On this weeks podcast, Jack asks a cracker of a question - where are we in the 18 year property cycle.
Given that this is one of Rob & Rob's favourite topics to talk about, they didn't need a lot of convincing to answer this one! Rob B starts off by stating that he thinks we're just heading into the mid-term wobble - where London and the South East prices should soften a little, and the North should grow a little less slowly. Of course the media will term this as a 'crash' but it's likely that the results will show it to be far less dramatic.
Rob D agrees the UK as a whole is heading into the mid-term wobble, and reminds us that the growth has been amazing in the past few years in London and the South East, so the 'wobble' is likely to be felt the most in these areas.
Both Rob B and Rob D agree the aggressive growth is to come in the second half of the cycle, though London and the South East may grow slightly less aggressively due to their growth beforehand.
Rob B reminds us that as most of our podcast listeners have predicted this is coming, it leaves us in a position to be a lot more relaxed about the situation, and make the most of it.
In the course of getting to know hundreds of investors, we've come across a whole cast of characters who probably shouldn't be investing in property at all – including Stressful Susan, Dithering Derek and Gung-Ho Grace.
Will you recognise yourself in any of them? Do you have the right temperament to be a successful investor, or are there traits you need to get under control? Listen to this week's episode and find out!
Related episodes we mention: - When Property Goes Wrong - How Rob B lost £40,000 on one deal
If you ever need to put together a flyer for a property, or just brighten or resize some photos, you might want to try Picmonkey or Canva.
Both are free and extremely easy online image editing tools – perfect for quick, everyday tweaks that don't require anything as powerful as Photoshop.
Chinese buyers' interest in the UK has spiked by 40% post-Brexit, as reported in The Telegraph.
In a way not surprising as the pound is on sale for the rest of the world, but still a remarkable indicator when there's still so much uncertainty about how things will pan out.
What other "characters" would you add to our collection?
Do you have any traits that you need to work on to make yourself a better investor?
We’d love to know, so join the discussion in The Property Hub!
Reviews are really important in helping other people to find the show, so by way of thanks we read out every single review we receive on air.
If you’d like to hear your name on the show, leave us a review on iTunes here.
Not sure how to leave a review? This video shows you how to review and subscribe on iTunes.
This week, the brilliantly named Rob, asks a question regarding the build to rent scheme, and how this may impact upon the existing PRS. Asking is this a ploy by The Government to eradicate small time BTL Landlords.
Rob D begins by acknowledging that there will definitely be more institutional investment in BTL, and that it is probably healthy for the sector not to be controlled entirely by private BTL Landlords. But thinks there is room for both in the marketplace, due to the demand for different types of products.
Rob B agrees that whilst the balance my shift, it shouldn't do so radically. Rob B goes on to discuss how quality has improved for student accommodation, and how in the long term this could give us a glimpse into the future of the BTL market, and that it could be a good thing if this competition increases the quality of stock available to tenants.
This week we're talking about how to hire for your property team – whether it's a property manager, an assistant, a bookkeeper, or just about any other role you can think of.
We've talked about the benefits of hiring many times, so this week we talk through the exact process we use to maximise our chances of finding the perfect candidate.
We cover:
Resources we mention are:
This week's resource is a Trello board, which is the template we use when we're executing the hiring process we talk about in this episode. Take it, make whatever modifications you want, and you'll find that it makes it way easier to keep track of where you're up to with all your applications.
And as an extra bonus resource, Rob B was on the Graduate Jobs podcast talking about how to land a job in property – so if you're seeking a role rather than hiring for one, make sure you check out his words of wisdom.
House price growth is hotting up in the north and cooling down in the south, according to The Telegraph.
Wow, does that mean we've actually got a prediction right for once?
Next week will be the first Thursday of the month, which means...it's meetup time again!
There are over 30 meetups taking place, and they're totally free. All you need to do is find one near you, put your name down, and turn up for an evening of friendly and informative chat with other property obsessives.
See the full list and sign up here
Do you have any tips from when you've hired for your property team?
Which tasks do you wish you could hire someone to take off your hands?
We’d love to know, so join the discussion in The Property Hub!
Reviews are really important in helping other people to find the show, so by way of thanks we read out every single review we receive on air.
If you’d like to hear your name on the show, leave us a review on iTunes here.
Not sure how to leave a review? This video shows you how to review and subscribe on iTunes.
In this week's episode, Rob & Rob talk about getting a mortgage when you're not yet a property owner. Rob B says that there are a lot of mortgage lenders out there, but as a non home owner, and not yet a property investor, the pool of products available are actually quite small.
Rob B goes on to say that in 6 months time there will be more options. Both Rob and Rob discuss the options available to you and say how important it is to have a good mortgage advisor.
This week it's all about the money, as we explore alternative ways to raise funds for your property investments.
