Buy to let property website - legit or a scam?

fishpond

AdrianC wrote: »

Successful investments are made by buying when prices are low, not high.

Property prices that seem high now may appear to be cheap by this time next year, or the year after.

angelbaby

fishpond wrote: »

Property prices that seem high now may appear to be cheap by this time next year, or the year after.

That's kind of what I'm thinking... I can't afford to buy a house for myself down south, but I could afford (probably more than one) in one of the cheaper areas. And as a percentage, I suspect rental yield is going to be higher than the interest rates of a bank, which is where my cash is sitting right now...

AdrianC

fishpond wrote: »

Property prices that seem high now may appear to be cheap by this time next year, or the year after.

They may. Or... they may not. Prace bets.

One thing's for sure, this is NOT the bottom of the market. This is high in the market - the only question is whether the market will go higher or not...

Is that a wise bet for somebody for whom it is a VERY considerable chunk of their total wealth?

There are many, MANY safer ways to improve on bank returns.

RAS

Property prices in the north have actually dropped in many recent years; considerably in many places. In the North properties are now valued at a whacking 1.2% more than they were ten years ago.

Rental values are low because employment opportunities are low and wages low.

jacko74

Plenty of BTLers selling up round my way so dive in and get buying... don't worry about being the 'greater fool' and all that.

fishpond

AdrianC wrote: »

They may. Or... they may not. Prace bets.

One thing's for sure, this is NOT the bottom of the market. This is high in the market - the only question is whether the market will go higher or not...

Is that a wise bet for somebody for whom it is a VERY considerable chunk of their total wealth?

There are many, MANY safer ways to improve on bank returns.

For example?

AdrianC

fishpond wrote: »

For example?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/peer-to-peer-lending for starters.
I can happily attest that ~6.5% is perfectly possible in Ratesetter - safely - and nearly 10% over the past year from Funding Circle (although recent changes have left many very unhappy). If you don't mind a bit more risk, then 12% from Saving Stream. And that's just a few of the many platforms. If you want residential property, then there's House Crowd or Property Moose.

But P2P is far from the only option, either. The investments board is that way ->

PasturesNew

angelbaby wrote: »

.....most of the real "bargain" houses seem to be up North....

Up North they'd known as the hellholes nobody would even drive through with an armed guard.....

If they were that "cheap" in their own area their own, local, landlords will have filled their boots.

G_M

Most people buying a property do so either via an estate agent, who charges a fee, or at an auction which....... charges a fee.

Add in a 3rd party to find a property being sold via an estate agent or an auction, and you add in an additional fee (£4K you say!).

So they claim to find cheap properties? What guarantee?

As for letting, most landlords either use a letting agent (which charge a fee) or DIY, for no fee. Add in a 3rd party, and you add another fee.

If you want to benefit from the possible increase in property prices, either

* invest in a property unit trust or similar (ideally via within an ISA wrapper), and sit back or
* become a landlord, cut out as many of the intermediaries as possible (agent, property investment company etc), and DIY

This company seems to claim to offer you "access to our database of auction property".

Well, auctions are all public, they all advertise, the properties being sold at auction are all identifiable. Why pay huge sums, cutting into your profits, to be given information you can find for yourself?

:eek:


* New landlords: advice, information & links

* Letting agents: how should a landlord select or sack?

What you are really doing, is being lazy, and trusting someone to make you rich. Spend some time learning what is involved with finding & buying a property, finding a tenant, and managing a letting.
Or if you don't have the time, ability, or interest, stick your cash in the property stock market.

angelbaby

Wouldn't sellers be the ones paying fees to estate agents?! I know auction houses sometimes charge for administration.

Thanks to AdrianC for those alternative investment ideas - I’d heard of peer to peer lending but was slightly put off by the risks involved, so it’s good to hear from someone who actually has experience of them. My thinking behind investing in property is that if the absolute worst happens and I buy a hellhole moneypit, I can always live in it and at least I’ll have a roof over my head.

I would have loved to be able to buy when the market was at rock bottom, but I didn’t have the money back then. As far as I can tell, the only way house prices are going to be falling is if fewer buyers are able to get mortgages due to the base rate rising. Right now we have such a severe housing shortage versus rapid population growth that prices aren’t going to drop substantially any time soon, so I figure that now might be as good a time as any to invest.

As for being “lazy”, G_M, this is just the beginning of my research into property investment; I wanted to hear from people who’ve actually had first-hand experience. I also want to make intelligent choices; for me, it wouldn’t be particularly effective use of my time to drive up to County Durham or Liverpool and trawl the streets trying to get a feel for the area, or go to lots of auctions. Of course I could look on rightmove and find a house in Manchester for £20K, but if that’s the price of every house on the street and nobody wants to live there, then it’s not a bargain. If I buy a house at an auction it may be cheap, but it won’t be “below market value” - it’ll be a house that needs a ton of expensive work doing to it.

People keep saying that these companies aren’t offering anything you wouldn’t find for yourself on zoopla, but that’s kind of the point: they are! The properties they have on their books are exclusive to them, evidently coming directly from sellers who need quick cash, so those houses are never making it to the open market.

If a company like Empire Property Group or Properties discounted (who are both members of the Property Ombudsman) have a house on sale for £50k and they claim its market value is £70k - and you go and look at that street via Zoopla and see that yes, the sold prices for similar properties are £70K, rent prices are also what they’ve said, and you’re free to view it and do all the surveying and normal property-buying stuff you’d do in any other circumstances... I dunno, that just doesn’t sound as ridiculous and crazy as everybody here is saying. Call me gullible, but what am I missing?