37 Reasons | The Good News About Property Part #2

Judith Morgan says: Here is the second of my pieces walking you through my 37 reasons to come to our Money Gym Property Extravaganza on 21st March. Today? Seven Financial Reasons to get up early on a Saturday morning and exhaust yourself learning all sorts of new stuff and meeting all sorts of weirdos (just some of the resistances we feel to getting out of our comfort zone!). Yummy, the financial reasons, my favourite ones…

http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

1. Currently, with the bank base rate as low as it’s ever been, there’s never been a better time to buy property. Your savings aren’t earning anything, the value of your own home is still falling, your dismal pension ditto and perhaps your SIPP is non-existent as yet. You can’t leave it to “the professionals” – that much is clear. But we can show you how to take control of your financial resources, get some of it into property and make a significantly better return on your investments, one you CAN bank on. That’s four routes at least – savings, equity, pension, SIPP. I bet you will be showing me more by the end of the day!

2. Whether you have the ability to borrow secured, unsecured or not at all, I can offer you at least one way to become a property owner.

3. Rick Otton will show you how to buy a house for £1.

4. Martin Roberts will show you how to buy ten years’ holidays for the price of one year AND get a property investment thrown in (without resorting to either timeshare or fractional ownership) with Unique.

5. Henderson Capital Management will introduce you to investments in property where your initial capital outlay is guaranteed. I’ve never heard of this before, it’s a real scoop for the Money Gym and our clients.

6. Property is a “real” investment, you can see it, feel it, touch it and live in it – or your tenants can. It’s not going to suddenly disappear overnight. Whatever the ups and downs of the financial markets, people are always going to need homes to live in. There’s a constant demand.

7. And finally, we can show you how property can become your pension in 10 years or less, again with your capital guaranteed. This means if you are worried about how you are going to live when you stop earning, you can put your mind at ease at last. No matter how late you start, you no longer need 40 years at the coalface to save enough to retire on. Property’s your pension, whichever way you do it. Start young, retire young. What if you never want to retire? I don’t! But wouldn’t it be nice to know you were safe and didn’t have to worry about money any more? Financial serenity, close at hand.

Told you these 37 reasons were stonkers!

http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

Watch out for my next batch coming soon…

Judith

Money Gym Property Investors Hope to Raise £4,500 for The Big Issue!

The Money Gym team is working together to put on a Property Extravaganza on 21st March 2009 in Central London. Tickets cost £25 including VAT and all ex VAT proceeds will be presented to The Big Issue Foundation on the day. One of our speakers, the ever-abundant Peter Stanley, has been wanting to set up a connection between property profits and helping the homeless for a number of years. I am delighted that finally we have been able to bring his vision to fruition. Peter will open the day with his talk demonstrating that Anyone Can Do It. He’s even offering a prize for the best reason on the day why the reverse is true!

At the time of writing, we have sold 111 tickets which means we can write TBI a cheque for £2391, but I want to give them nearly twice that, £4,500! In order to do that, I have to sell the remaining 89 tickets, the venue only holds 200.

So, what’s it all about then? It’s about The Good News about property investing in 2009. We have inspirational speakers, ordinary people who have made lots of money buying property and still continue to do so even in these current market conditions. Those speakers including Martin Roberts of TV’s Homes Under the Hammer and Hasmita Reardon who was Bradford & Bingley’s Property Woman of the Year award 2008 who has a portfolio of 80 properties in Sittingbourne, Kent, which she rents out to tenants nobody else wants. She’s a social entrepreneur in my book. And Rick Otton, Katharine Wooller and Abdul Malik.

The investments are suitable for people who want to put their first foot on the property ladder or their next one. They are for people with no money, no time and no know-how and conversely for the more experienced investor too. It will be a cracking day out which provides excellent networking opportunities in a relatively small group of wealth creators who are upbeat and positive and on the road to taking control of their own finances. There are over £42,000 worth of prizes in a holiday, Wembley tickets, books, memberships, portfolio places, mentoring, coaching and more from the very abundant speakers and colleagues who want to help this great cause.   And Goody Bags!

Will you help us please? Will you blog and Twitter this to get the campaign to go as viral as possible? If you let us know you have linked to this post, we should be able to track back to your post. If you can link it back to the this posting on the Money Gym’s blog, even better for you as this is a high traffic site.   If you can’t be bothered with all that trackback stuff (and who can blame you), do still please pass it on and help us help the homeless to help themselves.

