Mainstream media article says it's not lending, its prices.

System

http://www.3plus1plan.com to save everyone else doing it.

the_flying_pig

ahamaton wrote: »

Has anybody heard of this, you can find the website by googling: The 3+1 Plan, by Brett Alegre-Wood
I am reading the guys book at the moment and it does seem very interesting. However, want to make sure I am not getting sucked in by property !!!!!!. There is an underlying premise that property prices will rise which is the bit that makes me nervous. However, it is with a balanced realism that this is a trend over a long term and that prices can and will drop at points. It also acknowledges the risks of over borrowing and projecting the full costs up front. However, property could obviously be a big investment or a big mistake if approached unwisely which is a mistake cleverer people than I have made before. I'm not expecting anybody to get out a crystal ball or make a decision for me and I do expect to take an element of risk if investing in property but can I ask if any of you hear alarm bells ring when you look through this guys site or if you know anything about the guy?

hello m8.

had a quick look at the UK amazon page

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0953911985/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_5?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addFiveStar

bears all the hallmarks of worthless get-rich-quick bullsh1t.

it has squillions of gushing five-star reviews by 'amazon users' who, surprise surprise, haven't reviewed any other books on amazon [i.e. they're very likely sock puppets created by the author].

the two or three unfavourable reviews look far more credible

...The thing that really bugs me about this book is that the examples only appear to serve one purpose, to distract you into thinking that you can make easy money in the current economic climate. It's important to point out that there clearly appears to be a vested interest here in that vast majority of the latter part of the book is advertising the author's property services.

"Pensions, stock market investments and savings no longer bring in serious profits"

The claim against pensions is irresponsible as self-select SIPPs are cheap and easy to run. Not sure where the 30-40% in fees come from but just a few minutes on the internet will show you its not true. Stock market investments are volatile and risky but 10% in the last year and 40% total in the last two years can hardly be called "no longer bringing in serious profits".

Adding to this nonsense we have lines like "considering that property doubles around every 7-10 years, or about 9% annualised" I would love to believe this, and this is coming from a book first published in 2009 - it beggars belief. If this was true then you could make 30% a year from leveraging, without even trying hard. Is it really this easy to make money? Of course it isn't! I would steer clear of any book that tries to mislead the reader into believing such huge capital appreciation stories.

Don't get me wrong, there is money to be made, but I find unrealistic numbers and stories really off-putting. When these are combined with distracting examples (they are pointlessly complicated) and advertisement of services the whole thing starts to look like one big sales pitch, rather than a book full of useful advice...

...After reading this book i was compelled to write my first ever review. I cannot stress how much of a waste of money this book was. There is a ridiculous amount of repetition. The book talks about the '3+1 plan' and 'set and forget'. Well quite simply its use leverage to buy a first property. Hope the house rises in value so you can remortgage and withdraw equity to put down as the deposit for the next mortgage. Rinse and repeat till you have 3 rental properties and 1 house to live in. You pay a management agent to manage the properties to 'set and forget'. This book is padded to 160 pages when 5 pages could do.

What drove me to write this review was that on page 161 there is the 'set and forget' basic checklist. This has gems such as - 'upgrade your status at the bank', Mortgage cost averaging, 'meeting your bank manager and getting what you want' and 'knowing who to call during 'one of those' moments'.

wow. I'd buy a book that had such useful chapters. But this book does not cover these items despite being in his checklist for success. It figures that the author talks at one point about running 'millionaire property seminars'.
...

...Bought this book after reading some decent reviews, myself as one with decent financial knowledge but little experience meant that it was like reading a very basic textbook aimed at teenagers or very uneducated. finished it in 2/3 hours which shows how thin the material was. he introduced the most basic concepts (buying property uses leverage, you need to get a mortgage) wowee, if you didnt know that you are in serious trouble. bascially I could summarise the book in 500 words. To add to that he is subtly selling his property investment companys service all through the book/the last chapter in particular. he is also incorrect in his facts on why property is apparently the only way to create/store wealth. worth a cursory browse at best, I did laugh/throw it against a wall when I finished it. ...

hope this helps.

Percy1983

ukcarper wrote: »

Median full time pay Oldham £22120 x 4 = £88,400 so £98k with 10% deposit
30% percentile £17,196 x 4 =£68,784 so £76k with 10% deposit.

On rightmove there are over 800 houses within 3 miles of Oldham under £80k and over 1000 under £100k are you saying they are all in undesirable areas.

To be honest I don't look at every house on rightmove for obvious reasons, but once I shorten the criteria I will only find 3-4 houses I would consider looking at, as I don't have my deposit I won't bother with any of them just yet.

ukcarper

Percy1983 wrote: »

To be honest I don't look at every house on rightmove for obvious reasons, but once I shorten the criteria I will only find 3-4 houses I would consider looking at, as I don't have my deposit I won't bother with any of them just yet.

I don’t see any reason why you should rush into buying at the moment and if you think you can save enough to get what you want first time that’s good. I was just trying to show that someone in Oldham on the median wage for that area could buy at a reasonable salary multiple. Of course that doesn’t mean that it’s the same all over the country in fact I think they would be lucky to get a 1 bed flat where I am.

Graham_Devon

Surrounding all this arguing that it's not the price. Just found out this morning I have a 0% wage rise this year and the parking permit (council) I need to park for work is going up 11.3%.

Lovely.

System

Probably because they monitor your internet activity

Percy1983

ukcarper wrote: »

I don’t see any reason why you should rush into buying at the moment and if you think you can save enough to get what you want first time that’s good. I was just trying to show that someone in Oldham on the median wage for that area could buy at a reasonable salary multiple. Of course that doesn’t mean that it’s the same all over the country in fact I think they would be lucky to get a 1 bed flat where I am.

By all means I have never said there is much if an issue locally, this is partly due to prices are back to 05 levels here and haven't 'recovered'. As you see I am going for the long term goal and plan to save a few more months to go staright to the end target rather than 'working my way up the ladder'. We are rushing to save every penny we can but once we have a suitable deposit we will happily sit back and watch the deposit grow while waiting for the right house.

As I say I am not arguing the points due to my own circumstances, just because housing is affordable around me I can see that up and down the country there is many like me who don't have a chance.

ukcarper

Percy1983 wrote: »

By all means I have never said there is much if an issue locally, this is partly due to prices are back to 05 levels here and haven't 'recovered'. As you see I am going for the long term goal and plan to save a few more months to go staright to the end target rather than 'working my way up the ladder'. We are rushing to save every penny we can but once we have a suitable deposit we will happily sit back and watch the deposit grow while waiting for the right house.

As I say I am not arguing the points due to my own circumstances, just because housing is affordable around me I can see that up and down the country there is many like me who don't have a chance.

I agree but what you don’t seem to understand is that there have been other times when it has been more or as difficult to buy as it is now.

Graham_Devon

ukcarper wrote: »

I agree but what you don’t seem to understand is that there have been other times when it has been more or as difficult to buy as it is now.

Indeed...and look what happened after every single one of those times.

House prices fell away, and the affordability ran under the average.

ukcarper

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Indeed...and look what happened after every single one of those times.

House prices fell away, and the affordability ran under the average.

Mostly due to real time falls though.

You seem to think I arguing against a crash to be honest I haven’t got a clue what is going to happen.

My main complaints are that some of the younger posters keep saying how easy it was in the past whereas it depends when in the past you bought and that prices a vastly overpriced when they are not, overpriced yes but not vastly.