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!
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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.