Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

July has seen been a good month with some good progress and some great prospective deals. I’m buying my first flat in Manchester at a genuine 23% discount off it’s market value; have agreed to buy 4 flats and their freehold in Bristol, and getting close to 3 other deals.

1) Lease Options – The 3 Bury flats I’m acquiring on lease options are progressing. We’ve had some remedial work done (damp proof course and wood worm treated) and have started interviewing tenant buyers, with one interested in taking all 3 flats for his extended family.

2) LHA HMO – I’ve finally got read of my most troublesome tenant so far. He was a pleasant and intelligent enough chap… when sober, which wasn’t too often sadly. However I used some of the techniques taught by Jim Haliburton (the HMO Daddy) from his DIY Eviction course which I went on last year, and the tenant left without any issue and without the need for expensive and time consuming court action. Marvellous, thanks Jim!

The tenant who intercepted 2 months worth of housing benefit has started to pay that back by earning his keep and I’ve put him to good use cleaning up after the tenant who left and painting his room. So far, that’s working well.

Now I need turn the same eviction techniques on my second to worse tenant. As I’m writing this I’ve just had a call from one of the local bobbies asking for access to the HMO as one of the neighbours have called the police due to his arguing with his girlfriend. *sigh*

3) Property Sourcing – The repo properties I mentioned last time haven’t come off. It’s a long story but unbelievably, 3 houses within 20m of each other have all been repossessed within 2 months of each other. The insider info I had was that one of the houses splitting them had been sold setting a new sealing price for the road, which was what I was basing my post-refurb value estimates on. Sadly that property has fallen through, so I’m no longer confident of the end value and have withdrawn my offer… just as the bank were saying they would accept it next Thursday when they dropped the price again!

Last month I was hoping to try a rent 2 rent / lease option, with advanced LHA strategy with a local landlord I’d contacted. However my powers of persuasion are clearly not yet perfected as I’ve been unable to convince him to go for the deal. Which was a shame as a fake ad on GumTree has resulted in about 15 possible tenants, of which 4 or 5 were serious possibilities.

It’s taken some looking but I’ve finally found a property sourcer who’s doing things what I would call “properly”. There are many wannabe property sourcers out there, many of whom are really nice and earnest people, but who aren’t able to come up with the goods. This guy can and is though and I’ve already bought 1 deal off him: a cheeky little flat. I’ll give you the full details once we’ve exchanged but it’s a genuine 23% BMV (Below Market Value) deal, from another property investor how just wants a hassle free and quick sale. Perfect.

4) Flats, Flats, Flats – You know it’s funny, I never had any intention of buying flats, but like London buses, 3 deals seem to have all come along at once.

As well as the flat above, I’ve agreed to buy 4 flats and their freehold down in Bristol as a JV with a southern investor friend of mine. I’m putting up the cash, he’s doing all the work and we’re splitting the deal 50:50, nice and simple. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you more details next month. This deal also has the benefit of leveraging my friend’s previous relationship with Shawbrook for the financing, which gets me an “in” with them for future deals.

I’m also looking at a block of 15 flats in the NW that I’ve come across, which I think I can pickup for less than £20k per flat! It’s early stages at the moment but I suspect there’s a planning issue, so I’ve booked a call with a planning consultant; if I can fix that problem, that’s a game changing deal for me. It’s been helped by using a bit of internet sleathing to get the phone number of the vendor directly. 🙂

5) Pub to Flat Conversion – Yet another flat deal is a pub that I’ve found that’s half way through a conversion into flats, but the project has been stalled for several years. The developer who owns it just hasn’t got the time & resources to finish it, so I’m negotiating with him on a price to take it off his hands. The tricky bit is working out how much it will cost to finish the job, as he’s a thumb in the air kind of guy, so there’s no schedule of works to go off.

6) Direct to Vendor – As I mentioned last time, I’m still working on improving my patter for direct to vendor negotiations, and it’s improving. One deal I’m working on for example is a divorcing couple, however the relationship has broken down and they’ve both said to me that they’d be happy for the property to be repossessed before they see the other half benefit from it!

