The Property Podcast

We’re back with another episode of Ask Rob & Rob and this week the guys are discussing questions on HMO’s and why they do/don’t love Birmingham. The first question we’ve got for you this week is from Martin, who after listening to the podcasts has gone on to recently purchase his first property.  It’s a 3-bed property that would rent out for around £800pcm and he has the option to renovate it and turn it into a 4-bed HMO that will bring in around £1,600pcm.  He’s now questioning whether he’d be better off appealing to a family where he won’t have to pay the bills for them, or go for the HMO market and tenant turnover, but almost doubling his income? It’s certainly a tough decision to make Next up we’ve got Jordan. Clearly due to his question he’s been a long term listener as he’s got a question based on a podcast The Robs did a few years ago.  The podcast episode was why Rob & Rob don’t show Birmingham much love so now Jordan is wondering if three years on that’s still the case and The Robs still don’t love Birmingham. To him it seems like a good choice as from what he can see the fundamentals are there, but he’s wondering if he’s missing something.  Tune in to find out if Rob & Rob have a new found love for Birmingham or if they’d still keep away.   Do you have a buy to let or property investment related question for Rob & Rob? You could feature on the next episode by giving us a call on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply).  Or if you prefer, click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. The next question on Ask Rob & Rob could be yours.  Have you joined us over on the Property Hub Forum yet? Our online community is friendly, informative, and the members are waiting to welcome you with open arms. So get yourself over and introduce yourself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At some point in your property journey you’re going to get people who are questioning what it is you’re doing.  People that doubt you’ll make any money from investing in property and they’ll try and put you off.  So in this week’s episode of The Property Podcast, Rob & Rob are going to discuss how you should deal with them, but more importantly, why you should encourage them.  Sounds crazy, right?  What if we told you that you should use what the doubters say as momentum to spur you on? Because that’s exactly what Rob B did himself about a decade ago.  Rob B shares a personal experience in today’s episode and it might just give you the push you need to keep going and ignore the haters.   In the news this week, ‘collapse of Airbnb popularity produces glut of long-term stock’. After speaking to Chris Ryder a few weeks ago, you wouldn’t expect to see this headline, especially now it seems the majority of the population are enjoying staycations this summer.  However research from Hamptons International has shown that one in eight properties coming onto the market in inner London have previously been on Airbnb or other short term let websites.  It also shows that the number of homes available to rent in inner London is up by 42% compared to last year which is a huge increase! But there are many factors that can contribute to this.  As a result it’s pushing rental prices down. Which is something that The Robs will discuss on next week’s market update.   This week’s Hub Extra is a new podcast for you to listen to! Our podcast producer Dan has also been working on a new podcast called ‘Naked Money’.  The show has Robbie Burns as the host who’s a multi-millionaire stock trader if you didn’t already know. He’s more famous for his book, The Naked Trader which is a book Rob B loved.  So no doubt the new podcast is going to be just as good.    We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do. Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!  If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Ask Rob & Rob the guys are still answering coronavirus related questions and helping one caller put his mind at rest on his recent investment To kick start this week, we’ve got Harsh. Along with a friend as part of a joint venture, they’ve bought their first buy-to-let property in Crewe.  However he’s now having worrying thoughts. Harsh has clearly been listening to our weekly podcasts and he knows that Crewe is an area that we’ve mentioned numerous times on the podcast and an area Property Hub Homes even built a development in.  But he’s also listened to the episode on Rob D’s investment in Nottingham and is now worried that because he only paid £75,000 for his property, it’s not going to benefit from capital appreciation. Is this a general rule of thumb? Should Harsh think about selling and investing somewhere else? Our second caller is Pedro. He’s got a question about the effects of coronavirus and the impact it’s had on people working from home. Since more people are now working from home and potentially going to continue to work from home for the foreseeable future, will this change the fundamentals that we look for when investing in property? So what do Rob & Rob think about this?  Tune in to find out   Do you have a buy to let or property investment related question for Rob & Rob? You could feature on the next episode by giving us a call on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply).  Or if you prefer, click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. The next question on Ask Rob & Rob could be yours.  Have you joined us over on the Property Hub Forum yet? Our online community is friendly, informative, and the members are waiting to welcome you with open arms. So get yourself over and introduce yourself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get ready… because Rob & Rob are about to change your life! Seriously. Now is the prime time to be making improvements to better yourself. We’re living in strange times right now, but we can see this time as an opportunity to make dramatic differences to your life.  