david's blog
We offer four 1-day workshops that are delivered at a conference centre in Oxford, with parking, starting at around 9am and finishing around 5pm.
The workshops are advanced and intensive and restricted to a maximum of 25 students.
The more students that attend any training course result in less base subject material being covered due to an increase in the number of questions.
We try and keep our costs competitive @ £297.00 per person or £397.00 per couple, who can be unrelated, both inc VAT.
Why so cheap, well most of our students go on to become clients of ours in other areas of their investment strategy afterwards
The cost includes a workbook covering the subject matter of the day, light refreshments throughout the day, a sandwich style lunch plus post workshop support.
Our workshops are:
The Master Class in Buy To Let.
During the day we will cover:
- Understanding your role as an investor.
- How to succeed in any market conditions.
- Generating tax free rental income for life.
- How to increase your yields.
- How to take advantage of all the tax breaks.
- How to develop a strategy that suits you.
- What to buy and where - who wants to rent your property.
- How to refit, maintain and furnish to attract best tenants.
- How to find and keep good tenants and deal with bad tenants.
- Understand all the tax implications of your strategies.
- When to sell properties to gain the best from the Inland Revenue.
Refitting Distressed Property.
This course arises out of the Master Class as part of any strategy because you can use refitted property to eliminate the tax liability on your rental income and also increase your profits by taking advantage of your annual CGT exemption.
During the day we will cover:
- Identifying a suitable property
- How to re-design for today's requirements
- Advance costing of the refit works inc 10-year performance projection
- Using these costs to reduce the offer price
- Viewing & Buying at auction
- The extent of the works, light or heavy refit.
- The resultant EPC certificate
- The views of the Lender
- The long term effect of a heavy refit
- Hiring & supervising the refit team
- Building Control & Planning
Self Letting & Management.
This course arises out of the Master Class as part of any strategy because the costs of agency letting & management can turn a cash flow positive investment negative. So there is a case for going down the DIY route but investors need to understand and be able to address the problems that can arise.
During the day we will cover:
- Advertising & marketing your property
- Interviewing prospective tenants
- The information you require from a prospective tenant
- How to take up references & do credit checks
- The role of the Guarantor
- The tenancy agreement & important clauses
- Taking deposits and the deposit schemes
- The check in
- Rent collections days
- Chasing rent arrears
- Issuing County Court Proceedings
- Handling repairs & maintenance
- Ending a tenancy
- Notices to quit
- Periodic tenancies
- Checking out the tenant
- Recovering dilapidation costs
How To Research A Location.
This workshop is designed for the student who wants to become one of our Location Experts and feature on this site under Research.
Even if the student does not want to progress on to write up their work for publication on this site, research is so important that this workshop should be on the top of your agenda.
You cannot be a successful investor unless you have mastered the art of research both today and on an ongoing basis.
Research is part of knowledge and “Knowledge is King”!
The workshop involves homework before attending.
During the day we will cover:
- What is a Location
- How to research a Location of the Internet
- What information you need
- Where to find the information
- How to interpret it and write it up
- How to walk a Location
- The pictures & videos that you need
- How to prepare a Location report
- How to upload your Location on to buy-to-let.com
- How to upload to YouTube
- How to make money out of being a Location Expert
As you can see our subject matter is not exhaustive just expert, no HMO's or BMV's for instance, others do that better than we do.
Rather than take the time to develop this site to completion or close to it, we have decided to bring some content over from our old site and introduce new content as it is completed in as logical order as possible.
So to start with there is a little about us and where we are coming from plus a look at Education which every buy to let investor needs.
We have also included Networking because it is very current, happening every month across the country and doubtless of interest to investors or should be.
New/Updated Content- Latest News
- Videos
- Considering Your Next Investment?
- Buy To Let, The Professionals Market?
- New To Buy To Let?"
Each week, new content will be added or existing content updated because the current content is not necessarily the final version and most if not all content will change to reflect market conditions.
The next major section will be on Research followed by Armchair Investor Services. That said we may surprise you and add something else so please keep checking back. By registering we will advise you of new content as and when loaded.
I assume that you have successfully developed a portfolio of properties and are now looking to maximise the return, release as much cash as possible for further investment and generally take advantage of the changing market conditions as we move from a "sellers" market to a "buyers" market.
The following are a few points to consider:
Apply for "Portfolio Landlord Status" with a lender where you are able to get fast-tracked decisions on any purchase, obtain light refurbishment funding along with development funding.
Look to buy existing portfolios of possibly run down properties, upgrade and carry out a mix of sell and hold.
Look at larger properties with potential for conversion into a number of units either to sell or let.
In every case look for opportunities that are either not available to smaller investors or are just too scary.
Consider moving out of the conventional buy-to-let funding market into the commercial finance market usually used by property developers.
