Your HMO Expert – HMO Property Investing
Can I do Property Investment with LITTLE Money?
In this article, Matthew Moody from League of Extraordinary Investors shares how much money you typically need to get started in property investment - and its not as much as you think! Can I do property investment with little money - yes you can. Find out more in the Professonal Investor Series.
Hello, and a warm welcome back to our Professional Investor series, where today we're going to be looking at, can I do property investment with little money? Photographer: Micheile Henderson | Source: Unsplash Now, the short answer is yes, but the longer answer is, keep reading as I explain exactly why and how you can do this. So my name is Matthew Moody, from The League of Extraordinary Investors, and it's my task to really pull out some of the intricacies of investing in property and make sure you understand exactly how to do them in a safe, ethical manner. So without further ado, if you've not subscribed or liked the channel yet, please do, because it just helps us to, A, make sure that we get this out to more people, and, B, it also just helps us to understand are people watching this and is this information of use. So give me a like, and subscribe to the channel, that would be great. So, can I do property investing with little money? Well, you can, if you do it in the right way, so I'm going to teach you four things today to think of in terms of investing in property, and considering how to do this in the right manner so that you can actually start investing, because you don't necessarily need as much as you think. But, let me make this very clear, you do need some money. So, you might have seen some of these adverts out there where they said, "Oh, we can buy property with no money", or, "You can get into property from as little as 1,000 pound", or whatever it may be, utter bunkum and nonsense. It's just not true, it's just not true. But I'm going to show you exactly how you could do that with some money, but you'll need a little bit more than that I'm afraid. So let's kick off with the first of our four items I'm going to be covering today, and this one is about hidden cash. Photographer: Christian Wiediger | Source: Unsplash Now, the first thing I always ask people, when I start working with them from a client perspective is, go away and complete, what I call, a hidden cash tracker to understand exactly what you already have access to that you've maybe forgotten about. And these are things such as pensions, savings, stocks and shares, even premium bonds, assets that you actually own, so this could be say, a really great car, or maybe you live in a house that's got a lot of equity, you might even have access to things such as paintings, really expensive animals, collectibles, precious metals, all those types of things. Because then you're able to then put together exactly what you have access to at this moment in time, and also, don't forget this, what's in your attic? Because a lot of people have a lot of stuff stored up there they never use, or the garage, and you could easily get access to maybe 500, 1,000 pounds. And I would say every little £1,000 pounds helps, it really, really does. So, hidden cash, the first place to start, what have you already got access to that perhaps you could use in a better way to start investing in property? So that's the first place to start. And normally this works out pretty well for people because they found that they've got a lot more than they thought they had. And for those people that haven't got a lot, they can then start thinking about what the next steps in terms of how do I start investing? Because the second piece then is, the location, because let's face it, if you're living in say London, in the Southeast, it's difficult to invest because house prices are astronomical, I'm sure you'll agree. Photographer: Bruno Martins | Source: Unsplash So you have to start thinking about investing in other areas. And there are plenty of areas in the UK, where for less than £80,000 pounds, you can pick up property. And I'm talking about lots of property, lots of different areas. So I'm going to give you a quick list right now, just to think about places such as Derby, Bradford, Blackpool, Stoke, Newcastle, all these kinds of areas. You can pick up property for, £60, £70, £80,000 pounds! Now, if you're going to buy those types of properties and we're talking about a standard one bed flat here, nothing interesting, nothing really sexy, but it will start to make some money from you. You will need anywhere from probably £14 to £18,000 pounds, give or take; £14 to £18,000 pounds, to purchase one property. That's going to start and then bringing in cash to you and crank up cashflow and yield, and then looking at what you can then do there to purchase other properties. So this is a slow burn strategy I'm talking about right now, this is not a quick strategy. I'm going to be talking about strategies on another article because this is the next piece as well is, you also have to determine your strategy. And as I said, I'm going to go through this in another session, so I'm going to go through it right now, but depending on what strategy you decided to do in property will also depend on how much money you need. Let's say, for instance, your strategy is very simple, buy one bed flats, do them up, extract a little bit of cash by refinancing them. That's it, very, very simple. Then you're going to need a lot less money than say, for instance, buying a plot of land, getting planning permission on it, building a house and then selling it on, you'll need far less money, versus let's say buying a HMO, whether it's a ready-made HMO, or one you're going to convert yourself, make it into a HMO, refinancing it, and then pulling some money out. You know, the difference in intensive amounts of money needed are significant. We're talking at the very low end, maybe £12 to £18,000 pounds, very high end, maybe talking £100,000, £200,000, in terms of actual money to put into the deal. So, these things obviously add up and it's important for you as an investor to be aware of the different strategies and how much money you'll need for each one. Now, the good thing is I wrote a book about this called, "Cracking the Property Code", and in this I detail 45 strategies, that's 45 strategies, that you can do in property investment. Cracking The Property Code And I also detail in each one of those, how much money you'll need, what your return investment will be, how much support you might need to do this, and it really breaks it down. So you can look at, well, how much money do I have right now? And which of these 45 strategies could I get going and doing with? And some of the strategies you need millions to do, but some of them, you need very, very little money at all. So the strategy's also highly important. Now the fourth one, and this, again, it's important, is what is your end goal? Because obviously if you are investing into property and you're starting to get going, you have to have an end goal in place. And it is important that you do that, why, why is it important? Because property investment is always a mid to long-term strategy. It's never really a quick strategy and it is also risky as well. You know, it is risky. So you have to be thinking about, well, do I want to, say, replace an income? Do want to build a pension pot? Do want to, say, leave a legacy to my kids? What is it that I want out of property investment? Why am I doing this? But hopefully what I've shown you through this short session is you can actually get started in property for very little money, £12 to £18,000 pounds to get a bargain basement, little one bed flat, which you can then start renting out and making a couple hundred pounds per month, or whatever it may be. So if you've had some value today, you've enjoyed what I've said, please do subscribe and like the channel, I really, really appreciate this. This is Matthew Moody, from The League of Extraordinary Investors, and I'll see you again very soon on another Professional Investor series session. Matthew Moody
If you have ever wondered if you should invest in property, then this is the article for you. Join veteran commentator and practitioner Matthew Moody as he illustrate four reasons why you should consider investing in property right now.
