Should I get investment for my buisness
Is investment really what it is made out to be? The pros and cons of external investment in a business
I went into business so I can call my own shots. I am pretty sure I am not very far off from other business owners. Once you start selling shares through investment, then you are answering to others. This is natural – they have borrowed your money, and they naturally want to know how you will repay them.
I got caught up in the investment-seeking fiasco. It sounds great, doesn’t it uses someone else’s money. But once I realised what I was risking, I soon backed off. Slow and steady will see me through (it will definitely help me sleep better at night!)
3 things to think about before getting external investment
1- Are you sure you need this? Are there other ways you can get this (asking family?)
2- Are you willing to delegate some of your power to somebody else?
3- If you get it very early stage, you will be losing a lot. Can you get it at a later point?
Taking on Page Hall
If you have not heard of Page Hall, then where have you been! It is arguably one of the worst areas in Sheffield, if not England, but we won't dwell on the negatives because this blog would turn into a essay! But just in case you don't know, Page Hall is a deprived area of Sheffield, with high-density housing with most of them being owned by private landlords - now many of these landlords give dodgy landlords a bad name!
We were approached by landlords to manage their properties in this area. We were initially a bit reluctant, but when we met with the tenants, they were very engaging and responsive. The house was well kept (even though is does need some work). Page Hall has a high percentage of rental properties and it is a area which we are very interested in. With the right type of support the housing stock can be improved in this area. Our ethical approach has been taken up really well, and we have started getting more inquiries from other tenants who need homes in this area. We spent extra time getting to know the tenants, and this built up a relationship of trust and support. This was vital for positive impressions and a good foundation.
In these types of areas, billboards are hardly use,d and most referrals are done through word of mouth. That is why it is hard to find comparable data online. But there is high tenant demand, and unfortunately many of these tenants fall victim to really awful landlords. We want to change this and will do this one property at a time.
Moral of the story - never judge a book by its cover!
I can’t provide you with a magic formula for property success
There are many others that can (if you really want to throw thousands away, then go ahead and check them out. )There is no magic bullet and no fast track property success. My risk appetite is low, and my ambitions are pretty modest. Yes, there are loads of property strategies that I could engage in, but I want a regular income that is regular and pretty passive. Many people are worried about the economic climate and whether people should still invest in property in 2023. I believe it is important to have a diverse income strategy, and property should definitely be one of your methods of earning income. And if that means slow and steady is the way to grow, then hey book me on. I won't give you fancy acronyms and crazy numbers. I am all about low-risk growth. I definitely play the long game. But if your aim is to be financially independent and not a millionaire, then you are the right kind of person for us. And if you want to have an opportunity to invest ethically, then you are my kinda person! It is super important to undertake a goal-setting exercise pretty early on in your financial empowerment journey. How much money do you want, and work backwards from there. This is what I will do for you if you are new to property investing. Learn how to create a steady income source. P.S. If you are looking for high growth, then I am not the right person for you, but if you want low risk and steady growth, then drop me a message#passiveincome #property # can’t provide you with a magic formula for property success
Many others can (if you really want to throw thousands away, then go ahead and check them out)
There is no magic bullet and no fast track to property success. My risk appetite is low, and my ambitions are pretty modest. Yes, there are loads of property strategies that I could engage in, but I want a regular income that is regular and pretty passive. Many people are worried about the economic climate and if people should still invest in property in 2023. I believe it is important to have a diverse income strategy, and property should definitely be of your methods of earning income.
And if that means slow and steady is the way to grow, then hey, book me on. I won't give you fancy acronyms and crazy numbers. I am all about low-risk growth. I definitely play the long game. But if your aim is to be financially independent and not a millionaire, then you are the right kind of person for us. And if you want to have an opportunity to invest ethicall,y then you are our kinda person!
It is super important to undertake a goal-setting exercise pretty early on in your financial empowerment journey. How much money do you want, and work backwards from there.
This is what I will do for you if you are new to property investing. Learn how to create a steady income source.
P.S. If you are looking for high growth, then I am not the right person for you, but if you want low risk and steady growth, then drop me a message
Rituals and the need for change
I have always been a keen follower of the monarchy
The pomp, the regalia, the out-of-worldliness (very much reminds me of my South Asian and Islamic heritage, where there is a lot of place for formality)
But there is also space to grow within these rituals, which is what I see happening within the monarchy, always evolving and adapting old with the new.
As individuals, communities, and businesses, if we don’t change, we soon wither away. Many people hate change, but if you accept it and work with it, it can be a major power for good. Sure, it is choppy and tumultuous at the beginning, but you will find calmer shores.
Death of Queen and dealing with death
With the death of the Queen, many people are dealing with grief in a public domain
Death is always scary and shocking when it occurs (even if you have a long life and are nearing the end). As a society it is one of them subjects we barely talk about and we usually deal with it in private.
Whether you are a Royalist or not, please do spend time to listen to others who may want to express their feelings around the Queen without being quick to jump in with your opinions. Let people feel heard, especially if they are raising feelings about their emotions.
I always think if people are sharing with me, then I am lucky to have been chosen for them to open up to
How rich can you get through property? The TRUTH
How much profit can you make from being a landlord (again a novice guide)
Looking for passive income ideas in 2022? Landed on this page via Google searches?
Now we get asked this a lot, and again, this is for novices, so we want to keep it very simple. The quick answer is not very rich and not very fast!
