Over the last few episodes we've covered various ways of funding property projects, in addition to the familiar options of cash and mortgages. In this episode, I round off the series by summarising my main takeaways and suggesting how to choose the most appropriate form of funding. See this episode on the Property Geek website: https://www.property…

Joint ventures (JVs) get talked about a lot in property, with good reason: after all, if you don't have the cash to do all the deals you want to do, a JV is a way of solving that problem without going cap-in-hand to the bank. But where do you even start with finding someone who might want to lend you money? How do you structure the agreement? And w…

If you own your own home or have buy-to-let properties, you might find yourself with equity you can't access – due to redemption penalties or too-good-to-lose mortgage rates, for example. By unlocking that equity, you could grow your portfolio faster – and in this week's episode, I speak to mortgage advisor Dave Cookson about a relatively little-kn…

You've probably heard of peer-to-peer (or P2P) finance, and you might be aware of the bigger platforms like Zopa and Funding Circle. But you might not have thought to turn to peer-to-peer for your property project – or be aware of how many different options there are. In this episode I speak to James Wallis from Aben Financial – a commercial financ…

We're going to spend the next few episodes exploring ways you can finance property projects other than using a mortgage. In this first episode, I set out to demystify bridging finance: a powerful tool, but one that investors often find confusing and intimidating. And it's true – if you don't know what you're doing, bridging can be expensive and eve…

In this series on lettings and management I've been lucky enough to be joined by some fantastic guests – both experts at the top of their field, and everyday landlords with great stories and lessons to share. To wrap up the series, in this episode I share my main takeaways from those conversations – and tell you what to expect in the next run of ep…

Adrian Thompson from the Guild of Residential Landlords spends much of his time talking to landlords in distress – so who better to tell us what we can do differently to avoid ending up in that position. In this interview we cover a wide range of topics that landlords should be aware of – and speculate about what the next few years might hold... Se…

Petra Romero only moved to the UK a year and a half ago, and she's already built up a thriving rent-to-rent business. That's already seriously impressive – but even more interesting is how she's intentionally designed her business to be run by overseas assistants, freeing her up to do what she's best at. See this episode on the Property Geek websit…

Richard and Susie Trow have property management down to a fine art. Thanks to some effective systems and a commitment to quality from the very start, their portfolio of 21 properties in Wrexham takes up less than 2 hours per week – freeing up their time to do what really matters to them. See this episode on the Property Geek website: https://www.pr…

As a landlord, your social status is somewhere between "bankers" and "solicitors" – and you can't open a newspaper without being told how greedy and unfair you are. A lot of this is due to the prevalence of bad landlords. But bad landlords aren't necessarily bad people: it's just that they have no idea what the job of being a landlord is all about,…

For years, landlords have been telling me that there's nowhere they can go to find the information they need about letting and managing property – no accessible source with all the facts clearly laid out in a logical way. Well, I've put that right: my book, How To Be A Landlord, is out today! See this episode on the Property Geek website: https://w…

Sam Jones had a terrifying experience very early in her self-managing career – but she didn't let it put her off, and she's spent 17 years managing a geographically distributed collection of properties. Now though, she's started using an agent for new acquisitions – but she's not losing the unique ability that made her such a self-managing success.…

My guest this week, Tom Charrier, didn't intend to have anything to do with managing his properties when he started out – but after one awful experience, he decided to take matters back into his own hands. Now, he and his wife manage their small portfolio of HMOs themselves – and consider their ability to pick the right tenants and build strong rel…

Self-managing can be tough. Self-managing HMOs can be really tough. So, self-managing HMOs from abroad...surely that's not a good idea? Well, my guest this week Richard Dyke makes it work – managing his portfolio (including a couple of small multi-lets) from Bergen in Norway. Richard visits several times a year for inspections and maintenance, and …

This episode kicks off a new series about lettings and management: not the glamorous part of property that it's easy to pack out seminars about, but the very important bit that makes sure your investment runs profitably, smoothly and legally. To get the series started I'm joined by Joanne Dron – a landlady of 13 years and a letting agent too – to r…

In this series of the podcast we've been looking at "turning pro" – how to embrace the mindset of a professional investor, so you can continue to thrive despite the more challenging conditions for property investors. During this quick series wrap-up episode I revisit the major themes we've covered, draw some lessons we can take from what we've hear…

The theme of this series has been "turning pro" – so what better way to wrap it up than to speak to someone who's been a professional trader and investor for over 30 years? Jonathan Schuman holds around 300 commercial and residential properties, and has his own private "agency" to manage them. When the credit crunch hit, Jonathan was perfectly posi…

