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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
Local Housing Allowance (Housing Benefits) rents now on-line
2008-05-28 13:36:00 Many landlords have been suspicious of the transition from Housing Benefits to Local Housing Allowance (LHA), however one benefit that HAS come is the greater transparency that is now possible. The Government’s rent service is now publishing the LHA figures that councils will pay for benefits tenants online. You can search by postcode at: https://lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/ Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=Post Code Please remember ... More About: On-line , Line
Today?s blog is brought to you by the number 7 and the word ?Stagflation?
2008-05-21 16:50:00 OK, readers of a certain age will have been expecting the letter S, rather than the whole word, but Stagflation is one of those things that seems to have hit us hard. 7 is, of course, the number of members of the Bank of England ’s MPC who voted to keep interest rates at 5.0% this month. ... More About: Economics , Word , Blog , Today
Oops - broken process
2008-05-19 15:11:00 The following is a true story, but before I tell it, I should make clear that I’ve already written to the customer apologising for what I’m about to relate (and, obviously, I’m not going to say who it is.) However, I think the story below demonstrates something very important about small businesses - namely that processes ... More About: Business Processes , Broken , Process
Inside Track go into receivership
2008-04-30 14:47:00 Inside Track , the Seminar and Off-Plan company have called in the administrators. At its peak, the company had over 200 staff, and was reported to make a profit in excess of £10m a year. Inside Track specialised in property training, and off-plan property deals. I’ve spoken out against these kind of deals (where investors buy property before it’s ... More About: Inside , Buy to let
Energy Performance Certificates for Landlords
2008-04-30 10:52:00 Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are a key part of the Home Information Packs I wrote about in November. As of 1st October this year (2008), EPCs will additionally be required by landlords starting new tenancies. Now, with all these things, it’s always possible that the legislation (or, rather the “guidance”) will change before October, but as things ... More About: Energy , Landlords , Insulation
Cash on Cash Return when deals involve bridging
2008-04-29 12:21:00 I got an email yesterday from a reader of my book. In the email, he asked a question about how I take bridging fees into account when calculating CCR. Alas, the answer is: “It depends.” Quick definition of terms: A bridging fee is what you pay to a lender for a (very) short term loan, in today’s ... More About: Return , Cash
Winners without losers
2008-04-25 11:22:00 Back in February, I wrote about the concept of the zero-sum game (specifically as it applied to SEO, which is such a thing.) That’s one of the most popular posts ever on this blog (!) However, it’s also widely misunderstood - one commenter wrote: How can there be a winner if there’s not a loser? I wrote a ... More About: Economics , Winners , Losers
Gazundering is back
2008-04-23 11:54:00 Alas, Gazundering is back. This is (whatever the OED may say about chamber pots), the practice by which a buyer goes through the process of buying, and then, on the day of exchange, drops their offer. Personally, I consider this (and the converse - gazumping, where a seller increases the price on that day) to be “dirty ... More About: Back
Server virtualisation on Linux - Ubuntu on Ubuntu with KVM
2008-04-20 15:01:00 It’s a long time since I’ve written an overtly technical post, but after the last 24 hours, I thought I’d learnt enough obscure stuff that I would make notes in case I have to do it again Over the past few years, the complexity of the various websites I run, particularly the way that ... More About: Linux , Ubuntu , Server
This week?s currency movements
2008-04-18 23:25:00 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
Why crashes are bad for estate agents, but good for investors
2008-04-17 17:21:00 Over the last three years, I’ve had a bit of a poor reputation on the speaking circuit, for reminding people that there was going to be a housing crash. Others, it seems, have made a good amount of money by preaching that houses and flats only go up in value. There are some good lessons, however, ... More About: Economics , Estate , Agents , Good , Investors
UK Government to enter securitisation market?
