have recovered. common sense i would have thought?
just generally, my experience has been that the current market is fantastic ... if you have cash for deposits. the reason is that Joe Public tends to over-react to hysterical media claims & so discounts their house lower than they need to. a good example is nationwide's figures today ........ 2% MOM drop, 10% YOY. Joe Public thinks what his house is worth, calculates 10% of that, and then panics at the "money" they think they have lost. whereas previously i used to call back all prospects that declined my offer on viewing, i am now finding these people calling ME wanting me to visit them again!! THAT is teh power of the media ... doing my job for me!
it goes without saying that caution should be exercised when buying property ... but equally, the current market is perfect for building a quality portfolio ... not the time for standing on the sidelines.
Houses bought FAST ... Blackpool ONLY