Buy to let property website - legit or a scam?

Guest101

angelbaby wrote: »

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?

If the comapny had an asset worth £70k and sold it for £50k, dont you think their accounting leave something to be desired?!

AdrianC

angelbaby wrote: »

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.

I'm not entirely convinced that's the case for the SE, and it certainly isn't for more "affordable" parts of the country.

Pixie5740

Go for it OP. You are obviously convinced that you can buy a £70k property for £50k using Empire Properties so don't let us stop you.

angelbaby

Guest101 wrote: »

If the comapny had an asset worth £70k and sold it for £50k, dont you think their accounting leave something to be desired?!

Possibly not, if the asset was a repossessed property they bought for £25K, they receive finder's fees, and can repeat the process over and over again...

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Go for it OP. You are obviously convinced that you can buy a £70k property for £50k using Empire Properties so don't let us stop you.

I haven't even decided if property is where I want to invest my money yet, so I'm certainly not going full steam ahead just yet:rotfl:I admit I am playing devil's advocate a little bit though, just because I want to look at every angle before I dismiss something. So far lots of the objections on this thread have been from people who assume that the companies I've mentioned are simply pointing suckers towards rightmove or auction sites, which obviously isn't the case. If we know there are companies who buy houses cheaply because the owners want a quick sale, and we know they also sell these houses on... I just don't get why it's considered so impossible that people might be able to use that to their advantage...?

mrginge

angelbaby wrote: »

Call me gullible, but what am I missing?

You are gullible.

If the house is genuinely worth 70k, why is this company offering to sell it for 50k? Why not put it in an auction where it will inevitably make close to the 70k ? That will dispose of it much quicker and with much less cost than advertising it on a crappy website to a limited number of would be property tycoons.

Could it be that they like to promote one or two of these fantastic deals in their marketing, but when you actually sign up you find that all their actual properties are not quite such great deals?

Do you have to pay an upfront fee to gain access to their amazing properties?

AndyT678

angelbaby wrote: »

Possibly not, if the asset was a repossessed property they bought for £25K, they receive finder's fees, and can repeat the process over and over again...

If you owned a house that somebody wanted to buy from you for £70,000 would you say, "no. I won't sell my house to you. I'm going to advertise on the internet and try to find somebody who will pay me £50,000."

There are so, so many horror stories of people, normally from SE England, who see "bargain" houses for sale up north and think, "wow that's so cheap, how could I possibly go wrong".

Doozergirl

Was I the only one watching daytime TV yesterday?

Choices were on "Rip Off Britain". What a dump that property was! The buyer was clearly wet behind the ears, but I wouldn't recommend companies like that precisely because it stops you doing proper research.

It will be on iPlayer.

angelbaby

Wow, what amazing timing, thanks Doozergirl! Choices kept calling me over and over again; apart from the girl sounding about 12, I was put off by their fees (they do indeed say that you're not allowed to see their properties unless you pay up).

It does seem a bit insane that the guy bought it without looking at it, and alarm bells didn't ring when he wasn't allowed to choose his own solicitor.

Now to look up that buy-to-let expert that Rip-off Britain mentioned...

selloptape

Britain's Benefit Tenants (ch 4 - might still be on 4od) and Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords (ch 5) are a bit shock doc but might also be worth a watch.

Good luck

Pixie5740

I signed up to The Empire Property Group for !!!!!! and giggles and just got details of this property sent to me.



The properties aren't under market value at all. They are advertised at what they are worth on the market today in their current state. (As if we hadn't figured this out already.) So you buy it for £93k, spend lots of money modernising it and then you might be able to sell it for £125k. Don't forget to factor in the £1k fee just to reserve this money pit.