Most property investors rely on mortgages to purchase properties.  Bridging as a means of financing a purchase tends to be treated with suspicion; it’s unknown territory.

The problem is that most people take their knowledge of mortgages and apply it to bridging and that’s where disaster lurks!  Here are five core facts about bridging.

1. Interest rates

With a mortgage, the...

THE QUESTION

There’s a house I have seen, it’s a three-bed house on a street that consists of just three-bed houses all around the £92k mark

Except there is one house on the street that’s had a really good loft conversion that’s added 2 bedrooms and another bathroom and it sold a few months ago for £165k

If I buy a house on this street and do a conversion to...

When most people think of property investors, they think of buy-to-let landlords - but there are many different strategies to generate an income from property besides that.  Let’s look at a few of these:

Buy-to-sell

Also known as ‘flips’, this strategy involves buying properties with a view to reselling them at a higher price.  In its purest form this strategy...

THE QUESTION

I have a property worth £170K with a mortgage of £105K.  How much would I be able to borrow on bridging finance for another property?

THE ANSWER

The first important thing to consider is what the second charge bridging market looks like.

Not all bridgers lend if you cannot offer them a first charge.  You can’t do that, because your mortgage lender already...

If you’re nowhere near being in the position to buy properties outright, read on - there’s a way you can benefit from all the advantages of being a cash buyer, without having a huge wad of cash.

Cash buyers have advantages:

• They don’t have to mess around applying for and getting approval for a mortgage
• They don’t have to do battle with the mortgage lender about whether...

THE QUESTION

Our visit to our accountant had an unanticipated outcome.  We wanted answers to somewhat we saw as basic questions.

What kind of company do we need (LLP or LTD) in order to buy a commercial property and use it as serviced accommodation (plus rent out the shop underneath)?

Can we operate under one company only if we develop a mixed portfolio of R2R SA, buy-to-let and commercial...

Joint ventures (JVs) are suggested by many property training programmes as a means for an investor to gain momentum and build a portfolio faster.  It cuts down the ‘saving up’ period considerably, depending on how much your partner is willing to put into the pot.

However, a joint venture partner must fulfil certain criteria for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to consider...

THE QUESTION

John will be inheriting £250,000 shortly and wants to be able to generate an income of £30k per year from property.

He doesn’t have an income or anywhere to live, so will need to plan out the best way to leverage this nest egg.  Ideally, he wants to get a steady return and pay for a place to live. With some BTL experience previously, what would you advise?

...

Like most things, the devil is in the detail!  It is easy to get bridging wrong, and many do, largely because they blunder in thinking it is easy.  It is a simple way of funding deals, but you need to understand how it works.  I have been teaching how it works and how to use it intelligently at my Ninja Investor Programme workshops since 2013.

I call bridging counter-intuitive -...

THE QUESTION

I've taken out a fair few mortgages in the past and I’m comfortable with that kind of finance.  I have no experience with bridging, so my questions are:

What are the key things to look for?

What would be considered a 'good' bridging deal?

What term would you normally look at, 3 months? 6? Is it easy to extend?

THE ANSWER

There are lots of advantages to using bridging...