There are plenty of funds available for investors with a provable track record provided that a comprehensive business plan is prepared and submitted to the lender in question with realistic aims & objectives.
How can we help?
Well a starting point could be our Strategy Consultation, when we can review the performance of your current portfolio and advise on the options open to you in the short & medium term.
26-5-09
I assume that you have already started down the buy-to-let road and are wondering what to do next.
The buy-to-let market has changed considerably since it's inception in 1996 and has increasingly become part of "mainstream" investments.
Assuming that you have built a small or even medium sized portfolio over the past few years you should have enjoyed substantial capital growth but seen gross yields eroded to a point that many investments are no longer even cash flow positive.
Broadly speaking, buy-to-let remains the best deal in town, especially if you are not looking to speculate in property but taking a long term view.
The market has changed in recent months from a "sellers" to a "buyers" market, which requires a change in the thinking of investors.
Whilst market conditions are as tough as I have seen over the past 25 years or more, the tough conditions are mainly down to a lack of mortgage monies and the reduction in the LTV from 85% to 75%.
But there are huge opportunities out there for the switched on investor.
BMV or behind market value is all the rage though I think that this is overstated.
Today’s fantastic BMV deal is tomorrows comp for mortgage valuation purposes.
Of much more interest is lease options where you effectively take over the property with an “option to buy” later in a year, two or maybe five, in the meantime paying 
the vendors mortgage, no need for finance, and making a turn of the deal assuming that the rent is greater than all the relevant costs.
If you are interested in increasing the size of your portfolio then come and talk to us as we can either assist on a consultancy basis or offer a complete Armchair Acquisition Service where we do all the work for you delivering a property in a ready-to-let state that meets your criteria.
The majority of the properties that we recommend buying are distressed because they are very tax efficient given the Capital/Revenue split of any refit works and while we continue to buy through Estate Agents, with initial offers now some 30% behind the asking price, we are increasingly concentrating on the Auction market through which some 25,000 residential properties are sold each year, most being tired or distressed, and in less expensive locations within the City or Town concerned, our "ideal" buy-to-let investment.
During the past few years the Auctions were populated with investors who just had to get on the bus almost regardless of the cost. This is now no longer the case.
By buying at Auction you are almost guaranteed exchange on the fall of the hammer, avoiding the possibility of a Private Treaty purchase either falling down for whatever reason or taking forever to reach completion.
Auction though can be fraught with problems and investors need to take care that they are buying a good potential investment and not a lemon and understand how to evaluate properties offered through auctions to ensure that the numbers stack up.
Also the timescales can be daunting with a relatively short period between catalogue publication, viewing day and the auction day when a considerable amount of work needs to be done.
If you have little or no experience of Auctions, consider our Refitting Distressed Property Workshop.
I assume that as you are reading this page it is the first time that you have visited our site, and if that is the case, welcome to the world of buy-to-let!
Whilst buy-to-let seems simple at the outset, in that you go out, buy a property, maybe fix it up a little and then let it - buy-to-let is in fact one of the most complex forms of investment that you can get involved in, as unlike, say, stocks and shares, you have to create the investment in most cases, and again, unlike stocks and shares, a buy-to-let investment can cost you each month if your property is not let because you will still have to pay costs such as Council Tax, maybe electricity, gas and water charges, plus if you have borrowed the money to buy the property, the cost of servicing any loans.
What makes buy-to-let so exciting though is the ability to borrow up to 75% of the cost of the property (May 2009) and enjoy both an increased annual profit on your cash invested and a greater capital gain.
In the case of your rental income, if the net yield, the net rent after 
deducting all operating costs & interest charges as a percentage of the value of the property, is greater than the interest rate on the borrowed money, you will make a profit on every pound borrowed.
In the case of capital gain, if you borrow 75% of the value of the property and put down a 25% deposit and prices rise by say 6% over a year, the gain of 6% translates into a gain of 40% on your 25% cash deposit. The higher the level of borrowing, the higher the percentage gain on your cash deposit.
But, and there is generally a downside to any good idea, quality is now even more important both in the context of the property, the location and the internal refit and furnishing.
Today's tenants have choice and good tenants have the widest choice, so badly located properties with sub-standard interiors will not let easily, will not attract good tenants and can easily turn into a cash drain rather than a good investment.
In addition to this, a comprehensive understanding of the options open to you is also advisable, as decisions made at the start of a buy-to-let investment can affect the performance over a period of say 10 years by many thousands, if not tens of thousands of pounds.
To help investors, be they novice or experienced, we have designed a series of Workshops to provide a detailed understanding of all aspects of buy-to-let and a range of Software to accurately cost up potential investments and forecast probable returns.
I hope you will enjoy our site and find the content useful, helpful and maybe thought provoking.
Please do not hesitate to make any comments, good or bad, as we value your input.
