This week Rob Bence of RMP Property and The Property Podcast is hijacking the show and interviewing me about my new book, Beyond The Bricks . You'll find out how the book came to exist, what I found out about property investors in the process of writing it, and the biggest lessons about property that I took away from the experience. Take a listen! See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/rob-bence...
Mar 03, 2014•26 min
Pete Matthew is a chartered financial planner and has long been interested in property. He set up the Meaningful Money website and podcast, and has a passion for educating people and helping them plan financially for their future. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/financial-planning-pete-matthew
Feb 24, 2014•31 min
Self-confessed property geek, Susannah Cole, first got into property after considering her pension options. She bought her first property five years ago and then set about expanding her property portfolio. Three years ago she set up The Good Property Company in Bristol and has done 110 deals within that time. She focuses mainly on buying to sell, but also enjoys providing a mentoring service for other investors. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/buy...
Feb 17, 2014•32 min
David Smith is a solicitor and acknowledged expert on many areas of property law, especially residential landlord and tenant law and HMO law. He has worked in landlord and tenant law for almost ten years, and as well as writing on the subject he regularly provides specialist training and lectures on topics such as the Housing Act. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/legal-landlords-david-smith...
Feb 03, 2014•36 min
Phil Stewardson and his brother Mark first got into property during the mid 90s, with the intention of buying ten properties to create a pension. Despite having business backgrounds and knowledge, neither had much property experience and as such their investment journey started with a steep learning curve. After quickly realising that property investment was more profitable than their day jobs, Phil became a full time property investor, and Mark spends around 80% of his time on the business. Bet...
Jan 27, 2014•27 min
Richard Brown began dabbling in property during the 90s, when he became an accidental landlord due to relocating for work. His interest piqued around five years ago, and he began subscribing to as many property forums and newsletters as he could, as well as researching property investment strategies. Richard is now a successful residential property investor, with a portfolio of properties spread across the country from Cornwall to Scotland. Property investment is his passion and his long term go...
Jan 20, 2014•41 min
So the hiatus has been a little longer than I'd hoped for, but I'm back with an update for what's in store for 2014! There's a new series of the podcast, a new book, a new community for investors...yep, there's a whole lot to look forward to! See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/2014-preview
Dec 16, 2013•15 min
Mark Alexander became an accidental landlord in 1989, when interest rates were at 15% and everyone around him was going bust. Mark studied the people and businesses who thrived in those tough times, developed his own strategy by modelling them, and has now been a successful landlord for nearly 25 years. Oh, and he did it all while building up one of the UK's fastest growing businesses. Now, Mark runs Property118.com, which has 200,00 landlords and property professionals signed up to its mailing ...
Jul 22, 2013•36 min
Is it possible to flip properties while doing a demanding full-time job? Even if you've got no previous experiences of property development or refurbs? In this episode I spoke to an investor who did exactly that, and has just quit his job to develop properties full-time. He shared the exact numbers behind his first deal, how he made it work alongside his job, and the methods he used to eliminate as much uncertainty as possible – despite his lack of experience. See this episode on the Property Ge...
Jul 15, 2013•38 min
So you've saved up for years, got a deposit together, put it into a deal, then...you're stuck. The rental income is great, but you don't have the funds to do another deal for a long time. Sound familiar? It's a common problem, and that's why Kevin Wright came up with creative, totally legal ways to "recycle your cash". I got him on the podcast to share some background about why the mortgage market is the way it is, and explain his techniques for using the same pot of cash for multiple deals. See...
Jul 08, 2013•38 min
Can you do creative property deals in London, buying with very little cash, even when the market is buoyant? Thor Portess does regularly, so I invited him onto the podcast to share how he does it. His tool of choice is instalment contracts: a type of vendor financing that allows him to create good outcomes for all parties, make cashflow instantly with very little investment, and have multiple routes to another payoff in the future. Not a clue what vendor financing or an instalment contract is? D...
Jul 01, 2013•27 min
If you're a typical private investor, you probably don't have much of a clue about commercial property - offices, retail units and industrial buildings. I certainly didn't. So I invited Hussain and Ali from Ashford Property Consultants onto the show to give me a commercial property primer. They explain how commercial property is similar to the residential market, as well as some important differences - and in what circumstances it might make be an attractive investment. See this episode on the P...
Jun 24, 2013•32 min
Tax can put a serious dent in the profits of any property investor: you get taxed when you buy it, taxed on the money it brings in, then taxed when you sell it or pass it on. Not cool. That's why I got Iain Wallis, a property investor and chartered accountant, on this week's episode. We explored the five main areas where investors could unwittingly be paying more tax than they need to, and what they should do about it. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podcast/...
