Archive for the ‘Property Resources’ Category

Come and meet Property Millionaires David Coughlin and Raj Shastri and the property experts at HBFi on Thursday 3rd June at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Pendigo Way, Birmingham, B40 1PS. The event starts at 7pm with 1-2-1’s starting at 4pm.

HBF Investment properties UK

At this must go to “FREE” Networking Event, Raj Shastri in conjunction with David Coughlin of HBF Investments, will show you:

* How they started in property and went on to purchase over £20M of property
* How they make over £20K/month rental profits each!
* How they used property profits to give up their days jobs, enjoy financial freedom and to fund their other business interests
* How anybody from a Beginner to an Experienced Investor can do the same!

For the first time we are also offering investors the opportunity to have 1-2-1’s with our experienced property experts before the event. Let us discuss your property ambitions and questions together and help you learn all the valuable knowledge required to become financially successful in property! This will be extremely popular so please book your places now!

At the request of our Investors we will also be “showcasing” our fantastic exclusive deals available on the night. These will be sold on a first come first served basis so please come prepared with cheque books and credit cards at the ready!

To confirm your place for you and your guests NOW for Thursday 3rd June 2010, please register at:

HBF Investment properties UK

Registration will be at 7pm and presentation to commence at 7.30pm.

I personally look forward to meeting you at our event and helping you become more successful in property!

In our A to Z of Property Investing series, we’ve reached E which, amongst other things, stands for Experience.

All property investors have to start somewhere and not everyone is blessed with heaps of experience in the first instance. Whilst experience is not necessary to get you started, it certainly helps as you progress with your investing career and many property investors will agree that they’ve learnt and grown from good and bad experiences along the way.

Sometimes the first step on the property investment career is with a property that happens to be available at the right price and at a time when someone wants to have a go at being a landlord and making money from property. It can be a good starting point, helping people get to grips with the basics of working as a property investor, but it’s only over time, when you learn about what works, what doesn’t and how you could improve on your track record that experience is gained.

Some of the common areas in which people typically gain lasting experience include issues such as:

Where to buy property
What type of property to buy
What type of tenants to aim for
Marketing a property
What rent level is realistic
When to sell
Using effective letting agents

What experience have you gained since starting as a property investor? Is there anything you know now that you wish you knew when you’d started out? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

To help build up your experience and knowledge, then you’re in the right place, with property experts HBF Investments.

There are a lot of issues to think about when you’re preparing to let your property and it’s easy to overlook the issue of TV licenses in favour of more important considerations. But you can’t guarantee that your tenants will put TV licenses at their top of their lists either, so be on the ball and know where you stand.

If you’re letting out an unfurnished property to one single tenant, a couple or a family, then one TV license is required for the property.  If several tenants are living in the property under separate tenancy agreements, but there is only one TV in a communal area, then technically only one TV license is required. However, if any of the tenants have their own TVs in their rooms, or watch TV on the Internet, then by law each of them should have their own TV licenses. In cases where there are several tenants, but they have a joint tenancy, then only one TV license is required for the entire property.

For fully furnished properties, or if you’re including a television in the rental, you need to be extra clear about who needs to purchase a TV license. If you provide the TV, both you and your tenants can be held responsible if a license is not purchased. When you’re putting together a tenancy agreement you need to specifiy exactly whose responsibility it is to purchase the TV license.

To make doubly sure that a license is purchased for a property where you supply a TV, you could consider buying it yourself and adding the cost of it into the rental fee. That way you can be sure your property will be fully covered and not have any unwanted TV licensing issues in the future.

Anyone watching TV or using any other devices to watch or record television programmes without owning a TV license could face prosecution, a court appearance and a fine of up to £1,000.

Related Posts

Other posts in the Preparing to Let Your Property series include:

Investment Properties

Landlord Insurance

Getting an Energy Performance Certificate

Fire Safety

Electrical Safety

There’s good news for buy-to-let investment landlords, as finally the number of mortgages available has increased again.

