Well I have to say there are so many of you that ask me various questions about planning
and how to go about it.

Its clear to me that sometimes we are a little too quick to seek planning for a project without checking
the viability.

Also why did one of my clients the other day want to arrange planning by discussion with a planning officer?
Well I stopped him straight away !

The first reasoning on this is that a lot of people think that the local authorities are the experts in the area.
Well surely I suggested that the experts in the are were the locals?
Those people that let/manage build are architects  or Surveyors these are the people who make such a difference to your world.

So an example 3 bed house – convert this to 3 1 bed flats

1. Is there a demand for 1 bed flats in the area ? If its a family area or the demand is for
2 to 3 bed family type dwellings then you should go with the demand.

2 Would the property be better off as an HMO? Some areas are low cost so renting a 1 bed flat
may well be a no no in situations like this . However a buoyant student or LHA demand  may exist

3. What about your local neighbours? Whats their opinion?

4. Don’t assume a high percentage of permissions will allow you to succeed . I do know of a council who changed their policy after flooding their area with HMO’s and then disallowing them a few months later because of saturation.

So should your  plan be to convert into flats, HMO’s or what?

As usual you need to crunch the numbers  but as you crunch the numbers just remember to get
your figures into practical usage there has to be a demand in the area.

If you have concerns of how to proceed with planning and strategy in your  area please email me on info@barrydanser.com with your telephone number to see if I can help

Barry Danser

Apart from these basic questions with the last one being important to find out if you can quash
objections now  rather than a few grand down the road when you have paid your architects!

Looking to invest in anything these days is tough. Doing it with little or no money is an absolute knack. You have to get it right. Bur even if you have a JV partner or back up money from your uncle You still don’t want a bendy bus. Lets face it have you ever wondered who came up with this ridiculous idea? I’ll tell you what I think and you can let me know if you feel this is even half right Somebody looked at a way to make more money. The bus companies /manufacturers came up with this idea Lets make 2 for the price of one! They said. Thus we are reducing the cost per head and increasing our profit. (Isn’t that a bit like buying a property with a massive yield?) So they took 2 buses and stuck them together. You can take as many passengers as you want and nobody needs to go upstairs! Brilliant, so that young executive in the governments transport department out to make his name really made those numbers work. A bus that takes a massive amount of money with exceptionally high profit with two entrances with touch in and touch out technology in each place. But did anybody bother to sit down and work out the pros and cons? Lets look at them Build a bus, which is very long, and put it in a city, which has streets, which er………lets just say are more used to horse and carts then being motorways. Some of these roads can’t be changed because these buildings are protected either by planning or by restrictive covenant. Then lets put in a few bus lanes just to make the roads a little narrower. So we have a double length bus going around corners. Doesn’t work does it? Oh its OK we have decided to make a bend in it so it can go around corners. So without thinking any further they put this Mammoth on our roads a megalodon or the diplocodus of its day. They put this massive vehicle on our little roads! What did they discover? 1. The design of the bus is extremely uncomfortable as its bounces around like you are in a pinball machine. 2. Then of course there is the payment system. Touch in with your Oyster card by not bothering to queue at the front but jump in the middle and do it without being supervised. Do people pay? No. There are so many blind spots the driver cannot see if somebody has paid or not. Then what? Stop the bus and go out and confront the passengers. How economical (or safe) is that? 3. Back to the blind spots again and we find that the poor driver can’t see the cyclists that were in that lane they built – especially round corners and at junctions. Result? Squashed cyclists and although this may please Jeremy Clarkson I am sure that the originators of the idea for the bendy bus did not intend it. So why am I telling you this? Because I don’t want you to buy one – it’s not good to buy the property equivalent of a Bendy bus. Sellers (or more likely their agents) are only to happy to tell you what a lot of passengers (I mean tenants) can be crammed into their building, but do these tenants have the money to pay the rent or are they going to be like those people on the bus who prefer not to pay? Is the house going to take enough tenants and yet have sufficient services so as to not overload the gas, water and electric supplies? The last thing you need is an unhappy tenant and is it really going to pay you to upgrade all the services? Is there enough space for this anyway? Apart from the potential yield, does anybody actually want a bendy bus? Many of you will already know (as this is old news) that the buses are being phased out and are due to be sold off. However it’s proven a great task to do so. In May 2009 these buses were offered for around £80,000 each and not one was sold. Can this happen with property? Yes it can. The Bendy Bus: Looked like it could make a massive yield but lost revenue killed cyclists and had no value The Property: Looked like a good yield but had local crime issues, insufficient utilities and was not in demand in the area! Surely not! If a property has a high yield potential surely it’s great. Well not if you can’t rent it or can’t get the tenants to pay their rents. There are areas like this. Think of them as the bendy bus areas. It may even be you are being offered an HMO in an area where the demand is predominantly for family homes. Whatever the reason, you don’t want to make the same mistakes as the government do you? Unlike the banks you can’t go to them and ask for more money So ………….. Back up! Do your research and make sure that the properties you are being offered resell/rent out and are in a reasonable area. Don’t take the seller’s word for it – check, check and double check for yourself.

Don’t get seduced by ridiculous “no money down” schemes – they’re not worth it.

Even if you do find a scheme that works (and we do have access to schemes that suit some deals) you may find that
you have equity stripped your property.

The answer is to find the money.

So why would somebody give you a shed load of money?

Well funny you should ask that. The issue here is skill v. money.

The most important question you should ask yourself is:

Are you Cash Poor but Skill rich?

Or

Are you Cash Rich and Skill poor?

If the answer to this question is ‘neither’ then you need to rethink.

If you are cash poor and can learn a skill – eg. sourcing properties, then you will be able to find the money.

So learn a skill. Learn how to source property for yourself or for others and set up a marketing machine and make it work for you.

One of my friends recently set up a leafleting servicing business to help her cash flow and get free advertising for her own deals.

So there are tons of things you can do.   Start right now by thinking outside the box.

Barry

http://www.realtimementoring.com

info@barrydanser.com