First and foremost, we are an independent consultancy set up in 1996, run by buy-to-let investors, constantly working and researching at the "edge of the envelope", when it comes to buy-to-let, and regarded by many as being one of the leading experts in this field.
Our aim is to inform, advise and act in the best interests of other buy-to-let investors, either by providing a certain amount of free information through our website, or by providing Consultancy Services, delivering Seminars & Intensive Workshops , plus an Armchair Acquisition /Investment Service.
We are also developing a Network of Location Research Experts who are Investors that are very conversant with their home or investment location and able to help other investors in that location be it with a telephone conference through a day on location to providing an Armchair Acquisition Service.
We are not estate or letting agents, we are not mortgage or insurance brokers, builders or furnishers, all of whom are needed to create a buy-to-let investment.
In each case though we know somebody who is, and someone who is good, and who, in most cases, we use ourselves, either for our own investments or investments on behalf of our Clients.
The consultancy has a small central core and the majority of its activities are conducted through joint ventures with other companies & individuals who we regard as being experts in their field.
We believe that buy-to-let offers a unique opportunity to a substantial number of people to safely secure their future, provided they appreciate both the ups and the downs of buy-to-let as it is one of the most complex forms of investment to understand if one is going to look for optimum returns.
We also believe that the only way to succeed in buy-to-let is to provide a high quality product (property) in all respects for the Investor's customer (tenant) be it a HB tenant, student, professional sharer or highly paid executive.
Our advice, views and thoughts are sought by other experts in the industry; we regularly contribute to television, video and press articles on buy-to-let and deliver Seminars on buy-to-let at venues ranging from National Exhibitions to Small Landlord Association meetings.
Our 1-Day Workshops are suitable for all investors be they just "thinking about it", "starting out" or even "experienced".
We also deliver the 3-day Buy-To-Let Advanced Training for the Wealth Intelligence Academy, (Whitney UK).
Our Armchair Acquisition enables investors to take a back seat if they wish to, as we can handle all aspects of the investment from sourcing through buying & refitting to instructing letting agents plus introducing you to highly competent Solicitors, Mortgage Brokers, Accountants and others.
If you need help or assistance in any aspect of buy-to-let, please contact us.
If we do not have the answer, we generally know the person that does, and if we are going to charge you for our help, advice or assistance, we will tell you at the outset.
My regards
David Humphreys
Created 19-02-09
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There are a whole range of educational courses, seminars & workshops and other products including home study courses available at prices to suit most budgets.
These courses can be a bit of a minefield to compare as to cost and content because some appear to be free whilst others can cost hundreds or even thousand’s of pounds.
For example a number of course providers, WIA (Whitney UK) for example, offer a free 2-hour property investment course/seminar at which they, the provider, will try and sell you a more advanced 1 to 3 day course.
Other providers will deliver a taster at an exhibition, conference or network evening in the hope of selling a full day or number of days course on the subject matter. We tend to fall into the latter category.
In some cases you cannot book onto a course without first attending the freeby or taster. We do not fall into this category.
Costs:
Making a price comparison between the educational courses listed below can prove difficult, so we are going to try and list the daily rate for one person attending plus the minimum cost which can be quite high if there is any sort of package being offered, for example a multi course or a single course with ongoing support.
Cost though should not be treated as a guide to quality. The most expensive may not be any better than the cheapest and vice versa.
Data Base Marketing:
Many of these sites are desperate to get your name and email address for marketing purposes. Most, if not all, promise never to sell your name or pass it on to a third party. We also do the same but not quite so desperately, at least I hope it seems that way.
In one case below, a book offer comes with a load of freebies, if you try to leave the site without buying the book they will still offer to send you all the freebies if only you register before leaving the site!!
Whitney UK. I am starting with Whitney UK of course, because I am one of their presenters, they pre-date most of the educators listed on this site and I helped Russ Whitney introduce his ground breaking property investment concepts to UK investors back in 2001.
Many soundly rubbished them, others listened, made loads of money and now even teach the “secrets”!
Whitney UK, is now being rebranded as " Wealth Intelligence Academy" or WIA and includes the family of brands below.
Wealth Intelligence Academy is sometimes regarded as expensive due the way it is sold, but, at the end of the day, the suite of courses that you can buy are good value and competitively priced.
Your introduction to WIA generally starts with a free 2 hour seminar at which you can buy a 3-day property investment course which in itself covers a lot of ground and at around £ 125 per person per day is very good value when compared to others. I know the speakers on this 3-day event and they are all experienced investors.
This can be followed by a suite of 3 day Advanced Courses that cover most of what you need to know, dependent on your strategy, and are delivered by investors many of whom were Whitney/WIA students and have learnt the hard way.
In each case you need to do the 3-day Introduction Course, which covers various aspects of their suite of 3 day Advanced Training Courses, before undertaking courses at the Advanced Level.