You can come out of the coronavirus pandemic far stronger than you went into it. Here’s what we cover in today’s episode:   Goal setting - we genuinely believe it can transform your life. Listen as Rob & Rob talk about how they use goals, both in person, and in their business. If there’s one action you take from today’s episode, let it be this one. There might be goals you’d set now, that would have been completely different to what you may have set at the start of the year because so much change has been forced on us. Here’s the episode Rob D refers to when talking about property megatrends. You can take the goal setting course right here for free too.    Creating habits - habits are the things you can do every day to get you that one step closer to your goals. Now is the ideal to review your habits, see which ones you’d rather not have and see which new ones you want to create to support what you want to achieve. Listen as Rob D talks through forming new habits and how to make them stick. For inspiration and more details on how you can learn to habit stack, you can go and listen to Rob & Rob’s brain hacks episode right here.    Fitness - it’s become a huge thing right now. It’s massively helped Rob & Rob during lockdown. Many people have now transformed their old fitness habits and created new ways to work out, because they’ve had to during lockdown. And actually, it’s becoming apparent that people are preferring their new routines.    Mental health - there’s been a huge focus on mental health throughout lockdown. The media hasn’t helped the downward spiral in those struggling mentally, but we can all try our best to be more aware of how our mental health is being affected during these times. Rob B talks us through how he’s using meditation now more than ever, and how it’s helping him massively.    Education - We know a lot of you have been focusing on your education, because our website stats for our educational resources are breaking records. But could you be doing more?    Finances - A renewed focus on finances is never a bad thing. We’ve had a pandemic which has affected people negatively through job losses, but there’ll be others who have used this time to conserve cash through not commuting or spending unnecessarily. Rob & Rob have done a previous episode about personal finance which you can find here. You can’t be a property investor and have poor finances, so if you haven’t focused on this yet, you need to.   Taking action - doing deals, or getting ready to do them. The market is incredibly strong right now. People are coming out of lockdown ready to invest. And if you’re not yet ready, at least start preparing yourself. Rob B delves into everything you should be doing NOW, so you can strike as soon as you’re ready. Find out why now isn’t the time to be sitting on the fence and why you shouldn't let the media be your investment guide. Find out how others are taking action now, like Chris and his serviced accommodation in this episode. Or Natalie who’s refurbed multiple projects during the pandemic! If you work on all of these things, you’ll become a more successful property investor.    In the news this week, we’re talking about this article from The Express: Chancellor's stamp duty holiday gives 'surprising spike' to home values. Prices are up 3.8% year-on-year according to the Halifax, which is a huge jump. It’s surprising because we still have the coronavirus, but also not surprising for reasons Rob & Rob will delve into on this month’s market update - which is only a few weeks away, so make sure you tune in.   This week’s Hub Extra is a quote from Dennis E. Adonis which is quite fitting with this episode.  “Never restart a journey and use the same road that failed you before.” Listen to find out why this quote resonates so well with Rob & Rob this week.   We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do. Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!  If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s another Tuesday, so it’s another Ask Rob & Rob. And we’ve got two cracking property questions for you. The first question is from Dom who’s just completed on a 2-bedroom flat in South London. He agreed the price back in January before the dreaded coronavirus, and went back to negotiate on the advice of Rob & Rob and managed to snap up an absolute bargain! So he’s ended up with a new house at a massively discounted price.  Today he’s asking whether Rob & Rob reckon he should flip it, take the cash and wait for another dip.  Rob B has some solid advice today and a bit of warning about that ‘paper-profit’. Dom needs to be careful about allocating overall transaction costs and also about potentially investing on the expectation of a dip in the market.  Why should Dom be careful? Why should nobody ever invest based on assumptions? Tune in to find out. Next up is Sabrina from Newcastle. She got hooked on the podcast after reading Rob D’s book and hasn’t looked back ever since - that’s what we like to hear!  Sabrina is a first time buyer and wants to know if investing in property via a limited company would preserve her first time buyer status for when she eventually buys her own residential property to live in - therefore avoiding that 3% stamp duty surcharge on second properties.   Listen as Rob D takes the lead on this question and explains how we’re all judged as individuals when it comes to property transactions.  Try as we might, there’s no getting around stamp duty unfortunately.  If only we could wave that magic wand! Tune in to today’s Ask Rob & Rob, it’s one not to be missed! Do you have a buy to let or property investment related question for Rob & Rob? You could feature on the next episode by giving us a call on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply).  Or if you prefer, click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. The next question on Ask Rob & Rob could be yours.  