It’s a curious question isn’t it. I mean, have you ever read or seen the “Sunday Times Rich List”? The Sunday Times Rich List Its awash with people who are so rich they can’t even count their money. And whilst I’m guessing you may not have any aspirations to be on this list, I’m also going to assume that you’re reading this because you’re not quite sure. In this article I’m going to share four reasons why you should invest in property and what to consider next. If you like what you hear, remember please hit subscribe and like this article. So property. Is it for me. Isn’t it for me? Well, here is one thing a lot of the entries on the Sunday Times Rich List have in common. You guessed it. Property. So while the simple answer may be yes, it’s a little more complicated than that and I want to break it down for you into a few simple ideas based on over 25 years in business and property investment. Let’s kick off with The Doctrine of Self Now when I say self, I mean this in the sense of the understanding that you have, of you the person, the mind, the connection, with everybody and everything on our planet. Photographer: Jr Korpa | Source: Unsplash Now this is not about some hokey pokey religion or trying to convert you to new age thinking . No, this is much more important than this; this is about you truly understanding yourself, what it is you want, what it is you’re prepared to do for it, how you are prepared to live your life and finally how are you going to execute on this; your life, your one shot, your chance. So the doctrine of self is very much about the starting point of your understanding. Because I can tell you property strategies, I can share tactics, I can give you tools, I can show you codes, I can break this all down for you and show you how easy investing in property can be. But if you do not embrace this, does not understand it, is not willing to be open to new ways of thinking, new ways of doing then my work here is in vain. And your time spent taking this information in is wasted. Perhaps it is enough for now to believe in and trust in me when I say yes you should invest in property and I'm gonna show you why right now But please be aware when I'm sharing this information, you will find what some call the monkey or the ego will be in the back of your head saying ‘well this isn't right’ or ‘you can't do this’ or ‘that doesn't make sense’ or ‘some people can do it but not you’. Ignore this put it to one side and be focused on the message try and understand the words at the same time . Our next idea for you to contemplate is what I call The Planning Code Now you may have heard the term planning in many different guises, from preparing a project plan to planning what you will be doing this weekend, to applying for planning permission to build something. Photographer: Curtis MacNewton | Source: Unsplash The planning code is all around your ability and your understanding to take control and the plan because if you don't, let me tell you this is what will happen . Regret Unhappiness Wasted opportunities Melancholy Sadness and a 100 what ifs . It is imperative that you plan But most humans try to avoid this . You've probably got that friend that says to you ‘I don't like to plan anything I just like to go with the flow’. Now that can work in certain circumstances and if you are leaving this aspect of your life down to luck, then Good Luck (no pun intended) but is that really what you want to chose for yourself when you get to the end of your life, you're looking back and reminiscing what you have and haven't done Maybe or maybe not? I'll put it to you that the greatest thing you can do for yourself, for your family, for your future legacy is to plan the **** out of your life . Now if you don't want to do that, that's fine and probably property investment is not for you because if you want to invest in property, you have to plan at some level because it's not just going to happen But if you don't want to, that's fine, I don't judge you, I don't blame you, I just accept that that's what it is . This is where planning gets exciting though, if you can imagine that you can dream what it is you would like and once you've dreamt what it is that you would like; you can then create a plan around how you'd like to get it. Photographer: Masaaki Komori | Source: Unsplash How exciting is that I mean seriously everything you see around you has been planned. And whether you believe in God or universal being or anything of that nature all you need to do is look up and take in everything that you can see that was planned that came from someone dreaming and then created it. the cup the pen the pad of paper the tablet the laptop the phone the radiator the window the tray the bench the bird the house Everything you see someone dreamed and planned and then it was created Now some people say ‘I don't believe that I can't do this’ or ‘it never happens to me’ but the thing is these things do take time, and you can plan something and it may not happen for 10, 15 or 25 years! In fact sometimes it may never happen, but if you've got a firm plan in place then surely just the joy of the journey along that path to try to get to that goal, is going to be a heck of a lot more interesting than wandering around aimlessly from day to day, week to week, with no real intention or direction on where your life is going. So the fundamental core behind having a plan is this it gives you clarity it gives you direction I always liken it to if I'm going to go right now leave my house and go to Frankfurt how would I get there? Would I just get my car and start driving? Of course not, I'd want to plan out how exactly I'm going to get there Am I going to take a train, am I going to take an aeroplane, how am I going to get to the airport? From going to the airport; am I getting a taxi or a train to the airport or drive myself? Then parking up, what do I want to do when I get there, where am I going to stay and how long for? This is a plan. Now this is a mini-plan for sure but in your life you need a plan too and this doesn't necessarily need to be pages upon pages but it does need to be a plan. And if anything you take away from this, it's if you're going to be successful, you want to take control of your life you need a plan. You need a plan. Now we're going to look at another idea and whilst planning is fundamentally important and there are dozens of tools and strategies and techniques and tips that I can give you on this topic, now I want to cover another one which is equally important. But before we do this, if you’ve liked this episode so far, remember please hit subscribe and also like my channel. It really helps more people benefit from hearing this highly valuable information. So here we go the next one is this: The Survival Code Why is this important? Because humans have a set of needs and these were described in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and one of them is our ability to want to and have to survive; so if we are approaching this from the perspective of building this up, creating this, then it's important for us to push this through in a way that allows us to create a plan. The first thing we need to do is to survive, and this is the first step along the way so to speak of the grand idea; should you invest in property, why yes you should but be aware that to begin with you will be investing to survive. Let's put it this way if you're in a job right now and you’re earning £40,000 pounds per year, most investors will start off with the idea of replacing the income with income from property, and the ultimate aim to as we say in the UK ‘jacking the job in’ and live off the proceeds of your rental income. To invest in property is not just about putting money into property, it is also about providing lifestyle and choice and freedom. But for now the best thing is understand what your plan needs to be. Write down on the back of an envelope or a post it note or whatever the answers to these questions. What are your monthly expenses right now? How much is your rent or mortgage? What are you paying for utilities? How much you spending on entertainment, car or commuting? How much do you put into insurance and savings accounts? What do you spend on going out, hobbies, clothes? So pretty much everything you spend in a month but you need to know how much it is right now because that is the survival code. Let’s say your take home after tax is £1800 pounds a month, and you've worked out that your current bills or expenses amount to £1200 pounds per month. This is the survival code or what I call your survival financial freedom; that's the number to which you have to get to in order to not have to work if that's what you wish to do. Photographer: MChe Lee | Source: Unsplash It's also the number you need to get to if you wish to have alternates and choice. Let's say that you actually pretty much like your job but you do want to create an additional income stream because this is about creating constructs for the next idea. Now if you've managed to create income so that you don’t need to pay your expenses anymore from your salary, this means you can utilise the salary to do other things which could be stuff that maybe you've always wanted to do but have been pulling off. Things such as that grand holiday or an amazing bit of kit that you've wanted such as a car, home hifi or gym equipment. With the extra income coming in you can afford to do that, but you can also move forward to consider the next idea which is this : The Wealthy Construct This idea is all around the creation of legacy and the creation of building up assets for future generations. This is not something you should enter into lightly, it's not something you should just choose one day to do and the next day decide not to, because this will take planning, it will take living frugally for a period of time, it will take discipline, dedication, certainty, tenacity but the end result will be a wealth beyond your imagination and by that I mean this. We talk about millionaires and billionaires all the time but have you ever truly really sat down and considered what does that actually look like, what does it actually mean, how does it impact me and how do I make this a reality for myself? There's a reason why most lottery winners who win millions of pounds very rapidly go broke and end up being exactly where they were and sometimes in a worse case scenario 2, 3, 4 five years later. A lot of this comes down to the first idea I showed which is this whole concept of the doctrine of self. In order to embrace and take up on new ideas, we need to embrace and take upon our own self We need to be open to those new ideas and new ways of learning and changing in order to develop ourselves better. Now not everyone is able to do this quickly, it does require work and effort, it does require sacrifice but if you're able to do it, if you're able to set out this plan, if you’re prepared to live in a very frugal manner; you can build enormous wealth. This may not happen overnight and could take 10-20 years but you can still live a very nice life along the way and enjoy all of the creature comforts that come with this. But it is about creating that plan, focusing on the survival element of replacing the tyranny of paying bills every month and then building up your wealth on a consistent basis. What are the options if you're not going to invest in property; what else are you going to do? The typical person will do this. They'll join a company, join the pension scheme (but they may not do this straight away, it might take a little while to get up and running, there may even be barriers to entry) and then you start paying some money into the pension and the company matches with their own contributions and you think it's going to be hunky-dory! Then you look at your pension pot few years later and think ‘well that doesn't look very good’ and ‘it's not really making very much every year’ and ‘what's this large management charge for’ and before you know it, you are considering ‘how do I take control of this pot of money and do something better with it?’ It's one of the main reasons why people invest in property because the control is down to you; the upside or the downside is down to you. Too many people are very keen to mitigate responsibility, abdicate responsibility and pass on responsibility to other people and then blame them when it all goes wrong. But you're not one of those kind of people are you? No no no, you are someone that's going to take control and make this happen for yourself so why should you invest in property? Three reasons Firstly, property is the only asset that you can leverage against and borrow money against sometimes depending on how it's done up to 100% of the value of the property. Secondly, property gives you cashflow from day one if you set it up property Thirdly, property gives you something that stocks and shares can never give you which is capital appreciation. So it's commonly agreed that property generally doubles in value every decade or so; so if you bought a property for £100,000, in 10 years time it should be worth £200,000. I hope you enjoyed this article and that you took some learning points away from it and remember; when you're considering the question, should I invest in property, I would leave you with this question back to you. Why shouldn't you invest in property? If you can come up with a list of 10+ reasons why you shouldn't do this then send it to me because I feel confident that I can batter down those obstacles and show exactly why that thinking is potentially wrong and potentially going to impact your wealth significantly. Most importantly; the real reason to invest in property is to take control back and to allow yourself to build up your wealth not hand it to governments or tax officials wherever you may be in the world. If you enjoyed this session please do subscribe, show some love maybe even like this episode. If you have comment or a question, I would love to hear it drop it below or wherever you are able to put comments or questions and I’ll happily answer them until next time. divitiae in conspectu bonis, legatum cum viventem. Matthew Moody Grand Master League of Extraordinary Investors.
