The Business of Property

This week Simon and Stuart talk through a recent viewing experience, putting in a low offer, and how basic repairs can disproportionately affect ROI. The discussion this week included: Looking for a new investment property. Taking advantage of an empty house for a Covid-safe viewing. PaTMa property price monitoring . "enjoy your new home without delay". Teardown from viewing a property. Putting in...

Stuart and Simon start out this week with a tale about a holiday let that isn't going as planned. This leads the conversation to a past story about council involvement. The chat this week includes: Holiday let gone wrong! Why people want short term lets. Open communication. Trusting people. Council support, or lack of, for evictions. Conflicting council incentives. Wasted public costs and emotiona...

Simon and Stuart discuss what the stamp duty holiday extension means for them and end up telling a tale of new-build woe. Sorry for the lower than normal sound quality. The discussion this week included: Changing plans from the stamp duty holiday extension. House builders hedging their bets. Visiting your new (pre-)build. Seeing the "insides". A troublesome new-build completion tale. Short notice...

This week Stuart and Simon talk about the four properties that Stuart currently has on the market, in various stages of the selling process. Including one property that's a fully tenanted HMO. The chat this week includes: Selling a fully tenanted HMO. Releasing equity to reduce finance burdens. Comparing single dwelling value to fully licensed HMO. Reconfiguring back to a single dwelling. Children...

Follow along as Simon walks through his thoughts from evaluating two potential investment properties that were recently available at auction. The discussion this week included: Simon's investment criteria. Considering flats (a block of) vs houses. Deep dive into two evaluating two auction properties: Detached house in Redhill - multiple bidders, sold for £278k from a £180k guide. Block of flats in...

Pam and Tania continue their recent conversation with Stuart and Simon, with a focus on angel investing and choosing locations. The chat also covers the changing world and property market, along with adapting to cope with it. This is part 2 of the discussion, you can find part 1 here . The chat this week includes: How to find angel investors. Pam & Tania's Deal Diaries . Discussing potential d...

Pam and Tania join Stuart and Simon to chat about how they've very deliberately chosen their investment locations. They also talk about their investment strategy, how they got started and their approaches to funding from external investors. Part 2 of this chat can be found here . The discussion this week included: Choosing investment location deliberately. Demand, transport links, cash flow. Inves...

Property investment needs money - funds to invest when getting started and also to fuel growth. Simon and Stuart chat about their own considerations and approaches to using external funds for their property investment. The chat this week includes: Being offered money. The stress of other peoples money. Individuals vs banks. Overcoming fears for business growth. Difficult investor conversations. Co...

Taking a quick break from the getting started in property series, Stuart and Simon run through the latest updates from their property businesses. The discussion this week included: Stuart's design led refurbishment has it's first tenant. View the agent listing here and some photos at the end of this weeks show notes, including the custom artwork. Stuart's Executive Juice podcast. Doubling income f...

Simon and Stuart continue their series on starting in property, this week continuing on being aware of your inputs and moving on to a discussion around choosing your investment location. The chat this week includes: How/why we invested the way we did. Low time commitments. Investment matrix - strategies available from low/medium/high inputs. Utilising external support. Self-refurbishment (with chi...

Stuart and Simon try to look at resources that you need to consider when planning property investment and get a little sidetracked into discussing personal vs limited company ownership of investment property. The discussion this week included: The resources needed to invest in property. Time. Money. Knowledge/expertise/experience. The best knowledge comes through doing. Doing means walking the str...

Responding to listener feedback, Simon and Stuart are starting a series of discussions about starting property investment. Initially with reasons and why this week, then covering early decisions, processes and even real potential properties. The chat this week includes: Why we chose property. Our property back story, part 1 Our property back story, part 2 A lot of effort for passive income. Proper...

Stuart and Simon are looking ahead to what their 2021 might hold and more specifically how they're getting it started. The discussion this week included: Looking to buy. Simon's property type preference. Considering buying with existing tenants in place. Rent from day one. Considering the risks - with restricted eviction options. Section 21 vs Section 8. ROI / Return On Investment . Calculating RO...