Have you joined us over on the Property Hub Forum yet? Our online community is friendly, informative, and the members are waiting to welcome you with open arms. So get yourself over and introduce yourself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we refer to a property super-geek you may think that we’re referring to the number one Property Geek, Rob D.  But it seems that there’s someone else who is just as excited by tech and property, and that’s Chris Ryder.  You may remember Chris from a few weeks ago when The Robs interviewed him about his serviced accommodation business and how it was coping during lockdown. Well, he’s joining Rob & Rob again this week to talk about all things tech in property.  Before getting involved in property Chris was in a good corporate career that centered around software development. Chris has since gone on to deploy different apps and systems into the day-to-day management of his business. So, naturally Rob & Rob couldn’t resist doubling down and getting unashamedly geeky about property and tech. Tune in to find out how these apps have changed the way in which Chris manages his portfolio. You may pick up a few tips for yourself if you self-manage your properties or you’re thinking about doing it.    Over the past few months we've shared a number of news stories around mortgage products and how much they’ve changed, particularly during lockdown. The long term trend with mortgages and rates was downward, and even with interest rates going up, mortgage rates were still low because everyone was competing for business.  Now, it seems that’s been flipped on its head. There’s plenty of people now seeking a mortgage but the rates aren’t particularly attractive. One broker Rob D spoke to recently even said that some lenders are currently putting their rates up because they wanted to become less competitive!  Lenders are actually struggling with their workload so much that they want to put people off from applying for a new mortgage with them. Absolute madness!    We’ve got another two resources for you for this week’s Hub Extra. Naturally they’re related to what Chris has talked about on this week’s episode, and they’re both helpful with connecting different pieces of technology together to do cool automated stuff for you. The first is called ‘if this, then that’ which allows you to connect different tools together and it’s pretty cool in the way that it works, just have a look at the website. The second tool is called ‘Zapier’ which is basically the same thing but a little bit more techy and more for connecting ‘small business’ kind of software.   We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do. Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!  If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Ask Rob & Rob we’ve got two great questions around location and using the bounceback loan scheme to fund your deposit. Is it a good idea? It seems a number of people are turning their head towards Liverpool for investing in property right now, and this week we’ve got another question regarding properties in the area. So let’s get to it. The first question is from Mohammad. He’s recently acquired £50,000 from the bounceback loan scheme through his limited company and he’s now wanting to know if he can use this money as a deposit for a buy-to-let property?  There’s been a bit of confusion and uncertainty around this topic as it’s not really been clear as to whether you can use the bounceback loan as a deposit.  So, do The Robs think it’s alright to use the loan as a deposit or do they think Mohammad should reconsider? Our second caller of the week is Harry from Bristol. He’s asking if £70,000 is too cheap to purchase a decent property in Liverpool?  If Rob & Rob think it’s too low, Harry wants to know what they think would be the minimum they’d pay for a property in this location. Naturally, there was only one Rob to take on this question, so it’s over to Rob B to answer this one. Does Rob B think that Harry should be looking at paying more than £70,000 to get himself a good investment property?  Tune in to find out.   Do you have a buy to let or property investment related question for Rob & Rob? You could feature on the next episode by giving us a call on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply).  Or if you prefer, click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. The next question on Ask Rob & Rob could be yours.  Have you joined us over on the Property Hub Forum yet? Our online community is friendly, informative, and the members are waiting to welcome you with open arms. So get yourself over and introduce yourself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Property Podcast The Robs are discussing the importance of knowing what mega trends are currently playing out in the property market.  Yes, it’s important to know the tactics behind becoming a successful investor, how to get the best deal and understanding mortgages. But it’s just as important, if not more important, to understand the mega trends that are taking place. Because if you don’t understand the trends, you could find yourself on the wrong side of very powerful forces.  So today Rob & Rob are going to take you through trends that could happen, so you can put yourself in the strongest position going forward.  Here’s a look at the trends that they’re going to cover: Reversal of city centre living UK becoming less London-centric  More home-working  Death of retail More holidays in the UK “Peak HMO” If these aren’t topics that you’ve thought about already, then you’re going to want to listen to this episode. These particular trends are some that could happen off the back of a crazy start to 2020, so The Robs are taking a look at how they might affect property investment in the future.    In the news this week there’s been more bad news and mixed messages. But we’ve actually got a good news story for the property market; ‘asking prices reach four-year high’ according to Rightmove.  