Msart News

Knowing the good news for property investors is only half the story! Investing in property is a roller coaster ride and you need to avoid major and minor mistakes when investing in property or you could lose a lot of money rather than gain the riches property investment can bring!

Here are our top 10 ‘bad news’ stories for property investors to be aware of:-

1. The current property stock to purchase is low, so to find a great Below Market Value deal you need to search through 150 property deals, find 50 that work, and then find 10 that’ll take an offer. Of these you can usually bag one!

2. Some areas and property types with oversupply in 2010 will FALL in value, so beware what you buy!

3. Finance is tough to find, you need (and will continue to need) 25% deposit and if buying to let, rental income 130% of the mortgage costs.

4. Fees are on the rise. For example, mortgage costs are up to 4% of the property’s value and fees in the thousands of pounds. Some insurance prices are going up due to the increased number of tenant arrears.

5. Mortgage rates for new properties are likely to remain at 5-7% long term.  Some investors’ portfolios won’t stack up at these rates – will yours?

6. Rental income inflation usually lags behind actual inflation and if it doesn’t keep up with your rental cost inflation, the income you receive will be worth a lot less.

7. Average yields of 4-5% for buy to let is not enough to cover you for the ‘unexpected’ in the future eg interest rate rises, oversupply of rental properties. As a result, if income is your prime investment objective, then it’s essential to ensure your rental property delivers more than the average! Some investors look for 8%, others for 10% minimums.

8. Rent arrears are on the rise from tenants being made redundant, costing some landlords thousands of pounds!

9. Local Authority Housing allowance being paid directly to tenants is causing some poor landlords to lose out to tenants sending the money somewhere else, or just spending it on themselves!

10. Population changes in the next 15-20 years WILL change the demand for property stock in the future. An ageing population that lives outside of London are highly unlikely to be that interested in small one or two bed flats that are three or more floors up!

So property investors need to wade through troubled financial waters and also now not just buy something that looks like it stacks up now, but identify when and who you will sell onto, to make a profit in the future!

Thinking about Buy to Let or already a Buy to Let investor?

Don’t do anything without purchasing one of our Buying and Renting a Buy to Let Property Packs to ensure you avoid costly mistakes with your property investments.  The pack is full of comprehensive information covering all aspects of buying and running a buy to let property. Each pack also comes with a FREE Which? Book – Renting and Letting or Property Investor’s Handbook, plus full access to the Designs on Property website, and all the expert and independent help you require from the UK’s leading property experts.

There’s something different, something special about Christmas in the country - a uniqueness which sets it apart from the same holiday in the city. Something more serene and seemingly more meaningful. A quieter, more reflective time. A time to actually contemplate what Christmas is really about.

Christmastime in the city is typified by hustle and bustle, tension and stress, and is certainly infinitely more expensive. Not so for a country Christmas.

In a rural area, Christmas is much more a time of fun and anticipation. A time for simple excitement, more meaningful giving, a truer grasp of the real spirit of the holiday.

Country folk do not get overly wrapped up in the commercial aspects of Christmas as is the case with most urban dwellers. They take more pleasure in simple gifts from the heart than store bought expressions of the holiday. Country folk tend to not place as much importance on the price of a gift as they do on the underlying meaning and thought put into it.

A batch of fresh baked cookies, homemade and delicious, packed into a nice Christmas tin, go a long way in satisfying the spirit of giving. Baking those favorite cookies takes much more thought and effort than purchasing a gift from some overcrowded store – much more.

Some country folk give the gift of doing a favor of love such as repairing an older person’s roof or doing odd jobs for another, especially an elder who may no longer be capable of doing such things themselves. They do so much more than their city cousins. Such expressions of thoughtfulness go a long way to assuage any guilt of not buying a present and, I suspect, are much more appreciated by the receiver.

In the country, one does not go to a tree lot to buy a dried out and sometimes scraggly, exorbitantly priced Christmas tree. Instead, in rural areas one packs their recently sharpened ax, heads to the nearest wooded area, scouts out the best pine tree there, and harvests it.

Tree cutting day is an exciting time for kids. I remember vividly my brothers and my adventures into the woods to find the perfect tree to take home. Most times we had scouted that tree for years prior to actually cutting it. We watched it grow year by year until it had reached just the right height for our living room. A few weeks before Christmas, and once we deemed it the best we could find, we cut it down, tied it to our Flexible Flyer sled, and slid it all the way home to the back porch. (There always seemed to be snow at that time of year.)