Why not take the day off and come and join us in London’s West End? If you can persuade a friend to book and come too, there’s a special gift for both of you – 90 days Silver Membership of the Money Gym with our compliments!

Please help us to raise our £4,500 target by using all social media methods at your disposal and let’s have some fun with this viral campaign!

Thank you so much for supporting our goal. Click here for full details and booking

37 Reasons | The Good News About Property – Part #1

Can WE do this?   Yes we can!

Here is the first of several pieces walking you through my 37 reasons to come to our Money Gym Property Extravaganza on 21st March.   I will keep each of these bulletins as short as possible so I can send you one every day for the next week or so.   I don’t want to overload you with information but I do want to remind you why you might want to move heaven and earth to be there.   I know, it’s annoying to have to travel to London on a Saturday and move things around in your diary and get up early and so on when we are all so busy, but here are my Eight Inspirational Reasons.   Does one speak to you, %$firstname$%?

1.    The speaker experts have already revealed in their interviews that they were once scared and inexperienced. They are all relatively ordinary people who have gone on to invest in property and become millionaires or even multi-millionaires, thus proving that anyone can do it. They will show us what they did.

2.    Have you checked out the testimonials at the bottom of our information page?   Go to http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property and scroll all the wayto the bottom where you will see two real stories from two real women – Karen buying her first property and Christine buying her next property.   Two more real people demonstrating that anyone can do it.

3.   The day will be all about the Good News.   Without wanting to sound too much like that newsreader who made himself rather unpopular a few years back by asking where all the good news had gone, it is nevertheless my intention to focus on the good stuff only that day. Speaking personally, I am sick and tired of the bad news on endless loop.   You get what you focus on in this life. Let’s focus on some good stuff for a change.

4.   This is an opportunity to connect with a positive community of like-minded peers.   Money Gym clients, colleagues and friends tell us over and over again that this is one of the things they value most about the work we do.   If you are going to make a success of wealth creation generally and property investing specifically, you will need a gang who you can reach out to when the going gets tough.   The gang have been there before you, they have ideas and inspiration and connections to useful can-do brokers, lawyers, surveyors, builders and more. Hook in.   Have a cracking day out – come on down and meet the Money Gym team of clients and coaches, Nicola and me. Help us to stir up the magic and expect to meet someone who will give you a leg up, synchronicity at play all day long.

5.   Listen to Anthony North of the Big issue Foundation and see his films – Real Lives, Real Achievements – and see what a difference our ticket money will make to the homeless of our cities.   Get involved, donate, do some good, become an enlightened investor.

6.   Hasmita Reardon, another ordinary woman doing extraordinary things with money and creating a large portfolio of properties in Sittingbourne in Kent which she rents out to tenants no others will touch.   Not only did Hasmita win Bradford & Bingley Property Woman of the Year 2008, but she is creating a great little business down there in Kent.   Husband Steve and son Kiran will accompany Hasmita on the day.   Steve’s been able to give up the day job and Kiran has already been on TV’s Homes Under the Hammer and invented a website which helps landlords and tenants.   And he’s still a teenager. Blimey, teenagers can do this too!

7.   Take a leaf out of my book.   When I started with the Money Gym in 2003 I had no intention of investing in property. I was running scared from my previous attempt at it; I had lots of debt, no equity to leverage and no savings to invest.   But I went to the property seminar and listened and absorbed the learning.   This is what you can do too.   Not only are there routes to property investing which require very little time, money and know-how but you can get into property for as little as £1.   I know, seems unbelievable, doesn’t it?   However, if the route that interests you costs more than £1, at least you will know how to do it when the time is right and/or the resources become available.   Be inspired when you consider the routes to what might previously have seemed a closed door to you.   And a door WILL open up, of that you can be sure, especially if you keep on wiggling the knobs, just to check.

8.    Nicola is always saying (and she even says it in her book) that you can make money in property without actually buying any, by becoming a sourcer.   All you have to do is learn what makes a good property deal (which perhaps you can’t or don’t want to do yourself) and then sell it on. I used to think “yeah, right” when I heard this, even though I know people who do this now, but I think of them as at least quasi-professional investors.   What about real people?   Well today I was sitting in my car for two hours with Perky Pete, my somewhat slow estate agent. He’s a bit like Paddington, a bear of very little brain. But he’s a love, and dogged.   And he was telling me that’s precisely how he earns most of his living right now.   And yes, you could say he was a professional but honestly… if you met him in the pub… he’s just an ordinary bloke.  The moral of this story?   If Pete can do it, we all can!