Jun 17, 2013•19 min
Should you invest near where you live, or go further afield in search of better returns? It's a question that comes up a lot, especially with investors from the South East when they realise that they can buy a terraced house in "the north" for the price of their annual train ticket. So I spoke to Mark Lloyd, who made the choice to build his portfolio in the areas that were best for his business rather than closest to where he lived, to find out why and how he did it. See this episode on the Prop...
Jun 10, 2013•19 min
With capital values pretty flat, it's essential that you add value to a property if you want to stretch your investable funds as far as they'll go - whether you plan to sell or hold. Sue Elkington has been doing refurbs for 38 years, so she's seen everything that can possibly go wrong. In this interview, she shares that 10 most common mistakes she sees investors making - and tells us how we can avoid making them ourselves. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podc...
Jun 03, 2013•28 min
Rent-to-Rent is a hot topic in the property world, but it's far from easy money: as well as the legal unknowns, there's the tricky business of finding deals and the headache of tenanting and managing them later. Nevertheless, it can be a great cashflow strategy - so I got Francis Dolley on the podcast to explain how he's built up a portfolio of 10 multi-let properties and how he uses systems to keep everything running smoothly. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net...
May 28, 2013•29 min
However big a fan you are of Law & Order or Boston Legal, you don't want any legal dramas in your property business. That's why to kick off the second run of The Property Geek Podcast, I invited Tessa Shepperson from Landlord Law to talk about the main issues that trip landlords up. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podcast/landlord-law
May 20, 2013•32 min
Even cash-rich investors have been struggling with mortgage finance since the credit crunch, as panicked lenders have withdrawn from the market or tightened their criteria. That's why I wanted to talk to Lisa from Keys Mortgages, to find out what the current state of the market is and what changes are coming up. Lisa talks about why these days the property is secondary to the buyer in the eyes of the lender, and tells us about introductions of new guidelines like "plausibility" that most investo...
Dec 05, 2012•23 min
They always say that property is a people business, but that's especially true for Paul Ribbons - by his own admission, the property itself is secondary for him. Instead, he uses his understanding of people to bag deals that regularly net him up to £20k each time. In our interview, Paul talks about why you should be talking to 200 agents a week, how to get the agent to name your bargain price for you, and why his knowledge of his market means he sometimes boards up his own windows to get a bette...
Nov 28, 2012•28 min
Everyone's talking about HMOs at the moment, but Neil Mansell has based his entire investing career around them. He recently wrote a document outlining his process behind researching and buying properties in his area that could work as HMOs, so I had to get him on the show to share his advice. Then, at the end of the show, I share two of my tips for dealing with email overload. Because you need to be out there doing deals rather than sitting at home writing emails, right? See this episode on the...
Nov 21, 2012•26 min
HMOs are all the rage at the moment, so I was very excited to snag HMO Landlady for a podcast interview. She's been running HMOs since before they became the investment du jour, and some of the stories she shares on her blog should be required reading for anyone who's thinking about going down that route. I also talk about what it means to be a good landlord, and why it's important to be one - even if only for purely self-interested reasons. There's also a plug for a certain property magazine as...
Nov 14, 2012•27 min
This week I went up to Doncaster to talk to Kim Stones about Rent to Rent - a strategy that's being used successfully by a lot of people, but also causing all kinds of heated debate about the legalities. I also shamelessly rip off a thread from Property Tribes as inspiration for my question of the week, and talk about eliminating pesky paperwork by signing documents online. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podcast/rent-to-rent...
Nov 07, 2012•25 min
Knowing your yield from your elbow is all well and good, but what do you want to achieve with this property malarkey anyway? If you don't know where you want to end up, you can't put together a plan to get there. And without a plan, you've got a recipe for underperforming assets that cause you headaches without getting you where you need to be. Rob Bence from Rescue My Pension is an expert in helping people work out what they want to get out of property. His company, Rescue My Pension, doesn't j...
Oct 31, 2012•27 min
Estate agents have had it tougher than most over the last few years. And funnily enough, not too many tears have been shed about the fact. But Imagine Group have been opening up offices while their competitors are shutting down, so I thought I should speak to the founder, Mike Cole, about how they're doing it. Turns out it's a radical combination of employing good staff, marketing properties properly, and caring about the customer. Who'd have thought! As well as being required listening for othe...
Oct 24, 2012•33 min
Many landlords shy away from accepting tenants who receive Housing Benefit. This is partially due to a lack of understanding of the benefits system, but also because of perceived problems of antisocial behaviour and non-payment of rent. Well, there's no one better placed to give us the truth about Housing Benefit tenants than Aki Ellahi, the founder of the portal DSS Move and the owner of a Wolverhampton lettings agency dealing with over 500 tenants on benefits. See this episode on the Property ...
Oct 12, 2012•29 min
