Our best resources of 2020 compiled with love

What a different year!

While reflecting on the joyful and tough moments of 2020, I want to tell you how incredibly grateful I am for your continuous support.

Holidays are a time for giving back. That’s why I decided to put together a list of the best resources we produced in 2020.


Top Property Investing Posts and Articles of 2020

• Do you still think property investing is ONLY for people with money? - WRONG!
• 9 Important Members of Your Power Team
• Are you thinking too much?
• 9 things you should NOT miss when choosing an investing area
• Do you have a PLAN B?
• Which is better? – Short-term VS Long-term rental strategies? 

Top Property Investing Tools and Learning Resources of 2020

• Property Data

A single point to find comprehensive data related to property and your investing area. Including postcode data, property valuation data etc.
 

• YPN (Your property network)

A monthly magazine for anybody serious about investing in property. Contains market update, property strategy update and examples, training materials, power team contacts etc. 1^st month free.
 

• Openrent

Currently the best website for renting out properties both whole unit and by room. 1^st listing free.
 

• Progressive property

My favourite property training company, with a number of free and paid courses.

As a last note, if you need help with your 2021 planning I'd like to remind you that I offer complimentary 1-1 coaching calls to help you build a plan to create your desired income stream through property.

I wish you all the best for this holiday season and are looking forward to a great 2021.

Happy holidays,
Emma

* Want the step-by-step action points, tools and scripts, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months? – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

How I Found My First 3 Deals During Christmas 6 years ago

What will you be doing this Christmas? How did you spend your past Christmas period?

If you think Christmas is bad for business, think again.

6 years ago, I only just started investing in North of England. I had gone up a few times to do my ‘Field research’. And I finally knew what kind of properties I would want to buy – to achieve double digit return.

But came winter and Christmas was close. I was getting anxious as people were getting into the festive mood and I thought I would have to wait till the New Year to finally find my first deal in the North.

How wrong was I!

Despite my belief that there would be no business during Christmas, I booked my train tickets up anyway. I booked a few viewings with estate agents, and I also continued with my leaflet marketing campaign to access private sellers.

I remember I went up just after Boxing Day, and had 6 viewings lined up. I had already viewed up to 10 properties by then but none of the deals were quite up to my standard, both in terms of the financial return, and the other factors. I was starting to wonder if my criteria was too high, or my source of properties were wrong.

To my surprise, these 6 viewings went extremely well. The sellers were all motivated. In hindsight, I now understand that if a seller has to sell around Christmas period, he/she must be pretty motivated.

Long story short, I bagged 2 deals out of these 6 viewings during Christmas and they are still generating 13% return for me to this date. And shortly after the New Year, I started getting responses from my leafleting campaign as well. The sellers were also mostly pretty motivated. I managed to get another deal at 25% discount off market value out of these leads.

Who says Christmas means no business?!

The reality is that people tend to put off dealing with problems before Christmas so you get a surge of people who finally put their properties on sale. And people tend to overspend before Christmas, and it’s not until after Christmas that some realise they are financial trouble, which can only be resolved by selling their house. And family conflicts can get worse during Christmas, leading to a higher divorce or separation rate after…. In short, most people who sell during Christmas do so because they have to – so for them it’s more important to sell quickly with certainty rather than selling at the highest price. And if you can buy quickly with certainty, you are doing them a huge favour.

So now you know Christmas is great for business – what will you be doing this Christmas?

Have a great one!

Emma

* Want the step-by-step action points, tools and scripts, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months? – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

When is the best time of the year to buy property?

I got asked very often ‘When is the best time of the year to buy property?’

It seems like most first time buyers start looking for properties in spring for some reason. Maybe the weather gets better and people are more willing to be out viewing properties. Or maybe people start to dream about a better life (and house) in the season of hope.

And in the winter people stop looking to move, or being bothered to do anything major. So there are much fewer purchases in the grimmer season.

Seems pretty normal, right?


But as a property investor, you need to know that you have to go against the crowd. Dodge the competition and you will find the best deals.