A tree freshly cut from the woods always seems to smell so much better, look more Christmassy, and provides infinitely more satisfaction than one bought at an urban tree lot. Always did for me anyway. I always felt sorry for city kids who never got to experience this pleasure.

Even a snow storm at Christmas is cause for celebration in the country whereas in the city it causes distress. City people may find themselves stranded in traffic or at airports. Tempers flare, rude behavior surfaces, and the Christmas spirit fades. Snow in the city at Christmas is not something to wonder at or enjoy for its serenity inducing effect.

In the countryside, as Robert Frost notes in his poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, a snowstorm at Christmas is an event to appreciate and marvel at. It somehow enhances the spirit of the holiday. Robert Frost points this out. Even though he had “miles to go before I sleep”, he reins in the little horse pulling his sleigh while passing down a wooded country road at night to “watch his (a landowner’s) woods fill up with snow”. He takes a moment to observe the snow and even listen to the distinct sounds of a snowy evening where he notes “The only other sound’s the sweep, Of easy wind and downy flake”.

Country folk eagerly anticipate snow at Christmas; in fact, they are truly “dreaming of a white Christmas”.

 Yes, Christmas in the country is manifested by the simple pleasures country folk get from simple things as opposed to a more consumer-minded, materialistically affected city dweller. One of my favorite gifts as a child was a pair of hand-knitted mittens I received each Christmas for many years from an elderly lady, a friend of the family, who must have spent countless hours of loving labor to make them special. They had my name knitted into them. I was the only kid in school who had mittens like that. I was as proud and appreciative of those warm hand coverings as I would have been had they been bought in the finest store on 5th Avenue in the busiest, most harried city at Christmas possibly in the world. Those mittens were something real and special – bright colored, expertly made, and toasty warm even on the coldest days. Those Christmas mittens were an expression of how much the lady loved me and I knew it even at a young age.

Does anyone knit mittens for Christmas anymore?

Everyone in the world would do well to know how to prevent deforestation. The profound effects of deforestation on the world are getting increasingly worse. More and more natural disasters are occurring every year, in all parts of the world. The tsunami in Phuket, the disastrous, devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, and dozens of other disasters have left the communities they touch in ruins. Not so long ago, it seemed like we only needed to worry about deforestation in the rain forest. Now, however, it is occurring in every imaginable location. Trees and vegetation are being destroyed to make room for housing and businesses. The far reaching implications of this occurrence are almost too horrible to even consider – but we must, for the sake of our environment.

Every person can do his or her part to prevent deforestation. Doing so is surprisingly simple. Every individual gesture helps; the gesture may seem small right now, but each one is like a ripple in a pond, which grows larger and larger. In order to neutralise a negative event, one must counter it with a positive one. To counteract the removal of trees, simply plant some more. Doing this in the yard of one’s own home can have a hugely positive effect. It also makes life healthier. After all, every tree, big or small, gives off oxygen. Trees also contain water, which guards and protects against soil erosion.

Naturally, recycling does wonders too. Quite a lot of things most people use in their day to day lives can be recycled. This includes books, paper products, shopping bags, bottles, and cans, just to name a few. This prevents the need for raw material to make new products. With paper products, this is especially important, as trees are, of course, used to make paper. Once, recycled paper seemed like a novelty. Now it is a necessity, and even some companies and businesses are using recycled products.

Those who farm the land should consider crop rotation. These means planting new crops in the plot of land from which other crops have recently been harvested. That way, new plots of land need not be used. Crop rotation actually makes for more fertile soil as well.

Sometimes, trees do have to be cut down. However, only mature trees should be cut. Saplings should be left to grow and thrive. It is also an excellent practice to make up for every tree cut down by planting a new tree.

Whenever possible, firewood should not be used to heat the house. Rather, coals are a much more environmentally safe alternative. Firewood is consumed in just a few hours. However, the tree which produced that wood took years to grow to maturity. Conversely, coals can burn for quite a while. They will not only keep the house warmer, they will also be safer for the environment and monumental in preventing deforestation.

Trees have long been a valuable resource. They provide food, oxygen, shade, and beauty. However, although with more and more animals and natural resources every year, they are in danger of disappearing altogether.