Until tomorrow…

Judith

PS   94 seats have been sold already and the venue has a capacity of only 210 and we will be crammed to the rafters then.   I have told Steve to close bookings at 210 but I think I will have to reduce it to 200 because of the entourages of the speakers!   What’s my point?   I am going to write tomorrow to the 94 who have already booked with a stonking special offer to them.   If they book a seat for a friend or refer a friend who buys a ticket at £25, both they and their friend will qualify for 90 days free Silver membership of the Money Gym, worth £82.50 each!   How abundant is that?   So please, if it is your intention to attend, please BOOK NOW to avoid disappointment.

http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property

PPS Even as I write this I realise what it may mean… that I may sell the house out before I get to the end of my 37 Reasons… shame!

This week’s Good News from Judith

On Monday I spent the day with my Property Boardroom.   There are 12 of us, a dirty dozen!   Ben, Christian, Rob, Julien, Colin, Darren, Peter, Tim, Ian, Carol, Julia & me.   We ladies are surrounded by handsome, young property investors and outnumbered three to one.   Heaven.   We talked about property all day, BMV, finance for repossessions, Rent2Own, Cartel, development, HMOs, negotiation skills, rent to re-rent, holiday properties, overseas investments, buying without a mortgage, falling interest rates, SIPPS, selling parts of our portfolios, shifting remote investments hard to manage because of the travel, refurbishments, on and on and on.

This was our third meeting and this time we introduced a rather coachy format – what have you been doing, what successes do you want to share, how can we help and what will you commit to achieving by this time next month?  We were in glamorous new surroundings at St Pancras International Station which has the longest champagne bar in Europe!   Thank goodness the lads don’t know that yet or we will never get any work done.

A day out with us is one of the prizes at our Property Extravaganza so make sure you are in with a chance of that one, raffle tickets in your goody bags on the door, registration at 08.45 if you want to choose your number 1-200.   You are visualising winning, aren’t you?   Tap, tap, tap.

Rob emailed last night to say he had been listening to the interview I did with Peter Stanley (who is the Peter mentioned above, and he said “Hot on the heels of a great property boardroom day…I listened to your pre property event interview this evening and I wanted to let you both know that I think it’s excellent.  If that’s set the tone for the day itself, it’s bound to be amazing.  I’m gutted I can’t be there.  I love the quiet, unassuming vibe of confidence through experience you both give off.  Thank you.   And it’s prompted me to want to read your book Peter … I’ll get on your website and order it tomorrow.” A RAVE testimonial for Peter, with much thanks to Rob.

I knew the interview was good, but I popped back to the site to have another listen with Rob’s ears on, as it were. And I found myself enjoying it so much I went on to listen to the one with Katharine again.   These interviews are fantastic, and even if you can’t come on 21st, do yourself a favour and scoot on over there and listen to them, each lasts about 30 minutes with the exception of Anthony from the Big Issue who we allowed to ramble on a tad because of his special topic.

(Click image to enlarge) As we put last week’s issue of this ezine to bed, Hasmita Reardon was agreeing to come and speak for us, despite having just had a serious operation.   She is bringing her husband Steve and her son Kiran. She says Kiran has met Martin Roberts and been on Homes UnderThe Hammer and also met Rick but is, of course, interested to hear both of them again and get reacquainted.   Kiran has appeared on Martin’s programme after he bought a house at auction (he’s 18 by the way).   He has also founded The Tenant Registry website which allows landlords to check potential tenants’ honesty and reliability, an idea he thought of when he was just 16. Kiran plans to develop it so tenants can find out how good or bad a potential landlord might be.   Sounds like I might have to get that lad onto the stage also.

The interview that Nicola and I did with Rick Otton, our keynote speaker, is also now live on the Property Extravaganza site.  This was rather a hectic interview, Rick was in Perth, Australia, wine-tasting and it was the end of the day for him.   For N and me it was 8 a.m. on a Monday morning!   That’s no time of day for an internet marketer, we had to set up a complex set of reminders for Nicola to be there to run the desk.