Not Every Deal is a Property Worth Having
Every property investor loves a great property but what about the deals you should never have bought.. In this article, Matthew Moody explains why not every deal is a property worth having.
Photographer: Gilles Desjardins | Source: Unsplash Over the last 18 years of analysing hundreds and hundreds of properties, I’ve worked out what works and what doesn’t. From that, when I founded my League of Extraordinary Investors, I created the Tenets. The Tenets (or Principles or Beliefs) are based on the way in which an Extraordinary Investor approaches the property market. Each tenet is equally important but this one is a particularly thorny one to get right, especially for new investors. I’ve lost count of the number of deals I’ve turned down because of this tenet but it dwarves the deals I ended up going ahead with. The tenet is dictated to as thus… Not Every Deal is a Property Worth Having What does this mean? Often when a new investor is in the first flushes of learning about property investment, analysis, due diligence and the prospects of retiring early through property investment, they will be pretty keen to find a deal. They will jump onto property portals daily, network with possible sourcing agents, walk the streets (if local), scour the emails and forums and be addicted to waiting for the phone to beep or ring for any hint of a deal that they think would be a good deal. But often deals do not turn up straight away. It takes dedication, commitment and a willingness to forego the attachment to a deal and instead turn it into a purely business decision. And the days turns into weeks and the weeks into months and the new investor is no further along than they thought they would be. Now there are often several reasons why this happens but we’ll discuss that another time in another article relating to the Immutable Laws of Investing. For now though the critical thing to remember is this: Photographer: Jose Aragones | Source: Unsplash STOP! Desperation breeds a certain kind of reckless abandonment and folly which then leads to making rash decisions which then come to bite you in the derriere later on. I speak from experience, so to make the point here’s a wee story that will turn the hairs on your chest white… 15 years ago in a darkened room somewhere in the shires… You’re frustrated as hell. You need a new deal. The itch needs to be satisfied. It’s been too long since you last experienced that exultation of a cracking deal completed and a bottle of champers uncorked. You’re looking and looking but you can’t quite find what you are looking for. There are deals popping up here and there but they are not quite right or with enough discount or enough potential value-add. Is your area dry? Have all the deals gone? Are you pushing too hard? Whatever it may be, you are stuck. Then a nice young smiley man appears and tells you about an amazing deal on 2-bed duplex apartments in an up-and-coming area of Yorkshire. This deal is stupendous, there’s no money down, there’s a massive humungous discount, a large cash-back and the rental demand is rather fabulous. Oh and you’ll make a tidy packet every month on the rental cashflow. What’s not to like! Fast forward 12 months later and you’re in bed with not one but two of these deals and you rapidly find out the bitter twisted truth. the developer could not sell the units to normal folk because normal folk don’t buy what they built the finders fees was 3% (a vast fortune in those days) which meant your actual discount trickled away another 300-400 units went on the rental market at the same time as your unit people really don’t like rooms with a light vent in them a duplex can be called a duplex but can also be referred to as a 1 bed 1 bath flat with a dodgy small second room with no window (but it does have a light vent) just because the area has demand does not mean to say that this particular development on the edge of the town has demand when you finally rent your crappy flat, the cashback has gone, the rent is so low its rather laughable and you’re in a negative cashflow every month the service fees and ground rents are so much higher than you thought they would be the agent you were recommended by the ‘developer’ turned out to be inundated with so many units they stopped accepted new landlords … and the new agent you found via another recommendation turns out to be worse than useless, they are actually woefully incompetent cash-back disappears very quickly when you aren’t receiving rental income every month So why share this rather sad little story. Because it illustrates the point perfectly. On the face of it, getting hold of a 25% discount on a property sounds like a steal. But sometimes, things are too good to be true and sometimes you want to walk away. Not every deal is a property you want to add into your portfolio. So don’t rush into a deal. A deal will come up every day or every week or every month depending on your area. But you have to buy your deals in line with the other tenets which I will cover in a future article (some of which I did not follow either). And this is the reason for my sharing my stories for you to consider, reflect and maybe avoid the same mistakes I made. So the next time you are wanting to satisfy your itch for a deal; remember to ask yourself the question. Does this deal take me nearer or farther away from the goals I set myself when I started my investment portfolio? nice building cruddy deal As for me, the swish new apartments I bought proved to be my first and only foray into apartments and within a matter of years, I sold both of them at a huge loss and vowed never to buy like this again. In fact, I’m probably still paying for them in terms of lost time, income, energy and focus… Be warned: Not every deal is a property worth buying…
A Letter To Any Human With An Open Mind Who Values Rational Logical Thought And Seeks Change
If we consider that we are living in times which few if any of us have ever experienced, then it would be fair to accept that we are uncertain about what the future holds. However in order for us to feel certain again, we must ask ourselves a series of questions in order to move forward and accept the answers. This is THAT letter and these are THE questions.