My best deals were agreed during the winter seasons. Many sellers who sell in the winter have a reason to sell – so they tend to have more motivation to agree a deal with you. And you as an investor, have the opportunity to buy properties at a discount and in return solve a problem for the seller (financially or emotionally).

However, don’t dismiss spring and summer months completely. Ultimately, as you become more experienced, you will discover deals that are hidden gems, which other buyers don’t recognise.

To getting your first property deal this winter!
Emma

* Want the step-by-step action points, tools and scripts, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months? – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session.

Should you invest for Cash Flow or Capital Growth?

So you want to invest in property?

But have you thought about what you want to achieve through property? Could be pension, financial freedom, ego boost, pure interest….

It is crucial that you know what you want out of property, i.e. what property investing can bring you. Because only then will you be able to pick the right strategies and specialise.


There is a particular angle I want to talk about today, which is the cash flow vs capital growth dilemma.


Most people invest in property for either cash flow or capital growth. A good deal can get you both. But you should still understand out of the two, which is more important for you at a particular point in time.

Cash flowing properties will get you a recurring income every single month, even if the amount is not large. Capital growth strategies may get you a lumpsum after a period of time.

Generally speaking, cash flow strategies would be the solid foundation for any property investor. With a portfolio of cash flowing properties, you would have an extra income stream coming in, giving you more security. And as they are cash flowing, you would not need to worry about property prices going up or down.

And once you have the cash flow foundation, you can incorporate capital strategies to create more margin. However capital strategies typically require larger capital input, and more risk as they mostly involve some level of development.

If you are new to property, cash flow strategies would be easier to pick up, and would be your foundation for other more advanced strategies. And depending on how much capital you have, or whether you want to use your capital, there are great strategies such as BTL, HMO, R2R, Lease Options, etc…..

However, the more ‘simple’ the strategy, the more competition, and the more you need to do it correctly in order to create the high return and cash flow you want to achieve.

Till next time :)
Emma

* Want the step-by-step action points, tools and scripts, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months? – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

Should you invest in FREEHOLD or LEASEHOLD properties?

For most people starting out in property investing, the most important thing is to build up the experience and limit the risk.

So should you invest in Freehold or Leasehold properties if you are just starting out?


The short answer is: invest in whichever that is the MOST WANTED in your area.


If you area is outside London, you can get this information through your local letting agents.

If you are in London, the answer is not as straightforward – because both freehold and leasehold can be desired by tenants.

However, generally freehold houses are more expensive, bringing your return lower than leasehold (except for those leasehold flats with really expensive service charges). But with freehold, you would have more room to carry out refurbishment to increase the property value.

You would have to go back to your ultimate goal – understand what you want from property. And then let the numbers talk, and make decision from there.

Build up the knowledge first and you will know what to do next!

Emma

* Want the step-by-step action points, tools and scripts, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months? – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

Do you have a PLAN B?

 

We all know there are risks in any type of investments.

The biggest risk is that our original plan isn’t working out – in one way or another!

 

One big problem this pandemic has brought to many landlords is that the rents has reduced significantly in some areas, such as central London.

Another example is that short term accommodation strategies (serviced accommodations, holiday lets) are not working very well due to COVID-19, especially in cities that used to get many traveller and tourists.

But another potential danger is still slowly happening. We are in recession now and the furlough scheme is coming to an end. Many people will lose their jobs in the next few months or one year. A big risk for landlords is that their tenants might start having trouble to pay rent.

 

If you are getting into property investing or already have rental properties, do you have a PLAN B for the above scenarios?

 

I was reading my favourite property investment magazine YPN the other day and there was a section on ‘Supported living’ and ‘Social Housing’ – which could work very well as a hedge against some of the issues above.

If you haven’t heard of the strategy before, you should definitely give it a thought.

GET YOUR 1^st COPY of YPN FOR FREE HERE

And you can read the section on ‘Supported Living’ and ‘Social Housing’ in Issue 149.