I got cut off half way through, Rick was alternately funny and impenetrable and I am sure he thought the same about me.   I managed to get in a cheeky joke at his expense, see if you spot it (probably only Rent2Own students will, sadly).   Nicola Skyped me to tell me I was a bad girl for that one, tee hee.  I didn’t let him talk too much about Rent2Own and Lease Options for two reasons.   Firstly I want him to explain to you face to face on the day, and also I want you to plan to go to his bootcamp on 4/5th April in London.   More and more clients write to me for advice about their property investments and I know that Rick’s principles contain the answer.   It conditions you to think differently about every deal and offers you choices which the old-fashioned ways simply do not.

My second reason is that I promised the Money Gym Let’s Talk Money group in January that I would run a FREE teleclass on this topic by today.   Yikes, there’s that accountability thing again.   I haven’t done what I said I would.   I propose to rectify this forthwith by running it at 10 a.m. on Friday 13th March and an introduction to what Rick teaches.   We will endeavour to record it, no promises, but if you want to be there live book here.   Please know that in this hour you can only hope to get a very sketchy outline of what it’s all about because we bought 36 audio CDs, a manual heavy enough to prop my office door open and a workshop day with Rick in Ealing, but I am up for it if you are?

Coming soon:

Judith’s 37 reasons why you want to be at our Property Day.   I am going to be writing at greater length over the next week or so about my 37 great reasons, but meanwhile here’s a sneak preview.   My reasons to attend fall into  7 categories as follows:

Inspirational – 8 reasons
Opportunities – 10 reasons
Negative – 2 reasons
Financial – 7 reasons
Incentives – 5 reasons
Educational – 4 reasons
Joke – 1 reason

Total reasons – 37

So many reasons, I have had to compile a spreadsheet of them all.

3. And finally, Cyril… my special promotion coming during the course of the next two weeks is this…free Money Gym Silver memberships for 90 days. If you have already bought yourself a ticket and can persuade just one more person to book, not only would we double the number of tickets we have sold and double the money we can donate to the homeless charity, Big Issue, but we can give away free Silver memberships!   Watch your inbox for that one.   If you already have Silver or Gold membership you could donate it to the friend who books, or snaffle it for yourself if not.

Sorry, this was such a long bulletin.   It seems that when you go looking for it, there’s plenty of Good News out there so see you at the gig!

Property | More Good News by Judith

So much good news this week it’s difficult to know where to start. Last weekend’s papers began with an article in the Mail on Sunday by Duncan Farmer writing about the ladies who won BTL Landlady awards in February 2008 from the Bradford & Bingley Building Society. They include Hasmita in Sittingbourne with 80 properties she lets to tenants generally no other landlord will touch. And Teresa with 20 properties in Doncaster, Fiona with 40 in Bristol, Helen from Leigh and Sandra from South Wales, all thriving according to Duncan who, it must be said, was somewhat surprised at their continuing success, especially in light of the Bradford& Bingley being no more. Proof positive, if any more were required, that ordinary people – women in this example – can become landlords and landladies and help to provide good quality housing to meet rental demands. I’ve emailed Hasmita to see if she can join our list of speakers at the Property Event in March. No reply as yet. Fingers crossed as I think she would be yet another inspiration on that day.

I used to think that being a landlord was a job I didn’t want and don’t get me wrong, it has its challenges. But they can be either managed or outsourced. And when I say outsourced, I mean delegated not abdicated please. We are intent on educating our clients right now (or reminding them I should say) that it is our job as savvy investors to manage our investments actively and not leave it to the bank managers, fund managers, portfolio managers and so on who have been coasting until recently. Now it’s all got a lot harder, let’s help them by being proactive. Even if someone else manages your investments, help them to be good at it by responding promptly, being interested and on it. Make yourself read the stuff which comes in from them and respond a.s.a.p. No-one cares about your money like you do, even – it seems – if they are paid to.

Speaking of outsourcing to experts, more good news this week with the launch of Lettings Made Simple, Peter Stanley and Kate Bacon’s lettings agency http://www.LettingsMadeSimple.com contact them directly please to find out if they are operating in your neighbourhood, or speak to them on 21st March.

And speaking of rental demand, ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) has announced that “The contraction in the buy-to-let market will have a very significant impact on the availability of housing stock for the population”. This contraction has been caused by it proving hard for BTL landlords to get the funding they need and those who found it sticky going for whatever reasons dropping out early on, perhaps before their interest rates plummeted. Either way, there’s an opportunity in there for us to step in, pick up a few bargains and, again, provide much needed housing.