Back in September 2009, there were only 179 mortgage choices – down considerably from the massive 3,662 deal options on offer in August 2007. But according to research by financial group, MoneyFacts, the mortgage market has taken a turn for the better, with a rise up to 304 mortgage options for investment landlords.

It’s still nowhere near the choices available in 2007, but given the low levels we’ve seen in recent years, it’s a significant improvement. What’s more, the choice of mortgage options available for landlords has increased too, opening up more potential for landlords who only have small deposits available.

Making a welcome return are 80% and 85% mortgages, plus the average interest rate on a two year fixed rate loan has dropped from 5.96% to 5.66%. It’s all good news for the buy-to-let market, which is picking up well after being hit by the recession.

However, not everyone is getting too excited quite yet. It’s not yet clear whether or not the new government will be making changes to capital gains tax. If it is increased – and some predictions are suggesting that it could rise to as much as 40% on non-business assets, such as buy-to-let properties – then it could have a bit of an effect on the buy-to-let market.

We are hosting FREE investor event in High Wycombe next Thursday 27th. When we last held one there it was a FREE sell out and we had loads of great tips to share. The market is even more amazing now and we have tonnes of great deals and tonnes of tips so you southerners surely can’t miss this one – our first in the area for 12 months? Our events are GREAT events!

Lets look at how great the opportunity is: 80% mortgages, easier mortgages, a rising market, great LHA cash flow rentals, and loads of quality 75% deals around – so possible 5% cash backs – for now at least!

If you are in the market to buy this is surely the perfect time.

To whip up even more enthusiasm I will give away a completely free property.
No reservation fees, no legals, no valuation fee – nothing. PLUS it will be 75% and you can get an 80% mortgage. THE LUCKY person will be able to choose from all our 20+ deals available on the night. AND to cap it off we will get it rented and managed for you.

If you want to know more, check out the post in the Events Section and register with us:

http://deals.hbfinvestmentproperties.co.uk/Event.aspx

Just to finish – all the key people hosting the event, including me, have bought over 400 properties between us and are continuing to buy. We are running and buying businesses with our profits from property – we have all given up our days jobs. We are the real deal. If you want to know how to get rich and stay rich with property we are the guys to come and meet.

We don’t do just educational seminars or write books – we actually do the business and make alot money from property and that’s what really matters to all of us property investors.

Holiday Inn
Handy Cross
High Wycombe
HP11 1TL

At this must go to “FREE” Networking Event, Raj Shastri in conjunction with HBF Investment property, will show you:

• How he started with £950 and living in a rented room – to a Multi Million Pound Portfolio in under 5 years which is still CASH FLOWING even in TODAY’S current climate!
• How anybody from a Beginner to an Experienced Investor can do the same!
• Goldmine ADS to source great property deals.
• Tricks of the trade on how to get YOUR Property rented FIRST.
• An overview on the Market NOW and how to take advantage of the year ahead

Plus much much more ….

This “FREE” Networking Event will be aimed at all levels of property investors from the complete novice to the highly experienced, providing crucial up to the minute market information, fantastic opportunities for information sharing and obviously a terrific social occasion!

We have other “leading experts” who are ACTUALLY “doing” the BEST deals and “financing” the BEST deals coming along to share their knowledge and tips with you plus the HBF Team will be on hand too!

At the request of our Investors we will also be “showcasing” our fantastic exclusive deals available on the night.  These will be sold on a first come first served basis so please come prepared with cheque books and credit cards at the ready!

Watch Raj Shatri’s showreel and confirm your place for you and your guests NOW for Thursday 27th May 2010. Please register below as places will be booked quickly.

Register for HBF Investments Networking Event

I personally look forward to meeting you at our event.

Kind regards,

David Coughlin
Managing Director
HBF Investments

When you’re working as a property investor and trying to make a profit on your investments, it’s only natural that deals will form part of your success. So it’s not surprising to hear that in the latest of our A to Z of Property Investing series, D has to stand for deals.

Getting a good deal can make or break many aspects of property investing. In the first instance, paying the right price for a property is crucial, as it influences the amount of money you make back on it, through renting it out and, further down the line, selling it on. Being able to negotiate well and get a good deal is highly advantageous and is a good foundation for the months and years to come.