 

To investing for maximum return and minimum risk,

Emma

*I can give you the step-by-step action points you need to take, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

9 Important Members of Your Power Team

 

If you are just starting out on property investing, you are probably already feeling the loneliness of this journey.

Unlike working in a corporate environment, you don’t have colleagues that you can speak to on a daily basis, or a manager that you can go to for advice.

Your property business is your own business. When you are just starting out, most investors don’t have a team. They are just on their own, probably trying to do everything on your own too.

Just to show you how much difference a good power team can make, I’ll tell you my own story.

When I first started investing in North of England, I had to travel up there every other weekend. The train journey was 2.5 hours each way. (Driving would take even longer.) I had to do that because I wanted to get to know the area in detail, but also because I didn’t have a local team that I could rely on. You can imagine how tired that made me and how much time and money I spent on the train journeys.

Now I have a local team built up and I have bought the last few properties without having to go there at all myself. In fact I haven’t been up there in the past 5 years!

So Who’s in the Team?

Exactly which property experts are in your team depends on your specific strategy. But generally speaking, the following people would provide valuable expertise to your property business.

-        Letting Agent

For researching the area and renting out/managing your properties.

-        Estate Agent

For sourcing and selling properties.

-        Conveyancing solicitor

For processing the legal side of your property purchases and uncovering issues that needs resolving.

-        Surveyor

For property valuations and reports.

-        Mortgage broker

For finding you the best financing products.

-        Accountant

For filing your tax returns and optimising your profit retention.

-        Insurance broker

For sourcing the right level of cover to safeguard your assets and business.

-        Tradesman/Builder

For refurbishment or development.

-        Mentor/Coach

For knowledge/skills and support, someone to keep you accountable.

 

Have questions regarding how to build up your power team, or simply how best to move forward in general?

CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

 

To finding great people to push you along the way,

Emma

Which is better? – Short-term VS Long-term rental strategies?

 

As I mentioned in my previous article, I get asked quite often whether they should start with Rent to Rent, or Rent to Serviced Accommodations. I know a lot of you can’t make up your mind on which strategy is best for you.

 

Let’s have a look at the two strategies closely today.

 

Similarity

 

With both strategies, you don’t need to have large sums of capital to buy and own a property. You lease a property, then rent out on short term (Rent to serviced accommodations) or long term (Rent to rent) basis. So you don’t have the hassle or risk associated with owning properties, such as mortgages, property prices going down etc.

 

Differences

 

The major difference is that Rent to rent is where you rent out the units long term, and Rent to accommodations is where you rent out the units on shorter term.

 

This means that you can usually charge a premium price with short term rental, but you would also suffer from vacancy and seasonal changes.

 

The regulations are also different with short term and long term. Long term accommodations are usually of primary residential nature; whereas short term accommodations are usually considered of commercial nature. So long term accommodations are subject to the relevant tenancy laws. Short term accommodations sometimes require a change of use through planning application (90 day rule in London for example).

 

Pros and Cons

 

	Pros	Cons
Rent to rent/ LT	- No risk associated with owning property - Market is more stable and predictable - No planning required - Less objection from landlords regarding 'overuse' of property	- Can't charge a premium price - Harder to find deals that achieve your target profit - Need to reference and manage tenancies - Higher requirements regarding property types
Rent to Serviced accommodations/ST	- No risk associated with owning property - Can charge a premium price - Easier to find deals that can achieve your target profit - More property types can be suitable	- Can be affected more by seasons and economic fluctuations and pandemics! - Need to beware of the 90 day rule in London and apply for planning - Higher occupant turnover so requires more management and cleaning

 

Conclusions

 

Ultimately, both strategies are great cash flow strategies for those who don’t want to invest large sums of capital, or who don’t want the risks of owning properties. Usually Rent to rent deals can be turned into serviced accommodations (with planning if permitted) and potentially achieve higher profit. With Rent to Serviced accommodations deals, you may not achieve as much profit if you end up having to fill the units with long term occupants (like during this pandemic).

I believe in having a PLAN B in all my investments. Always make sure you have at least 2 exit strategies that are profitable.

