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Negotiation, Negotiation, NegotiationNegotiation, Negotiation, NegotiationProperty Investment in the UK - from Entrepreneur TV's Mark Harrison, author of "Property Negotiation" and "The UK Property Millionaire" Articles
US Mortgage Scams double, as reported by the FBI!
2008-01-14 16:32:00 According to the FBI, mortgage fraud convictions in the USA have over doubled in the last year. The list of offences include falsifying of mortgage application documents by brokers and lenders… in the hope that the customer would take out too big a loan, thus earning bigger fees. (Because of securitisation in the States, the company ... More About: Mortgage Fraud , Double , Mortgage , Scams , Mort
This week?s currency movements
2008-01-11 18:53:00 For some while, I?ve been getting Smart Currency Exchange?s weekly updates on currency movements.Smart is a company I?ve used to transfer money to a company I?m setting up in Canada, and specialises in transfers for business and property-purchase purchases. (Basically, they don?t do small amounts, but have rather better rather than, say, my bank, for ... More About: Week
Energy prices up, house prices down -> Bank rates stay flat
2008-01-10 21:45:00 Viewpoint 1: The Central Bank ers are going to be earning their money this year. Viewpoint 2: The economy may as well be run by Roly Mo from the Fimbles for all the difference the BoE’s going to be able to make this year. Yup - stagflation seems to be with us. Prices are going up, but consumption’s ... More About: Economics , House , House Prices , Energy
Spoof ?estate agents? video
2008-01-09 16:48:00 Want to know what those estate agency terms really mean. Courtesy of YouTube, a lovely (American) example. (If you are viewing this post in a reader rather than on my website, you may need to go here). More About: Video , Estate , Agents , Spoof , Estate Agents
UK house prices in ?going up in December shock?
2008-01-09 11:56:00 According to a report in the Motley Fool, average house prices went up 1.3% in December, having gone down in September, October and November. The fool are quick to point out that most analysts see this as a temporary blip, rather than a turn-around. With the Bank of England ’s Monetary Policy Committee due to have its monthly ... More About: Economics , House , House Prices , Shock
Northern Rock Nationalisation? My off-the-wall solution :-)
2008-01-08 20:40:00 Of all the reports about Northern Rock over the last six months, the one that has consistently impressed me most is Robert Peston, of the BBC. In the latest twist, Robert reports that SRM, a Hedge Fund who currently own about 10% of Northern Rock have written to the Government, making it clear that if the ... More About: Wall , Off the Wall , Nationalisation
The UK Chancellor is planning to give more power to the FSA in the wake of
2008-01-04 15:10:00 [This blog post is also available as a video - click here to watch.] Alistair Darling, the UK Chancellor, is intending to give more power to the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to help prevent a repeat of the Northern Rock fiasco. The plans aren’t finalised yet, because Mr. Darling has promised three months of consultation with the ... More About: Economics , Power , Planning , Wake , Give
It?s that time of year when everyone makes their house price predictions?
2008-01-03 13:55:00 Yup, it’s early January again, the time of year when everyone makes a prediction about house prices. Myra Butterworth, in the Telegraph writes (based on Halifax Estate Agents views): House prices in the South of England and Scotland are to soar […]Most of the country will see property values remain the same in 2008. Over at the Time s: … ... More About: Property , Your , Predictions
Are your local councils fixing problems?
2007-12-31 23:46:00 Earlier today, I noticed an interesting widget on the loudmouthman blog. It showed “street problems” (things like abandoned vehicles, fly-tipping and so on) near his house, provided by a site called fixmystreet. I was sufficiently interested in what was going on that I went over to that site, and found that there were two things you could ... More About: Local , Problems , Loca
Actually, you can get back a customer!