As June was, July has been another good month, with some real progress and some tantalisingly large deals within reach.

June has seen some good progress, having all but signed up the lease option deals on 3 flats in Bury, and had offers of a couple of others through approaching local landlords. I’ve also started a direct to vendor campaign and have been calling leads about their properties.

1) Lease Options – FINALLY! The 3 flats in Bury are a go. The vendor has agreed to everything and has signed the Head of Terms, and that’s now gone for formal contracts. We’ve also got the keys for 2 of the 3 flats (the other is still occupied by a tenant).

The down side is the flats are in a worse state than I originally thought, with leaks from the roof, a failed damp proof course, woodworm, and a broken fire alarm being the main issues. However, we’re off in the right direction, so I’m looking forward to some very good progress on this in next month’s update.

2) LHA HMO – The LHA HMO is now running at full capacity and bringing in £2,000 per month, although every fortnightly payment is still a faff, as payments regularly stop for one reason or another. E.g. just today I was chasing up the housing benefit (HB) for another one of my tenants that’s in jail.

He got 6 weeks inside so the HB was suspended, but should still be paid once they get confirmation that their release date means they’ll only be away for less than 13 weeks. Despite getting this, the benefit was still suspended and I had to appeal to the Housing Benefit Area Manager to get it correctly released.

I’ve also had to give my most troublesome tenant his marching orders. Being woken up at midnight on Monday by the neighbours moaning about the noise, because the police had been called to a domestic and were throwing people out, was the last straw.

Another tenant has been given his final warning, also for anti-social behaviour including noise arguments and more seriously, buying drugs on the drive!

3) Property Sourcing – There are 2 repo properties that I’m close to buying, as I’m offering exactly what the estate agent believes they’re worth, and slowly the asking price is coming down. I’m fortunate in that I have a bit of insider info as to the real value of them, but I’ll share that with you if one of them comes off.

I was lucky that the local council had sent out an email and accidentally exposed the email addresses of 160 local landlords… so it seemed churlish not to take advantage of this and email them all myself to say hello! 😉 From that I’ve had 5 good leads from landlords that are thinking of selling up, and negotiations are proceeding gently that may present some opportunities.

One such opportunity is a rent 2 rent / lease option, with advanced LHA strategy. I’m just holding off until next week’s summer budget, to see what the Chancellor does to housing benefit before I decide.

4) Private Finance – I’ve received a £100,000 payment from an investor this month, which is always nice, as it bumps up my ability to move quickly on bigger deals.

5) Commercial to Residential – I spent several days this month looking at an office that’s been empty for 8 years! The asking price has halved in that time and is down to approx £1,000/sqm. What got my attention is that the residential properties in that area are going for £2,000 – £3,500/sqm, so there’s a chance to sell for double – triple the purchase price, after a major refurb (£100k ish).

So on paper, the numbers really stack up, as there’s probably at least £100k profit in it. The issues with it are: it’s not in a great location; there’s no outside space; and the parking is a nightmare. I consulted someone whose opinion I trust and on their advice was:

“Who’s going to spend £1/2M+ on a property with no garden, poor parking and in a bad location, even if it is a large property, when there’s a very nice semi 100mdown the road that doesn’t have any of those problems for the same price?”

Well when you put it like that, it seems obvious! 🙂 As Susannah Cole says, always start with the end in mind: who’s your buyer and what are they looking for?

6) Direct to Vendor – I’ve also started a collaboration with someone on a direct to vendor campaign. Having got 20 initial leads I’ve been busy phoning them all, but it’s very much in the early stages, and I’m very much aware that my initial sales patter needs rapid improvement. Something I’m actively working on.

All in all, June has been a good month and I’m looking forward to what July will bring.

A very good friend of mine, who’s expecting his first kid soon, posted up recently about the MMR vaccine and how Dr Andrew Wakefield’s research caused a lot of harm.

When my daughter was due her MMR jab, I did considerable research into this subject, but that pre-dates this blog by some years, so I thought it would be useful to summarise the several weekends of research I did on the subject at the time.

