When you’re trying to negotiate with vendors to bring down the price of your property, you need some smart strategies to reduce the price (and increase your profits).  The Calculator Close is one of these strategies, this is how it works:

The Calculator Close

• Rule 1: You must give control of the calculator to the other party.
• Rule 2: Any figure punched into the calculator must come from them, never from you.

Start with the asking price – get them to enter this in the calculator.  Then break down all the costs involved in getting it to the ceiling price, one by one, including:

• The cost of the needed refurb; you’ll add credibility by breaking down the cost into separate component parts, materials and tradesmen or room by room.
• Any buying and selling/refinancing costs (including Stamp duty land tax)
• Maybe borrowing costs
• Definitely the profit you need to make from the project to make it worthwhile taking on.

Don’t allow them to use ‘bargain...

THE QUESTION

What method of financing do you use to purchase a property to convert to an HMO, before re-financing to an HMO product?  I'm being told by a broker it won't be possible to get a mortgage, (not due to the fact the house is not mortgageable, but due to the fact I’ll be carrying out ‘extensive works’) and that I have to use bridging.

Are there any mortgage lenders who will allow you to do works on a property?  What are the parameters for this?

Or is bridging my only option?

THE ANSWER

Your broker is correct in so far as no mortgage lender would allow you to do the level of work required to convert a property to an HMO, whilst you had a mortgage with them.

It’s not so much that lenders don’t allow you to do work to improve the property, they do, but converting to an HMO and then filling it with multiple tenants breaches the T&Cs for that type of mortgage, which usually allows only one AST for the property.  The result is that...

When it comes to investing in property the big challenge, especially for newbies, is getting enough money in the bank to pay that all important 25% deposit.  Depending on where you are buying property that can run to many thousands of pounds.

So what if you could trim that 25% down to nearer 10%?

Here’s the strategy:

Step 1:  Complete the purchase – using bridging finance rather than a BTL mortgage.  Some properties won’t be mortgageable anyway, but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad buy.

Step 2: A quick exchange of contracts.  This can be done as soon as your loan is approved and as soon as your solicitor is able to arrange it.  We should be talking days here, rather than weeks and certainly not months.

Step 3: Quick completion.  Again, that will be as fast as your solicitor is able to do it. Often this will be in 28 days or even quicker.

Step 4: Execute your exit strategy from the day of purchase.  This means if...

THE QUESTION

I’m flipping a house after three months,  I’ve heard most lenders won’t lend against a property unless I (the seller) have owned it for at least six months!, is this right?

THE ANSWER

That’s true to a point, but it depends on the lender.  A number of BTL lenders impose this restriction on the seller.

However, you shouldn’t really be selling to other investors as they view it as a logical rather than emotional purchase, often not wanting to pay full market value.

Main residence lenders are different, to a degree.  There are some that still impose the same restriction on sellers, but it is not across the board by any means.

So your buyers will not have access to all lenders (subject to their circumstances) until you have owned the property for 6 months.  The net result of that is they may be excluded from some market leading deals.

The key here from people who successfully sell within 6 months is - transparency.  You...

Belief is powerful.  If you believe you can do something it gets much easier to succeed.  Of course, the opposite applies, if you don’t believe you can achieve something you will get what you expect.

I’ve been practising neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) for over fifteen years. So when I received a cancer diagnosis from my doctor in April 2016, I knew pretty much what I needed to do, to use my mind to allow my body to heal itself.  I’d been diagnosed with stage 3 (next to the worst level) in several places so I knew I had to take it seriously.

I underwent chemo as well, but I conditioned my mind so that I didn’t suffer any adverse effects from chemotherapy.  I felt perfectly healthy throughout the whole process—I never even needed to take a single day off work.

I got scanned at different points; to check progress, Eight weeks later the scan showed I’d reduced the cancer  by 90%, and in another twelve weeks I’d got...

When it comes to decisions, it’s tempting to take the line of least resistance.  That’s usually choosing NOT to do something or to do nothing.  Nobody achieves success by doing nothing! 

Let me share with you something that happened to me.

In April 2016 I was diagnosed with level 3 Non-Hodgins Lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer.  It was already in more than one location and the severity scale only goes up to 4, so I had a choice:

• Follow medical advice and undergo chemotherapy treatment and hope it worked
• Man up, take responsibility for dealing with it and, most importantly, take action

Having done a lot of self-development over the years, there really was only one choice for me.  I found an NLP coach and together we devised my strategy for conquering cancer, using a number of NLP techniques including meditation, visualisation and affirmation. 

I read up on holistic approaches to conquering cancer, from people who had been there and...

THE QUESTION

I am looking for some inspiration on a potential property.  It is a lovely property that is presently mixed use as a business and flats.

It can be converted to five flats that will fetch a premium price due to the location. The person selling is prepared to listen to options and is prepared to let us develop out the property while she still owns it, therefore, minimal cost to us at purchase.

 I have a few ideas myself but am looking for a bit of inspired creativity.

THE ANSWER

One creative solution was suggested by one of my students who recognised that this opportunity fits one of the strategies I teach on my Ninja Investor Programme workshops.

Through our brokerage, we have financed a number of projects funded exactly this way. So this is not just theory, it works and works well when the number are right.

If you have the current owner’s agreement and permission to enter the property and do the required works to do the conversion, then the delayed...

Most property investors are looking for existing buildings to convert, refurb and either turn into rental income or sell at a nice profit.  However, if you’re looking for a new challenge, it’s tempting to consider building from scratch.

Before you get excited at the idea of building homes to either rent or sell, you need to know about finance.  This isn’t mortgage territory – and it really isn’t bridging finance territory either.  The funding for new build projects is called ‘development finance’.

Self-build mortgages do exist for a main residence, but if the lender suspects that you’re borrowing a self-build mortgage and planning to develop and sell on, they can pull the funding at any point, regardless of what point the project has reached.

Development finance lenders have a policy of putting up barriers to entry and this lets them choose the projects that they consider have a high chance of success. 

Development...

THE QUESTION

I’m looking to buy my first house and I have £40K in cash ready to go.  Do I:

1. Buy it outright. Do the full refurbishment (I’m looking at 12 weeks).  It will be worth £80k once complete and rent for £500pcm. so get a mortgage at £75K  LTV, once it’s ready to let.
2. Apply for a mortgage at £75 LTV and wait at least six months to get my equity out.

Or is there a better way?

THE ANSWER

The argument for buying with cash

1. You can buy much faster than getting bogged down in a mortgage application process
2. If you can buy faster, you should be able to negotiate to buy cheaper - to a degree
3. During the refurb period you have no monthly payments to make and incur no interest
4. Once refurbed, value uplifted and tenanted you can apply for a mortgage. Wait six months if you want access to preferential interest rates; don’t wait if you don’t

At any point in between if you manage to find your next deal and...

THE QUESTION

Can you 100% fund with bridging an optioned project using planning gain as equity?

The project is a conversion of offices to residential, with planning for Change of Use.

The projected uplift in value is 35% upon consent. total circa £1m.

Although I have no actual direct experience, I do have a few very large client successes and similar smaller scale projects in my portfolio.

THE ANSWER

In terms of loan to purchase price, bridgers divide into broadly 3 camps

1. Those that lend on the lower of the purchase price or value, exactly the same as mortgage lenders do
2. Those that will recognise a value uplift, but put in a maximum loan to purchase percentage override i.e. the lower of 70% of value and 85/90% of purchase price. This would mean whatever value uplift you created they would still require a minimum of at least 10% of purchase price input from you
3. Those that genuinely ignore the purchase price and lend on value

Of those, No. 3 is the rarest, but they do exist...