Talking of housing needs, Nicola and I talked (see above) to Anthony North at the Big Issue about their work. It isn’t just the homeless, it’s those regarded as “vulnerably housed”. What does that mean? You can’t get a full time job. You can’t get a part-time job, you’ve used up all your favours with friends and family sofa-surfing, you haven’t reached the cardboard box under the arches yet necessarily but it’s looming. Even to stay in a hostel you must have approximately £20 per week. Now we know how our money will help Anthony and his team support 2500 vendors to achieve that dignity, being able to afford to pay for their own accommodation again.

At the time of writing we have sold 70 of our 210 tickets, so I am a third of the way towards my target with three weeks to go. I have told Anthony we hope to be able to give him £4,500. If you cannot attend, you can still listen to his interview at http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property and Steve has kindly put up a Donate button for those who cannot attend but would still like to support. Don’t listen to Anthony’s interview if you want to hold onto your pennies – Nicola and I ended up in tears and motivated to help with skills, time and money! He’s quite the impassioned spokesperson and will bring his life-changing short films with him on 21st March.

Via Twitter, I found a lovely little property community called Love Property http://www.LoveProperty.org and I put my event up on there and 2 members signed up instantaneously! Also advertised on that site is an event I am presenting at, it’s a Cashflow Day on 7th March and the other speakers are David Salmon and John Corey – all day Saturday if you can join us? Saturdays in March are going to be busy!

Green Shoot Alert courtesy of Julia McDaid who is a professional property investor and flagged this up to my Property Boardroom, thanks Julia. 100% mortgages make a comeback at the Coventry Building Society – we won’t all qualify (and some won’t want to) and there are very specific circumstances, but good to know. If you have any green shoot alerts, would you send them in please so I can share them with our readers?

If you are contemplating spending upwards of half a million on a property, talk to me as I have found an expert who can help you reduced your stamp duty from 4% to 1.5%.

I’ve saved the best to last, of course I have. Next’s weeks interview is Rick Otton scheduled for silly o’clock on Monday morning since he lives in Oz! It’s my Property Boardroom after that, so I will wait until Tuesday to write up what I learn and share it with you. I know Rick already, being a student of his, have you watched him on Australian TV – there’s a little video on http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property which gives you some hints of what’s to come.

And finally, an avalanche of stuff has arrived from Unique who are speaking after Rick about how you can buy a holiday unit which isn’t timeshare or fractional ownership for the price of one year’s annual holiday, get the following 9 years’ holidays for free AND get an equity uplift when the property is sold in year 10. And that’s just one of their offerings – the next one, their reinvestment programme creates income for you instantly which if you reinvest it compounds very nicely. For that one I’m looking for anyone who doesn’t have a pension and wants to create one within 10 years. That’s us self-employed forty and fifty year-olds, then.

I’ve asked Steve to fix it so that we cannot sell any more than 210 tickets to this gig. Why did I do that? Well apart from the capacity issues, on Monday or Tuesday one of our JV colleagues is going to mail his 14,000 list of folks interested in wealth creation and I expect to sell the remainder of the tickets in one fell swoop. I gave our Money Gym Masterminds and Gold & Silver clients the heads up on that this morning. You have been warned. Make sure you have your tickets and we will see you there.

An Interview with Peter Stanley

Last week Nicola and I interviewed Peter Stanley of Property Made Simple in Manchester.  Peter and I are old friends and he and Nicola go even further back. Peter and I made our respective public speaking debuts at the first Wealth Conference in 2005 and we are taking to the stage together again on 21st March at the upcoming Money Gym Property Extravaganza day in aid of the Big Issue.   The tie in with The Big Issue was Peter’s idea; he and I have long been trying to work out how we can do some good with our property profits and for that good be directed at the homeless.   Now our dream comes true.

Peter is opening our property day with a short talk on the theme of Anyone Can Do It.   Now I don’t want you to think that Peter is ordinary.   He isn’t.   What sets him apart is that he has actually done something about changing his life.   The vehicle he has chosen to use to do that is property.