2007-12-29 20:57:00 Back in February, I wrote this post about what I perceived as a poor experience with Gieves and Hawkes, the Savile Row tailors. It would appear that things have improved, since over Christmas I got an email from their Marketing Director that started: I was recently made aware of the blog you wrote in February of this ... More About: Customer , Back
This week?s currency movements
2007-12-22 09:00:00 For some while, I?ve been getting Smart Currency Exchange?s weekly updates on currency movements.Smart is a company I?ve used to transfer money to a company I?m setting up in Canada, and specialises in transfers for business and property-purchase purchases. (Basically, they don?t do small amounts, but have rather better rather than, say, my bank, for ... More About: Week
It?s Frozen Pea Friday (Breast Cancer Awareness)
2007-12-21 11:56:00 You may have heard of a Social Network called Twitter. I use it to keep in touch with a whole bunch of conversations about Internet Marketing, Social Networking and (to a lesser extent admittedly) Property Investment. However, over the last few weeks, several of the conversations have been on the subject of Frozen Peas, and this ... More About: Cancer , Awareness , Breast Cancer , Breast , Friday
More Eastern buying of Western Banks - this time it?s the Chinese
2007-12-20 19:40:00 Ten days ago, I wrote about how the Singapore and Abu Dhabi governments are buying up Western banks. This week has seen the Chinese Government buy almost 10% of Morgan Stanley, the US mega-bank, as reported in the International Herald Tribune. To give you an idea of how big Morgan Stanley is, it’s just written down the ... More About: Economics , Buying , Banks , Time
This week?s currency movements
2007-12-16 01:11:00 For some while, I’ve been getting Smart Currency Exchange’s weekly updates on currency movements. Smart is a company I’ve used to transfer money to a company I’m setting up in Canada, and specialises in transfers for business and property-purchase purchases. (Basically, they don’t do small amounts, but have rather better rather than, say, my bank, ... More About: Week
Avoiding Agency commissions? Don?t believe the adverts!
2007-12-14 14:09:00 I had a flyer through my door this morning, low-quality and poorly produced, and using such choice quotes as SAVE £1,000’s ON ESTATE AGENTS FEES OK, I can’t bring myself to type the rest of this in the CAPITALS that it used, nor am I willing to abuse the innocent apostrophe in the way it did, so ... More About: Direct Marketing , Agency , Commissions , Adverts , Missi
Club Entrepreneur is really motoring
2007-12-13 15:37:00 Some months ago, I went to the first meeting of London’s Club Entrepreneur , and had quite a fun time. However, I’m trying to schlep into London less and less as I get older, so I’d not been. As it happened, though, I had a meeting in Baker Street yesterday afternoon, so call Tamkin Riaz to see ... More About: Motoring , Enterprise
And he?s off (Northern Rock Chief Exec goes?)
2007-12-13 14:37:00 Adam Applegarth, Chief Exec of Northern Rock , has left today. The new Chief Exec is Andy Kuipers, who had left a few months ago, but has just been reappointed as a Director! Virgin seems to be the only game in town left for rescuing the crippled bank, since talks with Olivant (the other bidder) seem to have ... More About: Northern Rock
Central Banks and strange games
2007-12-13 14:22:00 I’m still trying to work out the meaning of what happened yesterday. Let’s start with a quick summary of the facts: A group of Central Banks (who are part bankers and part civil servants), led, but the US Federal Reserve , and including the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (which is the central bank for ... More About: Economics , Games , Strange
The SubPrime crisis - as explained by Bird and Fortune
2007-12-11 18:43:00 Marvellous sketch from Bird and Fortune about the SubPrime crisis attached here. (If you aren’t viewing this on my site, you may not see the video - you may have to click through to my site to watch it.) Some people have found the sketch racist in that it refers to “unemployed black men”, however it ... More About: Subprime , Crisis
The FNMA ups its fees
2007-12-11 17:20:00 Those who invest in the States have probably come across an organisation called the “Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA)” (pronounced “Fannie May ” - try saying FNMA in an American accent, and you’ll get the idea.) The FNMA is an odd beast - it was founded as a Government agency in the 1930s, but privatised 30 years ... More About: Fees
More SubPrime worries - the Eastern banks are now propping up the Western o
2007-12-10 11:59:00 The BBC’s Bob Preston has made some comments that have worried me more than a little. Firstly, he noted that Swiss giant UBS has just announced FURTHER losses of £4.9 billion due to the subPrime crisis - these are on top of the £1.8 billion it announced in October. UBS is still standing up OK though, although ... More About: Banks , Eastern , Western , Subprime , Prop
RBS takes a £1.5 billion loss due to US sub-prime loans
2007-12-07 11:38:00 Following the losses I reported from both Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester last week, the Royal Bank of Scotland (who own Natwest among others) is the latest to report a huge “writeoff” (ie - anticipated loss) as a result of the US sub-prime crisis. This may seem, at £1.5 billion (of which £950 million ... More About: Economics , Loans , Loss , Prime , Billion
Bank of England - base rates down 1/4 %
2007-12-07 11:28:00 Yesterday, the Bank of England monetary policy committee cut its base rate by .25%. It’s already been reported that the larger domestic (ie - NOT buy to let) lenders are going to pass on this rate cut in full (which, frankly, I’d have been appalled if they didn’t.) However, for those borrowers, particularly Buy To Let borrowers, ... More About: Bank of England , Rates , Base
Are you buying property in the States?
