Sourcing will make you more money than lease options they will just ruin your life

You could argue that I am bias in my belief that ‘sourcing will make you more money than lease options’ – after all that is the basis of my coaching programme, our webinars and my second book ‘Make More Money from Property; from investor thinking to a business mindset’. It was as I started to write that book that I really began to understand my own business model, what I had to offer my sourcing clients and why this was the best strategy for me.

It all starts of course with “why”? Why are you investing in property? An easy answer is money. Often the second most popular answer is more time, but I think what lies underneath all of the answers people give is “lifestyle” – choice to have the life you want. If you haven’t consciously thought through this then you might want to explore the idea. Read More

You can guess I have been commuting into London again! There is a point in my journey at Harrow where sometimes my slow train arrives at a platform just as a fast train arrives on the opposite platform. I watch as people dashed from my train to join the other.

Those who moved first, those who were prepared, join the fast train in time to get a seat. The man next to me was obviously not paying attention. He presumably noticed others changing trains and decided to follow. As he left his seat next to me and got to the carriage door it was clear that all the seats on the fast train had been taken and he would have to stand his journey, albeit a quicker one.

He turned and decided that a seat was more valuable than five minutes saved by joining the fast train. His own seat had been taken. You could see the confusion and maybe even frustration on his face.

What would you do, I am fascinated by the behaviour of regular commuters, those that know the right carriage for each station, those that have favourite seats. Those that dash to change trains to save five minutes. What strange habits have you adopted that you did not realise? What decision do you make each day without conscious thought? What decision should you be making on daily basis with conscious thought?

Wishing you success and happiness

Vicki – The Property Mermaid

I wrote a blog called Does Time really matter - It started by asking the question where would you go if you had a time machine, what period in time would you visit. I suggested the idea of time travel was for exploration and discovery not regret. Read More

Okay whose idea was it to buy a Renault Megane Cabriolet Coupe? Oh that would be me! I even remember having this discussion on Ecademy. Well maybe I made the wrong decision.

On a cold morning somewhere in Preston Lancashire I left the safety of my Travelodge to head out to a mentoring meeting. It was minus three and everywhere frosty and white including my car, which sat alone in the car park.

As I approached the car and put my hand in the door handle to release the remote door opening catch, I heard it click open. As my hand gripped the frosty door everything was all fine, until I tried to pull open the door and nothing happened. The door didn’t open.

The door and window, on the Megane, do not have a frame. The window extends into the roof space to seal the door. To open the door the window must lower slightly out of the roof and then the door opens. Sadly the window stayed firmly where it was. It was frozen solid.

I tried the passenger door and nothing, also frozen. I went to the boot to get the car scrapper and tin of de-icer spray, but that would not open either. There was that brief moment of despair as you can imagine. I needed to get creative. First I decided to get my credit card out of my purse and use that to scrap the window. It was a slow process.

After fifteen minutes scrapping; first the driver’s door and then the passenger door I was still shut out of the car. I went to the entrance of the pub, whose car park I was using and they were also shut thought not through frost this time. Then I headed back to the hotel to ask for hot water.

Luckily as I was in reception explaining my predicament, a man was checking out and offered his de-icer spray to see if that would help. A few good squirts and some brute force later and the driver door popped free. At least I could switch the engine on and the heaters working in an effort to defrost the car from within.

The morale, metaphor or lesson ….. Only don’t buy a daft vanity car without thinking about the implications of the mad British weather!!!

Here’s to better decisions

Vicki – The Property Mermaid

On my journey into London this morning I happened to catch an interview with Sarah Pennells of savvywomen.com on BBC Radio London. She was in the middle of a discussion about pensions and property.

My attention peaked as she said my favourite sentences – “your home is not an asset”.  She went on to explain that people need to learn to release money from their properties to support their poorly performing pensions and when necessary pay for their own care in homes as they grow old and they can no longer support themselves.

I have been saying this for the last two-three years. In fact it is my personal investment strategy to release equity from our family homes to invest in property. The properties are chosen to provide sufficient rental income to cover the cost of the investment mortgage as well as the equity release mortgage and of course a profit.

There are plenty of commercial methods to do this often offered by a combination of life insurance companies and lenders. There are consequences with those schemes, high fees and the ultimate reduction of your inheritance for your family. They are some people’s only choice. Why because they are too old, they did not plan sufficiently for their future, when they were stillyoung enough and earning an income to support a mortgage.

Some people believed the ” hype”  that the government or private pensions would support them into their retirement. I discuss in detail in my book  that we are simply living too long – great news, but with a darker implication …… How are you going to fund your personal care and living expenses when you get older and you are no longer actively earning a wage?

The Property Sourcers, one of my businesses, works directly with clients; first helping you recognise what financial assets you actually have and then helps you to assess what you actually need to live the retirement you are dreaming of.

I am not a financial planner that comes later, as you work with more of my team and associates, the initial strategy session is designed to help you recognise just what your options are, just what is possible and what steps can be taken to put in place a plan for a more efficacious (I have wanted to use that word in a blog for years) future.

For example releasing £200,000 from your house, now while you are still a person that lenders would consider lending too ( ie employed, or with accounts and under 55, as after that age it gets harder to find lenders or to have sufficient time to achieve your goals).