Listen to this 30 minute interview and hear how Peter feels about opening the day and why he believes Anyone Can Do It.   In this interview Peter explains how he did his first deal and what that looked like and how he leveraged it to get out of the day job.   How he was “scared witless” to be thrown in at the deep end and how he learned to swim pretty quickly.   Hear how his friends and family were dubious about his ability to pull it off, how Peter doesn’t wait for perfection, he just gets something rolling.

It took Peter about 2-3 years to get to the point where the estate agents were coming to him.   He bought 7 houses in his first year and has now expanded his business to the point where he has bought 88 houses.   Not all for him!   Peter now buys for clients for a fee of £5,000 and/or coaches clients to do it themselves on his apprentice programme at £500 pcm (allow for at least 3 months).   Peter now has clients all over the world, but you will come to understand from listening to him speak that he’s just a down to earth bloke who prefers to meet you face to face and chat to you and find out how he can help.

Six years into self-employment, Peter’s greatest joy is the time freedom he enjoys.   He believes that as we come out of the recession there will be a stampede of demand for property and that 2009 is a year of great opportunity.   Hear how he is gearing up to take advantage of that stampede.

I have strong-armed all the speakers into giving me gifts of books and vouchers for coaching and mentoring sessions with each of them and Peter is no exception. He’s a very generous man and loves to help people and Peter has A Special Challenge on the day – listen to the interview and hear details of that Special Challenge.

Will you be Peter’s Lucky Winner?

Peter was scared witless to use his own words, but he’s done it and he believes that if he can, anyone can.

I couldn’t agree more.

Click here to find out more about The Property Extravaganza!

Money Gym Magic

Listen to the audio version of this story here >>>

Every so often, magical things happen in the Money Gym.

This week, one of our clients – let’s call her S – was having an issue with one of her buy to let properties – her new tenants, via the management agent, was giving her grief about a shower that was having an identity crisis.  The tenants felt it should be a power shower, the managing agents has billed it as such, verbally, but S had never called it anything but a mixer shower head.  The shower wasn’t commenting.

S was worried about her legal obligations, and she had been given some outrageous quotes from the management agent’s crony plumbers, as to the cost of fitting a power shower should she go down that route.

The agents were further complicating the situation with lots of hearsay, psuedo legalese and some other comments that sounded vaguely threatening.

Not a pleasant situation and one that was giving S some sleepless nights.

She posted her dilemma on the Money Gym Mastermind Google Group, and one of our other clients, G, jumped straight in with some support.  G is a builder with many years experience of rental places both public and private, and knowledge of contracts.  Now G comes to lots of our workshops and we had got to know him well, lovely man, but even I didn’t know all this about him!  I watched amazed as he swung into action…

He gave S the beneift of his experience, not to mention loads of emotional support and down to earth common sense advice about handling the tenants and the agent.

One of our other clients M, who is a successful and no-nonsense business woman, also offered to visit the offices of the management agent with S, as her “professional advisor” should she want to set up a meeting with the agent and tenants together to sort things out.

One of our other clients, K, in watching the email discussion flying backward and forward, then had a bit of a breakthrough, and realised that one of the biggest reasons she hadn’t started investing yet, in spite of the bargains she keeps finding, and having got the cash ready, was because she was terrified of dealing with builders, if any refurbishment was required.  She said how great it was to be able to call on G for advice, via the Money Gym.

As the whole conversation unfolded, G, who had been struggling to find his wealth creation niche to date, realised that he had something to offer here – a service that might get him out from the “dark side” as Judith and I call working for a living.

“Thanks everyone. You witnessed my breakthrough today. Again, it’s like Brett (McFall) said, if you give you get it back in droves. I’ve lived and worked with the knowledge for so long now that it’s become second nature to me. Intellectual familiarity breeding contempt I suppose, and I forgot the value of the information to someone who lacked the same experience, but was committed with a property portfolio anyway”.

G had realised that he could mentor buy to let landlords, on his area of expertise;  namely his years of building experience, contracts in the building trade, dealing with builders, not to mention being an emotional rock to lean on when dealing with difficult people in general.

He talked to the group about his new idea, and how he could get started with setting up a mentoring service like that, and asked what his first steps should be?  Get coach training?

“You don’t need that, you won’t be that kind of coach” and “Start blogging about it”, was the universal response.  Luckily one of the other things G loves to do is write – so blogging won’t be an issue.

The techie bits of setting up a blog might have been an issue though….