2008-04-16 19:32:00 One of the most popular articles I’ve ever written on this blog has been What is Mortgage Securitisation, and Why Does it Matter? If you don’t have time to read it, here’s the 30-second summary: Some lenders lend their own money to people who want mortgages Other lenders do, but rather than being owed those loans themselves, or ... More About: Government , Market , Enter , Bank of England
Loans to value in a falling market
2008-04-16 19:08:00 There was a slightly odd article in yesterday’s Telegraph about this. The summary of the article was that, if a lender is prepared to lend, say, 85% of the value of a property, and a property goes down in value, then when you remortgage, you may be able to borrow less than you borrowed last time, ... More About: Economics , Market , Loans , Buy to let
Eight things which don?t make sense about me
2008-03-06 23:03:00 I was tagged by Nicholas Butler to discuss eight random things about myself. As I understand it, the idea is to write about the stuff that wouldn’t normally have any relevance to my blog, so here goes. I was stone deaf as a child from the age of about 4 onwards, and started school lipreading ... More About: Rants , Sense , Make , Things
SEO - Zero-sum game explained
2008-02-28 02:00:00 A couple of days ago, I used the phrase: SEO is inherently a zero-sum game This got picked up in a conversation here about a specific SEO competion, and Knox commented: That would be hard to explain to the millionaires we?ve created. I think I’d better explain what I meant by the comment. A ?zero-sum game? is a technical term ... More About: Game
Free is the new black
2008-02-26 18:18:00 This month’s Wired Magazine has a great article about why the new pricepoint for many things is free. The article is written by Chris Anderson, whose last book - the Long Tail - I read a couple of years ago. The book has heavily influenced my training business. The thrust of the article is that, as the ... More About: Economics , Free , Black
The greatest real estate agent in the world contest, aka ?The dumbest idea
2008-02-19 10:50:00 One of the things that still amazes me about Internet Marketing is that some people still fall for the idea that you can build a long-term business through coding hacks to make your website appear high on Google. I’ve met some people who’ve coded their websites like this… and some who have had their websites banned ... More About: Contest , Agent , World , Estate , Real Estate
Nothern Rock Nationalisation - and the winner is, well, no-one
2008-02-18 18:40:00 The Government is finally going to nationalise Northern Rock . It’s “the right move at the right time for the right reasons”, according to Prime Minister Brown. This might be a true statement, if you constrain yourself to looking at this morning’s decision in isolation. Of course, the courts might yet decide that it was a really bad decision, ... More About: Economics , Winner , Nationalisation , Northern Rock
A new PC, and I?ve gone ?Mac? for this one
2008-02-14 12:13:00 I pity Microsoft at the moment - Vista is being poorly received by the lucrative corporate market and their latest debacle (in failing to release SP1 to IT professionals ahead of the general consumer launch, preventing IT support firms being able to give their clients any sensible assessment of the product) seems to be alienating ... More About: Ubuntu , Productivity
Advantage Home Loans to shut as Morgan Stanley announces 1,000 job losses
2008-02-14 00:30:00 US Mega-bank Morgan Stanley has just announced that it will be cutting 1,000 jobs worldwide, with the bulk of the cuts happening in the US and the UK. While, in the US, the company will be simply reining in and losing spare capacity, in the US, it’s being reported that the company will shut down Advantage ... More About: Economics , Home Loans , Loans , Home
Free loft and wall insulation for UK residents over the age of 70
2008-01-31 15:33:00 Just a quick note. If you, or someone living with you, are over the age of 70, then under a Government Scheme, you should be able to receive free loft and wall insulation, reducing heating bills, and keeping the homes warmer. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find out whether this applies to tenants, but ... More About: Free , Wall , Grants , Loft , Insulation
US Interest rates cut AGAIN
2008-01-30 23:28:00 Nine days ago, the US Federal reserve cut US interest rates by .75%. Since then, I’ve been increasingly concerned about it - it DIDN’T feel like a sensible response - it felt like a knee-jerk reaction to stock market problems the day before - It wasn’t at their regular meeting, but at an emergency session of ... More About: Interest Rates , Interest , Rates
Five Negotiation Techniques in One Letter
2008-01-30 18:56:00 I realised that it had been a while since I’ve blogged about any specific property negotiation techniques, but a letter I’ve just written combines FIVE of the techniques from my negotiation ebook in one single offer. Obviously, I’m not prepared to give EXACT details, since the negotiation is still ongoing, but here’s what I’ve just done. Three ... More About: Letter , Negotiation
Banking Crisis - the puns
2008-01-27 13:07:00 And as the banking crisis spreads to Japan The Origami Bank has folded The Sumo Bank has gone belly-up At the Karate Bank, over 10,000 jobs have got the chop Profits are tumbling at the Judo Bank Rumours of something fishy going on at the Sushi and Sashimi Banks And the Karaoke Bank is up for sale - experts are predicting ... More About: Economics , Banking , Crisis , Puns
This week?s currency movements
2008-01-25 19:11:00 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, for ... More About: Week
The UK Property Market and Haiku
2008-01-25 15:25:00 You probably know some of the rules of the Haiku art form, as taught in infant school: Three lines Syllables per line: 7 in the first, 5 in the second, 7 in the last What most people don’t realise is that in Japanese culture there are two additional rules: Some reference to the season, normally through weather or trees ... More About: Market , Property , Your , Expert
Needed: Big book with the words ?DON?T PANIC? printed in friendly type on t
2008-01-23 19:09:00 UK readers “of a certain age” will no doubt remember the book of which I’m talking, but if ever there were a need for the cover, it is now. The BBC’s Robert Peston has provided a summary of a speech by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England. As Mr. Peston says: Mervyn King said that ... More About: Property , Interest Rates , Words , Book , Your
US Interest Rates cut by 3/4%
2008-01-22 20:04:00 Well, it’s only ever happened twice before, and one of those was immediately after 9/11… but the US Federal Reserve (the American equivalent of our Bank of England) have just cut interest rates by 3/4 of a percent. The US economy is deeply into recession, and the hope is that this will kick-start spending again (and ... More About: Interest Rates , Interest , Rates
To sell or not to sell?
2008-01-22 18:50:00 For some years, I’ve been an advocate of the “hold for life” method of property ownership, but a question I’m often asked is “why?” Now clearly, there are some circumstances in which you’d need to sell - the classic being that you need a lot of cash for something else quickly, but what if ... More About: Real Estate , Sell
A staggering amount of money for Northern Rock.
More articles from this author:2008-01-21 20:53:00 Dear Mr. Chancellor, The Northern Rock employs 6,500 people, most of them in marginal constituencies. You have just promised £25,000,000,000 of public money to keep them employed, as a loan that you only get back if the business ends up doing well. That works out at almost FOUR MILLION POUND PER JOB SAVED. If the business tanks, you will ... More About: Money , Nationalisation , Northern Rock 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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