The money released from savings or capital leveraged from equity, can then be leveraged again through further buy-to-let mortgages and used to purchase investment properties. As a broad example £200,000 could be used to purchase three properties on a family-let basis with guaranteed rental income for six years* plus a further two properties let on a multiple occupancy basis. The average net income, after mortgage costs, letting agent fees, insurance and an allowance for void periods is taken into account would be £2,250.00 that is a massive 13.5% return on the capital employed. (*The Guaranteed rent scheme is a specific service I offer for clients wanting guaranteed rental income, but accepting a lower rate of return – 10-12% compared to 15-20% on the multi-let properties)

Of course you still need to repay the cost of borrowing the initial £200,000 You might be able to release this money through a draw down facility on your existing mortgage depending on your lender and current conditions, which would mean a very low cost to the borrowing, but even if we assume a mortgage cost of £850.00 you would still have an additional £1,700 income. And that is before you retire.

If you are currently 45 years old and do not retire for twenty years and everything stays the same (which it won’t but it makes my example easier), then twenty times £1,700 times twelve months equals £408,000

Just to let that number sink in, if you released two hundred thousand from your home, your parents home, your savings, where ever and invested in the types of investments I offer my clients then after the investment mortgages and the equity release mortgage was paid you could have an additional £408,000 of income over the next twenty years.

You could spend this, save this, repay the £200,000 released or even reinvest it in a few more cash flowing properties. The choice would be yours.

More importantly you would have an investment portfolio for your family, something you could pass down through the generations providing your entire family with greater if a coal security. The alternative is to wait until it is too late and then use a reversionary company to take control of your property, and pay you just enough to live on. If you live too long they will take your house and your family will have nothing.

Of course there are risks and consequences that is why we are employed by our clients to act as their project manager in the process. We have the skill and experience and the financial team to advice clients on the best use of their personal financial assets.

The figures above are an example, there are variations on that model. That is why we start by working with clients through a personal investment strategy session to identify exactly what their requirements are.

What would you rather do answers on a postcard:
a)    Do nothing and hope the government is right, NHS care will improve and your pension will be enough
b)    Hand your property over to a lender or insurance company that gives you just enough to live in a nursing home
c)    Do something now – maybe have a strategy session with us – understand your financial options and consider investing in property now – so you have on going extra income before you retire, more money after retirement and a portfolio of properties to leave your family.

Here are some links some e-books that I wrote on the topics
Your Home is not an asset
Your Pension is not enough – Booklet3

Very best wishes for your success and happiness

Vicki – The Property Mermaid

I just helped over seventy early morning commuters get on the first train out of the station. It’s so easy especially first thing in the morning to just follow the crowd. At our station there are two platforms from which the early morning trains leaves as we are the end of the line. I hurried through the barriers, something you always do when there are trains at both platforms, because you know one will leave. While still moving quickly towards the platforms, I stared up at the old fashioned display board to see which train the arrow was indicating would leave first. The arrow said 3, yet I followed the crowd, mildly confused as they walked towards the train on platform 4, yet not consciously questioning why I was doing the same.

Once safe in the carriage, safe in the knowledge that I was on a train I looked across the platform to see people sitting on the train next to us, what did they know? Why were they over there?

I opened the door and stood next to a passenger on the platform, he was standing outside waiting for a clue himself. I saw a driver at the end of our train, but we still had a red light so no clue there. I looked back toward the more modern over-head display boards they were little help, as they indicated first train to leave was platform one and my choices were platform 3 or 4.

Then I saw the station guard, I waved and gestured “This train or that train?” he gestured back that the first train to leave would be the train I was not on! As I crossed the platform people that were in my carriage noticed and a few stood undecided whether to follow me.

As one of two brave souls approached the doors and stepped on to the platform more commuters joined them. By the time I was seated on the new, first to leave train, everyone was in the process of changing carriages.

I wonder if I had not noticed people on the other train, and unconsciously remembered that as I arrive the old fashion board was indicating the correct train to board, I wonder if I had continued to be a sheep where would I be now? still sitting on a train at the station waiting for something to happen as everyone passed by on the first train out.

Wishing you every success and happiness

Vicki – The Property Mermaid

I have started to think of the people on my database as one of the following; follower, stalker, buyer……

It started with a conversation about sales and customer profiles. The advice I was given was to think about my customers in terms of their readiness to buy and mark them in my database as such. This would enable me to pull out certain client groups and communicate with them more easily. I have to say it felt quite a cold way of viewing people. Rather transactional.

I started to consider if the aim of classifying people was to get a quicker sale, then how was I actually gaining sales right now. What process were my clients going through – the decision process rather than my office process. I had been talking to a couple of my mentees about how they were my stalkers let me explain.

A follower is one of the hundreds and possibly thousands of people that you “know” through social media or maybe the collection of business cards you have transcribed into your database system. In some cases people will “know” you and be reading your blogs (without comment) or maybe likely a Facebook post or retweeting a tweet. They will down load anything you offer for free, chapters of your book, your videos, your Slideshares even your free resources . Read More

I loathe chain letters … they tug at the superstitious side of my personality … I also loathe the thought of spamming friends. Having said that this story (edited – chain letter) provoked some powerful thoughts. My best friend battled brain and lung cancer in 2010 and while I did what I could to support her – I found her battle stirred a few battles within me.

How was I living my life, what do I have control over? …. there is a saying isn’t there (I can’t remember it) about having the grace to know the things you cannot change …. well this little chain letter story spoke to me this morning …

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