I deliver the Advanced Buy to Let Course and my students need to understand the basics & terminology before coming on that course hence the reason for the intro course.
The cost is dependent on the mix of “advanced” courses that you sign up for. For more information on content check their website.
I have now delivered over 30 of the 3-day Advanced Buy To Let Training which is pretty comprehensive even if I say so myself, I designed it.
Lots of number crunching, plus looking in depth at the product, the property, and your customer, your tenant or buyer and how a decision in one area impacts on another area, good or bad.
Quality is my mantra and being the First Choice of your prospective customer is the aim. At the end of the 3 days my students are asked to evaluate the content & delivery and I generally average over 90% but there are a lot of broken arms afterwards!
The core of this Course is covered in our Masterclass Workshop.
WIA also works along with such buy-to-let household names as Gill Fielding, the Secret Millionaire, Martin Roberts, Homes under the Hammer, Dominic Farrell, bewarethesharks and Rohan Weerasinghe all of whom offer there own courses which are either property related or motivational or a bit of both and worth considering.
Also in this category are WIA presenters Kevin Green, Mark Dalton & Lindsay Hopkins who do not offer independent courses but may appear in other non WIA publicity material and are real value for money. If their name appears on the speaker list try and go to the event.
Gill Fielding, www.wealthcompany.com who, uniquely, offers a 3 day course open only to women which seems very popular judged by the promo videos on the site, can't comment personally as I'm not be allowed in! Gill though is a great motivational speaker as well as knowing a bit about property, we have presented together for WIA, and I am not surprised at all by the positive comments on her site. Ladies definitely go for it.
Martin Roberts, www.makingmoneyfromproperty.tv promoting a whole range of property related products and services from books through home study courses to 3 day seminars plus a link up with bewarethesharks Dominic Farrell in his guise as CEO of Jet to Let. Having completed Martin's course you can become a "Member of the Inner Circle". Given Martin's very public profile through Homes under the Hammer I would expect his courses and products to be first rate.
Dominic Farrell, bewarethesharks.com starts off with Investor Profiling using "the latest profiling techniques used in the City and industry" to find out what you should or should not be doing before going into the Economics of Property Investing and other parts of his course. Having completed his course you are able to join his Sharkwatch Community of Investors. Again Dominic's public profile should guarantee a quality product.
Dr Rohan Weerasinghe www.rohanlive.com & www.wealthangels.tv. Rohanlive promotes Rohan as a public speaker and I have to tell you that he is quite exceptional. If he is on the list of speakers then go to the event. In addition under wealthangels he sells a 12 part home study course which covers virtually every aspect of buy-to-let.
This course can either be bought as an online download, the cheapest option, or as a pack of DVD’s, both with supporting documentation.
The cost of all 12 parts starts at £ 397 for the online download version and £ 597 for the DVD version, both available by monthly subscription, but, and a big BUT.
You can buy any one of these 12 parts for £ 49.97, online download version, plus you can get a taste and feel for the content as each part listed by clicking on and playing a 3-4 minute mini video of Rohan interviewing an expert and explaining what is covered in that section of the course.
Alternatively you can book on to a 1 day course in central London, when run, at around £ 249 per person per day
In addition there is a new feature the Interactive Arena which is, and I quote, “aimed at keeping you updated on the latest property, tax and financial news to help you stay one step ahead of the game.” You can subscribe at a special launch price of £29.97 per year. They expect to raise the price to around £ 99.97.
Altogether a very professional package. We are affiliates.
Outside of the Wealth Intelligence Academy family so to speak there are, and this is not a complete list yet:
Updated 22-04-09
Next 22-04-09 Update
Networks & Other Events:
Before going into detail on the teachers outside the WIA family, it is possible to “see and listen before you buy” at various low cost or even free events around the country.
There is a growing number of Network evenings being promoted across the country where the cost of admission is a few pounds and generally include a speaker who may be listed below.
Exhibition often include one or more of these speakers and entry is often free.
Steve Foley www.ukiec.com runs a number of property related 2-day events which feature many of the speakers below. In this instance there is a cost but it is still well worth it.
Each speaker delivers a 45 minute lecture and is only allowed 10 minutes of “selling” at the end but you are often offered a load of DVD’s and books at a knock down price.
Glenn Armstrong www.glennarmstrong.com. Glenn is very strong in both the BMV (behind market value) & creative finance markets plus running courses for DIY investors and regularly speaking at property network events such as the Berkshire Property Meet. I first met Glenn at a conference organised by Steve Foley www.ukiec.com whose conferences are well worth the money.
Glenn is not the greatest speaker in the world but the message is still well worth listening to as he has a considerable amount of experience in developing property portfolios both for himself and clients.
Updated 02-03-09
We attended Glenn’s BMV 1-day course in Milton Keynes on Feb 28th 2009.
