Judith Morgan, Wealth Coach for Entrepreneurs

Your Little Bit of Paradise in the Caribbean for only £1,000

Only £1,000 down for your own freehold little bit of Paradise in the Caribbean?

Can this really be true?   Or is it simply Too Good To Be True?

I have always wanted a life in the sun, so when one of our own ex-clients on the 2007 Money Gym Gold Express programme contacted me earlier in the year, I couldn’t wait to hear about the opportunity she presented.

At the time, I had challenges of my own – I was right in the middle of moving house in the same week as Janet Swift took me to a 3-day Alan Forrest Smith and then I hurtled up to Manchester to find out all about Cartel, about which more later.

And to be honest with you, and I don’t think Victoria would mind my sharing this with you, when she brought it around to me, she hadn’t got her own head round the offering yet and so I simply didn’t understand it either and with all that busyness on my hands, I just parked it – a bit further down the To Do List!   But I do remember calling Nicola and saying we must tell our clients about this.   Nicola said “no, not now, let’s wait until someone we know and trust has invested their own money in it first” or word to that effect.

But Money Gym clients are not fools and so Victoria hedged her bets and she also showed it to Marcus de Maria AND Maria Davies.   These days, Maria writes a regular column for A Place in the Sun magazine and so if Victoria could get get past Maria’s defences, that would be a great result.

As Maria tells the story, Victoria badgered and badgered and badgered until Maria caved in and looked at the details and followed up on the opportunity in a way which I simply had not had time for.

And what did she discover?   

My Best Ever Hot Property Tip. Ever. Bar None!

My history with property investing is somewhat checkered to say the least.

In 1979 my Dad lent me £500 towards buying my first home which cost £9,000 and on which Ken Livingstone, then Leader of the GLC, gave me a 100% mortgage.   I sold the flat in 1983 for £21,000 and bought a house costing £43,000.   I sold that in a sealed bid in 1987 for about £85,000 and bought a house for £125,000 and then rented it out in 1990 as an HMO (house of multiple occupancy) even before we knew what such a thing was, and bought a flat to live in costing another £125,000.   So at that point I owned two properties worth a quarter of a million, following nothing better than instinct, naivete and native cunning.

And then interest rates went to 18% and I struggled manfully with the cashflow of my business in difficult market conditions and to pay both mortgages for about three years until I finally caved in and in 1992 both my homes were re-possessed and I found myself in debt to the tune of about £300,000 and facing bankruptcy.   Snakes and Ladders.   Back to Zero.   Er, make that £300k below zero.

Calling All Property Investors in Manchester and the North West

What are all property investors crying out for all the time?   More cash.   I've met someone who has the answer to that little business problem and he's David Lee, the Cashflow Investor.   He presented recently in Ealing and sold out and a handful of us chose to invest with David.   It's a very small amount of money to find out what he's doing and he's been mentored in this by Australian, Rick Otton.

David calls it Rent to Own.   The Whitney organisation call it Lease Options.   Either way, if you are interested in property but dont have the cash right now, or want to make more cash from your existing property activities, or just have an open mind and want to learn more about property, scoot along and hear David speak in Manchester on 1st May.

And if you want to know more about it before you go and want to hear why I'm going to work with David, do please contact me and I will let you know my most candid opinions, as always.

A Great Day As A Residential Property Investor

There are good days and bad days in anything we do.   Over the last year or so when interest rates were rising, there were several bad days to be a property investor and a bad day is definitely one when the postman brings a handful of letters from your BTL lender saying all the mortgages are going up, as this will squeeze your profits and thence your cashflow.   Yikes.

Today is a good day to be me, a residential property investor.   I received one envelope from Mortage Express with four letters inside saying that all four mortgages were going down.   Yip.   Profits up again.   "The world is a circle which has no beginning and nobody knows where the circle ends." Tra la.

And this on a day when the headline in the Evening Standard says "Home Sellers Slash Prices".   Yup, more good news for those of us buying properties, we can get them even cheaper.   Downside?   You need balls of steel in this market to be able to keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, their heads, their shirts and their homes.   Sad.   Too highly geared, I've been there and for all I know I could go there again, all too easily.

A straw poll on this week's Lonely Entrepreneur Group Call revealed that all of us still think, despite prevailing market conditions and worse - media comment, that we are doing the right thing in investing in the UK property market even including the correction in capital values.   But then none of us are selling, we are all still buying.   Our proof will be in our pudding, even if it prove to be humble pie.

And a seasoned investor, whatever they are buying, learns how to make money in any market, up, down or sideways.   We are always learning.

Anne's Consciousness Shifting Speeds My House Move

I'm on the move.   Moving away from my beloved Canary Wharf.   For a while, at least.  Last September my landlord let me know he was putting my home on the market.  Bummer.   I have been through the whole range of emotions - anger, sadness, surprise that any landlord would sell any property, particularly one as lovely as mine.   Then I relaxed as people came to visit in dribs and drabs but no-one offered on what is, after all, a postage stamp with the best view in the whole of London priced at half a mill!

And then, in early December, there were three viewings in one day and one of them offered and was accepted and I was duly served my notice for February, so I popped out and bought myself a new home for my own Christmas present, a nice tidy little BTL in Streatham Hill where I would lay my head for a while.

Only it's never as simple as that, is it?

Yet Another Way to Make Money in Property

A disproportionate number of my clients invest in property, but many of us are keen to get the returns without actually being bothered with becoming a landlord.   My client, Peter Stanley, may have the answer for you.

Peter will take your money and use it in property investments of his own.   He will return it to you on a contractual basis, say six months, and pay you 2-3 times what you will get from leaving your money in your deposit a/c at the bank!   If you enjoy working with Peter and the enhanced monthly interest he pays, you may consider repeating the deal every six months.

Check this out: Click here.

House in Spain for Sale

One of my contacts has let me know that she has some friends who want to sell their property in Spain in a hurry.   If you are thinking of investing in Spain, have a look at this http://fp.stripe.f9.co.uk/spain/

Judith's Entrepreneurial Property Investment Club

My landlord has put my home on the market, and he wants half a million for it.   I intend to buy it, and I'm a few bob short.   Anyone fancy a piece of the 2012 action?   My flat is in London's Canary Wharf, in the heart of the Olympic zone.  At £500k, it's a bit steep for me alone at this current time, bearing in mind my other current property and business investments.

So I'm looking for some investment partners.   Here's my idea: if you have £5,000 (or more) sitting and underperforming in your deposit account, how would you like to double that over the next 7-10 years by taking a one percent share per £5,000 in my property investment?

Property Investing in Manchester

OK, hands up.   He's a client and a mate.   But I thought I would tell you about Peter Stanley today, just in case you dont know about his company Property Made Simple, and what they do for their clients.

Do you watch those programmes on the telly about buying property, doing up property and making a packet?  Are you desperate to get into property because you are smart enough to know what this can do for your personal wealth? But you have no time, no knowledge and you are perhaps a little bit fearful about managing refurbs, managing tenants, coping with all the hassle especially from a distance?   And you want to avoid the wide boys and spivs?

Well, Peter's yer man.   Honest Bloke is Pete's stock-in-trade.