Emma Wright built a mansion and made a £1.2m profit. She’s now investing it in 30 buy-to-let homes
When Emma Wright’s husband handed her £1m and asked her to invest it in property, she vowed to try to double the money within three years.
The 34-year-old housewife used it to snap up nine acres of land near Sevenoaks, Kent, and borrowed £2m-from the bank to build a palatial seven-bedroom luxury mansion.
The ambitious project was Emma’s first venture into property development but it has been a resounding success. She managed to sell the house to a foreign investor two months ago for £4.3m.
‘It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like it, but no one who knows me is surprised I pulled it off,’ says Emma, a former sales manager for a credit-management company and now a full- time mother of two young children.
‘I approach life with a lot of confidence and I thought this was really no different from any other house transaction - you buy as cheaply as possible, don’t skimp on making improvements and sell as well as you can.’
Now she is ploughing her £1.2m profit into building a buy-to-let portfolio. Emma plans to purchase up to 30 houses near her home in Wadhurst, East Sussex, on a 60/40 split with a neighbour and friend Jacqui Hollie, 36, who wants to invest with her after they met at the school gate and started talking about property.
Her bank has offered a £1m loan facility at 1.5% above base rate and a maximum of 70% on each property if she wants to use it.
‘I realise house prices may still have further to fall,’ she says, ‘but I’m a cash buyer so I can negotiate hard. No one can predict when prices will recover again, but as long as I spread my purchases and buy one new property every couple of months, my portfolio should benefit from any further price falls and I won’t miss any opportunities.’
Welcome to the world of buying UK property for just £1. Here is the first deal I have done, within 3 weeks too! This is fast and fun……and the best thing is, you are helping people who can’t sell (without beating them down on the price) and helping people who can’t buy due to not having enough deposit, or being able to qualify for a mortgage. Here’s the info:
Charming 2 Bedroom Cottage To Let in Littlehampton, West Sussex.
Stop! Think about this for a second……….why rent when you can buy?
I am offering a lovely two bedroom cottage in Littlehampton to let, on a “Rent 2 Buy” or premium rental basis. If you are a first time buyer but can’t afford the normal deposit, or get a mortgage in today’s market, this could be perfect for you!
Click here for a 4 minute, streaming video, tour around the property….
The house is offered at £220,000 and you simply pay a 5% deposit, and then instalments of £1283 per month, and this lovely cottage could be yours in 2-3 years. No mortgage required but you will need to provide work references and some other financial details.
Close to Central Littlehampton, with great road and rail links across West Sussex, in a very quiet private road, and a lovely secluded walled and gated garden - perfect for children. The whole cottage faces South/West and is very light and sunny. Fully refurbished thoughout, the cottage has a living room with open fire and beamed ceiling, double glazing and gas central heating. There are two good sized bedrooms, lovely refitted modern kitchen with modern wood units and integrated cooker/hob, a hall/dining room, bathroom with white suite and seperate toilet upstairs.
Have a look at the video and if you would like to view this cottage, call me for more details on 01273 910986. Stop paying dead rent and take your first step on the property ladder.
** Put your name and email in the box to the top right to get a Free Report on how “Rent2Own” works in the UK and join our priority Property List for 1 bed, 2 bed and 3 bed Worthing, Shoreham & Littlehampton properties**
The rather interesting headline in todays Worthing Property Weekly was…”A Return To A More Steady Market”
Damn, damn, damn! We all wanted another year of doom and gloom about house prices - never have there been so many empty houses with motivated sellers and prices being slashed.
The article goes on to say “The property market is correcting itself rather than heading for a spectacular crash, according to the National Association of Estate Agents. It based it’s claims on information contained in the latest report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors…….The house price falls are modest and the picture is still patchy with some areas of the country finding it tougher than others….credit crunch affected confidence….underlying factors that support property market remain: low unemployment, historically low interest rates and a pent up demand for houses.”
As I say, Damn, Damn, Damn! I was rather hoping for those 15-30% drops my friends (non-property investing) boyfriend is confidently predicting and I told you about last week. On her usual entertaining note, Judith has written about her personal rather up and down property investing story here.
“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.
So, if I suffered so badly in the last “crash”, how are things different now? Why am I buying, buying, buying and more to the point, how am I doing it?”
(Nicola’s note: Our next Money Gym Presents day is on Property, and not only will the best thing since vienetta Ice Cream be presenting there - Greg Ballard - but Judith and myself will be sharing the “Top Five All Time Ways To Make Money From Property” - find out more here.)
Judith says: One of those ways is something we only came across this year, but has blown us - and many of our Money Gym clients - away. Dave & Rick’s Cashflow Investor plan means you don’t acquire more assets - or “slumbering giants” as I call them - and don’t get me wrong… you do need some slumbering giants.
But what if you have no equity to leverage, no inheritance to invest, no savings deposits and no good credit rating? How are YOU going to make large lumps of cash in the property lane of the Wealth Highway?
Every so often a wealth creation concept or different way of doing things comes along, that just blows my mind.
A few years ago, when I came across the way my genius property mogul mates Greg & Andy invest in property, my head nearly exploded with excitement, and I couldn’t wait to share their ideas with my readers.
However, Greg & Andy’s way of doing things does depend on three things
1. A good credit rating
2. A pot of cash to use over and over again for deposits / refurb
3. Ability to get a mortgage (lots of “buy to let” mortgages still ask for proof of earnings)
Now this is great for a large majority of our Money Gym members and hundreds of them have availed themselves of Greg & Andy’s services, via Passive Investments (next Open Day http://tinyurl.com/5pmtf8) or learned how to do it themselves, via Andy’s book.