The Score:
· Course Content – Good +
· Delivery – Good +
· Workbook – Average +
· Location & Directions – Excellent
· Room – Good +
· Catering – Good +
· Accuracy of Web Site Copy – Excellent
· Probable Accuracy of Web Site Testimonials – Excellent
The Report
There were 14 people present including us. The style was very informal with all of us sitting in a semi circle with Glenn in the middle next to the projector.
On registration we were all given name tabs, a work book and a very large calculator. Also, on arrival we were treated to coffee or tea plus an egg & bacon roll which was very welcome.
The workbook was cone bound with a cone that was too small/tight, the result was that it came apart later in the afternoon. The pages were photocopies of an original. Some pages were illegible, possibly due to being reductions of the original. I did not complain so Glenn and his team did not have an opportunity to replace it had that been possible.
The Property Course started at about 10.30 am following talking to other students over the breakfast coffee so it is important to arrive “on time” even if the course does not kick off at 10am as advertised.
At the start Glenn asks each student to outline briefly their history and their aims and objectives for the coming year. At the end of each student’s report, Glenn jumped up and made relevant comments specific to that student.
We then started into the workbook and opened up with a review of current market conditions specific to Milton Keynes where Glenn does most if not all of his buying. A year ago he was seeing values of 135k which were now down to 120k, and whereas he was paying 90-100k he was now paying 60k+, a huge reduction.
He covered, in some depth, how he researches an area and whether, in his opinion, it is worth going out to that location and this may be a single postcode in a town or city. In any event it made sense though I don’t propose to cover the detail of how he does it as there would then be no point in going on his course! Suffice to say a lot of this research can be completed from your home on the web.
Following mid morning coffee, we looked at how to check out a tenant and one tip that was unusual was that often one of Glenn’s’ staff or Glenn himself collects the prospective tenant from where they are currently living to take them to the new property and, using some excuse, gets into their existing property to have a good look round at see how they live!
By late morning we were starting to look at the numbers, I say starting because whilst the whole workbook was covered during the day with the exception of Workshop Role Play, it was not as structured as some courses, Glenn’s presentation tends to wander around a bit dependent on the feedback coming from the students.
So to the first numbers rule, a property must deliver a 6-12k cash back at 75% LTV plus 200pcm positive cash flow after all costs and that is in the current market. If it fails this test then no deal or carry on negotiating until it does meet this criteria.
He then briefly covering his mentoring programme, without any hard sell, and we broke for a sandwich and snack lunch served just outside the room.
After lunch we got into more numbers and probably what we were all there for.
How do you structure a deal so that following buying with a mortgage through Glenn you can get all your money out at 75% LTV and even get a cash back legally without waiting for six months.
Well I can tell you that it can be done and that it is legal, and Glenn not only outlined the theory but also provided us with a couple of recent case histories.
How you/they do it, well Glenn runs this course every month on the last Saturday if you want to find out.
Now buying properties BMV is all about marketing, the vendor is not going to advertise himself that he will sell his property at 20% BMV, you have to find him. He has to answer an advert of yours and what is quite common along with press advertising are leaflets.
According to Glenn 20,000 leaflets brings in 15-20 enquiries which results in 3-5 visits and one possibly two deals. How you design the advert & leaflet is covered on the course. Approx marketing cost per property bought BMV is 1k.
What is BMV, 15%, 20%, 30% less? Glenn goes for 40%! He uses a technique he calls “nibbling” which is well named and whilst I have yet to try it I can see how it would work, which is half the battle, in that if you believe in what you are doing you are half way to succeeding or maybe even more than half way.
So go on the course and lean how to nibble your way to a cost that is a 40% discount on current value or 40% Behind Market Value.
So what else did Glenn cover, how to stop a repossession a day out from the bailiffs arriving or even on the same day. An indication of refit or spruce up costs for flip purposes.
Mid afternoon and we were introduced to a gentleman called Mark, an ex estate agent who now works for Glenn, gamekeeper turned poacher or vice versa, who spent about 45 minutes explaining how to both impress & deal with estate agents. I say impress because you need to stand out from all the other investors who walk into their offices and quickly become the agent’s first call when the deal of the week/month hits their office.
Before tea, Daren Pledger, who designed Glenn’s website. Useful because all of you, if you are serious about investing, need a web site, it increases your credibility like advertising in Yellow Pages used to.
After tea, with cakes! Glenn introduced Simon Zutshi who will be known to a number of you. He spent about 45 minutes explaining how to “buy” property using options. There were a number of variations but essentially the core was to agree an option to buy at a price (BMV) with the vendor and then either sell the property at a higher figure or let the property, effectively taking over the vendor’s mortgage payments. Again all this made sense and could prove very useful for investors with little or no cash funds. I understand that generally Glenn does not have guest speakers so this was a one off.
