Eviction ban extended by a month

Eviction ban ‘to be extended by a month’ in England https://t.co/AhGnRB3ucj

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) August 21, 2020

What does this mean for the future?

Read more about our view on the ban being extended, and what else needs to happen to protect renters: https://t.co/lIw2r3wv2V

— Shelter (@Shelter) August 21, 2020

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Hull landlord accuses council of BMV offer

A landlord has accused Hull City Council of offering Below Market Value on hundreds of properties set for regeneration.

Landlord, Martin Reeves said: "I believe the council has attempted to purchase my property at considerably under its value and I am concerned the mis-selling of property valuations to innocent owners and members of the public is widespread."

Hull City Council valued a property belonging to Mr Reeves in October 2012 at £25,000. He rejected this initial offer and the council returned with a second offer of £40,000. 

Martin Reeves says of the sudden increase, "The only conclusion I could derive from this was that either the council was attempting to acquire my property at under value or their preferred surveyor was incompetent.

The landlord's own  surveyor, valued the property at £60,000.

Mr Reeves said: "My surveyor came up with a value of £60,000 and provided examples as evidence in support of his valuation."

The landlords valuation has been rejected by the council and the two parties are still in negotiations.

Martin Reeves is wanting to find out if any others have also suffered these derisory offers.

"What I want to try to find out is whether any other members of the public feel they too have been misled regarding the value of their property and been forced to accept its purchase and sale of their property to the only organisation that will buy it."

The council insists the offer it put forward is fair.

Read more on this landlords accusations of below market offers.

OFT investigate quick house sale companies

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have started investigations into three quick house sale companies they believe to have acted illegally.

The sector has been accused by many of taking advantage of vulnerable sellers. Partaking in unscrupulous practices that have prized properties from desperate owners at discounted prices of up to 53 percent.

The OFT have resisted calling for statutory regulation of the sector but are pushing for greater self regulation in the sector.

Download the OFT report on Quick Sale Industry here

Read more on the story in the Telegraph

Read more in the Financial Times

Read more in ThisisMoney

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BMV - will people ever learn!

Ever heard of the phrase 'one born every minute'.

I'm afraid that some usncrupulous companies and dare I say it, websites that should really know better continue to bombard landlords with marketing guff promising Below Market Value properties.  I've written in length about the dubious world of Below Market Value  or BMV properties.  Why oh why if they are so cheap and are such brilliant investments would anybody try and sell them on?! 

New landlords be warned.  Us 'long in the tooth' landlords know better to avoid like the plague any packaged BMV opportunities.  It always, always pays to do it yourself.



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Repossession towns

Shelter has highlighted those towns with the highest risk of repossession.

This might be of interest to vulture landlords looking to capitalise on forced sellers.

Be careful the karma might come back and bite you!  Look at all those landlords who have got suckered into putting money up for BMV deals from 'distressed sellers' who then end up being scammed by the property sourcing company who disappear or fold without a trace and with the landlords dosh!

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Warning of the BMV fraudsters

Further article warning of the BTL get rich quick property clubs, below market value and no money down agents make continue to plunder the aspirations of the novice and greedy.

Luton based letting agent Adrian Mason warns that “Many of the zero-deposit property buying clubs and groups which grew rapidly and then disappeared during the housing market slowdown in 2008 are creeping back, and some of them have no morals.

“A substantial number went into receivership, with their directors fleeing overseas to avoid claims and litigation – leaving a trail of disaster behind them.

Read article here

No money down finance - pt 2

This is part 2 of the 3 part look at how no money down finance of a buy-to-let purchases work.

To see part 1 go here.

Strategy 2 -Structured Purchase.

Overview on typical purchase of £70k with £100k value:

* Finance company supplies the buyer with a business development loan for £28,505

* Buyer purchases property for full market value and puts in a £25k deposit.

* Vendor pays third party finance company (PJT Finance Ltd) £30k on completion

* Finance company discharges the business development loan.

So the order of things from the buyer perspective.

Negotiate deal. eg £100k OMV for £70k PP (OMV = Open market value, PP = Purchase price)

Buyers contacts broker and organises a mortgage valuation based on buying at £100k OMV

Purchase solicitors instructed to start sale process, order searches etc. and told purchase price to TBA after result of valuation of buy-to-let property.

Vendors solicitors instructed and also told PP is TBA after val. After valuation is done both solicitors are instructed at full market value.

Val comes in at £100k Vendor then given an Irrevocable letter of authority to sign for the difference (£100k - £70k = £30k) which the buyer takes and sends to the vendor solicitor.

Landlord buyer applies for Business Development loan for £28,505. He sends the amount needed for completion immediately to the purchase solicitor by CHAPs transfer so that the sale can happen same day.

Purchase solicitor draws down mortgage funds of £75k and takes the £25k deposit and sends £100k to vendor solicitor.

Vendor solicitor pays £30k to finance company as per the letter of authority and £70k to vendor as agreed.

Finance company uses the £30k to clear the £28,505.00 Business development loan and pay their fee for this loan of £1,495.00.

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Dangers of BMV leads

Landlords that frequent certain websites may be tempted by the attraction of Below Market Value (BMV) leads.

These leads are produced by individuals who claim to have found a potential buy-to-let property where there is a motivated seller who is prepared to sell at below the current market value.

I came across this recent post from a potential residential investor who had purchased 3 leads, probably at several hundred of pounds a pop.

Unfortunately he was not having much luck in luring in his prey.

BMV seekers getting stiffed

Is there a certain irony in somebody who was looking at exploiting one persons misery for their own greed ends up getting stiffed in the process.