Which seems crazy right now with everything currently going on but since March average asking prices have grown 2.4% bringing the price up to £320,265. It seems like the confidence and optimism has swept across the country with other areas seeing even bigger increases than this.   This week’s Hub isn’t a new resource or a new app, it’s actually something that’s been around for a while but only recently have The Robs become fond of it. The app in question is Google Photos.  If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically storage for your photos that are backed up in a cloud for a minimal fee each month. But there’s two reasons why Rob & Rob are fascinated with this app. The first being that it has a great search function, so if you’ve taken a picture of a book and you can only remember the author’s name, simply type that in and Google Photos should bring up the photo that you’re looking for. The second is that you can use something called Google Lens within your photos. So like Rob D, he took a picture of some flowers and by using Google Lens, it told him exactly what type of flowers they were! You’ll basically hear how exciting The Robs find this one.    We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do. Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!  If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Ask Rob & Rob, the guys are helping one caller up his location knowledge and explaining why buying with a mortgage is the better option. First up this week is Chris from London. He’s been talking to another investor about a property in Bootle, Liverpool.  However this investor has informed Chris that the street isn’t exactly the best or the most desirable in the area and that he should look elsewhere.  So now Chris is wondering if house prices can really differ that much street by street and with being based down south, how can he gain local property knowledge in different locations?  Naturally this question was made for Rob B so what does he recommend Chris do to improve his location knowledge?  Next up we’ve got Marlon who’s looking to find out what the benefits are of buying with a mortgage as opposed to purchasing in cash if you’re able to? His reason for asking is that he’s got 60% of the property purchase price and the oher 40% will be loaned to him by a family member, which he will go on to pay back like a mortgage, but without any interest and at a more flexible rate.  If you’ve been thinking about purchasing in cash, you’ll probably want to listen to this episode first, along with this podcast episode and take this course.  Enjoy!   Do you have a buy to let or property investment related question for Rob & Rob? You could feature on the next episode by giving us a call on 013 808 00035 and leaving a message with your name and question (normal UK call rates apply).  Or if you prefer, click here to leave a recording via your computer instead. The next question on Ask Rob & Rob could be yours.  Have you joined us over on the Property Hub Forum yet? Our online community is friendly, informative, and the members are waiting to welcome you with open arms. So get yourself over and introduce yourself.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A couple of weeks ago The Robs interviewed serviced accommodation specialist Chris Ryder to find out how the coronavirus had affected his business. Well now they’re back this week with another guest, Natalie Gascoyne who’s going to talk us through how she handled renovating two major projects through lockdown.  Natalie is the owner of Davis Properties and she’s no stranger to tackling plain BTL’s and HMO’s. At the moment she’s currently working two commercial-to-residential conversions and we’re keen to find out how those have been affected by what’s currently going on. When COVID-19 first hit, Natalie was due to exchange on two properties, so rather than pulling out completely and losing thousands that she’d already invested, she decided to delay the process.  Unfortunately, one project was delayed further with another party member pulling out, however, on the other property she managed to bag a £30,000 saving!  How? You’ll have to tune in and listen to the rest of Natalie’s story... We don’t often talk about commercial-to-residential projects on the podcast as it’s never really been a strategy we’ve advised investors to do.  But Natalie seems to have quite a good strategy in terms of the kind of properties she looks for and the areas that she sources them in.  It’s certainly not the kind of project for the faint hearted and you’ve definitely got to be able to envision the end product to take something like this on.  So who knows, after hearing about Natalie’s journey and strategy, maybe this could be something to consider for your next purchase.    In the news this week, it seems like the rest of Great Britain weren’t too pleased when England received a stamp duty holiday. Now it seems that Scotland and Wales have jumped on the bandwagon and are also offering a stamp duty holiday up to £250,000. However they are slightly different… In Scotland investors still have to pay the surcharge which is 4% and in Wales you have to pay the surcharge and property investors are exempt from the stamp duty holiday. So some good news across the country, even if investors won’t 100% benefit from it.   This week’s Hub Extra it’s a book that Rob D is already calling his book of the year! So you know it’s got to be good. It’s called ‘A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner’ by Chris Atkins. He’s more commonly known as a documentary filmmaker who got caught up in a tax avoidance scheme to do with the film industry and ended up getting sentenced to five years in prison!  The book is based on the diaries he wrote whilst in prison and it gives you a really good insight as to what prison life is really like and hopefully it will be the only experience you’ll ever have.   We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do. Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!  If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.