Simon was followed by Jim Haliburton of HMODaddy fame who spent another 45 minutes covering the basics of investing in HMO’s. Jim is a real character, not for everyone, but is very experienced in his field.
Amongst other points he has three rules:
Rule of 3, an HMO let by the room grosses about three times the income of the same property let as a single let.
Rule of 20, after 20 years the original purchase price of the property, which is then converted into an HMO, will roughly equal the gross rent.
Rule of 40 10, after 40 years, the gross rent of a house purchased and turned into an HMO will be about 10 times the purchase price.
For more information on HMO Daddy go to
Last but not least Glenn introduced a representative of the Utility Warehouse which you can find a link to on this site as we are also promoters of the Utility Warehouse. The gentleman spent about 30 minutes explaining the benefits of this utility company which all investors should join.
After this presentation we all made for the bar with Glenn. The day finally wrapped up at about 7.30pm though you could have left earlier if you had wanted to.
Likes & dislikes:
I liked the informal atmosphere, the opportunity to listen to other students experiences as the day progressed, the lack of any selling of any of Glenn’s other products & services at any time, Simon & Jim did try to sell some of their products & services but not overtly. I missed being able to rest my workbook on a hard flat surface and that’s about the only moan I’ve got other than the workbook fell apart.
Now to the cost, £ 500 plus vat for a single person, £ 750 for two people, can be unrelated, £ 100 plus vat pp to re-attend as a refresher.
Was it worth it? Yes but. Why but, because if you have heard Glenn speak at a Network evening such as the Berkshire Meet or at one of Steve Foleys conferences on BMV you might think that you had heard a lot of the subject matter covered during the day before.
In fact this is not the case, understandable Glenn cannot cover in 45 minutes at the other venues the subject matter he covers in about 5+ hours on this course.
Also he is unlikely to pass on his trade secrets or methods to a group who he has volunteered to speak to for little or no fee.
This is the first course that I have been on that specialised in BMV and I have no hesitation in recommending it both with regard to content, style & honesty.
Follow Up 4-03-09
On opening my email box on Wednesday morning following the course, I found an email from Glenn’s office with a load of attachments.
Two Words docs were about handling telephone enquiries, one Word doc covered the Mentoring Day offered by Glenn, another doc covered on-location visiting estate agents mentoring and there was an Option Agreement and a PDF file covering the Repossession Process plus 3 Excel Spreadsheets.
I found the spreadsheets very basic, probably better than nothing but could be a whole lot better presented with more info & calcs. The Option Agreement would be better written in “Plain English”! The Repossession Process was good and would be very helpful to anyone who is not familiar with the process. The two docs covering handling telephone enquiries were also good, if a bit basic, but as you use them you will customise them to suit your own delivery whilst hopefully retaining the structure. It is never easy to start with a clean sheet so even basic forms that least get you up and running!
If you require any further information please contact me by email david@buy-to-let.com.
As to investing in Milton Keynes with Glenn, we are investigating this and will report under Armchair Investments. We are an affiliate of Glenn’s.
Rob Moore & Mark Homer www.progressiveproperty.co.uk. Two very switched on lads operating in the BMV market in Peterborough both buying property for armchair investors and teaching DIY investors. Rob also lectures on Internet Marketing.
They regularly appear and speak at networking events so if you attend one where they are speaking you can get a flavour of where they are coming from and their style.
Most of the links to or on their website end up on another of these endless pages which would appear to quite repetitive. As to content well they don’t promise to make you an overnight millionaire but that is impression you get within seconds of hitting the site.
I quote from their internal link to their Buy their Book section "The 44 Most Closely Guarded Property Secrets Reveals: The Quickest, Easiest & Most Proven Way to Become a Property Millionaire Without Work, Time or Money Now in the Property *Crash*"
Their caps/bold and underline, not mine.
The 44 Most Closely Guarded Property Secrets are revealed in a book costing £ 19.97 inc p&p. This is worth buying as are most similar such products at around £ 20.
I haven’t attended any of there course yet but will be doing so and will report further. I have listened to them at a conference organised by Steve Foley www.ukiec.com plus a couple of networking events and they come over as sincere & knowledgeable. We are an affiliate.
John Lee & David Kyte www.propertycow.co.uk.
4-3-09 First and foremost it costs £ 100 to gain access to the content of this site bar being able to watch a couple of videos the first on their home page, takes about 12 minutes and involves John Lee covering various aspects of their site, at speed, on what you can expect for your money.
So what do you get for your £ 100. I don’t know because I have yet to spend £ 100, the main reason is that I would expect to have to devote a load of time during the 1st month to get my monies worth, time that I don’t have at the moment whilst I increase the content of this site.You can cease you monthly sub at any time. So maybe next month I will punt £ 100 at the site and let you know what is inside at a more leisurely pace.
