Rupert Chapman is relatively new to the property game but is a veteran of business – and as such, he's got a broader perspective than most on the changes the property industry is going through. If you're concerned by what lies ahead, you should find this conversation reassuring and inspiring – encouraging you to appreciate the increasingly rare value of your knowledge and skills, and to take practical steps to respond to our current challenges. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https:/...
Feb 03, 2016•26 min
Adding properties to your collection is fun, but for all of us there's some deeper reason why we're investing in the first place – whether that's to leave your job, provide a pension or just to give yourself a second income. That's why I like to look at property in the context of financial planning more broadly, and I'm joined this week by Stuart Bailey from Wealth Help to do exactly that. We get into setting plans, allocating assets, and – importantly – knowing when to stop! See this episode on...
Jan 27, 2016•31 min
Jethro East dived head-first from a successful music career into property development – and it wasn't long before he made his first six-figure profit from a single buy-to-sell project. If that sounds easy, it's because I missed out the builders walking out in the middle a project, the months spent living in a half-finished house with no heating, the routine three hours of sleep and the rats drowning in the toilet. He's made extraordinarily rapid progress and has huge plans for the future, but Je...
Jan 20, 2016•39 min
When people start out in property, it's a common long-term goal to replace their income and become financially independent. My guest this week, Mark Coates, has accomplished exactly that – in only 4 years, while holding down a full-time job! He didn't start with a huge amount of money, or any experience: he just put together a solid plan, and worked hard at developing the skills and knowledge he needed to execute upon it. The question is: how did he manage to achieve his goals in such a short sp...
Jan 13, 2016•35 min
It's the start of a new series and a new year! As a prelude to the fantastic interviews that are lined up for future weeks, I wanted to start with a summary of where we are as investors following the many shocks of 2015. We've had plenty of nasty surprises, but there's plenty of potential upside too – if you approach investing in the right way... (As you might be able to hear, I had a very sore throat when recording this – a less painful-sounding voice will resume next week!) See this episode on...
Jan 06, 2016•23 min
Do you associate your local council with costing you money or making you money? Yes, me too - but my guest this week, Mark Morris, has found three ways of turning his local authority into an important ally. He secures excellent yields from accommodating Housing Benefit tenants, has properties where the council pays a guaranteed stress-free rent even if they're empty...and has even scored free improvements worth thousands of pounds. In our conversation, Mark shares how he makes it all work - and ...
Jun 17, 2015•29 min
You can buy a property for as little as £20,000 (probably less) in some parts of the country. So if you're tight for funds to get started with...should you? Even if you've got more cash to spread around, should you take the view that when prices are so low and yields are so high, you should just go out and buy a load of them? There are a couple of obvious reasons why that's not the right move for everyone, and also a couple of less obvious ones - and it's those that I talk about in this week's s...
Jun 10, 2015•11 min
You may have bought a property in the past hoping that there will be regeneration to the local area...but chances are you're not secretly hoping that regeneration will involve demolishing your property! Well, that notion might seem less ridiculous than it first appears when you've finished listening to this week's podcast. My guest is Dan Knowles, a Chartered Surveyor who specialises in the field of Compulsory Purchase. Dan's company helps people whose homes are the subject of a Compulsory Purch...
Jun 03, 2015•29 min
Property investment pays off in terms of capital growth and rental income - but the proportion in which you’ll benefit from each is determined to a large extent by exactly what you buy. In this episode I share a personal case study to make this point - which demonstrates why it’s so important to have thought-through goals in mind before you get started. Plus there’s a listener question that takes us into deeply geeky economic territory, and tips on dealing with estate agents from a hostage negot...
May 26, 2015•15 min
I give this whole episode over to an in-depth case study of a listener’s project - which serves as equal parts inspiration and warning. Ryan Slater spotted an excellent opportunity which, on paper, would create a big monthly profit without leaving any of his own money in the deal…but he nearly lost his entire deposit when his mortgage was unexpectedly refused. When the project is finished Ryan will have achieved a fantastic result - but the end result alone masks the grit, resilience and hard wo...