I knew there was about 30% of our subscribers who couldn’t “do property” the Passive way, or even buy their own home, due to
1. No pot of cash
2. No credit rating
3. No proof of earnings
Now, I know that there are several other ways to make money from property, without having to buy any yourself, but sadly people just seem to give up at that point, and don’t go on learning about what makes a good property deal, if they haven’t got even one of the above three things in place.
So you can imagine how delighted I was when I met David Lee, via Tamkin Riaz, at the last World Internet Summit. I really think that the heavens were conspiring that night, because I had met David several times before, but never really fully grasped what he did.
On this occasion, I ended up sitting next to him, his wife and son, in the pub, and out of politeness really, asked him again to tell me what he does…..an hour or so later, I still didn’t really get it, but dimly grasped enough to realise that it was a totally different way of making money from property, and to tell Judith we should invite David to speak for The Money Gym.
In January David did a VERY powerful presentation - and he would be the first to admit he’s quite new to public speaking - and his concept and content blew us away.
Can you imagine being able to make money from property without needing a deposit, a mortgage or a good credit rating? Where you are not competing with all the “below market value” boys, and where you are not only making big chunks of cash, but helping two sets of people?
Let me repeat that……where you are making what we in the Money Gym call “life changing sums of money” while helping two sets of people.
A geniune win/win/win situation. It takes a bit of a mind-shift, a bit of a leap of faith, and access to some minor cojones to get started, but if you are open-minded and determined…….
I tell you now, this is dynamite stuff. Judith and I both love it!
Several Money Gym clients signed up on the spot and we have all been working our way through the materials - the detailed “how to” workbook, the many hours of audio with real people, case studies, and student stories. I have rarely seen a better put together home study course and the backup support from David is superb.
David is doing a presentation soon, and there will be a very special guest there - Rick Otton.
Rick is the guy who learned how to utilise this way of making money from property, firstly in the USA, then Australia, and he mentored David to make it work here.
I have no idea where Maidenhead is, but, if you have despaired of every becoming a property investor, but you want to be, I suggest you get your map out and make your way there pronto!
In the wake of the news that the Inside Track Seminar company (not apparently the property arm) has gone into recievership (something Andy Shaw predicted would happen months ago) and the news that mortgages are getting harder and harder to find unless you have a GREAT track record. However, with 30,000 new rental homes being needed every year for the next 10 years, the market is growing and this is a short term blip according to pundits.
The traditional criteria with buy-to-let was to save a deposit of at least 15% and ensure that rental income would cover monthly mortgage repayments by 125%. As it got harder to meet these restrictions, many lenders eased them. This has shifted buy-to-let from a business based on steady rental income, to one where potential landlords gambling on house prices rising to deliver capital growth.
But the restrictions existed for a reason – to make sure landlords could cover gaps between tenancies, income exceeded bills and give room for rate rises.
The Lettings market has seen annual growth rising to 2.5 million tenants in the last 10 years, and government statistics point to the need for a further 30,000 units PER YEAR for rental, for the next decade reports wwwPropertyToday.co.uk .
That means there are three hundred thousand - 300,000 - new rental properties needed in the UK in the next decade.
Could your property portfolio contribute to this rental housing crisis? What should you buy? How can you get started? What pitfalls should you avoid?
It’s all here in this amazing series of three short videos about getting started in property investing.
In these videos Andy & Greg cover everything you see on this screen (just click to read) and much much more, like how property is essentially free (even your own where there is NO tenant paying for it)
Did you get chance to check out the video “interrogation” video of the 2 UK Multi-millionaires - my mates Greg and Andy - who I mentioned in my previous email?
I have seen them present their business many times, and I was amazed when, watching this again (coz I love some of the stories and jokes!) I realised something completely NEW because it was described in a different way again.
Sometimes we need to hear something many times in a different way, before we get it, or before it moves from the place where we say “Oh! I know that….” to the place where we can say “Oh my gosh, I really GET that now!”
For me, this time, it was - in Section 2 or 3, I can’t remember which one now, where Andy was talking about how property is essentially free, and I thought great, he’s going to explain how, if you put some money into a property then you are able to pull it out again, then that makes it free.
O no! He went on to say something I have heard him say before BUT IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT WAY and I really got it this time.
It’s about how, if you buy a house for say £200,000, and you have an 85% mortgage of say 6% (interest only), and you are paying £10,200, or £850 a month, and you live in it (so there is no tenant paying your mortgage), then your property is still totally free.
The interviewer, Rob says, but how CAN it be?
And Andy replies “how long have you had your house Rob?” and Rob says 15 years.
Andy asked (and I’m remembering the figures here so may have them slightly off but not much - watch for yourself!!)
What did you buy it for (£46,000)
And what is is worth now? (£170,000 or thereabouts)
And what have you paid in mortgage? Rob says £300 a month.
A great example of the stirling support Silver and Gold members of the Money Gym Club enjoy was shown on a recent exchange between members of our private Money Gym google group.
One of our Money Gym (Gold) members was pondering whether to sell her existing house or let it out, having found her dream cottage in the country. She realised that selling and buying more 1 bedroom flats would be financially better in the long run, but the effortlessness of letting her existing house, and buying the new one with money pulled out of the existing one, which would then be paid by the new tenant, was very appealing.
She laid it out thusly to the group:
Hi everyone
I have a situation on which I would most welcome any comments, advice or insights. I have decided to move house and have found a property. I have to decide whether to sell my house or alternatively keep it, obtain a buy-to-let mortgage and rent it out. I currently have a mortgage with a draw down facility. This mortgage is portable so I could move this to the new property (unless they were unhappy about me keeping existing property with BTL re-mortgage???)
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