That said these guys are again well known and popular on the circuit and David Kyte is an expert on web sites. You should be able to find John speaking at one of the network events. We are an affiliate.
Updated 22-4-09
Well maybe someone at Property Cow reads what we say on this site because it no longer costs £ 100 to find out what goes on behind closed doors, so to speak.
Now go to www.PropertyCow.co.uk and you will find a Home Page which goes into considerable detail on what you get for your money.
Since first writing about Property Cow I have spent some time with both John Lee & David Kyte and attended their Negotiation Workshop on the 20th April 2009 where I met a number of members.
Must declare an interest before continuing, David Kyte has agreed to become involved in the development of this site and in particular the Research section.
That said, there appears to be a clear split between these two guys regarding their knowledge and expertise, though there is also a degree of overlap. John is the stronger seller, motivator & property man whilst David is very strong on Internet matters & marketing.
So if it looks like the subject falls into the property pot you will probably get John and with anything Internet based will probably result in David appearing.
The workshop on the 20th April was very interesting, held on a Monday afternoon, 2pm -4.30pm at a hotel in Maidenhead, and attended by about 35 members. No selling of any services or products, but as the majority were already members of Property Cow there was effectively nothing to sell.
The greater part of the presentation was on negotiation, as the label said, and was delivered by John.
Thorough, very useful and to the point. John is a very good speaker, confident & knowledgeable about his subject, which was delivered without any padding within the time allowed.
David Kyte followed with an appraisal on Internet matters and made a very relevant point that buy-to-letters are, or should be, thinking about developing a property business that was saleable and not just thinking about or being involved in property investment. Again another very competent speaker and well worth listening to.
I don’t propose to go into great detail on what was covered as then you would not have any motivation to go.
Suffice to say that the Workshop was well worth £ 49, the non-member rate, members get to go for free, and, I repeat, there was no attempt to sell anything to those present, which included some non-members.
You can join Property Cow on a monthly subscription of £ 100 and remain a member for as long as you like and cancel whenever you like without any penalty.
Is it worth it?
Well you will have access to a very bright your man in John Lee, well he is certainly younger than me!, who thinks outside the box, which is often very useful.
You will also have access to David Kyte, who is regarded as being one of the leading UK, if not World experts, on SEO and other related matters as well as being property savvy.
You will also have access to Workshops where like minded people, other members, meet, talk and look at ways to help each other as well as developing their skills further.
My verdict, go for it.
Simon Zutshi www.propertyinvestorsnetwork.co.uk. This guy is well known on the circuit, saw him for the first time at one of Steve Foleys conferences and he came across as both knowledgeable and able to present his message.
He offers a monthly newsletter plus runs monthly networking meetings in six cities across the country at which there is an educational 1 hour seminar, no on selling he says. The cost is £30 on the door, £ 20 in London, advance booking or reservation is needed and can be sorted on his website. Payment by cash or cheque on the door, not in advance.
This network should not be confused with Vanish Patel’s propertynetworkingclub which runs monthly events in London, Birmingham & Manchester.
Simon then offers a 12 month Mastermind Programme and once again we are sort of talking telephone numbers but at least you do have the chance to meet & listen to Simon at either one of his monthly meetings or at others where he is speaking before making up your mind.
Ranjan Bhattacharya's www.succeedinproperty.com if only because the property experts in his line up are a veritable who's who in buy to let.
Ranjan offers a huge series of online audio & video seminars which are added to "weekly" and available on a subscription basis varying from just under £12 to £47 monthly inc VAT dependent on the level of membership. Missing seems to be anything on law & regulations but he lists experts that can cover this area.
I sort of like Rod Thomas's www.property-investment-profits.co.uk. Whilst this site goes on and on like the next review, must have had the same developer, the Nine Elements of PIPS, about a quarter of the way down the page, make sense and are in a logical order. I don't like the £497 price tag that jumps to over £600 with shipping & VAT in the UK. The course does come with a 30 day money back guarantee which should be long enough for any serious investor to evaluate PIPS.
I also sort of like Parmdeep Vadesha's www.thetycoonmethod.com. There is some interesting content but the pages just go on and on and on... and we are also back into talking phone numbers which makes me very nervous.
I had to go to bottom of the page and start the process of buying to find out the actual price inc shipping, £106.95 with a lifetime money back guarantee, at least I think that is what is meant by one of the boxes.
Anyway at the price I would buy, this guy is well known on the circuit, is a successful property investor and also a good speaker. His apartment in Spain by the way, which you can find under Motivational Goal Setting, is well worth the money too and accurately described, I own one in the same building except my view is even better as are the furnishings, and my flat has a flat screen TV! So if his is not available you can try mine at about the same rate.