You can even mix and match your long and short term rental deals in your portfolio eventually. But when you are first starting out, make sure you FOCUS on ONLY ONE strategy so you get skilled at it. Once you have mastered one strategy, you can pick up the other one more easily.

 

Need Help? – Ask Me Now HERE

 

Have you made up your mind yet? ;)

Emma

*I can give you the step-by-step action points you need to take, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

Getting started in property investing through Short Let?

 

Quite a few of my students have asked me about the opportunity in Short let – the official term is Serviced Accommodations.

 

The principle of Serviced Accommodations is that you can charge a premium to people staying short term (or sometimes short to medium terms) and provide accommodations with more services than basic residential lettings. You can run it like a hotel, or like serviced apartments. 

 

A common question I have heard from my students and other property investors using the Rent to Rent strategy is that: if a Rent to Rent deal can make me £700-£1000/ month, why can’t I turn it into Serviced Accommodations (i.e. Short let) and make much much more?

 

Or another version of essentially the same question is that: if it takes me x amount of effort to get a decent Rent to Rent deal, why can’t I aim to get a Serviced Accommodations deal with the same profit instead but with less effort?

 

The answer to the first question is – you can. Provided that you comply to the 90 day rule in greater London. (If you want to rent out a residential property for over 90 days in London, you need to obtain planning permission.)

 

The answer to the second question is more complex. Technically you can. And it probably is easier to find properties that can make you £700-£1000/ month if you use a premium rent. However, the difference here is risk. If you are relying on achieving a premium rent to make your target profit, your business could run into cash flow trouble if this factor is affected (by pandemic for example, or season, or anything else).

 

I will write an article comparing the two strategies in more details later this week – as I know a lot of you are sitting on the fence undecided between the two strategies.

 

Rent in a lot of prime areas (for example central London) are heavily discounted at the moment due to pandemic and lockdown. This can be a rare lifetime opportunity to pick up some great deals, whether you want to do short let or long let.

 

Use adversity to your advantage,

Emma

6 questions to ask your local letting agent for the most accurate area research

I hope you found my last post useful. I talked about the 9 things you should never miss in high level desktop research into your investing area.

Let’s go one step further in this post, where I want to share with you one of the most important elements of field research – Speaking With Local Letting Agents.


Local letting agents is the starting point of your field research and local information hub. If they have been in business for a few years, they should know the areas pretty well.


I’ve shortlisted 6 questions below you should ask the local letting agent. This will allow you to quickly identify you opportunities in the area.
 

1. What are the best rental areas?

2. What is the most demanded property type in each ‘best rental area’? (Terraced, flat, detached etc.)

3. What rent can you achieve for the most demanded property type?

4. What is the typical tenant profile for each ‘best rental area’?

5. What’s their preferred spec of the rental properties? (Furnished vs unfurnished, modern vs old school etc.)

6. What are the area/streets to avoid?

Always do your desktop and field research hand in hand. Use the tools I shared in the last email (Rightmove/Zoopla/Google for high level, PropertyData for more details) along with local letting agents, to create a full picture of your potential investing area.

Oh – and give yourself a deadline :)

Emma

*I can give you the step-by-step action points you need to take, to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

9 things you should NOT miss when choosing an investing area

 In my last post, I talked about the danger of doing TOO MUCH research.

In this post, I want to share what to cover in your area desktop research, to avoid doing too little research.

Here are the 9 things to check when considering an area to invest in, and how to do a quick high level assessment:
 

1. Typical property types

Is the ‘average’ property in this area terraced houses, or flats? How many bedrooms are the most common? Are they Victorian conversions or ex-local properties? Just by browsing through Rightmove, you should get a rough idea.
 

2. Average rents for the above typical property types

For each ‘typical property type’, what is the average rent? Again, you can get a rough idea from Rightmove or Zoopla.
 

3. Sales prices for the above property types

For each ‘typical property type’, what is the last sold price and price moves over the past few years. You can find this on Rightmove.
 