I immediately sent him over a link to some Camtasia videos we had created for our Membership Bootcamp people, showing him how to buy a domain name, hosting and an email account, and how to set up a blog.

The idea is that he should start talking about the experiences he’s had over the years, to start to attract traffic and a pool of people who know who he is, and what he can do for them.  Then we can mentor him through how to offer his service, what and how to charge, and how to set it all up.

What fun!  and how marvellous that he started giving freely of his time and knowledge and the universe has given him back an idea finally that he can work on and develop as his own.

I can see a blog, an ebook, a membership site for landlords, his mentoring / coaching service….

We are eagerly waiting the next instalment in the story.  I have no doubt that G will take action – that’s what he does.

And if he falters, there is a whole gang of people to help, advise, support him, in the same way he helped, advised and supported S.

Do you think his chances of success are better or worse for having this community around him?  Better, of course.

So what’s the hidden meaning in all this for you?

Perhaps you are struggling to work out what you could offer, to a hungry market, that could get you out from the “dark side”?

Perhaps you are wrestling with wealth creation issues on your own, having taken a few steps along one of the Lanes of the Wealth Highway, but got a bit scared or stuck?

Would being part of a supportive, creative community like this help you move forward?

Would some well chosen questions from an experienced wealth coach dispel some negative or limiting beliefs about money, your own value or your fears around exchanging money for that value, perhaps?

Would having over 200 great new well-connected contacts open up some doors for you in your existing business?  Not to mention my links with Ecademy Blackstar …..

There are many hidden benefits of joining The Money Gym and I call the community aspect – particularly the Google Mastermind group – our “hidden jewel in the crown”.

If you are thinking you love the sound of all this, you need to take some action now.

We are counting down to Christmas and the 3rd of January – the 12 hour Wealth-A-Thon which is the last day for signing up for Money Gym Gold at 2008 membership fee levels.  You can save £1200 if you take action now for a January start.

AND…….

If you want to be one of the 20 people that will enjoy the special bonus, the “Membership Site Bootcamp” product, worth £1750 and not available to the general public yet (going……..going……….nearly gone!) then you need to take action now.

This is what you need to do:

1.  Visit http://www.themoneygym.com/gold and read the page carefully
2.  Scroll down to the “join now” button and click it to pay your deposit.
3.  Email Judith to set up your first call, where you will decide with Judith, which coach is right for you
4.  Enjoy Christmas knowing you are all set to make 2009 your best financial year yet.

That’s it.  Hope you enjoyed the story!

Cheers
Nicola

“Property Doubles” Figure STILL Holding

I tell you, it takes a bit of looking to find a ray of hope about the property market in the overwhelmingly bad news in the papers and on websites , but I found one in a most unlikely place today.

On the popular Andy Shaw thread there have been a lot of comments, and the latest, from Allyson, linked to a Financial Times article that was doom and gloom all the way……..till I got to the end. 

Read the full article here >>> but this was the highlight for me.  Pay particular attention to the sentence I have bolded….as it bears out, in just a few words, that all the property investors who work on the long term rule of thumb that property doubles in value every 7-10 years in the UK, are still working to a sound plan.

“….Halifax saw a positive side to the recent house price drop: homes are now becoming much more affordable. The average house price to earnings ratio eased to 4.56 in November from a peak of 5.84 times earnings in July 2007. The long-term average ratio is 4.0 times average earnings.

“The combination of high house prices in relation to earnings, constraints on householders’ incomes and spending power and the decline in the availability of mortgage finance since the summer of 2007 has curbed housing demand,” said Martin Ellis, chief economist at Halifax. These factors were “major contributors to lower house prices and activity”, he said.

Mr Ellis noted that despite recent falls in house prices, those who have owned homes for some time have locked away substantial profits. The average UK house price is now still 124 per cent higher than it was 10 years ago. He noted that there are now signs that the fall-off in home purchases may now be bottoming out”.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think they are saying that, EVEN in this exceptional market, if you bought a property for £100,000 ten years ago, it is STILL worth £224,000, which is well over double what you paid for it.

And that this property would have to lose a further value of £24,000 – or another 10% on top of what it might have lost on paper to date – to bring it UNDER the “double in value every ten years” yardstick.

16% Interest Anyone?

My property investor friend and colleague, Peter Stanley, wants to pay you more for your money than the banks do.   And that’s ironic because he used to BE a business bank manager!!  I’ve known Peter for years – since 2000 odd, and he’s a top bloke and a VERY experienced property investor.

