Investing In Property

Jeff_Djevdet

Hey,

Has anyone here got any success stories from investing in property, and if so, how did you do it?

DarrenL

Hi Jeff,

Yes I have made some money with this. As you know, now is a great time to acquire yourself property since there are great bargains available. This is due to all the foreclosures, causing a fall in property prices.

I buy foreclosures and fix them up. Depending on the amount of money I spend on the renovations, I decide whether to sell it or rent it out. When it is a quick and less expensive fix, I tend to sell them. When more money is put into the property, I prefer to hold onto it for some time and rent it out.

I hope this will give you some insight. Remember, property is a long term investment so patience (and location!) is the key

tradecarbon

Jeff_Djevdet wrote: »

Hey,

Has anyone here got any success stories from investing in property, and if so, how did you do it?

Jeff, I bought my flat in East London 15 years ago for 44k and sold it three years ago for 144k. I took the money and moved to Spain. If you are interesting in long term investment, I would suggest buying in Spain NOW. PS I worked in Worthing from 2001 - 2003 good times.

Jeff_Djevdet

Thanks for the replys Sounds like you are a seasoned pro at this DarrenL. It's good to hear that it is working for individuals across the web.

tradecarbon that is a massive return! Well done! I love Worthing, can't really compare it to Spain though haha. What were you doing in here?

Reaper

tradecarbon - before somebody reports you I suggest you remove the advertising from your signature as it is not allowed in the site rules.

gadgetmind

This whole thread smells rather spammy. I guess someone who got some tatty old property they are desperate to shift.

Still, I suppose it makes a change from gold and silver ramping.

Xbigman

A friend who works in the same warehouse as I do and does the same job has had some success with property. He was a builder until 16 years ago when his back gave out so he knows property.
What amazes me is the shere amount of miles he clocks up looking at anything he's interested in. Research and good connections are key. He likes to look at properties either side of lunch time, so he can buy the estate agent lunch. Pub lunches are pretty cheap and when you're spending £30 or £40 on fuel its not much more for some invaluable local knowledge.
He also has huge patience. He'll often watch a property for literally years. Anything that doesn't sell he will go over with a fine tooth comb and puts in a low, sometimes silly, cash offer. These offers do get accepted sometimes. If the offer is turned down he leaves it on the table and sits back and waits. If someone else outbids him he moves on without a second thought.

I recall when I was thinking of buying a flat in Teignmouth I showed him the glossy picture from the estate agent. He immediately pulls out a magnifying glass and goes over it. He asked me several searching questions I couldn't answer. IE all the gas exhausts for each flat were on my outer wall, why? All the windows were the same, were there restrictions on style's I could replace them with? Were the internal walls square, no, then he thought it was an iffy conversion. That sort of thing.

Good connections, research, patience.



X

atush

I agree a little spammy lol.

I bought a barn(s) for 70K, added 130K and it was worth 300K immediately. Now, 15 years later it is worth anywhere from 800K to 1.1Mil. But I live there, so it doesn't count as I am not selling it right now. If and when I did it would move into investment territory.

My holiday home in france cost me 5K 20 years ago. I put 20-25K incl furnishings into it, and it is worth about 60-90K euros- hard to say with the economy and lack of similar proerties on the market. Gites tend to sell to other UK/europeans as not many frnech people go for them. the 60K euros is what equivalent places that remain unrestored hovels w/o proper anything incl power, sanitation, kithens and bathrooms are going for currently lol.

i have a house in the USA that I bought for the ewuiv of 100K 4 years ago, that is still worth about 100K (the price has gone down in the USA but the pound has gone up). So it has cost me money, but I do use it 2/3 times per year and will spend 6+ months there eventually when I retire.

Property (investment or to live in) can be a good investment, esp if you buy when prices are low during a recession. But there are risks, so you need to take these into acct.

Daniel_Elkington

Can we introduce some balance, anyone got any bad stories about property investment?

Also remember Capital Gains Tax, if you aren't living in a property you have to pay this.

Investing in a high risk shares portfolio in a S&S ISA may yield about the same, but you get more money to spend at the end due to not having to pay any tax!

gadgetmind

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

Can we introduce some balance, anyone got any bad stories about property investment?

I know a couple of people who made a few bob by "flipping" city centre flats, piled the whole lot on some more (off plan, of course) and lost everything.

Successful property investing is hard work and needs a lot of research.

Ifts

There is money to be made in property, especially if you can do a bit of DIY work yourself and more importantly have the time to do it.

IMO from about the mid 90's to ~2008 it was very easy to make a decent return from property. Plenty of cheap money and prices only going up.

Before now you could buy a house requiring a bit of work like updating (new bathroom & kitchen) and a lick of paint. Get it on a interest only mortgage for say 3 or 5 years fixed, after the work is complete you would rent it out ride the property price boom for the 3 or 5 year fix on the mortgage and then sell it and pay the mortgage company back the capital. Not only would you benefit from the increase in the property price but you would also get a good return each month as the rent would be 2 to 3 times the price of the mortgage payment on the interest only mortgage.

But things have changed a little, interest only mortgages are harder to obtain now and property prices are rather flat at the moment (not shooting up like before), not as easy as it has been but there are deals to be had if you look.
Also the rental market is good at the moment, so if you did go for a property with a view to renting it out there should be plenty of takers.

There are ways of getting more from a property by renting it out multiple occupancy, but this involves more work but if you can put in the effort you will get a better return each month going down the multiple occupancy route.

If you are wanting to just do up the property and sell it on, maybe go for a property with option to extend (stpp) add a bit of value to it and sell it on. Even adding an extra bedroom will add value. Also corner houses with large gardens can be good, buy and extend (sttp) and possibly convert to 2 apartments to add value.

Going into property with a bit of spare money helps, whether this is to help with doing it up or if you go down the rent it out route it helps to cover any void periods that you may have.

Do be wary of those ramping up property, it can be far from an easy ride, there are plenty of accidental landlords at the moment stuck in negative equity and who's only hope is to leave the property rented out in the hope of prices recovering some time soon.
Although the cynic in me does feel those in the investment industry sometimes over state the risk in property (prices dropping, single asset class, mortgage rates shooting up) as if they don't want your money to go into property but instead invested in some other financial product from which there is a greater chance of them benefiting from it.

Like any investment, if you want a greater return on your money than leaving it in a deposit account there will always be risks, its how you manage these risks is what counts.