Houses of Parliament (Picture Credit Pixabay) If we consider that we are living in times which few if any of us have ever experienced, then it would be fair to accept that we are uncertain about what the future holds. However in order for us to feel certain again, we must ask ourselves a series of questions in order to move forward and accept the answers. This can be done in the Rational Thinking Test[i]which takes you through a series of questions designed to have you answer them logically. I would encourage you to go through these as they bring up interesting unbiased opinions once having answered the questions. There is a psychological line, and we don’t want to cross it, so we have to deploy critical rational thinking to allow us to pass safely over that line. You need to have an open mind to answer these questions. You need to be able to handle the truth that answering these questions will give you. You need to be comfortable that you may feel uncomfortable with the answers. For each question, you can answer No idea – No – Highly unlikely – Unlikely – Unknown – Maybe – Likely – Probably – Highly likely – Yes Here are the questions: Is this being used to move along a new world order? Is there a virus of some sort? Is the virus killing as many people as they say it is killing? Is it killing some people? Did the virus come from the wet markets? Did the virus come from the lab in Wuhan? Who owns the lab in Wuhan? Was the virus natural? Does the virus have a patent? Is there a vaccine? Is the virus a bio-weapon? Is there a financial motive? Is vaccination profitable? Are there ulterior motives? Are masks necessary at all? Are masks necessary most of the time? Are masks safe? Does Anthony Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Dieases have ulterior motives? Is there suppression of one side of the discussion? Did Bill Gates say he wanted to reduce the population? Is there currently any vaccines for this type of virus? Does the test work accurately? Can we trust the intention behind the tests? Is the tracking app necessary? Is the tracking app likely a covert control measure? Do you trust the information coming out from the governments? Do you trust Boris Johnson, Prime Minster (UK) intentions? Do you trust Donald Trump, President (USA) intentions? Have the WHO been accurate and trustworthy? Do you trust the intentions of the WHO? Are the tests for coronavirus accurate? Does the test pick up other things like stress, flu jabs, the common cold? Does the argument that this is a natural outbreak hold up? Are the scientists who are leading the action neutral and not financially motivated? Are the governments pushing obvious preventative measures on health? Could it be that the government do not understand true health? Did Sweden make the right choice against the world popular thinking? Is the response rational based on immunity (ie, will lock down hurt immune levels)? Will there be a second wave after lockdown? Are the actions with lockdown going to cause larger problems elsewhere? Do you think they are going to use this to force mandatory vaccinations? Has the question of lack of trust in Google, Facebook and Youtube been answered? Are the death numbers worthy of trashing the countries economy? Where the governments fed bad data which led them to bad choices? Where the people who gave the governments the data financially motivated in any way? Are the media making things better or worse? Are the media working with the governments to suppress alternative narratives? Could this be caused purely by the scientist's poor maths based on the truth that scientists are only wrong if they underestimate the death rate? Depending on the answers you gave will illustrate where your thinking lies. All thoughts are your thoughts and no thoughts are bad thoughts, they are only that; your thoughts. If you feel that some of your answers surprised you, that means you are rapidly becoming conscious to what is going on around you. If you feel that some of your answers did not surprise you but you feel powerless to act, then again you are becoming conscious to what is going on around you. Whether you choose to act or not is up to you. If you do choose to act, here follows a statistical analysis and some forthright questions that a person with nothing to hide would easily answer… The questions I’d like the UK Government to answer in full and with rational thought. Photographer: Nick Kane | Source: Unsplash I’d like to preface this section by stating that this article is taken from a 16 page letter I sent to Peter Bone, my local Member of Parliament for Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, UK. I had to illustrate my points using both data for Northamptonshire and the UK. As such, some points are local in nature but still relevant in the wider context of the questions I am asking. All data used is up to 26th May 2020. All source data is listed at the end of the article. My remit in the analysis I present is to understand the following 4 questions: Why are we not applying rational logical thought to decisions that are being made rather than causing mass panic, reactive stop-gaps and an illogical plan full of holes? Why have we ‘purposely’ driven the UK into bankruptcy and caused fear and panic to the extent where society has been forever fragmented and may never recover? When will the Prime Minister, senior Ministers and Members of Parliament whom voted for the Corovirus Bill admit that they were wrong to instigate a police state and NOW cast aside the Corovirus Bill so human rights and freedoms can be protected? Why are no directions being given from Government, NHS nor Media on the benefits of a healthy immune system and how you overcome the disease? 1.1 Why is there such a large disparity between alleged COVID-19 deaths vs deaths in cancer and cardiovascular cases? Northamptonshire ‘reported’ cases of COVID-19 were 1,435 cases out of a total population of 747,622 which is less than 0.19% of total population and has been since I started recording the cases myself before lock-down.[ii] Total recorded deaths is 487 which could be seen as a 34% case fatality rate or in other terms a crude mortality rate of 0.06%. As we are unclear of the total number of infections due to inadequate testing the overall infection fatality rate is unknown (but could be around 0.8% (see later statement). Given the heavy media and government bias in reporting these cases, it is worthwhile to compare the other causes of death. Cancer Cases per year[iii] There are typically 3,500 cancer cases in NHS Nene CCG with 1,500 deaths per year. This would indicate a 42.8% case fatality rate or crude mortality rate of 0.002%. Cardiovascular Cases[iv] These statistics are hard to acquire but indicate total deaths of 1,365 which based on total population is 0.001% mortality rate. Total identified cases are 70,700 indicating that case fatality rate is 0.019%. I highlight this to show the vast discrepancy in deaths normally accounted for in cancer and cardiovascular cases (the two highest forms of death in our county and nationally) to compare these verses COVID19 Put it this way; if we extrapolated deaths so far on the same bearing and pattern for COVI19, this would indicate at a reasonable level that we’d expect around 1,144 deaths in Northamptonshire vs 1,365 cardiovascular deaths and nearly 50% more deaths from cancer at 1,500… (but we don’t have a cure for either of these) Deaths so far (if accurately recorded see point 2) would indicate that May 25 being 39.7% into 2020 or 145 days, we could say we’ve averaged 3 deaths per day meaning we could potentially face up to another 657 deaths this year. 1.1.1 Does locking down an entire county of 747,622 people for 1,144 deaths or a 99.4% chance of surviving seem a rational or logical thing to do? 1.1.2 Given that NHS have been told to only prioritise urgent cases, how many more cancer and cardiovascular cases do you think may have gone untreated and how many more deaths will be caused by this policy? 1.2. The Use of Inaccurate Data to make decisions affecting 66 million people. From Tuesday 28 April, NHS England and NHS Improvement started to report the number of patient deaths where there has been no COVID-19 positive test result, but where COVID-19 is documented as a direct or underlying cause of death on part 1 or part 2 of the death certification process. This change has been introduced for deaths that occurred on 24th April and subsequently and is shown separately in the region data table only. When making comparisons over time these figures should not be included.[v] 1.2.1 Why is the NHS inaccurately reporting deaths as COVID19 when they are perhaps unrelated, the person had underlying symptoms and would have died anyway of cancer, cardiovascular or respiratory conditions? 1.2.2. Why has the NHS on its website indicated that despite NOT TESTING for Covid19, they are categorising people as having died from this virus on the death certificate? 