Experian®, the global information services company, today revealed a 23 per cent jump in attempted mortgage fraud rates between April and June 2012. Examples of this being residential mortgages being used to fund buy-to-let purchases and in some cases, buy-to-let mortgages being used to raise larger mortgages than lenders would normally consider based on income […]

Readers response letter to the article entitled “Landlords should not be allowed to let their own properties” in which our reader lists seven benefits to tenants of dealing directly with a landlord in response to …. “give me 6 good reasons why these other not their fault necessarily but unaware Landlords should be allowed to. If you get […]

Property118 Columnists HMO Landlady and Ben Reeve-Lewis have had their book “Renting HMOs Sussed” published and it is now available to purchase via Amazon. If you are a regular reader of Property118 you will know that both Serena (HMO Landlady) and Ben are known for “saying it as they see it“. Neither of them pull […]

The phenomenon of crowdfunding (the collective effort of a large number of individuals who network and pool their resources) is growing exponentially in popularity as a way to fund software development, scientific research, arts projects, small businesses and, through companies like The House Crowd, property investment.

The Manchester Building Society has launched two new 25 year fixed rate BuyToLet mortgage products with a 5.74%  and 5.99% notional rate. In the years I have been working in this industry and certainly since the popular advent of BuytoLet I have never before seen a 25 year fixed rate BuytoLet mortgage. The longest term […]

My brother and I have decided to sell 9 of the properties in our portfolio. The purpose is to raise additional working capital to do more local refurb and flip deals. We are making between £30,000 and £60,000 a deal but we can only do one or two a year within our current resources. Therefore, […]

I’ve recently had a heated exchange of emails with a chap called Mike who’s opinion is that “landlords should not be allowed to let their own properties”. I invited him to produce an article as he set me a challenge and I wanted him to offer his challenge publicly to the readership of Property118. Mike refused on […]

Hi Mark I have a question for you and your readers regarding traditional estate agents vs fixed fee online estate agents if you think it’s worthy of publishing. I’ve never tried these fixed fee agencies that keep springing up, I tend just to stick with traditional agents.

I spent most of yesterday with a lovely couple from Luton who emailed me asking for some guidance. After exchanging several emails we decided to meet and they came over to Norfolk. They have six buy to let properties at the moment, a decent liquidity fund and plenty of equity in properties. They wanted advice […]

If you want to get your phone ringing off the hook next time you advertise a property to let just add the words “DSS Tenants and Pets Considered subject to guarantees.” In this readers letter yesterday several landlords shared their horror and dare I say naivety of the law in some of the comments they left.

As I sifted through the post this morning I thought to myself ‘how time flies‘ – my landlords insurance is up for renewal again. It’s nowhere near as painful as it used to be though. Several years ago it dawned on me that for some reason a very high percentage of landlords insurance policies are […]

I have a property related question regarding Local Authority Homeless policy. My local authority advises tenants to ignore section 21 notices and to stay in the property until a court order / bailiffs arrive. If the tenant does not do this my council deems the tenants to have made themselves voluntarily homeless and they will […]

Immediate, Income Generating Student Accommodation from Sept 2012

When it comes to deciding where & how to invest, one of the most vital things a novice investor can do is to become an expert on due diligence and research … not just of potential property deals, but also of people and companies offering portfolio building services, joint ventures, mentoring and deal sourcing. The […]

As there are so many experts in the area of DSS over-payments (or LHA as it’s now called) I am going to open up this topic for our readers to provide Eve with the advice she has requested in her email to me which I’ve copied below ….

As we all know, the landlord’s most dreaded expense is void periods and I am always looking at innovative ways of trying to achieve the “holy grail” – 100% tenant occupancy – 100% of the time. Renting to DSS tenants (as discussed in DSS tenants – another issue) can drastically reduce our voids but, as […]

John D Rockefeller, the richest man who ever lived, once said “buy when there is blood in the streets”. Warren Buffet, no pauper himself, follows a similar strategy of buying when everyone else is selling and prices have crashed. In fact it is a common link between the world’s richest people throughout history that they […]

As an avid reader of Property118.com I was very interested to read a couple of recent articles 1) Should landlords buy life insurance and 2) What happens when a landlord dies –  both of which touched on the subject of what happens to the BTL mortgage contract if a borrower / landlord dies and also what happens […]

I first let to these tenants in 2003. They already had a daughter and later gave birth to a second. She was an accountant, I forget now what he did. They were model tenants but in 2008 I received a call to tell me that he’d left her for another woman. These things happen and […]

The University of Cambridge has been granted planning permission for its £1 billion development in North West Cambridge.

I have received an email from one of our readers who has a Landlords Insurance Dilemma and I’m not confident enough to answer his question absolutely. If you can help please comment below, no blatant advertising though please. I will not approve comments such as “Call XXX on YYY I am an insurance broker and […]