When you’re looking for a mortgage, shopping around for the best deal can help too, and if you’re decorating or renovating a property ready to let it out, then it’s useful to negotiate deals with tradesmen and builders, wherever possible. If you have other properties in your portfolio, then offering the potential of additional work can help clinch that crucial deal.

There are deals to be had with managing your properties too. It can make life as a property investor and landlord a bit less stressful to have your properties managed by a team of experts and, whether you’re a first time landlord or have a string of properties under your belt, you may well be able to crack a good deal with a property management company.

The ability to negotiate a fair deal that keeps everyone happy will crop up time and time again when you’re working as a property investor. If it’s not your forte to start with, then learn to become a better negotiator, as it could have a very positive effect on the whole realm of your business.

Related Posts

A to Z of Property Investing: C is for Contracts

A to Z of Property Investing: B is for Buy-to-Let 

A to Z of Property Investing: A is for Appreciation 

No landlord really wants to have rental voids, but there are ways in which you can make the most of them. In the first part, we looked at the all important issues of doing inside and outside maintenance to your property, and now we’re turning our thoughts towards promoting your property.

Once all your maintenance tasks are complete, and your property is looking at its best, it’s on to the all important task of promoting your property. If you’re using a letting agent, then hopefully they will already have started to include your rental property in their marketing to potential new tenants, but if you’re keen to fill your rental void as soon as possible, you can get involved too.

Word of Mouth

Don’t underestimate the value of word of mouth, as telling people you have a property available can sometimes get passed on to people who need somewhere to let. This is something you can develop over time, especially if you have a large portfolio of properties, as many people find it helps to get a reputation as being a landlord, so people come to you when they’re looking for somewhere to rent.

Advertising

If you know of any local publications that your letting agent doesn’t target, then you could do you own advertising. It would be a good idea to run this by your letting agent first, so that you don’t step on their toes, and it’s good to provide their contact details, or a link to their website with your property listing on.

You could use your advertising to try and tap into markets that your letting agent may not be covering, like local parish magazines, hospital housing lists or even university housing lists. Where you advertise will depend in part on your property, its location and whether you’re keen to target long or short term tenants.

Online Promotion

If you’re a user of social networking sites, like Facebook, are active on forums, or use Twitter, then you can use all of these to help promote your property. Sending one single message out to all your Facebook friends, to let them know that your property is available for rental, is a quick and easy way of spreading the word.

If you’re using Twitter, then as well as targeting anyone who’s following you and reading your tweets, you could use hashtags to spread the word further. For example, you could add one to each property related tweet you send to let people know where the property is located or that you simply have a property for let.  In these cases, the hashtags could be #nottingham #propertyforlet or #rental.

As a landlord making an income from property lets, the last thing you want to have is rental voids. But if they do occur, then here are some ways in which you can make the most of them, before new tenants arrive.

Give the Inside of the Property a Thorough Check

If your property has been off the market and let for some time, for example with long-term tenants in residence, then now is the perfect time to get inside and do a thorough check.

You’d expect there to be at least some maintenance that needs to be attended to, for general wear and tear, and with tenants moved out you can check the property from top to bottom. It’s also a good time to do any decorating or simple touch-ups that might need attention, such as painting skirting boards replacing floor tiles and generally making the property presentable.

Do Outside Maintenance Tasks

It’s not just the inside of the property you need to be thinking about – don’t forget the outside too. If everything had been ticking along well, then the chances are that the property hasn’t had much attention for a while, but simple outdoor maintenance tasks, like giving the property a lick of paint, cleaning the windows, painting the window frames or clearing out the gutters can give it a new lease of life.

If the property has a garden, then give it a tidy up, mow the lawn, cut back any overgrown hedges or plants. Tidy the area around the front door too, re-paint the door and make sure the entrance area looks appealing.

First impressions count and, when you’re trying to promote the property for new tenants, it will look more appealing if the property looks clean and tidy, inside and out, and could help influence how quickly you get a tenant.