I have been through various stages – my Rockefeller stage, my Superman stage, my bungalow stage, my auction stage, etc. I have purchased a lot from various auction houses (including properties I hadn’t seen which is not recommended), dealing direct with the vendor, via estate agents and once via intestate sealed bids. I have purchased repossessed properties and properties about to be repossessed. I have had police kick in doors and tenants kick in doors. I have had upset neighbours stalk me, knowingly bought properties with structural issues and on a few occasions unknowingly bought properties with structural issues which were discovered once works have started. I have had roads closed and dug up to lay gas main pipes to properties for the first time. I have had electricians call the electric supplier who called the national grid due to the quality of the wiring! I have had tenants kill themselves (on purpose and accidentally) and had the obligatory cannabis plantation with all the related paraphernalia. I have rented property out on various social housing initiatives including asylum seekers and working with getting homeless people off the street. I have been to court – only once but that was enough thank you! I have successfully argued with some surveyors challenging their values and been crushed and squashed by other surveyors (at a small fortune in cost to me) who refused to alter their grossly incorrect valuation figures. I had a solicitor forget to register my property at Land Registry and subsequently had it repossessed as I purchased from a distressed vendor. I have controlled property with lease options. I once had a high street lender pull 2 mortgages just hours before completion as “I was buying the properties too cheaply” and they a few years later shut down my bank account due to the abnormal volume of activity. I have had lenders change their criteria which has left me up a creak without a paddle – or a canoe. I have worked with the council and received interest free loans – only for them to change and then shut the scheme down without notification leaving me with several properties actually purchased and with me reliant on the scheme to fund the refurbishment works.
I am sure there are a host of other educational experiences that I have forgotten to include but you get the idea – I have a bit of an idea about what I am doing with property.
That wasn’t meant to put you off being a landlord! Promise! I have also had wonderful tenants stay with me for year and pay their rent on time and look after the property. Property has given us options and a lifestyle that I would not have been able to afford.
Because of my property experience I am able to offer clients insight, advice and guidance that has proved very useful and financially beneficial to them.