Property price £100k
Upfront cost £38k (save, beg, borrow but please don’t steal J )
(see our article on how much I need to get started in property to understand this breakdown better)
Cost of utilising the service of a bespoke property agency to help you with securing this = £4k. This is from initially finding you the right property to helping you secure this. If you fancy doing this yourself, please do minimise this, but a wrong property can cost you a lot more than this. Please do work with approved organisations like My Landlord Cares, who are trusted professionals and have close contacts with local councils and social housing organisations. Want to find out more then check out our contact us page.
A mortgage at generally 5% will be about £350 on mortgage repayment per month (this is if you want to repay the debt and own the house as a pension pot)
If you just want to service the debt and are not interested in owning the property, then the repayment will be roughly £200 per month.
Letting agent = £75 per month (again, My Landlord Cares will find you the right tenants for your property). Also,o please do factor in tenant find fees – in our organisation, we only take our fees from rent payments, and break up tenant find across the year to help with your monthly cashflow management. This generally costs about £200 and includes sourcing, vetting, advertising,and creating tenancy packs.
Rent per month £550 – 650 per month (depending on area/ property etc)
So let’s do the maths
£650 per month rent
Minus mortgage = £350 – we always advocate paying off the loan to invest for your own future (so you own the property after 25 years)
Letting agency fee = £75 (we won’t put the tenant find for the moment because this can be taken flexibly)
= £225 per month (this is without factoring in maintenance budgets, insurance, tax, etc)
As you can see, this is no quick money scheme, and you may be thinking, is it even worth it???
If you grow your portfolio (own more houses), then you can build this number up. But the up-front costs are the big boohoo, hence why you see many property people looking for investments.
Also, in the long term, if you overpay your mortgage or just complete your mortgage term after 25 years, then all of a sudden your monthly cash flow is £575 per month. So this is a nice tidy sum from one property. It can feed into your pension.
So the question to, can you be rich through property, not very quickly if you do it sensibly. Now there are a lot of deals, projects, and conversions out there that promise a lot more. But as a novice, we would always advise sticking to a safer strategy, don’t borrow beyond your means, and think long term.
If you fancy a chat then book on to one with us.
How much do you need to invest in property and how do you do it
Have you been Googling passive income ideas for 2022 and landed on this page. Sick of all the broad info but hungry for in depth info with stats? Well no more
We get asked how much do I need to invest in property in 2022 very often! so we thought we would break this down for all property novices
Now we will keep this really simple for property novices. Apologies if you are a more seasoned investor (but hopefully you won’t mind a refresher)
Average investment property in South Yorkshire = £100k (usually 2/3 beds)
Deposit needed for this = £25k
Fees (conveyancing, mortgage broker, surveyor etc) = £5k
Refurbishment (cosmetic changes) = £5-8k
Now this whole process is pretty time-consuming, and many people get frustrated with the many parts of the process. Especially if you are new to this. Like, where do I look for properties, which areas, which lender is best, what do I look for in a property? This is where My Landlord Cares comes in. We provide a hand-holding service to help you understand how this entire system works. Our fee covers finding a property, getting you mortgage-ready, securing the property, and refurbishment. We provide an all-round service by managing your property (this means finding you the right tenant for your home and managing them). So you deal with one person only; you are not being handed over to someone else.
If you would like to know more about this, book a free 45-minute chat with us.
What does increased Right to Buy for social housing mean for the
In June, PM Boris Johnson (soon to be ex) announced that he would make it possible for more social housing tenants to buy their properties. Now, on paper, this sounds amazing, doesn’t it? More affordable housing, longer-term tenants, and it feeds into the fairer private rented sector white paper. But scratch behind the surface, and there are a lot of problems with this proposal.
Within social housing (think Council, housing associations), there is a massive demand for housing. When more people buy their houses, this leads to a decrease in the stock that they have that is available for tenants. So this creates a massive demand for properties. More and more people require social housing, and these organisations are unable to cope with this demand. They clearly can’t buy at the rate needed. And with the Government not providing increased financial support for this, then social housing associations have limited options.
They then turn to private landlords to help support them. They subcontract out. This is all good and well for landlords (I am sure this is what you are thinking!), but when landlords are struggling with demand from tenants, then this is a vicious cycle.
So, simply put, more houses sold to tenants, no increase in social housing stock, increased waiting times for tenants, and more pressure on landlords.
This is a wholly linked chain; one part plays into the other, and unfortunately, there are no quick fixes.
We got a call from the police
There has been an incident at a neighbouring property we manage. It is a drug den, and the police can’t find the landlords! It’s landlords like these who are absent that need to face severe fines/ bans.
The tenant at the neighbouring property has smashed up the window in the property we manage, so this has frightened our poor tenants. Our tenants had kept us updated about what was happening, so we did anticipate the call from the police.
This is part of the reality of running a property business…the bits that they don’t tell you at the conferences.
Having a good relationship with tenants is key to everything. We have regular communications and build this into our tenant satisfaction measures. This could be happening in any property on any roads, but as a landlord, the onerous is on you to undertake regular checks.
How to operate with integrity?
Integrity means to stick by your values no matter what. This is hard to do because society is constantly telling you to move to the fast lane, to never be happy, to want more!
We can operate My Landlord Cares LTD through integrity by keeping it small and independent. This means we know our values are being reflected throughout our business. Yes, the temptation to seek investors and to scale is very tempting, but we realise that without strong foundations, no structure will survive. So we don’t work with everybody – if you don’t feel the same about tenants, then we aren’t the right letting agent for you.
This is how we operate with integrity, and it is a slow and steady approach, but we have made this choice. We are not here to change the worl,d but we would like to change the small part that we exist within.
How do you hold on to integrity in your day-to-day life?