The tale of a landlord's woe I was having dinner out with the family whilst away on holiday the other night when the phone rang...four times from the same number. I had ignored the calls as a) I did not recognise the number and b) I was out having dinner in the evening, whilst on holiday with my … [Read more...]
Property Education: Wisdom and Experience are the Yin & Yang
I have a saying: 'experience is learning from our own mistakes, whereas wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes'. In our property education we need both experience & wisdom. Experience as a part of our Property Education Experience is actually pretty straightforward - it is the … [Read more...]
Property Investor Podcast – A New Property Investing Education Resource
Damien Fogg & Anna Harper have teamed up to bring a new weekly podcast to the property community to aid our property investing education. It is called The Property Investor podcast and is available from either iTunes or the podcast's own website. Damien is an experienced property investor and … [Read more...]
Top 15 rental property maintenance tips…plus more bonus tips & insights!
Top 15 rental property maintenance tips to save money on your rental property Guest post by Chris Fitzakerley, managing director from an award-winning letting agency NGU Home Lettings Wear and tear on a rental property is inevitable unfortunately. Sometimes, we find ourselves having to undertake … [Read more...]
Property news overwhelm? Don’t worry: we’ve got you covered
Want to make sense of all the property news chatter? You do, then I have some great news - as I have done the heavy lifting for you! I personally review between 300-400 daily news stories, blog feeds, social media and other online content in the world of residential property investment. I now … [Read more...]
“The Terrorist Weed” – Japanese Knotweed Eats Houses!
Guest post by Rob McColl, a property investor and fellow blogger from RentalRefurb Rob's story: I was recently refused a remortgage on a rental property of mine due to the presence of Japanese Knotweed in the garden, spreading onto my land from railway lines at the rear. This is what I … [Read more...]
Letting Agent Agreement Terms…Small Print – Big Bite!
Ah yes the small print trap...it can give us quite a nasty shock when suddenly the print in the letting agent agreement terms is not-so-small, as I and plenty of other investors can no doubt testify. In a parallel story, I have heard of several software license providers to slip in the odd … [Read more...]
Property Research and Due Diligence is a Whizz with Property Wizza
I was updating the Research Section Section 3 of The Property Voice - Investor Toolkit the other day. I counted something like 33 web links in the section and of course I wanted to a) check the links were still working and b) take a quick look at them to see if anything had changed. I found that one … [Read more...]
Buy-to-let slush fund – what’s the right level?
Why do we need to have a buy-to-let slush fund? There are a number of costs and expenses we know in advance, or at least are fairly predictable with buy-to-let investments. For example the interest on a mortgage is quite easy to calculate, as too are letting fees, insurance, regular checks like … [Read more...]
Buy-to-let is for mugs! Or is it?
I was recently asked for my views on this YouTube video on Buy-to-Let posted by Graham Rowan, The Renegade Investor (note there's more than one out there). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_--oB3Hfic So, when asked what I thought when Graham suggested Buy-to-Let investors are mugs, here is my … [Read more...]