For things like this, I always like to go back to the source, as the internet is full of opinion and conjecture. This is the link for the full text of the original research that ex-Dr Wakefield did, ignore his summary and read it:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(97)11096-0/fulltext

Note at the very bottom it says this:

“We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue.”

And:

“If there is a causal link between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and this syndrome, a rising incidence might be anticipated after the introduction of this vaccine in the UK in 1988. Published evidence is inadequate to show whether there is a change in incidence or a link with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.”

I don’t think the published evidence was/is inadequate, just do a Google image search and checkout the rates of autism yourself. Take a look at the graphs and see if you can spot the step change when the MMR was introduced? (Pssst you won’t find one.)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=autism+incidence+history&num=50&tbm=isch

“We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.”

The point I’m trying to make is that ex-Dr Wakefield’s own research said they hadn’t found a link, the incidence data didn’t support a link, that there might be a link just because A followed B, sometimes, but that further research was necessary.

So now go back and read the summary of findings at the start, which begins:

“Onset of behavioural symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination in eight of the 12 children, with measles infection in one child, and otitis media in another.”

Note is says: “by the parents”. Nothing in the rest of the findings says he found a link. That’s because he didn’t, and he said he didn’t, as I’ve quoted above.

I actually feel a bit sorry for ex-Dr Wakefield, as it seems to me that somehow he got caught up in all this and misrepresented his own findings to people who it appears, didn’t do a very good job of reading the research in question.

Now having said all that, it’s absolutely true that vaccines are not completely safe. A small minority of people will respond badly to them, that’s just a fact. But in general*, the good vaccines do FAR outweighs the risk of side effects. But do your own research, the internet is a marvellous tool, as long as you’re careful what you read.

[* In case you hadn’t worked out already I’m definitely pro-vaccine, but I say “in general” as in my mind, based on the evidence I could find, the jury is still a long way out regarding the HPV vaccine.]

May has proved to be a frustrating as April was. There’s been lots of activity to source property to flip, and we’ve come close to a few, but all have slipped through our fingers for one reason or another.

1) Refinance my existing portfolio – You’ll recall that I have postponed a decision to refinance my HMO. Since then a second lender has potentially become available, but as the first, the initial costs are prohibitive. I’ve decided that this property will remain unencumbered for the time being, to be used as security for bridging finance, and as a potential emergency fund for future use, should the need arise.

2) Lease Options – The 3 flats I’ve mentioned before continue to be tantalisingly close to signing, but as I’ve mentioned, getting the vendor in the country and in a position to sign is proving very tricky.

3) LHA HMO – Both my jail birds have returned from prison now and I got a bumper payout of housing benefit in May as a result.  Unbelievably one only managed 2 weeks of freedom before getting locked up again!  He’s out the end of June again.

After much faffing with the council, the VOA’s rebanding of the HMO into 5 separate bands has gone through, and I’ve finally got everyone uplifted to the 1 bedroom rate, so I’m now getting £2,000 per month housing benefit on a property that’s cost me £100k to buy and refurb.

The £2k council tax bill I got when the VOA rebanded the HMO has been successfully appealed down to…. £24 !! Hoho.

4) Property Sourcing – I mentioned last month that I was upping my focus on auction properties, and have attended several property auctions to bid on properties. My general experience has backed up what several developers have said to me recently, which is that there are not a lot of bargains at auctions these days.

One auction I went to had just 5 lots, so I was hoping it was going to be a nice intimate auction… oh no, it was rammed.  All 60 seats taken, people stood in double ranks down the side and back, and struggling to get in the door; I estimate there were 110 people there.  Most properties went for 15% over guide and the one I was bidding on (as most) was bought by a home owner for a price that left zero profit after refurb, so they basically bought it for full market value.

All the properties I bid on were bought by home owners, not developers, and were a good 10% over my max price (set to leave some profit in the deal obviously).

I’ll continue to keep an eye out for auction properties, but look more to buy pre or post auction.