2007-12-04 11:51:00 A request here. In the New Year, I’m intending to write an issue of the YourProp erty Expert.com newsletter about investing in the States , and whether the opportunities have got much better since the sub-prime crisis. If you’ve invested in the US Property Market in 2007, or are thinking of doing so in 2008, can you either leave a ... More About: Buying , Pert
The ?Cheque partial refund? scam appears to have spread to property
2007-12-03 16:30:00 Seasoned Internet users are certainly aware of the “cheque partial refund scam”, that has long plagued sites like eBay. Just to run by the basics: Someone “buys something” They “accidently send a cheque for too much” The ask for a refund for the difference Lo and behold, the original scam has now migrated to property, according to US Marketing Blog, ... More About: Property , Scam , Spread , Prop , Cheque
US Reader: 16 year old girl missing, can you help?
2007-12-01 21:49:00 This post is particularly aimed at my US readers. I’ve been contacted by a couple of friends in the States and asked to help “spread the word”, using my Internet contacts. Approximately 24 hours ago, 16-year old Manessa Therese Donovan disappeared from her mother’s home in Florida. It is believed that she may have been ... More About: Reader , Girl , Missing , Year , Missi
LIBOR rates well above BoE base rates? (What that means, and why it?s not g
2007-11-29 12:29:00 Bob Preston, in most recent his comments about the Northern Rock crisis, has noted that: “Well three-month sterling Libor has been climbing for the past fortnight and is back at almost 6.6 per cent ? well above the Bank of England ?s policy rate of 5.75 per cent. It means that funds for banks are both expensive ... More About: Economics , Rates , Base
Bradford and Bingley, Alliance and Leicester - both in better shape than ha
2007-11-29 12:21:00 According to a report from the BBC, both Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley have issued trading statements today that show them to be in better shape than had been feared. The good news is that both of them, while they’ve both made some losses (see my post about securitisation earlier this week), they’ve also ... More About: Economics , Shape
UK Mortgage Arrangement fees have gone up 87% in the last two years
2007-11-28 13:13:00 According to a report by Moneyfacts, over the last two years, the average mortgage arrangement fee was: £441 in November 2005 £827 now That’s an increase of over 87%, which is getting close to having doubled. The trend behind this has been of lenders wanting to quote low headline rates, but make up their profits by charging such fees. ... More About: Property , Fees , Mortgage , Your , Years
UK Bankruptcies have actually come DOWN this year!
More articles from this author:2007-11-27 11:45:00 Figures release by the Government’s Insolvency Service seem to fly in the face of what people have been expecting. Analysis of the figures done by BBC news has shown that insolvencies, bankruptcies, and IVAs are all down on last year: Insolvencies down 5% to 26,072 Bankrupt cies down 2.1% to 15,833 IVA down 4.3% to 10,239 What’s not clear is whether ... More About: Economics , Year 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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