1.2.3. Do they get more money from Government or Corporations if they record the death inaccurately? 1.2.4. Who decided to issue this directive to start reporting in this way? 1.2.5. Which Minister was responsible and why did they take this decision when it is clearly misrepresentative of the truth. 1.2.6. Furthermore, given the many reports of tests being inaccurate and indeed having heard of both goat and pawpaw samples being tested positively overseas, how can we be sure that these records are in fact accurate?[vi] 2. The Folly of using flawed Lockdown Models & Impartial Experts Photographer: Markus Winkler | Source: Unsplash 2.1 Why are we basing a lockdown directive based on inaccurate and misleading information including highly questionable models from the Imperial College team headed by Professor Neil Ferguson suggesting 250,000 would die from this virus? Background to this case:[vii] In 2002, Ferguson predicted up to 50,000 people would die from mad cow disease. So far there has been 177 deaths. Ferguson managed to persuade government to cull £10 billion worth of livestock in the foot and mouth outbreak even killing animals with no evidence of infection in neighbouring fields. Ferguson predicted up to 150 million people could die from bird flu. The real number was 282. In 2009, he suggested that 65,000 citizens (and furthermore one-third of the world’s population) would die from swine flu. The number ended up being 457 in the UK. I could go on… but this chart may illustrate how far off his predictions have been so far. 2.1.2 Would you agree that basing decisions from data provided by this fruitcake and providing him with a public platform and funding could prove somewhat problematic and difficult for the general public to accept once they learn more of this…? 2.1.3 Given the above directive by NHS England (1.2 Section) to misleadingly label deaths as coronovirus, could it be construed that there is something else afoot here and was it worth locking down our county, sending our economy into recession and causing immense hardship and further deaths in the future from poverty, isolation and mental health? Monthly tables are produced by UK Statistics Authority yet since March 2020 they have stopped reporting on any cause of death outside of COVID19. Interestingly, if you look at the statistics for March 2020, when most experts would agree that we were already in the midst of COVID19 and the virus was rife within the population, some interesting statistics come to bear. Cause of Death Cancer 20.06% Heart Disease 19.48% Dementia and Alzheimer 15.24% Respiratory Disease 13.34% Coronavirus 8.15% (NOTE point 1.2 above) Influenza & pneumonia 5.76% This would indicate that the COVID19 virus has been over-hyped given that people are still dying of other illnesses in far greater numbers and if reports are to believed according to point 1.2 the COVID19 numbers are in fact over-stated. 2.1.4 Why have we stopped reporting on the Cause of Death from March 2020? Has nobody died from cancer, heart disease, dementia, respiratory disease and more? 2.2 How can we truly be sure that the advisors on SAGE are in fact impartial? The Government website clearly indicates one worrying fact. Permission to publish names was requested from all participants. Those who did not give permission have not been named.[viii] 2.2.1 Why is the Government allowing people to be on extremely important advisory groups but unwilling or unable to publish their names? 2.2.2 Have all of the advisors been checked to understand where their funding or predilection comes from? I personally have not had the time to dig deep into the funding nor bias that the advisors come from but having read various reports about the group, it appears reasonably certain to me that a large percentage of the ‘un-biased’ advisors have in fact received funding from pharmaceutical companies or companies invested into vaccines. 2.2.3 Will an independent committee investigate who is on the advisory panels, what their background is, what funding they have received to date and are they truly independent? 3. Why have we willingly given away our basic rights, freedoms, financial stability and mental health and embraced the implementation of a Police State governed by an erratic PM and dubious advisors and in 2 short months crashed our economy, way of life and put baseless unwarranted fear of other human beings into normally sane people? Photographer: Annie Spratt | Source: Unsplash Mental Health… enable existing mental health legislation powers to detain and treat patients who need urgent treatment for a mental health disorder and are a risk to themselves or others, to be implemented using just one doctor’s opinion (rather than the current 2). This will ensure that those who were a risk to themselves or others would still get the treatment they need, when fewer doctors are available to undertake this function 3.1 In Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Bill; why have you agreed that only one doctor’s signature is needed to ‘detain and treat patients who are a risk to themselves or others’; does this mean if I refuse to have a vaccine will I be deemed a risk to others and thus categorised as mentally unstable? How can this be a legal use of power? Where are the safeguards? Education… provide powers to require educational institutions or childcare providers to stay open or relax some requirements around education legislation in order to help these institutions run effectively during the event of an emergency. This could include reducing teacher ratios, adapting school meal standards and relaxing provisions for those with special educational needs. This will ensure that children, young people and those who work with them remain safe, while minimising disruption to everyday life and progression to further and higher education or employment by ensuring schools have the flexibility and support they need to respond pragmatically to the changing situation 3.2 Why have you shut schools with no oversight or governance as to what they are doing? There are no general followed guidelines, no consistent education being given yet I believe all teachers are being paid full salary? 3.2.1 What are teachers doing on a day-to-day basis on full pay given that they are not conducting lessons, they are not marking homework, they are not holding parents evenings and they are not progressing children along their education path? Police State… 3.3 Can you advise why you voted to allow public health officers or constables the power to detain based on assumptions that I ‘may be’ infected with coronavirus and likewise to allow said officers to take from me a biological sample? How would they know? Are they qualified to make this assessment? 3.3.1 How can they accurately make this assessment given that the testing kits so far provided worldwide appear to give wildly differing results and are inaccurate? 3.3.2 Isn’t the very nature of forcing me to submit to a biological sample against my fundamental human rights to refuse as only I know what my body is or isn’t doing? 3.4 In Schedule 22 of the Coronavirus Bill, you give wide-ranging Police State powers that have effectively ruined our entire economy yet the Parliamentary State is exempt? Why is this given that in actuality, the Parliamentary State no longer has any say in how our country operates and must follow the lead given by the Cabinet on what they can and cannot do outside of the Parliamentary State? Laws are being made on a daily basis that no member of parliament is voting on or ratifying. The Scourge of “Essential Work’… We see daily news reports in our county of Northamptonshire (and indeed nationwide) – traffic wardens in Northampton town centre (personally witnessed 7 traffic wardens at 830am on a Saturday morning looking for business (raising money for Northampton Borough Council) – mobile camera vans out on the roads looking to raise revenue – police officers harassing people desperate to be outdoors yet made to feel like criminals – a police chief constable Nick Adderley, Northamptoshire firmly showing his true colours in the wake of this crisis by making people feel like criminals for ‘getting fresh air’! When a police chief tells you he is considering road blocks, checking supermarket trolleys and then telling people where they can and can’t go; I have to ask myself – am I in George Orwell’s 1984 or did something just change I am unaware about? 