Over the month I’ve continued to bid on local properties found at estate agents, but have also been looking at some JV deals in London, and some bigger deals like buying a block of flats and doing a wholesale to retail strategy, and also looking at some commercial to residential conversions.

No one said property was easy, and I remain confident that the hard work will pay off soon.

It’s been a bit of frustrating month to be honest, lots of work going on but not a lot to show for it. My primary focus has been sourcing my next property, which I intend to renovate and sell on (flip) for a profit. The DSS HMO continues to be a frustration too.

1) Refinance my existing portfolio – the 2 remortgages have finally completed and I’ve got another £70k sitting in the bank now, which is nice. Well actually I have an offset mortgage on my own home, so really that money is sitting in the mortgage account and reducing my home mortgage interest significantly, but is readily available to spend.

At the moment I’ve put re-mortgaging the HMO on hold. You may recall I had a wholly unsatisfactory valuation last month, and whilst I’ve found another lender, the fees and interest rate are exorbitant. On a £100k loan, the first year outlay will be approx £6k in fees (broker, arrangement, solicitors, valuation etc) and another £6k in interest.

So if you know anyone who’s interested in funding a private mortgage, fixed for 5 years say, on this HMO then please let me know.

2) Lease Options – I’m continuing to progress the acquisition of lease option properties and am very close to picking up 3 flats, but the vendor is a nightmare to get hold off and keeps leaving the country for 6 weeks at a time without getting me the information I ask for.

I remain hopeful that this will come off.

3) LHA HMO – Last month I had 2 of my tenants sent to jail, since then one has returned so the housing benefit for him should be reinstated shortly, however I’ve had a 3rd arrested now!

The VOA (Valuation Office Agency) who are responsible for council tax have visited the property and decided to reband each room as a separate unit for council tax. Actually I’m not that bothered about this, as it means the tenants pay their own council tax and as they’re all on benefits, they get council tax benefit anyway, so that will actually save me £1000 per year.

The fact that they backdated the change to September 2014 and sent me a bill for over £2000 was rather annoying, but I’ve got an appeal in for that.

4) Property Sourcing – I continue to call estate agents, view properties and offer on them, as well as working with local sourcers. I’ve also upped my game at the property auctions, however there’s nothing new to report so far.

The tricky bit is that with houses that require refurb, the estate agents over price them, let alone leave any profit in. E.g. a £120k post refurb house, that requires a £20k refurb, will be valued at £105-110k. Whereas I need to buy a house like that around £80k, bearing in mind there’s about £5k of buying and selling costs to factor in too.

In summary, work output is good and it’s just a matter of time. As people say, property is a marathon not a sprint.

• Purchased for £85k
• A £10k refurb to split the 2nd bedroom to make a 3rd bedroom, will make it worth £115k – £120k
• So £20k+ equity from the start
• It’s got a tenant already in situ, giving a yield of over 8% from day 1.

Below is my February property update / newsletter:

I’m continuing to work with Susannah Cole from The Good Property Company in Bristol, and also Trish McGirr from Come On Homes in the north of England, who are both experts in their fields with experience of nearly 500 property deals between them.

My main activities for February have been:

1) Refinance my existing portfolio – Of the 3 remortgages I have been doing, 2 have come back with firm offers at the (I thought optimistic) valuations I’d submitted, without any deductions; they will release £75k in additional cash.

I’m waiting to hear on the 3rd valuation (a HMO) hopefully this week, which I’m very optimistically am hoping will give another £80k cash, but I suspect as Meat Loaf said, it’ll be a case of: “2 out of 3 ain’t bad”.  But my target of raising another £100k cash should be easily achieved.

2) Purchase another single let – The purchase of a single let in Warrington I mentioned last month is going ahead and is in the conveyancing process at the moment. The figures roughly are: 2 bed end of terrace in Warrington for £85k + a £10k refurb to split the 2nd bedroom to make a 3rd bedroom, will make it worth £115k+ so has £20k equity from the start, plus it’s got a tenant already in situ, giving a yield of over 8% from day 1.