May 20, 2015•35 min
The ROI of investing in property is clearly better than leaving cash in the bank - but as investors we clearly need to keep some cash on hand to cover any voids or unexpected spending. The question is…how much? In this episode, I talk about 4 different models you can use to determine the size of your “emergency fund” - as well as answering a listener question about where we are in the property cycle, and announcing a new audio book! See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygee...
May 13, 2015•24 min
Insuring your property portfolio is a necessary evil. It’s nobody’s idea of fun, but as we’ve got to do it anyway we might as well know how to do it quickly, cheaply, and in a way that won’t cause any problems if we need to make a claim. That’s why I invited Jason McClean from The Property Insurer onto the podcast. Jason is a portfolio landlord as well as running an insurance company, so he’s perfectly placed to tell us what we should be thinking about when insurance renewal time rolls around ag...
May 06, 2015•33 min
How many people do you know whose first investment property had 8 bedrooms? What about people who bought that huge house while still at university, having actually chosen where to study based on the prospects for the local property market? Unless you know Johann Rowan, I’m pretty sure the answer will be “none”. In this episode I talk to Johann about his amazing journey from foreign student to a full-time student landlord with 10 properties, and find out how he’s still managing his whole portfoli...
Apr 28, 2015•46 min
Repairs and maintenance are part and parcel of being a landlord - they’re not anyone’s favourite part of the job, but it makes financial (and ethical) sense to keep the property in good repair and the tenant happy. Now, a change to the law means that it’s more important than ever: if a repair request isn’t adequately dealt with, it might be impossible to take back possession of the property for six months. My guest, Rajeev Nayyar from property software company Fixflo , explains all - including t...
Apr 22, 2015•27 min
To most residential property investors (me included), commercial property seems like another world. But mixed-use developments bridge those worlds, providing a useful stepping stone for residential developers to stretch themselves - and can be highly profitable in their own right. To find out more, I’m joined by Phil Stewardson - one of the most popular guests we’ve had on the show - to share over a decade of experience with these kinds of projects, and give you pointers on how to get started. S...
Apr 15, 2015•43 min
Do you have oceans of time, and you don’t know how to fill it all? Thumbs starting to ache from twiddling them so much? Thought not: that’s why this episode is designed to help you free up more time, and get more results out of the time you’ve already got. Time is the #1 barrier that gets brought up by investors I speak to, and it’s the only thing you can’t get more of. So invest 20 minutes with me on this episode, and I’ll offer some suggestions which I hope will free up a lot more for you in r...
Apr 08, 2015•28 min
My experience is in simple buy-to-let and buy-to-sell projects, but I know there are plenty of listeners out there who are doing - or aspire to do - far more ambitious projects! Those projects need to be financed, of course - so in this episode I grabbed development finance broker Adrian Cormican to find out how lending works in the development market. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podcast/finance-development-projects...
Apr 01, 2015•23 min
I wanted to take 5 minutes out to let you know about a huge new project we’re working on over at The Property Hub . That project is…a quarterly magazine for property investors! Sounds crazy? Old fashioned? Expensive? In this episode I explain why it actually makes total sense - and why you might want to become a subscriber… See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://propertygeek.net/podcast/new-property-magazine...
Mar 25, 2015•6 min
According to a recent MoneyWeek interview, global demographics mean that we’re heading for an inevitable financial contraction - and our “over-inflated” house prices could be heading for a 50% drop as a result. In this episode, I get deep into an analysis of whether this is true. While I don’t think that UK house prices as a whole are likely to see anything like these kinds of falls, the theory of “the great unwinding” does have some interesting takeaways that we as investors can put to good use...
Mar 18, 2015•16 min
My guest this week isn’t hanging around: he’s just bought his first 3 investment properties in the space of 12 months - while working full-time in a totally different part of the country. Oh, and did I mention that he’s only 24 years old? When Fraser Bricknell emailed me to tell me his story I wasn’t about to let him get away without interviewing him for the podcast to share his inspiring story. My favourite part is that he hasn’t done anything particularly revolutionary: he’s just saved up, tak...
