UK buy to let landlords abandoned by lenders

Lenders Finally Abandon UK Buy to Let Landlords

Banks are making it almost impossible for new entrants to the buy to let market to obtain a financially viable mortgage.

The credit crunch is hitting lenders hard and in response, they are hitting the buy to let landlord even harder. The number of mortgage products available has decreased by almost 75% since April 2007, and the decrease shows no sign of stopping there.

HBOS, who is the owner of a number of lenders including the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax, to name just two, has recently taken steps to effectively price itself out of the buy to let market. The other big lenders seem set to follow suite and "shut up shop," for all but the most risk free investments. They seem set to abandon the buy to let investor until the property market shows serious signs of turning around.

The rates that are being offered to UK buy to let landlords are becoming so unattractive that it is causing many to either seek a buyer for their portfolio or decide to hold and not consider buying any new property or refinancing their current portfolio until things get back to some form of stability.

Banks seem to have made a conscious decision to effectively price the novice or first time landlord totally out of the buy to let market. They are doing this by asking for larger deposits and changing rates to be so high that it makes it almost impossible for the first timer to see the value or profit in investing.

What are the options currently available to investors?

1. 
   Many investors are now looking more seriously at buying overseas properties
   


2. 
   Investors are holding onto their properties and not buying any more and not refinancing their current portfolio until the economic climate changes.
   


3. 
   Investors are turning their hand to developing in parts of London, Scotland and any other areas that are still maintaining some form of stability.
   


4. 
   Investors are putting their money into other potentially lucrative investments; in particular some are trying their luck at venture capitalism.
   


5. 
   Investors are having to travel further than their local community and really seek out the undervalued properties, that can still be found in certain parts of the UK. They are then getting themselves the best mortgage deal they can and sitting it out until the market turns around and they can refinance to a better rate and draw out some equity.
   

Is there any good news?

For the experienced UK buy to let landlord who has a surplus of cash, there are some great bargains to be had. There is less competition at the moment, which means that those investors that have the cash and the knowledge to weather this storm are in a very strong position.

Home owners that have to sell their home are finding it difficult to sell. Hence, the opportunity for investors to pick up many BMV properties that previously they where finding it difficult to get their hands on.

At the moment surveyors don't seem to have a grip on what the real current market value of property is and in certain situations this can open things up for the discerning investor to pick up a bargain.

Any property investor, including the first time investor, that is prepared to do double the work to find the bargain properties and then is prepared to live with perhaps a couple of years of a higher mortgage rates, in a few years time when they refinance, will potentially see huge gains.

The bottom line is that while many analysts are predicting doom and gloom, there are always those landlords that will thrive in adversity.

The question all investors, new or old, have to currently ask themselves, is do they see opportunity or just a black hole in the current buy to let market place. If it is a black hole, then they are destined to find life difficult over the coming months; however, if it is opportunity, then they maybe amongst the few investors that thrive and actually love this kind of uncertain property market.

Lenders do seem to be abandoning the large majority of UK buy to let landlords; yet, what they are also doing, perhaps unintentionally, is separating the men from the boys, the strong from the weak, the experienced from the novices and the low risk investors from the gamblers.

Don't waste your money chasing profitless property deals. Carlton Johnson is a well respected author and webmaster specialising in helping investors make money in any type of property market. To learn more and to claim your free book titled "The Five Rules of Property Success" visit the investment property website

How to Buy Investment Property - 5 Top Tips!

Are you interested in learning how to buy investment property successfully? This article will give you 5 top tips that will help you succeed and make money from your property investments.



Let's get stuck straight into these tips.



1. Do your research. If you are buying a property in the hope of becoming a landlord then make sure you have checked the areas rental potential and make sure the types of properties that you are planning on buying are the ones in demand by tenants. If you are planning on flipping the property, make sure you buy a property that is wanted by homebuyers.



2. Don't' blindly trust what anyone says. This includes so called experts. Talk to a few different property professionals to try and get a balanced view on things such as:



- What type of property to invest in



- What location



- What type of tenant to aim for



Sometimes it is only after canvassing lots of different opinions that you can really formulate you own strategy with confidence and with solid reasons why you plan to do what you plan to do.



3. Get for comparables for everything. Rental comparables, sales comparables - everything you can. Make sure your comparables are as much like for like as possible. For example: if you want to rent out a two bedroom flat next to a railway station, then try to get the rental comparison of other two bedroom flats next to the same railway station.