3.5 How do you determine what is essential work; when what I consider non-essential work carries on? The Rules For You and the Rules For Me… We are told to socially distance yet I’ve personally witnessed – bin men crammed 3 to a cabin picking up the bins wearing no gloves – no evidence given why the 1M rule (from WHO) becomes 2M rule if you’re in England – members of parliament sitting next to each other – police constables carrying out normal duties sat side-by-side in their police cars 3.5.1 In short, why is there one rule for the ruling elite and the police state and there appears to be another rule for the people. This doesn’t seem right nor fair to me. 3.5.2 Why is it that WHO Guidelines indicate a 1 metre distance yet the UK government has decreed that we have to maintain a distance of 2 metres? Are reports that we are too stupid to understand what this means true? Photographer: Vitalii Pavlyshynets | Source: Unsplash 4. Why are we not open minded about tangible beneficial ways of getting people and businesses back to work without fear or panic? As a government ably supported by the media, you have spread fear and panic amongst the people that they are now scared of the very fabric of our great nation – our people. Why are we not looking at the whole problem rather than coming up with short-term piecemeal solutions which will not work? 4.1 Why is the Government not giving advice on what people can do to boost their immune system through for instance taking Vitamin D3, C, A, Iodine and eating real food? I haven’t seen any government advice about improving your immune system and feel that this is a fundamental lack of understanding, direction and woeful neglect. It has been proven by numerous studies that eating fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds has a positive impact on health yet this has not been mentioned. Studies have also indicated that Vitamin D was woefully low in many COVID19 deaths yet the government have not been directing people to take this more.[ix] 4.2 Is the risk as great as the ‘un-biased’ experts believe that it is? With 3,681,295 tests having been conducted and only 265,227 infections identified, it would appear that from these tests alone the infection rate is 7.2%. If we extrapolate this out to the wider population, this could mean that 4,784,499 people have the virus currently. If we further investigate the deaths by age, we see a pattern. 52% of deaths occurred in the over 80s, 39% of deaths between 60-79 and 8% of deaths in the 40-59 age group. Between ages of 0-19 has seen 0.06% of deaths and 20-39 only 0.72%. However we have also seen that recovery is positive with an estimated 0.06% crude mortality rate or in laymans terms, I am 99.94% likely to recover from this virus and go about my day-to-day life without interference from the government. This indicates to me several things: If the chance of dying from the disease is slim (as indicated by Professor Whitty on several occasions), then the logical rational thing to do is immediately open up all businesses and destinations to anyone under the age of 60 given that the likelihoods of them dying from cancer, heart disease, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease is far higher (10.9%) than dying with COVID19.[x] With the over 60’s it could be argued that a slower gradual process could take place over a series of months as the virus dies out. Why then are we still insisting on lockdown? Should I be scared given that I have an immune system and that I am 99.94% likely to recover from this virus should I get it. Let me explain this in pictorial format. All data based on data from Government sources and based on my COVID19 Modelling using the alleged Reproduction rate of 4 (pre-lockdown) meaning that for every person infected they will pass this onto 4 people. A Room of 50 People or a Small Meeting A Room of 50 People will have 4 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 16 With the result of potential deaths of 1 person A Room of 100 People or a Large Meeting A Room of 100 People will have 7 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 28 With the result of potential deaths of 1 person A Room of 150 People or a Large Meeting A Room of 150 People will have 11 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 44 With the result of potential deaths of 1 person 250 People or a Church Congregation A Room of 250 People will have 18 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 72 With the result of potential deaths of 1 person. 500 People or a Lecture Hall A Room of 500 People will have 36 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 144 With the result of potential deaths of 2 people A Room of 1,000 People or a Large Lecture Theatre or Small Theatres A Room of 1,000 People will have 72 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 288 With the result of potential deaths of 3 people A Room of 3,000 People or a Large Theatre A Room of 3,000 People will have 16 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 864 With the result of potential deaths of 7 people A Room of 10,000 People or a Small Sports Arena A Room of 10,000 People will have 720 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 2,880 With the result of potential deaths of 23 people A Room of 20,000 People or a Large Sports Arena A Room of 20,000 People will have 1,441, People carrying the infection: 1,441 with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 5,764 With the result of potential deaths of 45 people A Room of 30,000 People or a Large Sports Arean A Room of 30,000 People will have 2,161 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 8,644 With the result of potential deaths of 67 people A Room of 50,000 People or a Large Sports Stadium A Room of 50,000 People will have 3,602 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 14,408 With the result of potential deaths of 112 people A Room of 100,000 People or Wembley Stadium or a Very Large Sports Event A Room of 100,000 People will have 7,205 People carrying the infection with R Rate 4 could result in New Infections 28,820 With the result of potential deaths of 224 people. What does this tell us? Quite simply that we could very easily open up bars, restaurants, theatres and cinemas RIGHT NOW – because the risk is so low. Schools can go back to pre-covid operating procedures because the risk is so low. Shops can go back to pre-covid operating procedures because the risk is so low. Public transport can go back to pre-covid operating procedures because the risk is so low. However this is assuming a reproduction rate of 4 and right now the reproduction rate is hovering between 0.5 and 0.9. This is also assuming no precautionary measures are taken at say an outside sporting event of wearing masks (for people who suspect they may be ill or vunerable). In reality, the risk is much lower as has been proven by the Swedish model. So the government could open up sporting events and business events again – if appropriate safeguards were taken (even though arguments could be construed to say that no real precautions are necessary given point 4.1). If you are a healthy human with a strong immune system, you have nothing to fear. You have a 99.94% chance of recovering. WHY HAVE WE WILLINGLY GIVEN AWAY OUR FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS FOR A VARIANT OF THE FLU? HAVE WE LOST ALL COMMON SENSE AND ABILITY TO QUESTION? Other Source data: Daily Death Statistics NHS https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/05/COVID-19-total-announced-deaths-21-May-2020.xlsx https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-52228475 Endnotes [i] A test constructed by notable business and mindset expert, Andy Shaw [ii] Covid19 Cases & Deaths https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274 [iii] Cancer Statistics https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics-for-the-uk#heading-Zero [iv] Heart disease Statistics https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-and-circulatory-diseases-in-numbers/death-rates-by-local-authority https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-and-circulatory-diseases-in-numbers/incidence-and-prevalence-incidence-by-local-authority [v] https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/ [vi] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/coronavirus-tanzania-test-kits-suspicion-goat-pawpaw-positive-a9501291.html [vii] https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/05/08/so-the-real-scandal-is-why-did-anyone-ever-listen-to-this-guy/ [viii] Government SAGE Participants https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response-membership/list-of-participants-of-sage-and-related-sub-groups [ix] Vitamin D Article https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(20)30183-2/fulltext [x]World Health Organisation Probability (%) of dying between age 30 and exact age 70 from any of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease (Global strategy for women's, children's and adolescents' health) https://apps.who.int/gho//data/node.imr.NCDMORT3070?lang=en
9 elements your HMO needs to survive 2020 and beyond
When considering buying a HMO or if you already own one, its important to look at how you set up your HMO to be suitable for 20th century living. In this article, Matthew Moody shares 10 things that you can do right away to make your new or existing HMO even better!