Professional property investors know that their gain is often somebody else's pain. A death, a bankruptcy, an impending divorce. That's business.

However, we do not get somebody else to do the dirty work for us and do not cynically look to identify an individual because they are a motivated seller.

What we are after is an undervalued property and a good property investment.

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BMV property - I've spotted a property bargain!

I've spotted a property bargain. A massive 2 bed victorian conversion apartment that estate agents love to call a penthouse. It's potentially got 3 beds if the space is reconfigured. It sold in 2007 for £160,000. It being marketed at just under £90k. I'm aiming to get it for £80k exactly 50% its recent sale price and probably a good £25k below its real value after refurbishment.

So why are you telling me this?

I'm minded of all those middle men who spend a huge amount of effort telling landlords what a great investment this investment is and it is 30% below market value (BMV). My answer is why? If it's such a great deal why aren't you buying this residential investment for your own residential property portfolio.

Want to know more about my property bargain?

This ones mine all mine! You can sod off!

Why would I want to tell you about such a great deal...

What it does indicate is that there are some property bargains out there.

My advice to landlords is - get searching.......for yourself.

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Distressed Assets?

Landlords that are looking for distressed assets, is that the new name for BMV( below market value) or is it the PC term for motivated sellers? I don't know can't keep up with it.

Anyway a company that specializes in selling them, that is distressed assets is holding a conference to tell you how can get your hands on them.

The topics to be covered are:

The Economic Outlook For 2010

Why Now Is The Perfect Opportunity To Make Substantial Returns From
UK Bank Repossessed Property

What To Look For And How To Buy Repossessed Property Substantially Below Market Value

Avoiding The Legal Pitfalls And Managing Risk

How To Pay Less Property Tax

A Property Investment Strategy For A New Era

How To Raise Finance in 2010

Renting Your Property: Getting The Best From Your Lettings Agent

Ask the Panel Session Q&A

All this comes at the knock down price of £97 plus VAT for the day.

The conference is to be held in the London Hilton Metropole, Edgware Road on Saturday 30th January from 10.30am to 5.30pm and there will be the opportunity afterwards for networking with speakers and fellow delegates.

Be warned that somebody elses distressed assets don't become a chain around your neck.

The company website is at www.distressed-assets.co.uk

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Dog brainwashed by property investment cult.

Mouse has become increasingly worried that his friend Bulldog has become indoctrinated by a property investment cult.

The property investment cult uses a system of brain washing techniques to get unsuspecting investors to think they are buying a bargain.

The brain washing techniques involve -

• Projecting images of luxury cars, speed boats and piles of cash.
• Getting disciples to chant 'I'm a winner!'.
• Showing old graphs of property price rises.
• Repeatedly saying how they want to help them be as successful as them.

Bulldog is now recovering by spending an intensive week in the HousePriceCrash forums.

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BMV property investor gets a nasty shock when he tries to sell his property

A property investor comes to the realisation that his BMV property might be more difficult to sell than he expected.

He can't quite believe that the nice agent ( con man) would of possibly sold him a duff investment.


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Sale and leaseback introducers fees

According to Resident Broker it now possible to earn fees by introducing sale and rent back clients. They have reported in a recent newsletter that:

"Following last week’s note on the new sale and rent regulation I’ve received many emails (and calls) about which regulated companies accept paid introducer fees. In fact - I was so surprised at your response, it galvanised me into action and I revisited the companies I knew and (and some I didn’t) to double-check the details.
So, introducer fees ranged from 0.4% of the purchase price, to a fixed £1000 per deal. Based on my own research, and insider knowledge, of who is delivering exactly what they say they are delivering, one company I can definitely recommend is Buy House Limited. You can register by following this link.

If there’s anyone else out there who has any further recommendations, then let me know and I will update you all next week."


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Death of BMV and NMD

What does BMV, NMD mean, is it some kind of government defence initiative. Well for the uniniated BMV is Below Market Value and NMD is No Money Down deals. Both were creations of an overheated buy-to-let mortgage market where landlords could buy property and then immediately remortgage finance at a higher value than the initial purchase price.

I've recently argued that BMV is dead because surveyors will now only value a property by taking open market value (OMV) as what ever the price the property was sold for however, much of a bargain a landlord thinks they have been able to secure.

I recently started a raging debate on this forum by suggesting that BMV was dead.

It appears that there are a lot of people who disagree. It is an interesting debate and revealing not least in the respect that those people that seem to have the most to say are also the ones that have a large interest in flogging so called BMV properties to unsuspecting landlords. Funny that!

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Death of the BMV industry

Many landlords will have heard of the so called BMV property. The concept has spawned a whole industry which promise to deliver to landlords bargain properties that they can ten remortgage at the full market value. A landlord was then able to take out any of their equity tied up in the property they have just bought.

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During the heady days of buy-to-let lending some landlords were able to grow their portfolio rapidly and at little cost to themsleves.

The reality is that the BMV industry is dead, dead, dead!

The whole business was based on landlords exploiting a loophole that enabled them to get the mortgage surveyor to agree a valuation on the property substantially above that they had paid for the property. During the boom there were a number of buy-to-let mortgage companies that would do same day back to back remortgages. A landlord could therefore complete a purchase at say £100k. On the same day they would have a mortgage lined up with a mortgage valuation of say £125k. Using a 80% mortgage this would allow a landlord to leave no equity in the property which they would then recycle to buy another BMV property.

This route is no longer open to landlords because mortgage company surveyors are sticking strictly to the RICS code of valuation which requires them to use the agreed sale price as the value of the property however cheap that might appear.

This means the whole BMV industry is dead. The price of a property is it's market value. Don't let any property wide boy or speculators tell you otherwise.


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