If you use a two bedroom flat that is ½ a mile away from the railway station, then your comparisons maybe way off. ½ a mile can be a long distance if it takes you from the desirable part of town to the rough drug dealing part.



4. Get your finances in place. This is a good thing to do even before you start looking for properties to buy. If your finances are sorted out before you start looking at how to buy investment property, then you will be more likely to be looking with confidence and purpose because you know if you find that bargain property you have the finances already in place to do the deal.



But if you don't have your finances in order there might be doubts in your mind about whether you can finance a deal even if you find it, this in turn may cause you to self sabotage any deal you see even before you put an offer in.



5. Employ the right professionals, whether that means builders, solicitors, contractors, or someone else, skimping on employing qualified people to do a job correctly can cost you a lot more money than you expect. Just because someone is cheap, doesn't mean they can do a good job and just because someone seems expensive doesn't mean that they can do a better job than someone who is cheaper.



The only way to find out for sure is to check references and their qualifications to do the job. Try and speak to real people, preferably face to face, that they have worked with before.



Hopefully by reading this article you now have a clearer understanding on how to buy investment property that will make you a long-term profit, as well as perhaps making you a quick buck now.

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Do you want to learn even more on how to buy investment property for profit? Are you interested in learning how to buy property with little or no money down? Then go to the Investment Property website for more free tips articles and advice. You can also sign up for the free Property investment newsletter

The 5 Steps to Property Investing Success

Many people have estimated that well over 90% of the richest people on the planet have created their wealth through property. On top of that, many of the individuals that originally created their wealth in some other way, now choose to put money into property to protect their wealth or to help it grow even further.



This article will teach you 5 steps to property investing success. After reading it you should have a better understanding of what it takes to become wealthy through property and what sort of sacrifices you will have to make to get there.



1. Make better use of your time. What do you currently spend most of your time doing? Most people spend the majority of their time indulging in two activities. They are either at work or they are sleeping. In fact, including the commute to work, many people spend about 18 hours of every working day doing these activities. However, what they do with the other 6 hours and what they do with their days off (assuming they have that luxury) is what holds the key to their property investing success.



You might do vital things like get time with your family, but what about things like watching T.V. or playing video games, or even going down the pub. If you sat down with a pen and paper and wrote down how much time you spend on these, none essential activities, you might be surprised at how much time you are wasting that could be spent doing other things, such as learning about money making or actively investing in property. Including the weekends, many people spend about 18 hours a week, watching T.V. If you could cut this down to about 5 hours a week, it could have a massive impact on your life.



Successful people generally don't spend every afternoon, sat glued to watching Eastenders. Do you really think that this is how Richard Branson or Philip Green spends their time?



Cut down, or cut out totally, anything that you currently spend your time on that has know real benefit to your future happiness, wealth and prosperity. Once you have decided what you want out of life, then focus your energy into activites that will help you achieve your goals.



2. Make your money work for you. If you are used to getting paid an hourly or a daily rate, then the chances are you are probably not very wealthy. The wealthiest people in the World do not generally get paid an hourly rate. They master how to get their money to work for them so that even while they are sleeping they are accumulating wealth. This maybe the single most important thing you should learn to you help get you out of the rat race.



3. Set goals. Learning how to set goals correctly is crucial to your property investing success. If you don't set goals you will be aimlessly wondering through life. There is a small chance you might be successful, but if you set goals you are much more likely to be even more successful. You need to plan where you want to go and what you want to do. On top of this you need to understand why you want to achieve what you want to achieve.



4. Strategy. Setting you goals will set out what you want to achieve, but planning your strategy will tell you exactly, HOW you are going to achieve it. Goals are virtually useless unless you have a clear strategy and plan of how you are going to achieve them. When you plan your strategy you need to plan down to the nth degree and have back up plans that will mean if something unforeseen happens, you can still overcome it and meet your goals.



5. Mix with the right people. This can be online through property forums or in person at property networking events or any other way you can think of. It is vital to your investing success that you mix with people that have similar goals to you and/or that have already achieved what you want to achieve. You might all of a sudden find that all your friends and relatives are telling you that now is not the time to get into property and that you have already missed your chance of making serious money from investing. The only way you are going to be able to continue to believe in the face of negativity from those who care for you is if you have proof around you of those that have succeeded and continue to do so.