In this series so far we’ve been talking about all the changes affecting our sector, and what investors should be thinking about as a result. In today’s episode, I catch up with three Property Geek listeners who have all rethought their strategy recently – to find out what they were doing before, what they’re doing now, and what factors played into…

Buying in an area you're unfamiliar with is scary enough – but David Barker bought his first without seeing it, and his next was a complicated five-unit site in a town he'd never been to. Both had happy endings, but were very different experiences along the way. I spoke to David to learn how he got the courage and confidence to take calculated risk…

All the signs are pointing towards London's incredible price growth of the last few years coming to an end – and the gap that's emerged between the South East and elsewhere starting to narrow. It's one thing to see those signs, it takes a lot of courage to act on them – and that's what my guest, Phil Whitehouse, has done. Phil has spent the last co…

If somebody told me they were busy running a business in London, and planned to buy and refurbish 9 properties in Stoke-on-Trent within a year...to be honest, I'd gently suggest they scale their aspirations back a bit. But after speaking to Jay Booth, I'll be a bit more careful before declaring something "impossible" – because that's exactly what h…

One of our themes for this series is taking a professional approach by investing in areas where there's the strongest business case, not where it's most convenient. For many investors (especially those in the South East), that will mean investing in properties away from where they live – possibly without even seeing them first. And that's why I was…

On last week's episode, we talked about the cause for incorporation. This week, I'm joined by mortgage broker Stuart Bailey to talk about what's often seen as a barrier to buying as a limited company: mortgages. In common with most other brokers I've spoken to, Stuart has seen a huge increase in the number of limited company mortgages he's arranged…

It's been a huge switch: many mortgage brokers are reporting that while only a year ago it was a small minority of people who bought property in a limited company, the majority of investors now do. I don't find it hard to believe, because my inbox has been filling up over the last year with one question more than any other: "should I buy property w…

The property cycle is a powerful concept: one that can give you the confidence to act when others are fearful, and avoid making moves (like most investors do) at exactly the wrong time. I'm joined this week by the UK's leading expert on the property cycle – Akhil Patel – to talk about what the cycle can tell us about where we are right now, and how…

For many investors, finance is a critical part of the property growth plan – and it can also be one of the more painful constraints if you can't find your way through the mortgage minefield. So it's always important to keep on top of what's happening in the mortgage market, and never more so than now – with lenders grappling to come to terms with a…

We're back! In this first episode, I run through what to expect in this new series of the Property Geek Podcast. It's a reboot not just for the podcast, but also a time for property investors to be reconsidering how they operate in general. So in this series, we'll be talking about everything that's changing: lending restrictions, legislation, inco…

Anyone can pick a property off Rightmove and negotiate 5% off the asking price. You know that the real profits are made when you can reliably track down those elusive "below market value" or lease option opportunities...but where do you even start? My guest, Mark Dunsmore, used to be an estate agent (don't hold it against him) before he learnt to a…

They say that you make your money when you buy, not when you sell – but there's no doubt that how you approach selling a property can make a huge difference to the result you achieve. My guest this week, Anna Hart, specialises in helping her clients to sell at the best price within their desired timescale – and avoiding the nightmare scenario of ha…

Another way to (indirectly) make money from property is to lend money to others who need financing for development projects. Alternatively, you might be looking to borrow from private individuals in order to do more deals without relying on expensive bridging finance. In this episode, I talk about my recent experience of lending money out. If you'v…

Rupert Chapman is relatively new to the property game but is a veteran of business – and as such, he's got a broader perspective than most on the changes the property industry is going through. If you're concerned by what lies ahead, you should find this conversation reassuring and inspiring – encouraging you to appreciate the increasingly rare val…

Adding properties to your collection is fun, but for all of us there's some deeper reason why we're investing in the first place – whether that's to leave your job, provide a pension or just to give yourself a second income. That's why I like to look at property in the context of financial planning more broadly, and I'm joined this week by Stuart B…

Jethro East dived head-first from a successful music career into property development – and it wasn't long before he made his first six-figure profit from a single buy-to-sell project. If that sounds easy, it's because I missed out the builders walking out in the middle a project, the months spent living in a half-finished house with no heating, th…

When people start out in property, it's a common long-term goal to replace their income and become financially independent. My guest this week, Mark Coates, has accomplished exactly that – in only 4 years, while holding down a full-time job! He didn't start with a huge amount of money, or any experience: he just put together a solid plan, and worke…