Mar 11, 2015•34 min
How much easier would it be to invest in property if you knew exactly when the peak of the market was coming - so you could make sure you didn’t overstretch yourself, and were ready to pounce when prices hit rock bottom? According to devotees of the 18 year property cycle, hundreds of years of history prove that this is absolutely possible: it just involves disregarding almost everything you hear and doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing! My guest on this episode is Akhil Patel - one...
Mar 04, 2015•34 min
How do you feel about giving 40% of everything you own to the government when you die? And on top of that paying 40%+ tax on your rental profits in the meantime, plus a big chunk of your profits whenever you sell a property? If the answer to that question is “well I wasn’t really thinking about it, but now you’ve gone and ruined my day”, you’ll want to listen to my interview with chartered accountant Iain Wallis, the author of “ Legally Avoid Property Taxes ”. We talk about how you can structure...
Feb 25, 2015•27 min
When you’re just starting out with property investment, the first question to answer is “how much can I afford to invest?”. This involves adding up your savings and any equity you already have, thinking about how much debt you want to take on, and making sure you keep enough in reserve to see you through any emergencies. In this episode I walk you through that exact process, talking about all the factors you need to consider at each point. I also discuss whether it’s better to buy just one prope...
Feb 18, 2015•19 min
In this very personal episode, I do the show solo to talk about the 5 lessons I’ve learnt from other investors in the last few years that have had the biggest impact on how I operate as a property investor. The biggest changes I’ve made can be tracked directly back to conversations I’ve had with other investors who have a different perspective from me (it’s the biggest benefit of having this blog and podcast) - and although these lessons won’t necessarily be right for you, I wanted to share the ...
Feb 11, 2015•23 min
A book is a way to expose yourself to the ideas of some of the most successful and remarkable people who have ever lived – on your own schedule, and for a cost of only a few pounds. I love books probably even more than the next chap (I’ve even written a few of my own), but when it comes to property books I can’t compete with Jayne Owen. Jayne is behind a site called The Property Bookshop and is the in-house reviewer for three different property publications (including The Property Hub), so I inv...
Feb 04, 2015•29 min
Many investors are attracted by the high gross returns offered by HMOs. There is also a common belief that after creating an HMO, a lender will value it based on the income it generates - giving it a higher value, and allowing the investor to pull their money back out. Is this true? Well…it’s complicated. That’s why I invited Simon Allen from Total Business Finance onto the show, to dispel the myths about HMO mortgages and get to the truth about valuing HMOs. See this episode on the Property Gee...
Jan 28, 2015•30 min
The more experienced you become as an investor, the more skilled you become at structuring deals that tie up as little as your own funds as possible. But especially when you’re starting out, the simple truth is that you do need cash to invest in property - and it’s a lack of capital that slows down the progress of investors more than anything else. So if you don’t feel like you have your personal finances as tightly controlled as they could be, you’ll enjoy my interview with Graham Clark from Mo...
Jan 21, 2015•32 min
A new series, a new year and a new format for the podcast! It seemed like a great time to be talking about goals - but rather than just inspiration, I wanted to get specifically into how to form a system to make achieving your property goals become automatic and effortless. It’s a big claim, but with the right planning it can be done! View this episode on the Property Geek website: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/achieve-goals...
Jan 14, 2015•21 min
Nick Stott runs an estate and lettings agency, as well as being a property investor himself. He bought his first property with his student loan whilst at university, remortgaged it, and bought four more properties. When the property bubble burst, Nick began running his own estate agency and now manages 150 rental properties as well as building up his own portfolio. See this episode on the Property Geek website: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/property-management-realities...
Mar 17, 2014•34 min
Damien Fogg grew up around property, and knew he wanted to do it as a full-time career - so he set himself the 4-year goal of getting all the training and experience he needed to make a success of it. With his goal now achieved, he's planning to step things up by doing at least 5 deals in 2014 - and as of the end of February, he's already 3/5 of the way there. See this episode on the Property Geek site: https://www.propertygeek.net/podcast/straightforward-approach...
Mar 10, 2014•32 min