Despite what the media says, it still is a perfect time to achieve property investing success. This success is available to anyone who is prepared to follow the steps and make the sacrifices today that will insure their future tomorrow.

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Carlton Johnson, is a well known author and webmaster who specialises in helping people achieve financial freedom through property investing. To learn more about how to achieve property investing success visit the www.investment-property-guru.com website

Investors Show No Surprise as Inside Track Go Bust!

The UK property education company, Inside Track has gone bust. This news came as no surprise to the seasoned property veteran, but many budding property investors where taken aback by the announcement.



For many years the Inside Track property company had been the most vocal of the property education companies. Its advertisements and free seminars led even some of the most conservative people, to part with thousands of pounds of their hard earned money. These people would have given almost anything to try and obtain their goal of becoming financially independent through property.



Not that long ago they were enjoying the fruits of their labour, and making millions of pounds in profit. They blame their rapid downfall on the credit crunch and how it has adversely affected their position to get the types of mortgages that make buying properties financially viable.



The truth is that inside track where always overexposed and vulnerable to any downturn in the property market.



One of the problems with Inside Track has always been that their philosophy never seriously took into account potential changes in the property market. They emerged onto the scene at a time when property prices where increasing dramatically.



At the time, their approach of buying as many off plan properties as you can, with a small deposit for each, then waiting for the expected price rises at completion, then pulling out huge sums of money to re-invest or do what ever you liked with, worked well. However, the problem was always that their property investing strategy was inherently built on a notion that the price of the off plan properties were ALWAYS going to be significantly higher at completion than they were when the deposit was put down on the properties, several months earlier.



The other problem they began to face is that as time went by, the increasing amount of investment companies that popped up promising similar things to them, meant that off plan developments where becoming over saturated with investors. As more and more investors competed with each other for less and less buyers and tenants this brought the prices of resell and rentals for the properties right down,



Inside Track realised early on that people where prepared to pay thousands of pounds to them, for the promise of becoming property millionaires. The beauty for Inside Track was that they could convince people to part with large amounts of money, without actually having to give them any cast iron promises as to the returns they will make.



It was simple for inside track to blame the property markets ups and downs, or the financial market, if investments didn't go according to plan.



While Inside Track and it's founder Jim Moore, made millions of pounds, ordinary people where losing their life savings, their homes, marriages and much more because of the flawed nature of the way inside track worked and invested.



Inside Track would have realised a long time ago that their way of investing wasn't as profitable for investors as it was in their hay day. The queue of serious complaints and lawsuits being filed against them, continued to grow at an alarming rate. Then BANG! The credit crunch hits and very quickly it becomes all too apparent that the wisest thing for them to do financially was to fold now, before things got even worse.



Experienced investors have for years, warned against the perils of investing with Inside Track. Yet, because of their huge media presence and the slick sales talk at their seminars, average people on the street, were being seduced daily, into trusting that just by parting with a few thousand pounds today, they can be the next property millionaires of tomorrow.



Investing in property can be one of the most tangible ways; it is possible for the average person on the street to accrue immense wealth. However, it can also be the easiest way to make yourself bankrupt very quickly.



What people where paying Inside Track for was available for free online, there was nothing ground breaking in what they were teaching. You don't need to pay thousands of pounds to learn how to make money in property; you just need to make a concerted effort to do whatever it takes to get the right property education, no matter what your budget.

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Do you want to learn more about making money from property? Then visit the www.investment-property-guru.com website for all the hottest investment property news, tips and advice.

property glossary and abbreviations

One of the most annoying things when you are just starting off as a property investor is coming across lots of different terms that you don't understand what they mean.

This might seem like a small problem but it is actually one that can hinder you massively.

Imagine not knowing the difference between gross yield and net yield. This could have serious consequences for your finances because if you get it wrong you could end up miscalculating how much profit you have in a deal. And worse still actually thinking you have profit in a deal when infact you are in the red.

That coupled with the amount of property abbreviations out there means that.

Check out the site below as I have found the best glossary of UK property terms and the best UK property abbrieviations that I have come across on any site on the net.

the site is:

http://www.investment-property-guru.com

and the property glossary page is:

http://www.investment-property-guru.com/property-glossary.html

and the property abbreviations page is:

http://www.investment-property-guru.com/property-abbreviations.html