Read what Peter has to say:

“Some of you may know that I offer a private investors plan alongside the property coaching and sourcing arms of my business, Property Made Simple.  This private investors plan evolved after conversations where people wanted the returns you can get by investing in property, but for a smaller stake, over a shorter time and without any of the hassle of  owning property.

At first, I only offered it to close friends and family, but like the other parts of my business, it’s grown by word of mouth and is now something I offer, albeit quietly.

In fact, some people use it as an additional income stream or a way of increasing their nest egg.

So why would a successful property entrepreneur do this ?

I’ve been watching the Manchester property market for over 15 years and I strongly believe that now is the time to be buying property – despite what the media are telling you – so I’m raising money to buy more houses, whilst cutting the investor into my profit.

If any of you have read my blog or my monthly newsletter you’ll know how much I hate the media reports, written by people in ivory towers, whose only experience of the property market is from the safety of their desk.

So what do you get as an investor ?

We ask for a minimum amount of £5,000 and a minimum term of 6 months, which is documented by a formal loan agreement and signed by both of us.

Interest is paid monthly by bank transfer to an account of your choice at 16% per annum, which is around 4 times what you’d get if you left it in the Bank.

At the end of the term, we return the initial loan to you, unless you’d prefer to continue to the arrangement when we’d prepare and sign new papers.

This doesn’t suit everyone, so don’t worry if it’s not for you, but if you’d like to know more, drop me an email and we can schedule a time to talk or meet.”

Contact Peter directly at PropertyMadeSimple.com and tell him Nicola sent you.

** Have you entered our Money Gym competition yet
where you can win a WHOLE YEAR’S wealth coaching?
Just click here to find out more **

Fully Financed Deposit Anyone? Government Practically Gives You Yours!

There has never been a better time to buy property, using more alternative methods, if you are flexible and have some nerve.  And I’m not talking about risk here, but the nerve to look and then take action outside the box.

In addition to the excellent model of securing your next home for todays lower prices on an option to buy in the future, while living in said future home and having your rent deducted from the eventual purchase price (aka rent to own or rent2own) you now have another very attractive alternative.

We have recently heard about a brilliant – and not very well publicised yet – scheme that the government have launched, to help first time buyers get onto the housing ladder – totally different from shared ownership schemes and which means that you can CHOOSE the property you want to live in, and then get help to buy it  Anywhere!

Open Market HomeBuy is a low-cost government-backed home-ownership programme that aims to help people to secure 100% funding of the value of their first home. It is a flexible equity loan scheme designed to help households earning up to a maximum household income of £60,000 a year to buy their own homes on the open market.

There are two Open Market HomeBuy products, which are designed specifically to help local authority and housing association tenants, key workers and others who are not able to afford to buy a suitable home in an area where they live or work without assistance.

Both products are available throughout England and have been designed to suit a wide range of personal circumstances.

MyChoiceHomeBuy / Ownhome

Ownhome is provided by a partnership between Places for People and the Co-operative Bank and is part-funded by the Government. Places for People is an equity loan provider in its own right.

Key features of Open Market HomeBuy

• You can choose between two distinct products, MyChoiceHomeBuy and Ownhome;
• You can borrow between 15% and 50% of the value of the property at a low, or no, interest rate;
• If you qualify for a mortgage of £110,000, for example, you could potentially purchase a property worth up to the current national house price average of £220,000;
• If you took up MyChoiceHomeBuy, you could get your conventional mortgage from a range of lenders; and
• If you opted for the Ownhome product, you would have a five-year interest-free period on your equity loan.

For both products, when repaying the equity loans, you would have to share any increase in the property’s value with the equity loan provider.

READ MORE HERE >>>

There are private initiatives doing a similar thing, and there is a company in Manchester, established 16 years ago, who offer a similar service to first time buyers, except that the interest amount paid on the deposit loaned is EVEN LESS!

And they offer a similar service to investors.

Why would they do that, and how do they make their money, I can hear you ask?

I’m like you – I ALWAYS want to know how folks make their profit and once I do, I feel a whole lot more comfortable.

By buying large job lots of property, wholesale, from the banks and building societies where they are repossessing, and then selling onto investors at a profit – but still essentially at wholesale prices.  That’s how.

Find out more about that here >>>

Exciting time ahead in property methinks.

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