We explore the pros and cons of using:
Each funding source we discuss could be (and most will be) a separate episode in itself – but in this value-packed episode we give you a quick run-through of the different strategies you might want to have in your kit, and how to decide which is the right tool for the job.
You've probably rhetorically asked yourself, "where did today go?" – but with Toggl, you can actually look back and check.
It's a time-tracking tool (that integrates nicely with Chrome) that makes it easy to monitor the amount of time you spend on different tasks and projects. It involves some manual work and discipline, but the act of being mindful of your time can be beneficial in itself – and Toggl gives you reports that you can dig into to review your biggest time-sucks.
Certainly this won't be for everyone – but if you feel like you'd benefit from the insight of knowing how you spend your days, Toggl is a great (and free) way of doing it.
As reported in The Telegraph, six commercial property funds have suspended trading – basically meaning that investors aren't allowed to take their money out.
We discuss the nature of different types of funds, and what (if anything) this news tells us about the future of commercial property.
Which of the financing methods we mentioned have you made use of?
Are there any others that we didn't think of?
We’d love to know, so join the discussion in The Property Hub!
Reviews are really important in helping other people to find the show, so by way of thanks we read out every single review we receive on air.
If you’d like to hear your name on the show, leave us a review on iTunes here.
Not sure how to leave a review? This video shows you how to review and subscribe on iTunes.
In this week's episode, Rob & Rob discuss the pros and cons of buying a home or an investment property.
Tony has been living overseas and is looking to return to the UK with his young family - he doesn't have enough to buy in the location the family want to live and he wants to know whether to buy an investment property instead.
Rob B starts off by addressing the pros of investing in a property, then renting a home to live in. He says that if you're moving to a new area, renting will give you a chance to see if the area is actually right for you. He then goes on to say that you can build your asset base by investing in property, then use your capital to invest back into buying your own home, leading to a double win.
Rob D talks about shaking off the mindset of "You have to own your own home", and goes on to cover some of the advantage of owning your own property, such as accessing more mortgage options.
You buy your property, you put a tenant in and take their first month's rent, you check your bank account a month later and...nothing.
Your tenant has fallen into arrears...and how you handle it could make the difference between a swift resolution and months with no income. In this episode, we take you step-by-step through the process of dealing with every investor's nightmare scenario.
We discuss:
If you're anything like Rob B, your wallet is bulging with receipts rather than banknotes – and you're either letting expenses go unclaimed, or having to buy your bookkeeper one heck of a Christmas present.
Luckily, Receipt Bank can come to your rescue: all you need to do is take a photo of the receipt on your phone, and it'll store it securely for you. It'll even extract all the key data ready for automatic uploading to your cloud accounts package like Sage, Xero or Kashflow.
The best thing is the easier the process of dealing with your receipts is, the more likely you are to actually do it – which means you won't be paying too much tax as a result of overlooking legitimate expenses.
Buy-to-let mortgage rates are falling in response to the slowdown in lending demand after the stamp duty increase – and more lenders have been cutting their rates in the wake of the EU referendum.
Not only that, but the Bank of England has relaxed capital requirements for banks – freeing up £150 billion of potential funding for lending.
What does this mean? Well, cheap and easy money tends to mean higher asset prices as the funds have to go somewhere – and it also means that the lessons of the previous crash have been forgotten. This is exactly what the property cycle tells us should happen – so once we come out of the mid-cycle dip, we know what's meant to happen next...
In October we're holding our first ever Property Hub Summit outside London – and you get to choose where it is!
There's still time to swing it in the favour of your chosen city – there are several gathering plenty of votes, but it's too close to call right now...
What's your own process for handling tenants who fall into arrears?
Have you ever needed to go through the court process to evict a tenant, and do you have any tips for other Hub members?
We’d love to know, so join the discussion in The Property Hub!
Reviews are really important in helping other people to find the show, so by way of thanks we read out every single review we receive on air.
If you’d like to hear your name on the show, leave us a review on iTunes here.
Not sure how to leave a review? This video shows you how to review and subscribe on iTunes.
Brian from Birmingham and his partner are eager to invest and have saved up to buy their first property, but will need some more capital in order to complete their first flip.
Rob & Rob give their tips on gaining finance in this situation and note the things to be aware of as potential pitfalls to gaining finance with no previous investment track record.
So, Brexit happened...now what?
That's the question we attempt to answer in this week's episode. What happens next in general, what happens next for the property market in particular...and perhaps more importantly, what general lessons can we take away from the whole thing?
We discuss:
Further listening:
Thank you to Charles for pointing us towards Office Lens (iTunes store and Android store).
It's another document scanning app, but Charles and Rob B agree that the quality is far superior to anything else they've tried – and even works for whiteboards.
Rob D noted that Evernote has raised its document scanning game too, and the mobile version ofGoogle Drive is improving all the time.
