How buy-to-let turned into a mug’s game

WTF?_2

So if the bookie is betting to less than 100% you just shove an equal amount on to every horse and you are sure to come out ahead ....

Would a bookie allow you to place such a bet though? Surely he'd figure out that he'd screwed up and decline to accept your stake?

GDB2222

!!!!!!? wrote: »

So if the bookie is betting to less than 100% you just shove an equal amount on to every horse and you are sure to come out ahead ....

Would a bookie allow you to place such a bet though? Surely he'd figure out that he'd screwed up and decline to accept your stake?

He's still losing money with every bet he takes (on average).

jaydeeuk1

!!!!!!? wrote: »

So if the bookie is betting to less than 100% you just shove an equal amount on to every horse and you are sure to come out ahead ....

Would a bookie allow you to place such a bet though? Surely he'd figure out that he'd screwed up and decline to accept your stake?

No not an equal amount as it depends on odds - a horse at odds of 3.00 would have a stake different to one of 300. Bookies would love you if you backed every horse. (assuming the overround is over 100%!)

If you see a book with less than 100% overround then at least one of the odds would be out and therefore 'palped' (cancelled)

kennyboy66_2

!!!!!!? wrote: »

So if the bookie is betting to less than 100% you just shove an equal amount on to every horse and you are sure to come out ahead ....

Would a bookie allow you to place such a bet though? Surely he'd figure out that he'd screwed up and decline to accept your stake?

Yes - but I've never seen a bookie betting under-round (less than 100%) on the win market. You do get certain races when there is an under-round on the place market but the calculation becomes much more complex as to bet on the place market you have to also have a bet on the win market (ie an each way bet with traditional bookies).

You do get different prices with different bookies that would allow you to guarantee a profit (aka an "arb") - there is a whole section on MSE devoted to this & exploiting bookies offers.
I would say that getting such "arbs" is pretty hard work for the rewards.

mystic_trev

I have developed a rather ghoulish pastime. It involves thumbing through auction results for repossessed apartments in city centres, then checking what those same properties sold for when new, a year or two ago. My record so far is a two-bedroom flat in a development called Beauchamp Place, Coventry, which was auctioned in September for £85,000 — less than 40 per cent of the £214,000 for which it was sold new in June 2006.

That flat has, however, performed better as an investment than the shares of the company that led the buy-to-let boom. The share price of Bradford & Bingley, the former building society whose subsidiary Mortgage Express lent more money to property investors than any other in 2007, collapsed from 450 pence to 20 pence before being suspended when the government moved in to nationalise it. There will be no more multi-million-pound loans for budding tycoons whose business model was based on the fateful premise that house prices only ever go up.

Full article

http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the-magazine/business/2299751/the-unravelling-of-the-great-buytolet-scam.thtml

stevetodd

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Yes - but I've never seen a bookie betting under-round (less than 100%) on the win market. You do get certain races when there is an under-round on the place market but the calculation becomes much more complex as to bet on the place market you have to also have a bet on the win market (ie an each way bet with traditional bookies).

You do get different prices with different bookies that would allow you to guarantee a profit (aka an "arb") - there is a whole section on MSE devoted to this & exploiting bookies offers.
I would say that getting such "arbs" is pretty hard work for the rewards.

I have seen it, but it's very rare and usually there is a glaring error on his board, it's beter just to back that one horse in that instance.

Problem nowadays is the computers show the bookie that the place book is dreadful (ie the software displays '85%' ie in a 16 runner handicap) and they bet win only. Occasionally we used to bet without the favourite in these races thus creating a good place book (ie now 15 runners 1/5 odds 1,2,3, but as you probably know these races tend to be around 4/1 the field so not ideal for 'without betting' as it's better to have a fav that people struggle to see past ie evens or odds on

Sir_Humphrey

As someone who is waiting to buy, why bother with Ladbrokes?

If prices were (and this is not a prediction) to fall 50%, taking into account the interest paid on the mortgage, I would roughly save (in cash terms of course) the sum of the peak price. So if a £250k house fell to £125k, I gain £250k (in cash terms). This is based on the rule of thumb that you pay back twice the sum of your mortgage.

As an aside, my working class uncle and aunt have just STR'ed their house in a rough part of their town and are now renting in a much nicer area. Their motivation was getting out of the dodgy area, but nonetheless they have been very astute.

kennyboy66_2

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

As someone who is waiting to buy, why bother with Ladbrokes?

I'm not.
I bought 9 years ago and hope never to have to move again.
I just thought it was a great bet, and I am fond of the occasional punt - its just in my nature!

WTF?_2

Gotta agree - saving money by waiting to buy looks like a surefire 100% no-lose proposition right now

Riq

brit1234 wrote: »

Landlord Wall of Shame

Ajay Ahuja - Idiot:mad:

He has 3 monitors. He is more of a man than any of you will ever be




EDIT: I am at the Hotel de Mum & Dad squirreling my salary away. Long may the slide continue.