When we consider the changes afoot for the property industry, one thing I’ve seen over the last 16 years owning and managing HMO’s (over 1,000+ rooms over this time period) is that in order to be ahead of the game, it’s important to embrace new changes and ensure that your HMO is fit-for-purpose in today’s world. Photographer: Priscilla Du Preez | Source: Unsplash Here’s a few things for you to consider to improve your HMO. 1. Easier Transparent Contact The way we contact each other is changing. As landlords we need to embrace newer methods of technology and offer tenants a multitude of different ways for them to contact us including: Messenger apps – facebook/whatsapp Email Internet reporting Chat bots Own apps 2. Live & Work Spaces More and more people are living and working in different ways and its important that we recognize this. Tenants are no different to anybody else and we need to embrace this by offering Additional facilities such as work-study desks Faster Broadband More access to local co-working spaces 3. Shorter / Longer Contracts We live in a mobile society where jobs are often for months if not week rather than years. With this more transient society means that we may need to consider short-term contracts (something that does not really exist right now apart from the somewhat spurious licence agreements) so that tenants can move into a unit for a shorter period of time. At the same time, tenants have been pressing for longer term contracts which is again something that may be considered in order to allow for more security of tenancy. This could of course disrupt the internal dynamics of the housemates relations but should be considered as something that will happen and thus we should begin to make compensation for this. Photographer: Adam Jang | Source: Unsplash 4. Community Integration One of the accusations made towards HMO tenants is that they do not integrate with communities. Given that we are under pressure to deliver 300,000 homes, I see no other way through which this could happen without the help of HMO’s. We therefore need to encourage more community interaction and engagement with our HMO tenants including education, liason and getting involved with community projects. 5. Smaller or Large HMO’s Council-driven regulations seem to be honing down on the ideal 4 and 5 bed HMO’s as standard. This is disappointing given that for me, the sweet spot has always been a 6 bed HMO but more and more councils seem to be preferring the smaller HMO’s as they have ‘less impact on the community’. All anecdotal of course but then at the other end, we see more and more applications being approved for the monster HMO’s of 10, 15, 18 or 20 bed units which to be fair have to be run in a completely different way to a small HMO with more hotel-type facilities and a higher-level of management. 6. Larger/Smaller Rooms Recent regulations have come out enforcing 6.51m2 as the smallest allowable room for a HMO tenant to live in. However, is this the smallest room that somebody may CHOOSE to live in? We’ve had a few rooms in the past measuring 5-5.5m2 which have been eminently suitable for contractors only wishing to stay a few days of the week but under new regulations none of this rooms will be now available. How many box rooms in the country will now be unavailable as a unit of accommodation? 10,000 – 30,000 – 50,000? And how does this regulation impact the ‘Rent-a-Room’ scheme where a homeowner can rent out a room? Different rules, same accommodation? At the same time, a tenant would generally prefer a larger room and this could be possible through new methods of build and technology but only if these are embraced by local planners and councils – modular homes anybody? Photographer: Filip Shopov | Source: Unsplash 7. Home Automation With the advent of technology being amongst us there are now more opportunities for both tenants and homeowners alike to take advantage of the wonders of home automation. Imagine being able to ensure the hot water is on when you come home to have a shower or that your heating in your room is at your preferred temperature of 20° or even that you can put on your front porch lights before you get home. It’s here, it’s here to stay; how can you utilise this to attract more tenants to your HMO? 8. Integrated Entertainment More and more tenants are demanding the best possible entertainment. Forget digital channels such as Sky or Virgin; today’s tenant is more likely to watch Netflix or Amazon Films so how do you utilise this growing trend to attract tenants? Group Netflix accounts are here so why not consider extra accounts for your tenants? 9. More Bathrooms / Ensuites People don’t like sharing bathrooms. People don’t like sharing bathrooms. Enough said but how do you facilitate letting people have their own ensuites when its possible the Valuation Office may revalue your ‘all ensuite’ HMO as individual units? Simple; have a mixture of ensuites and shared bathrooms for up to three people. Want More Tips or Ways To Improve Your HMO Business? Why not consider grabbing my 'HMO Optimisation Toolkit'; this is a physical product mailed out to you with 50 tips that you can use in your HMO business. Based on my experience of building a multi-million pound portfolio and managing thousands of units over the last 15 years, you can grab a copy (whilst stocks last) for FREE and pay only £3.95 postage and packaging. The toolkit is a handy playing card sized product, easy to use and carry and if you implement one tip a week this will keep you busy all year round. Grab the HMO Optimisation Toolkit today for FREE and pay only £3.95 postage and packaging.
Everything you think you know about property investment is WRONG… and here’s why.
There are many myths out there about property investment; in this article I review five of the common myths and why everything you know about property may just be wrong.
I want to spend some time talking about myths that are going on right now in the property industry, because there are a lot of them, and explain some of the things that are plainly, plainly wrong. So, here goes. Property Myth One The first one that I want to cover is; there is a myth out there that is predicated, and positioned, and proposed by a lot of educators, and training companies, and so-called gurus that to invest in property, you don't need any money. And in fact there's been books written about no money down property investing and I want to debunk the myth that that's actually not true. You do need money to invest in property investment As to how much money you need, that is a different question entirely. So when we look at the amount of money that's required; let's say that you're not going to actually purchase a property, but you're going to do some kind of rent to rent or lease on a property. If you did that, you would have to find the money to pay the first month's rent, and pay the deposit more often than not, potentially pay some admin fees. And you would then need to furnish the property. Now this is because most properties that you're going to rent or lease in order to make a return on the difference between what you're renting it at and what you're renting it out for are going to be done through some kind of HMO or potentially even serviced accommodation combination. So you'll have to get furniture. Now, there are ways in which you could rent furniture for sure, but most people when they're getting started are probably going to buy the furniture outright. Photographer: deborah cortelazzi | Source: Unsplash And you may have to put in things like fire alarm systems. You may even have to get white goods and brown goods. So you're going to be looking at really four, five, six thousand pounds in terms of doing that to get into a rent-to-rent or a lease option. So when people come on and say, "Oh, you don't need any money," that's not true. It's just not true. Now, I'm not saying that you can't find people to help you with the money, and obviously there are investors out there that potentially would give you the money, providing that you position the deal and it is a good deal. But if you're just getting started and it's your first deal, that's going to be pretty tough to do. So the first myth is, no money down is not true. You'll always need some money, always. And we haven't even talked about anything to do with legals, brokerage, surveys and all that jazz – if you're buying a property. There are ways in which you can purchase a property and refinance it and pull a lot of money out. Absolutely. But in terms of having the money in the deal and not having any money leave your bank account and go to the vendor's bank account, it's just not going to happen. Myth Two The second myth that I wanted to share with you is, there's a myth out there at the moment as well that you have to be in this whole property investment arena full time in order to make a success of it. And again, you don't. There is a myth out there that if you're not full time in property, and you've not given up your job, and you've not gone into it 100%, and you've not burnt all your bridges, and you not said goodbye to employers; you're not a real property investor. That is not true. You do not need to be full-time in property investment to be successful It is perfectly reasonable, and in fact I have many clients that are still in a full time job or run a full time business that are building a property investment portfolio on the side as side income. And because they're doing that, that means that they're able to still benefit from the job that they have and the credit that comes along with that job; in the end, the potential ability to borrow that comes along with that job. It also means that they're able to build this pot, this portfolio, which grows, and grows, and grows the more, and more that they develop it and effectively build more properties and refinance over, and over again. So when people say, "Oh, you can only do this if you're full time," it's not strictly true. And in fact, I firmly, firmly believe and am of the opinion that you can get involved in property investment in probably around five hours or so a week and make a success of it. Absolutely. Photographer: Lesly Juarez | Source: Unsplash So it is a myth that's out there and I think it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Obviously, if you are spending all of your time and energy on it, then you're potentially going to accelerate a lot quicker. However, at the same time, you are not necessarily going to be any better off than the person that is still employed or in the business and building a portfolio on the side. So you don't have to be full time property to be an investor. What you have to have is the right tools, the right power team, the right structure in place in order to make it successful. Myth Three The third myth that I want to get out there, and this is one I see time, and time, and time, and time, and time again, is people talk about, "I've got to get a deal," and it's all about the deal, and nothing else matters. And I'm here to say that that is actually wrong. What's really crucial when you are