4. Gross yield for each property type

With each of the ‘typical property types’, do a quick calculation of the Gross yield. Gross yield = Annual rent/ Sales price
 

5. Know your area by postcode

You should ideally know your area by postcode – sometimes two postcodes right next to each other could be the best and worst investing areas. I used a tool called PropertyData to get data by postcode. Very useful and worth paying a small price for, especially in the beginning of your property journey. Definitely check it out if you are serious about investing in property.
 

6. Is this area ‘up and coming’ or ‘slowly dying’?

You can pretty much just Google this one. What are the news related to this area (city/borough)? What are people’s first impression of this area when mentioned? I know I have advised against reading too much news on property investing. This one is different. What you want to know is ‘other people’s opinion’ towards this area – because what they think impacts whether they want to rent or buy there.
 

7. How far is it from where you live?

This is a realistic question. In the beginning, you will inevitably be travelling to this area frequently, before you build up a trustable team. This is also true if you use a sourcing company. You still need to know your area to be able to tell a good deal from a bad one. And don’t just check the distance on Google map. Check the actual time required to get there considering your chosen way of transport.
 

8. The nearest major employer hub

A quick Google on this one should do. The purpose is to gauge the whether there will be a stable supply of potential tenants to the area, and the tenant profiles.
 

9. Variety of local demographics

It’s always good to invest in areas with a variety of local demographics who could become your potential tenants. So search for any university, major employer (see point above) in the area. And don’t forget that local families are always a good source of potential tenants (except for central London).


To summarise, the above 9 things should never be missed. At the desktop stage, you can start with doing a high level quick assessment before you decide to focus on a particular area. Google, Rightmove, Zoopla, PropertyData have been my best tools and resources – make use of them!


Happy data crunching :)
Emma

*I can teach you how to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

Are you thinking too much?

 We all know the importance of carrying out thorough research before any major investment.

But do you know that thinking too much is not contributing to your success, but only taking you further away from your goals.

Hard to believe? Read on…


Analysis causes paralysis. This is especially true for people who are analytical, academic, and data driven. People have a natural tendency to fall into attempting to do either too much or too little research. We all know too little research is no good. But today let’s dig a bit deeper in the damage of doing too much research.

I was this type of person from an analytical education and corporate career background. I would enjoy collecting data, more information, news, learning new things on the topic. And this just never ended. I would always discover some more ‘research to do’.

Then I got sucked into this and never moved on from the research stage. And the more data I had, the more I needed to analyse and the less confident I got to actually make a decision or take any action.


Solution:

Over the years, I found an easy way to break this vicious cycle. It seems so simple in hind sight but you really need someone to tell you that this works at the time.

The best thing to do is to set yourself a timeline, by which you HAVE TO make a decision, or take an action.

Surprisingly simple right? But you might worry if you will have done enough research by the deadline. The truth is, given your analytical nature, you will be ‘carrying out research’ all the time anyway. As long as you give yourself a reasonable time frame, you should trust that the amount of research you will have done by then is sufficient.

And it took me a while to get used to this. As I had to resist worrying about making a ‘bad’ decision. What I have realised over the years is, a ‘not so great’ decision is better than ‘no decision’ (as long as you have a firm and safe bottom line that you should never breach).

Now I believe the worst thing in life is stagnation, not making mistakes. If you are the type of person that tend to overthink, try the method above – set yourself a timeline by which you have to do something. Whether it is 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, make sure you stick to that deadline.

Warning: Do make sure that you have a systematic approach to your research though, so that you will have covered the important items before the deadline. You shouldn’t spend too much time researching, but do make sure what needs to be done is done.


Watch out for my next email, where I will share what you should cover in your desktop research for your investing area.


To moving forward,
Emma

*I can teach you how to build an extra £2000/month income through property within 6-12 months – CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me.

Being confused is good for you!

 Have you been confused at some point in your life? Overwhelmed even?

I was very confused and overwhelmed when I first decided that I wanted to invest in property.

