Advice for the new investor

THE QUESTION

I'm brand new to property investing.  I've set up my limited company and have been offered a rate from a broker for a studio apartment I've reserved with a commercial ground floor (30% down on £97k at 3.4%).  They said some other lenders were at capacity on the property.  

Should I go with this or should I be getting other quotes. I...

When you get an unexpected windfall, especially a substantial one, it’s not going to earn you anything sitting in your bank account.  If you’re into property - or you see it as the means to get into property it’s easy to get carried away.

For arguments sake, let’s say you’ve just got £200K land in your bank account.  If you mention ‘I’ve...

THE QUESTION

I’m in the market for a buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage, should I use a free mortgage broker (who gets commission from the lender only), or a broker that charges a fee?

THE ANSWER

If you take a balanced view, whether a broker chooses to charge a fee or not is not the main decisive factor in whether they are any good or not. The decision to charge a fee, or not to, will be driven by...

Everyone expects to get a better deal if they’re a cash buyer and it’s certainly possible to get some great property deals if you can offer cash, but it is heavily dependent on two things -  

• Finding a motivated seller - in other words, someone who just wants to get the property off their hands
• Finding a property that isn’t easily mortgageable

The seller

The...

THE QUESTION

I have a property which is a large freehold semi-detached (around 140sqm), that will split nicely into 2x 2 beds (houses not flats), my question is do I need planning permission, and, if I split the properties into leaseholds, do we need 2x utility supplies to the property, or can we just split the existing supply?

THE ANSWER

Planning - absolutely planning permission is needed....

When you invest in property you’re purchasing a very high value asset - and there’s the potential to make big profits - but also to make big losses.

If you’ve got a nest egg you probably know it’s not going to grow much sitting in a savings account in your bank, so what do you invest it in?

You could buy stocks and shares, artwork or antiques - but to do this...

THE QUESTION

As a first time property developer and with just 40k to invest, what would you do? Use the 40k as a deposit on a house or use the money to buy a much smaller, cheaper property outright? I see that there are some properties in certain parts of the UK that appear to sell at auction for circa £30k although I'm guessing these are incredibly cheap for a reason! Which option would...

When you’re starting out in property investment there are lots of things that may influence you.

• You may have friends or family who are already in property, so you’ve got some experience to call upon.
• You may be surrounded by people who see property as a risky thing to do and will keep trying to stop you.
• You might just have heard about people making a killing in property and got...

THE QUESTION

Having been offered a plot of land suitable for building four houses, what’s the best way to fund another development?

THE ANSWER

Funding new build developments is simple, you use a development finance lender to lend you 100% of the build cost and then you get creative on how you finance the purchase.

If you have a chunk of cash yourself for the deposit then the development...

One of the essentials of building a successful property career is having the right mind-set.  Lots of people like the idea of property as a means of generating residual income, but every property meeting has at least as many people who are ‘getting into property’ as those who are already in possession of at least one property or have already started the buying and selling...