There’s currently a small issue with a restriction on the title from a former housing association, which is delaying things, but it should get sorted this month.

3) Raising Private Finance – I’ve launched 2 investment clubs this month: my Silver Brick Partners club (fixed interest, fixed term loans) and my Gold Brick Partners club (joint venture profit split on deals).

I’m pleased to say I have secured investments for each of my 2 clubs, with move investors in the pipeline.

It goes without saying, that if you know anyone who is either fed up with getting a terrible rate of interest on their savings, or has always wanted to invest in property but didn’t know quite how to start, then please ask them to call me, or pass on their details to me.

4) Property Sourcing – A key activity this month has been investing time in building relationships with property sourcers in order to leverage my time.  I realise that this means this month has been a bit slow on the property sourcing front, but it should pay dividends over the coming year, as I’ve now got 8 sourcers who are looking for that next great property deal for me.

5) Lease Options – I’ve actively progressing lease options as a strategy, and currently have 3 deals going through, 4 more where I’m in negotiations with the vendors, and another lead that’s just dropped in. 1 deal has fallen out of bed, but that’s the way it goes.

It’s been another busy but exciting month, time is the biggest issue at the moment as there’s so much to do, and never enough time, I wouldn’t change it for the world though.

Oh my, was it really November since I last posted on here? Where does the time go?

Well 2014 can go swivel, for a whole host of reasons, not least of which having to watch my father slowly die. This is my Facebook post from the time, and I don’t think I’m going to say more than that:

Waking up and being disappointed to discover my father is still alive has to rank up there with one of the worst experiences of my life.

As my father-in-law (who also suffered horribly before his eventual death) said, before he lost the faculty of coherent thought and speech: “We wouldn’t let a dog live on like this, why do we force humans too?”

What I think right now about religion’s backing for the State’s moratorium on euthanasia, and the needless suffering that causes thousands of people on a daily basis, is probably unprintable.

Moving swiftly on to 2015, it’s all change. As you may have noticed from the change in title to this blog, I’ve refocused my life on our property portfolio. It’s modest at the moment but that’s changing A LOT in the coming year, as I’m focusing all my time and effort on increasing it.

It’s my intention to post a monthly update here, partly as a personal record for myself, but also to keep any interested parties informed (let me know if you want to get the monthly updates by email), so here’s what happening in January:

As some of you know, I’m working with Susannah Cole, who from a standing start has bought (for herself and with her investors) over 150 properties in Bristol in the last few years. She’s an expert at buying property at a discount, refurbishing them, and selling them on for a healthy profit (this is called “flipping” property); we will be working together to do the same in Cheshire this year.

I’m also working with Trish McGirr, a hugely successful northern property investor who’s acquired (through normal purchases and otherwise) some 300 properties. Already with her help, I’m actively pursuing 3 flats and a house.

As you can see, I very much believe in standing on the shoulders of giants, and when there’s tens of thousands of pounds to be made, why wouldn’t you get the best experts in your camp?

My main activities for January have been:

1) Refinance my existing portfolio – I have 3 remortgage applications underway at the moment, which should release (pending valuations) between £120,000 and £160,000 of further equity to use in the business

2) Purchase another single let – I have agreed a purchase of a 2 bed end of terrace in Warrington for £85k.  After a £10k refurb to split the 2nd bedroom to make a 3rd bedroom, it will be worth £115k so has £20k equity from the start.

However this property it comes with a tenant in situ, generating a gross yield of 8.1%, so I will be keeping this property and adding it to my portfolio.  It’s an example of the sort of properties I will be buying and flipping, and if I had flipped this, it would have returned around a 15-20% profit margin on total cost.

3) Raising Private Finance – I’ve been busy talking to old friends and colleagues throughout January, not only for great chats and the chance to catch up, but also with a view to raising additional finance.  I’m putting my own money up (about £1/4M) but my 18 months cash flow forecast already predicts that’s not going to being enough.

Towards this end I’m launching 2 partnership programmes, and will be looking this year for a few select people to become Silver Brick Partners and Gold Brick Partners to share in my property business.