It's the start of a new series and a new year! As a prelude to the fantastic interviews that are lined up for future weeks, I wanted to start with a summary of where we are as investors following the many shocks of 2015. We've had plenty of nasty surprises, but there's plenty of potential upside too – if you approach investing in the right way... (…

Do you associate your local council with costing you money or making you money? Yes, me too - but my guest this week, Mark Morris, has found three ways of turning his local authority into an important ally. He secures excellent yields from accommodating Housing Benefit tenants, has properties where the council pays a guaranteed stress-free rent eve…

You can buy a property for as little as £20,000 (probably less) in some parts of the country. So if you're tight for funds to get started with...should you? Even if you've got more cash to spread around, should you take the view that when prices are so low and yields are so high, you should just go out and buy a load of them? There are a couple of …

You may have bought a property in the past hoping that there will be regeneration to the local area...but chances are you're not secretly hoping that regeneration will involve demolishing your property! Well, that notion might seem less ridiculous than it first appears when you've finished listening to this week's podcast. My guest is Dan Knowles, …

Property investment pays off in terms of capital growth and rental income - but the proportion in which you’ll benefit from each is determined to a large extent by exactly what you buy. In this episode I share a personal case study to make this point - which demonstrates why it’s so important to have thought-through goals in mind before you get sta…

I give this whole episode over to an in-depth case study of a listener’s project - which serves as equal parts inspiration and warning. Ryan Slater spotted an excellent opportunity which, on paper, would create a big monthly profit without leaving any of his own money in the deal…but he nearly lost his entire deposit when his mortgage was unexpecte…

The ROI of investing in property is clearly better than leaving cash in the bank - but as investors we clearly need to keep some cash on hand to cover any voids or unexpected spending. The question is…how much? In this episode, I talk about 4 different models you can use to determine the size of your “emergency fund” - as well as answering a listen…

Insuring your property portfolio is a necessary evil. It’s nobody’s idea of fun, but as we’ve got to do it anyway we might as well know how to do it quickly, cheaply, and in a way that won’t cause any problems if we need to make a claim. That’s why I invited Jason McClean from The Property Insurer onto the podcast. Jason is a portfolio landlord as …

How many people do you know whose first investment property had 8 bedrooms? What about people who bought that huge house while still at university, having actually chosen where to study based on the prospects for the local property market? Unless you know Johann Rowan, I’m pretty sure the answer will be “none”. In this episode I talk to Johann abou…

Repairs and maintenance are part and parcel of being a landlord - they’re not anyone’s favourite part of the job, but it makes financial (and ethical) sense to keep the property in good repair and the tenant happy. Now, a change to the law means that it’s more important than ever: if a repair request isn’t adequately dealt with, it might be impossi…

To most residential property investors (me included), commercial property seems like another world. But mixed-use developments bridge those worlds, providing a useful stepping stone for residential developers to stretch themselves - and can be highly profitable in their own right. To find out more, I’m joined by Phil Stewardson - one of the most po…

Do you have oceans of time, and you don’t know how to fill it all? Thumbs starting to ache from twiddling them so much? Thought not: that’s why this episode is designed to help you free up more time, and get more results out of the time you’ve already got. Time is the #1 barrier that gets brought up by investors I speak to, and it’s the only thing …

My experience is in simple buy-to-let and buy-to-sell projects, but I know there are plenty of listeners out there who are doing - or aspire to do - far more ambitious projects! Those projects need to be financed, of course - so in this episode I grabbed development finance broker Adrian Cormican to find out how lending works in the development mar…

I wanted to take 5 minutes out to let you know about a huge new project we’re working on over at The Property Hub. That project is…a quarterly magazine for property investors! Sounds crazy? Old fashioned? Expensive? In this episode I explain why it actually makes total sense - and why you might want to become a subscriber… See this episode on the P…

According to a recent MoneyWeek interview, global demographics mean that we’re heading for an inevitable financial contraction - and our “over-inflated” house prices could be heading for a 50% drop as a result. In this episode, I get deep into an analysis of whether this is true. While I don’t think that UK house prices as a whole are likely to see…

My guest this week isn’t hanging around: he’s just bought his first 3 investment properties in the space of 12 months - while working full-time in a totally different part of the country. Oh, and did I mention that he’s only 24 years old? When Fraser Bricknell emailed me to tell me his story I wasn’t about to let him get away without interviewing h…