Why was I confused? I read everything I could, everywhere; watched every free training available; and bought many courses over time and learned all these different strategies.

I felt like I had all the knowledge that I needed to go out there and start investing. But when I tried to put an actual plan down, I struggled!

The problem was that everything I learned was in THEORY, and I had no idea how to replicate it in my area, by me, and the very first thing I should go out and be doing!

Having learned more than one strategies can be great in that it gives you the knowledge and you feel you have the option to choose between strategies. The downside is that you can be paralysed by the choice and not be able to decide on a particular strategy.

Then you end up not doing anything!


So is confusion all bad?

Not at all!


One mentor of mine has said that confusion is a phase of inner growth, if you handle it correctly. You will come out from the other side of the tunnel stronger, and clearer with your goals. You should welcome confusion.


However the key to overcoming confusion isn’t more thinking, which most of us naturally end up doing. Because we are confused, we want to find answers, we start seeking more information and analyse even more in our heads, which keeps us in a vicious cycle.

The solution to confusion is THINK LESS, DO MORE. This is counter intuitive for many of us. By decluttering your mind, you will feel less overwhelmed. By doing more, you will gain valuable practical feedback which you can never get from thinking alone.

As soon as I started testing the knowledge I learned through classroom training, and as soon as I started trying EVERY strategy I learned, I quickly gained more clarity on what strategy could suit me better, how easy a strategy could work in my area, and what adjustment I would need to make it work.


Property investing is a long journey. Those seemingly useless actions I took has taught me things that I find useful years later. And most importantly, you will move on from the confusion phase. That’s how the ‘dots get connected’.


To making it happen,
Emma

P.S. Are you confused about how to get started in property investing and what strategy could work for you?
Book a free strategy session with me CLICKING HERE, and we can come up with an action plan specifically for you, so you start taking that first step!

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5 ways to combat the issue with lack of funding in property investing

 

Per request of many clients, I will discuss some of the ways that can be used to get around the issue of lack of funds in property investing, and their pros and cons.

 

1.       Private Finance

Private finance is a mortgage not issued by a bank or mortgage lender. It’s money lent to you by private sources, such as crowd, friends, businesses, even pensions. It can be a great source of funding when you have a deal that can’t get the traditional mortgage. However, private finance is typically more expensive than a traditional mortgage. And depending on what type if finance it is, can have extra costs such as entry and exit costs. So you need to find a deal that gives you enough margin to use private finance and still make a profit.

2.       Joint Venture

You can joint venture with cash investors to carry on investing when you don’t have any of your own funds. It is important to structure the JV correctly so that both parties would benefit from the deal. Other than the financial side, you also need to make sure you discuss your end goal and exit strategy early on. It is no good if one of you want to sell it in 5 years and the other wants to keep it for life.

3.       Vendor Finance

You can tell by the name what this is about. So the seller will finance your deal! Yes this can happen. But you need to find a vendor that doesn’t need the lump sum money straight away, but you buying the property is solving a problem they have (could be cash flow, could be stress.) This can sound too good to be true. Depending where you are based and what type of property you are buying, this can be hard to come by.

4.       Strategies that doesn’t involve huge capital investments

Sometimes, being active in property investing doesn’t have to start with you owning a property. There are strategies such as Rent to Rent (which I explained yesterday), and Lease Options etc. that doesn’t require a big upfront investment. Lease Options is however hard to find in expensive regions such as London. Rent to rent, however, you can do in most places but you would have to adapt quite a lot to the area.

5.       Equity in existing property

And some people already have equity in their own home, which strictly speaking is your own funds, just not readily available. That equity is sitting there, giving in no return. If the cost of releasing that is much less than the return of your investment, why not!

If you missed my explanation on a creative finance strategy Rent to Rent, which I used to build up a portfolio of 60 properties in 5 years, each bringing in £700-1000/month cashflow, check out my post this Monday. Or CLICK HERE to book a free strategy session with me, and I will share with you the exact type of properties that will give you £700-1000/month compliantly.

Let me help you achieve financial freedom through investing in property!

Emma