HMO's (Houses in Multiple Occupation):
If you are interested in HMO's (Houses in Multiple Occupation), then outside of WIN who offer a 3-day Advanced Training Course run by an HMO landlord, there appear to be only two options open to you.
Jim Haliburton's www.hmodaddy.com/.
I have not been on one of his courses and once again we are back into the world of becoming a millionaire but I know that he has a very good reputation in the industry, have heard him speak at one of Steve Foley’s conferences, lovely guy and very down to earth.
HMO is a very complex area so quite how he is able to cover the subject in 3 hours, 10am - 1pm, then lunch then site visits till 5pm defeats me even if he is giving you a 200 page manual.
Maybe you need to have done a broad based buy to let course first such as our Masterclass and this is not intended as a plug.
Also his course costs leave little to spare, his courses have to be some of the most expensive on offer at £ 795 plus 50% for your partner and I would need to be very certain of the content before applying.
I would also need to have decided to definitely want to invest in HMO's where you will need more hard cash over and above the cost of this course to cover the deposit and other expenses.
I don't doubt that Jim Haliburton knows what he is talking about, the question is can you absorb enough in the time allowed to make it worthwhile? You do get 12 month’s access post course to Jim by email or phone but is that enough?
Matthew Moody www.yourhmoexpert.com & www.hmocashflowsuccesssystem.com/
His site yourhmoexpert is more information than sales, for information on his services, courses & mentoring, go to hmocashflow…We are sort of back into telephone numbers and at £ 497 for the day’s course, £ 745.50 for a couple, you need to be reasonably certain that HMO’s are for you.
The courses are held at a hotel so there appears to be no opportunity to visit Matthew’s HMO’s unlike Jim Haliburton above.
Haven’t met the man of spoken to him yet and he hasn’t appeared at any or the networking events that I have been to but that doesn’t mean that the message is wrong.
Renovating Property:
If you are interested in renovating property, which is a way to make serious genuine money, no millions, but certainly tens of thousands with almost an unlimited amount of stock to play with anywhere in the UK and abroad.
We at Buy To Let do this, in fact it is one of our specialist areas. We have completely renovated over 50 properties in the Valleys of South Wales which has involved completely gutting the properties so as to be able to site the bathroom on the 1st floor without sacrificing a bedroom. Also the resultant tax break means that it is possible to develop a cash flow positive portfolio and never pay any tax on the positive cash flow. see workshops.
Dr Dennis Coote, www.renovationriches.com/ haven't met the man yet but will be doing so shortly. If he has renovated over 400 properties then he will have learnt a thing or two and at £97.00 you can't go wrong.
This is not yet a comprehensive list of educators, courses or seminars. I am aware of others but I have taken the decision not to list anyone offering a course that I am not happy with from the limited amount of information on their site and in advance of talking to them.
Omission should not be taken as a no no. That will come in time!!
There are also some free courses, which I think even includes a free lunch, run by The Money Centre, a mortgage broker, www.themoneycentre.co.uk. They take place across the country and are a part of their marketing. Their course lasts from 10am to 3pm which does not give you a whole lot of time to learn about buy-to-let but they do offer a free buy to let guide.
If anyone has been through any courses or seminars that are not listed here and thinks they should be included email me and we will take a look.
Also, as has been said, any feedback on any of the above would be greatly appreciated.
Affiliates
Where we advise you that we are an “affiliate” of the business concerned it means that we receive a commission on any sales that we generate through this site. For us to be paid you need to click on our link to their site then they know that you came from us.
This helps keep many aspects of the site free for you. We try not to let our affiliation affect any of our reporting but that is for you to judge.
Latest Buy To Let news
Is the market stabilizing?
We have been advised of the following events.
The events listed below do not include regular Networking Events which can be found in the Networking Events Directory on this site
If we have any comment to make on any of these events we will do so and include any links that are available but remember where a speaker is mentioned it is an ideal opportunity, often for a few £’s (entrance fee), “to see & hear before you buy” rather than pay out for what may be an expensive seminar, course or workshop.
A lot of what is featured on this events page is low cost because the promoters (networks excepted) hope that you will buy into one of their more expensive programmes.
These events are still well worth going to, you will meet and hear from an expert and then you can decide whether to hand over your credit card!
Most of the content has been cut & pasted into the page, hence it looks like a dog’s breakfast, but for the moment this is how it is or not at all!
If you are running an event and would like to be featured on this events page email the details to events@buy-to-let.com
Property Giants Event –Steve Foley
Friday 10th – Sunday 12th July 2009
A whole weekend of learning from the experts
Full details here on buy-to-let.com
Landlord & Buy-to-Let Show
Olympia Conference Centre, London
9-10 September 2009
http://www.landlordshow.info
The Property Investor Show
ExCel London
23-25 September 2009
Landlord & Buy-to-Let Show
NEC, Birmingham
16-17 October 2009
http://www.landlordshow.info