investing into property and you are effectively wanting to build a portfolio, it is not the deal to begin with. It is not the deal, because I could show you a deal right now and say, "Hey, here's this deal. Here you go." Let's say I have a deal and I say to you "Here's the deal. It's a great deal. It's 20% below the market value and you're going to make £1,000 a month, and it just needs a small refurb and you going to make all this money, and it's great, and you should buy it." But you don't know anything about where it is. You've just been told it's a deal. A deal is not a deal if it’s in a location you don’t know And the thing is, it's easy to present a deal if you don't know the area. It is really easy. It's almost, basically, it's a little bit like pick-a-mix to some degree. You can go and you can pick something, but you're not really sure what you're getting, but you know you're getting a sweet. And it's the same thing in chasing deals. You've got to stop chasing the deal. It's the wrong thing to do, and everybody is doing this. All you have to do is focus on chasing the location. Photographer: Bruno Martins | Source: Unsplash This is what people do wrong over, and over again. So chasing the deal is not the right way to go about it because unless you understand and know the area in intimate detail, it's just a potential deal. Now, if one of our agents rang me today and said, "I've got a deal," and it's in our local target area where I buy all the time, I would know pretty much within seconds of him or her telling me what the deal is, is it actually a deal? And the majority of times it is, it is a deal. Sometimes it isn't, but you've just got to be aware of this that from the perspective of really focusing on what's out there and what's happening in terms of deals, it is very much, a deal in an area that you understand, and if you understand an area and you know it well, then it is a deal. But I'm so, so frustrated with people, even clients calling me up and say, "Oh, I've got to deal. I've got a deal." "So, where is it?" And it's in an area that they're not researching. It's like it's not a deal. It looks like a deal, it ain't a deal. Myth Four The fourth myth. This is something that is very rarely mentioned by a lot of the big training companies, big gurus, the big people that run around the stage, jumping up and down, getting you excited and speaking really fast, then moving their hands around and getting you to invest in nonsensical 2 grand courses that deliver naff all; you know the kind. Property investment is made and is at the same time killed through your tenants. Now what do I mean by that? Effectively, your tenants who pay your rent effectively pay your mortgage. Anything that's left over from that, it's where you make some cash, which you can then reinvest into other properties, reinvest back into the property, take something to live off, build up your savings, whatever it is you're doing. But it's tenants that do all that for you. So if you're not looking after your tenants and you are not making sure that the property is safe, clean, it works, everything works, and you're addressing maintenance issues, and that they're happy. Then without having tenants being happy, then you run into problems and issues. And this is when tenants stop paying the rent. It's when tenants basically start moving and getting into this whole issue around causing problems. And this is when we run into issues regarding the eviction of tenants through Section 8 and Section 21, and they're not leaving, and then I have to get bailiffs involved. A happy tenant pays on time and keeps the property in a good condition So the fourth myth that no one talks about, but is actually the foundation of which property investment is made, or isn't made, are tenants, look after your tenants. Photographer: Helena Lopes | Source: Unsplash So if anything, if you're going to be a property investor, and even if you're going to be one that is say, having this as a side income and you either outsourced some of that to let's say an agent, you've got to make sure that they are looking after the tenant for you. Because if you're not looking after the tenants and they're very much around this whole issue around not catering for the tenants' needs, looking after them, then you will run amok very, very quickly. You could have the best deal ever in the world. But if you're not filling the property with good tenants, then the deal is not a deal, right? It's just not a deal. So that's the kind of fourth myth that's kind of out there. Myth Five The fifth one, and it's the one I want to end on is really around this other myth that's out there at the moment that again is being positioned, and proposed, and talked about by a lot of big training companies, and a lot of these so-called gurus out there is that you can be a jack of all trades. What do I mean by this? You’ve seen these sales pages and videos and they say, "Oh, you're going to come along to this event and we're going to teach you how to do buy-to-let, we're going to teach you how to do HMO, teach you how to do service accommodation. We'll teach you how to do flips, going to teach you how to do small developments, going to teach you how to do to big developments, we're going to teach you how to do this, this, and this." And in the end it's like… you don't need any of that stuff. You just do not need any of that stuff. What you really need to get started is a thorough understanding of what it is you actually need from a revenue and income perspective, how much it is you need to live on, and then you need to look at what strategy allows you to do that the quickest. The reason why this is so relevant is because when I first got started in property investment, and you can check out previous articles/videos in terms of how I got started and why I got started; I focused on DECIDING. Photographer: Javier Allegue Barros | Source: Unsplash But when you're starting to get going in property investment, you really need to look at, where you're at the moment, and where you want to get to. And what I quickly realized is, it will be impossible for me to go and buy standard buy-to-let properties and replace my income, which is what I wanted to do at that stage. I was in a position where I had to leave my money, my job, my world, my career. It would just be impossible. So this is why I specialized in HMOs, which became rent-to-rent, lease options and refurbishments, small developments, and so on, and so forth. But going down a very similar route, which is, the whole thing around HMOs, whether it's boutique, or professional, or student, or whatever. Now, it's really easy to get into the whole shiny penny syndrome and think, well, let's say that you're in an area and bread-and-butter buy-to-lets work really well for you. Let's say you're in the north and you're getting nine, 10% deals, and you think, "Right, well now I need to start doing something else." So you start maybe doing some small developments, and then they don't work as effectively because you're not necessarily an expert in that area. You don’t necessarily have a power team behind you and you've diverted your attention from where you were, to something else. Being a generalist in the property investment world does not work. All the people I know that are making really good money and are really crushing it are focused on probably one strategy, two maximum, but certainly one main strategy. And the second one is a side strategy and it gives them some income, but on a periodic basis, not every single month. So, if you are getting started in property investment and you're thinking that you've got to do this, this, this and this, you don't have to do all those things. You don't have to run around doing four or five different strategies at once. It will be foolish for you to do that. You want to start, and you want to focus, and you want to go really deep into a strategy to make it work for you. And that way, you'll start to build up your income really, really nice. SUMMARY So, just recapping where we are in terms of these myths then, because there's five myths that I explained. The first myth is everyone says out there, you don't need any money to get started in property. I say that's bulls**t, you always need some money. Now it may not be yours, it may be an investor's and if you can persuade an investor to give you their money and you don't have any experience, then well done, you've done really well. But for the majority of people, that first deal that you do, you're going to have to put some money in. And the lowest amount of money you're going to be putting in is probably five to 8,000, probably around that figure. The second myth is you don't have to be full time to do this. Everyone tells you, you've got to dive in. There's this whole thing around ‘I want to become a property investor so I can leave my job’. It may not be the job that you hate, it may be the fact that you're reporting to someone that you don't like, and it could actually be that your industry is still really good for you, but don't leave too soon. Start percolating, building it up in the background and really start focusing on having that income coming in, whilst you then build up your career at the same time. Maybe move company's get someone better, and keep building that portfolio up. The third myth is that you shouldn't be chasing the deal. What you should be chasing is the location, and then the deals will come to you in the location. Don't get focused on, "I've got to find a deal. I've got to find a deal, I've got to find a deal." What you want to be focused on is, you've got to really focus on getting the right location right, and then when you've found the location, then the deals will come to you. The fourth one is, in order for this property investment to work, you have to have tenants. You have to look after your tenants, you have to respond quickly to tenants, and you have to make sure that they are happy. Happy tenants pay your rent, and unhappy tenants do not pay your rent, but the best rule in the world, you will always have at some point issues with tenants and you will always have issues with them not paying money. This is going to happen. It will happen to you. So do not go into this with your eyes shut thinking this is not going to happen. It will. The fifth one is the fact that you cannot be a generalist. You can't be doing three, or four, or five strategies. You've got to focus on one strategy. You've got to get really good at that one strategy. You've got to go deep into that strategy. You've got to master it in your chosen area. Then when you've hit those target levels that you're aiming for in terms of perhaps you have all of your bills paid for so that you can then potentially leave your job and go and do some charity work or set up another business, or do something different, but have an income level in place that you're aiming for, and at that stage, maybe think about doing another strategy, but don't do it too quickly. The focus needs to be on doing one strategy really, really well and really then leveraging off the back of that.