This week is a mix of news, updates and reviewing the goals Simon and Stuart set themselves for 2020. The chat this week includes: Welsh stamp duty increase - use the PaTMa buy-to-let profit calculator to see the latest figures. Stamp duty increase for overseas investors. Prime London property as a store of money. Sold! Stuart's design led refurbishment . Financial challenges. We hope you've had a...

In a slightly longer than normal episode, Stuart and Simon look back over their topics of property conversation in 2020. Bringing new insights, updates and the benefit of hindsight into the discussion. Some of the topics covered this week include: A lucky escape. Expected changes for landlords in 2020 . Property investment glossary . Property strategy glossary . The property market at the start of...

Simon and Stuart talk about their latest property updates - there's a lot going on! If you're looking for a property to purchase and would like to share your progress, please let us know . We'd also love to hear your property challenges . The chat this week includes: Last minute sale issues. Land registry plan updates . Hard to contact solicitors. 6.5% property price increase in the last year. Sel...

Stuart and Simon take a thorough look at recent experience of getting back into doing rent to rent deals. The discussion this week included: Why rent to rent. Rent to HMO and Rent to SA. R2R input and output. Article 4 areas . Planning and licensing. Knowing your market. R2R vs letting agent. Finding R2R deals. Even R2R requires capital investment. It takes time, effort and money. If you've enjoye...

Simon and Stuart are back with more updates this week, with several things changing already. The chat this week includes: Update on the damp survey mentioned last week . Costs of sale. Long term holding can create some large CGT bills. Beware CGT doesn't overtake equity when mortgaging. (More) down-valuations! Fall-through. A great studio flat in Kingston . Our recent chat with estate agent Emma ....

Stuart and Simon provide updates on their recent property experiences and chat about viewings, mortgages and the stamp duty holiday (again). The discussion this week included: Mortgage required before viewing. Cheeky new-build viewing requirements. More surveys. Damp. Speed (or not) of selling. Will the stamp duty holiday now help to keep sales alive? "In progress" sales are nearly 50% higher than...

Emma joins Simon and Stuart once again to chat about the world (and property market) from her view running an estate agency. Please accept our apologies for some slight sound issues. The chat this week includes: Summary of the last few months property market. The stamp duty holiday deadline. Demand is slowing down, a little. The property market can function as normal during this lockdown. Things a...

Simon and Stuart chat through a couple of graphs showing how the property market has behaved so far this year. The discussion this week included: Stats collected thanks to the PaTMa property browser extension . You might be able to see the graphs included below, if not use these links: graph 1 and graph 2 . Christmas is coming! Was the post-lockdown (v1) market hype, overhyped. Sellers and agents...

Stuart and Simon discuss a Covid-19 influenced viewing experience, stamp duty and the speed (or not) of completing a sale. The chat this week includes: Awkward property viewings. Vendor vs agent viewing styles. The additional stamp duty rate on your primary residence. The stamp duty holiday rates (spreadsheet). Another offer has been accepted (via a new agent). Trying to complete by Christmas. Ave...

This week the chat is focussed around auctions, advertised property prices and agent fees; with a few updates thrown in along the way. The discussion this week included: Last weeks chat with Tom Soane. Stuart's offer(s). EWS1 delights. Reducing for cash. Testing seriousness with little hurdles. Method of modern auction. Guide prices - on auctions and not. Emma's past chat about portal usage . Prop...

Simon and Stuart are joined by Tom Soane to chat about some of Tom's experiences in property, from how he got started to his current projects. The discussion this week included: Tom's transition from gamekeeper to poacher (or maybe the other way around). The difference between planning investments for others and making them yourself. Continuing despite fear. Using investor money vs your own money....

This week is a chat around asking tenants to leave, evictions and some alternative approaches to solving problems. Stuart and Simon also discuss the "tsunami" of homelessness the reopened courts are about to cause! The chat this week includes: Alternative to serving an official eviction notice. Open and honest communication. Not without risk. Evictions with rent arrears. Overdue rent and direct pa...