Silver Brick Partners with be eligible for generous rates of return for simple fixed period loans. Because of the profit margins involved (as evidenced above), I am able to offer much better rates of return than the banks are offering.  I’m looking to take only 6 loan partners this year, and already in January have 1 partner ready to go, with another having expressed initial interest.

Gold Brick Partners are those people who wish to more fully share the risks and rewards of property investing. Typically having a six figure sum to invest, these investors will be true joint venture partners, who will fund the purchase and refurb of properties whilst I do all the hard work! Profit will then be split on a 50:50 basis.  Subject to successful 13.3 vetting, I’m looking to take only 3 JV partners this year, and I’m currently in advance talks with a potential investor.

It goes without saying, that if you know anyone who either is fed up with getting a terrible rate of interest on their savings or has always wanted to invest in property but didn’t know quite how to start, then please ask them to get in touch with me, or pass on their details to me.

As you can see, it’s been a busy but exciting month, with much more still to come. It’s going to be a great year! 😀

Below is a copy of the letter I sent to my MP today, Graham Evans, which I post here for prosperity. If I get one, I’ll post a reply too:

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Dear Mr Evans,

This Friday, 28th November, MPs will debate the second reading of Sarah Teather’s Private Members’ Bill on so-called ‘retaliatory evictions’.

I am writing to ask you to oppose this bill.

As a local landlord who has recently moved to Sandymoor in Runcorn (we moved to put our child into the excellent new Sandymoor Free School, in fact you met her when you visited) we have started investing in Runcorn to improve the very dilapidated private housing stock in the area.

We have for example already converted a derelict and empty property, providing 4 high quality all en-suite bedsits, all of which are rented to DSS tenants (bucking the general trend amongst private landlords) who were, or were at risk of being, homeless.

We have worked closely with the council, inviting them in to inspect and advise of the refurbishment and were granted a HMO license at the first time of asking, without quibble or condition.  We’ve worked closely with homeless shelters and Halton council’s homelessness officer and have tenant on the council’s Bond Guarantee Scheme.

I provide these details to hopefully demonstrate that we are the kind of quality landlords that you would want to encourage.  Which is why I’m writing to ask you to oppose Sarah Teather’s Private Members’ Bill.   Our main issues are:

• There are no reliable figures to show that retaliatory evictions are a big problem that needs new legislation. Generally, landlords don’t evict good tenants for no reason.
• Changes are not needed as retaliatory evictions are already illegal under consumer protection regulations.
• The Bill will be ineffective. It is supposed to help good tenants and punish bad landlords, but instead bad tenants will use the law to avoid eviction, withhold rent and to continue with anti-social behaviour, while criminal landlords will continue to ignore the law anyway.
• The Bill assumes a landlord is guilty of carrying out a retaliatory eviction by suspending the section 21 notice when a tenant complaint is received. In other countries, like Australia and USA it is up to the tenant to prove that an eviction is retaliatory.
• Local authorities do not have the staff to carry out the extra inspection work the Bill requires.
• Landlords will be more selective about who they let to, reducing availability of accommodation to groups seen as ‘high risk’.
• The Bill will undermine confidence of landlords and drive out investment in the private rented sector.

What with the already crazy introduction of section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014, which attempts to turn landlords into border guards and passport experts by checking potential tenants “right to rent”, the amount of extra red tape that’s been laid at landlords’ feet this year is already very onerous.

Sarah Teather’s bill would take away one of the few legislative tools that landlords have to ensure the smooth operation of their portfolio, and would become a charter for abuse by rogue tenants, determined to steal rent from landlords, most of which are not experts, have only a few properties, and earn less than £20,000pa:

http://thepropertyhub.net/hub/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/big-property-investor-survey-by-the-property-hub.png

Please oppose this inequitable, unfair and obtuse bill and encourage your fellow MPs to do likewise.

Kind regards,

Colin McNulty

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Here’s the image from that link above:

If you know anyone who’s a landlord, I suggest you ask them to send a similar letter to their MP.