2009-07-21T13:51:00.006+01:00

Many years ago I learnt a valuable lesson. I was told the following; 'When you see a person standing on a mountain summit, pause before you cast aspersions and remember they had to climb up there'. This tempered my thinking inasmuch as it has greatly influenced me in the decisions and various directions I have taken in life.

Why am I telling you this! Because it has a direct bearing on some decision you will, or have already made; to become rich as a property developer. Oh I don't mean owning half of Westminster, but rather whether you want one student letting property or a chain of hotels. This principle will quickly form the basis on which you will succeed, and succeed you will.

I make no promises nor guarantee's, you will become richer than you are today. It will be fun and sometimes you will pull your hair out, but if you are going to climb that mountain you will have to rely on yourself and develop your own style and motivation. There are ten million sites on GooGle, ( I just checked), so I'm not going to tell you what most of the others try to say. I offer my personal experiences including some failures as well, and I do so with integrity and the hope that you will take those first steps.

Access The Wealth of Information at PROPERTIES4AUCTION.COM!

The first time I seriously considered buying into the investment property market, I was unaware of the level of commitment needed to overcome the many pitfalls that will surface in these early times.
There are many 'books' on the subject of 'how to make millions in property', and to be truthful there is nothing new. It is a practice that has been going on for centuries. The formula is buy cheap and sell high. That hasn't changed, what has changed is this, many more investors are in the market place and there is greater stress to get to those “golden properties”.

I believe that one area where advice is lacking is about you, what makes you tick , what makes you think you have what it takes. Remember this, it is a very individual thing and wrong decisions in the early days will cost you dearly in cash and relationship stress! The harsh reality is the actual amount of time you will be required to put in to a property either in physical work or in coping with mistakes made by others

Now assuming you are hungry for “secrets” I will give you an example of one transaction that I made several years ago. I viewed a self-contained flat situated over a shop in the high street of a small town within commuting distance of Edinburgh, Scotland.
It consisted of a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. I bought the following: bed and bedding, 2 flat pack chairs, set of shelves, cooker and separate oven, kitchen table and 2 chairs, flat screen TV, and three sets of ready made curtains, and new floor covering for kitchen and bathroom.
I then scheduled the delivery and installation of kitchen/bathroom additions set to be done all on the same day. It was a very quick turn around and I estimated 72 hours to complete.

In fact, I arrived on Friday afternoon armed with paint and cleaning materials. Saturday morning, the first one in was the carpet layer, whilst he was working I drove to a flat pack store and collected what I had ordered, and the rest followed as planned. To cut it short, I was driving home 24 hours later, flat completed and on the market. On Monday morning, phone call received and property sold!! I made £25, 000 pounds for 36 hours work!!
I've covered this in more detail in my book, along with other successes and yes, a few dismal failures as well.

To show you my 'warts and all' I will tell you about a 'real lemon'. I was in the United States and decided to buy unseen a 3 bed detached house in Flint, Michigan. I had called the auctioneer and made a 'silly' reserve of $100.00!! On the day, I had an open line to the auctioneer. He started with my bid and the room was silent! I got the property! That should have told me something, the property was at auction for unpaid county taxes. That should have told me something else.? How much was owed in back taxes. Two important questions I should have found answers to.

I drove from Los Angeles to Michigan arriving at 3 a.m. I had to pick up the key from the agent at 9, so drove to the property, mistake 1. Pulled up at the address and got out, mistake 2.
The grounds were overgrown, rubbish strewn all over, verandah with rotting boards and guttering hanging down with growth life established since the dark ages. The front door was open, mistake 3. The interior was even worse, rubbish and broken furniture blocked my way and my nostrils recalled the stink of well established damp and decay, walls crumbled, windows missing, wiring handing from remains of a ceiling crying out to join the remainder which has already migrated to the piles of rubbish.
I didn't venture upstairs, a final quick wander around the outside and cursory scan of neighboring properties was enough, switched off the torch and got back into the car and left Michigan.

Two months later it was back in the auction – for back taxes! Well,I wasn't about to throw good money to the government after bad! So, I want to make the point that it's all about making decisions and being flexible and finding solutions to sticky and unforsceen problems. It is important to always think on your feet. There is a lot to uncover, that's why I wrote the book.

Other topics covered in my book include:

Market forces and economic climate.

Locations.

Desire and motivation.

Lifestyle Health and Motivation.

Legalese and conveyancing.

Surveys and legal packs.

Money and how to use it.

'There's money in bricks and mortar'. (copyright Daniel Boyle) 2009.
Contact me: bricksandmortar@inbox.com

Here are a few things to remember when your looking for an investment property remember you do not need to live in the area to buy a positively geared investment property so if you think of an area where you wouldn’t want to leave do not let this stop you from buying an investment property many of the places are these best investments for cash flow positive returns on your real estate investment

When your working out your finance if your planning on holding this as a long term real estate investment look into interest only home loans as this will leave you more cash flow at the end of the day.

You don’t need a flash expensive luxury home for your first investment property as you will not be living there anyway if you can’t afford a home on a block of land in your area look into units some of these are really good investments especially near unis as you can rent these as student accommodation and have them occupied throughout most of the year and are in high demand also serviced apartments are good investment for professional executive tenants.

Using a buyer’s agent may be a good idea if you do not have time to research the real estate market yourself and they will usually dig up the best deals as they have pretty good knowledge of the property market.

If looking for cash flow checkout areas near decent size town’s with a population of 10,000 of more a lot of these type of areas have properties very cheap affordable home a few minutes outside them up to 20mins out is fine a lot of people like good size blocks and are willing to drive up to 20mins to work don’t expect to buy your first property in a blue chip suburb near the capital city cbd

If you stick to your plan then in a few years time depending on your investment property choices you will be able to fund other things you could not before or even retire most of your friends will tell you are crazy for buying several houses and having such a large mortgage remember if there cashflow positive that they will basically be paying for themselves so 10years down the road you may well retire while those friends will be jealous call you lucky etc because they did not take the same opportunity to buy realest ate as you did.

Auctions

Speed is perhaps the greatest advantage of buying at auction. The fall of the hammer is a binding contract, and vendors are bound to sell, so long as the winning bid meets their reserve price. On the fall of the hammer, contracts are exchanged and this eliminates that awkward and stressful period in a normal property transaction when legal and survey investigations can scupper many a deal well after the price has been agreed. At the same time, however, the fall of the hammer legally commits the winning bidder to buy. That’s why the first crucial step to ensure you make the most of an auction is to do your homework. Start by securing a catalogue as soon as it’s published usually three to six weeks before the auction day. Once you have found some properties that fit your needs, arrange the viewings. Bear in mind that you may be invited for group viewings, rather than individual ones—this is a standard practice for properties to be auctioned off.

money in bricks & mortar