It's the first Thursday of July, which means meetups – 30 of them in fact, across the UK and beyond!
Go to thepropertyhub.net/meetups to find your nearest and book your free place.
And if you're in Leeds or Leamington Spa, one of the Robs will see you there!
Will you be taking advantage of the post-Brexit uncertainty?
How have your plans changed, if at all?
We’d love to know, so join the discussion in The Property Hub!
Reviews are really important in helping other people to find the show, so by way of thanks we read out every single review we receive on air.
If you’d like to hear your name on the show, leave us a review on iTunes here.
Not sure how to leave a review? This video shows you how to review and subscribe on iTunes.
Rob & Rob own multiple property businesses as well as their own portfolios...but what do they actually do every day? That's what we attempt to answer in this episode, as a means of both showing what a full-time career in property looks like and extracting useful lessons for investors at all stages.
In this special episode, Rob & Rob give their immediate reactions to what Brexit means for property investors. We'll be returning to the topic again in more detail next week!
In this episode, Rob and Rob give pointers on how to establish the value of the house with the current lease, the importance of working with a specialist and also having a process in place to make it an effective strategy for you. Listen in to get Rob D's magic lease number that he recommends as a guideline for lease length.
This week we’re talking about one of the hottest topics in property investment: serviced apartments. Setting up a property as a serviced apartment can allow investors to achieve levels of return normally associated with high-yielding investments like HMOs – but as always, there’s hard work involved and pitfalls to watch out for. In this episode […]
The post TPP171: Serviced apartments: the next big thing? appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Ed asked: What will happen to mortgage availability as you get older? The answer touched upon the fact that the trend is leaning more and more towards people getting mortgages later in life. This is for a couple of major reasons: firstly the change in pension reforms that have […]
The post ASK44: What will happen to mortgage availability as you get older? appeared first on The Property Hub.
Many investors are drawn to HMOs by their seemingly high returns, but then deterred (us included) by the amount of work they seem to involve. And there’s no getting away from it: HMOs are more effort than your standard single let. Nevertheless, there are steps you can take to boost your chances of making HMOs […]
The post TPP170: How to make HMOs work for you appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Steven asked: How do you handle renovations from a distance? A great question! The answer focused on a couple of older Property Podcast episodes, which talk about this very issue and how to tackle it (see links below). It also mentioned having someone to run the project that you […]
The post ASK43: How do you handle renovations from a distance? appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week we unpack the often-repeated claim that property prices double every 10 years. Have they done in the past…and most importantly, can we expect to see it happen in the next 10 years? We talk about: The true pace at which prices have grown in the past Why property prices tend to go up […]
The post TPP169: Will property prices double in the next 10 years? appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Tim Freeman… Tells off Rob & Rob! The episode this week is all about the Robs’ attitude towards DIY and repair, and listener Tim Freeman calls out the Robs on not having DIY knowledge, when they so regularly preach about how knowledge is the most important thing and […]
The post ASK42: R&R get told off! appeared first on The Property Hub.
We’ve activated gloom-mode this week to talk about what’s set to become an endangered species in the UK: the middle class. By “middle class” we don’t mean whether you say “sofa” or “settee”: it means middle-income earners, who are increasingly being squeezed out. Over the last 30 years, the proportion of households in London described […]
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This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Yael asked: How do you start? Not an easy one to answer! The answer, however, starts with sorting your finances. Ultimately, you need money to invest in property, and if you don’t have funds, there’s nothing you can do. You don’t need millions, but you will need access to […]
The post ASK41: How do you start? appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week we’re delving into one of the invisible forces that guides the property market: supply and demand. It’s not the only force that operates on property (we’ll be looking at some of the others in the coming weeks), but over the long-term it’s one of the most important. We discuss: What the laws of […]
The post TPP167: Supply and demand explained appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Paddy asked: What do you do in a boom? Slow and steady wins the race. This question (as many do) refers to the 18-year property cycle, so be sure to check out our episode on that. The answer talks about looking at your portfolio in the period leading up to […]
The post ASK40: What do you do in a boom? appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week we’re featuring another interview we recorded at the Property Investor Show – this time, we’re talking auctions with Rob Marchant from Clive Emson auctioneers. Rob tells us how best to prepare for an auction in advance, if it’s really still possible to find a bargain in a post-Homes Under The Hammer world, and […]
The post TPP166: Auctions! (from The Property Investor Show) appeared first on The Property Hub.
This week on Ask Rob & Rob, Graham asked: How will Brexit affect the property market? A popular question! The answer touched upon the important fact that neither Robs believe that Brexit is actually going to happen – people tend towards keeping things as they are, and in all likelihood, Britain will remain in the EU. […]
The post ASK39: How will Brexit affect the property market? appeared first on The Property Hub.