The Property Podcast

This week on Ask Rob & Rob, we’ve got another two great questions for you about student accommodation and EPC ratings. Our first caller is Dawson who is looking at investing in student accommodation. She’s based in the south but has a clear understanding that yields are better in the north. She’s looked at Manchester and Liverpool but she’s finding that they’re getting quite saturated with a lot of properties left empty - she thinks this is mainly due to the new rules and the amount of new developments becoming available. So where would Rob & Rob recommend she look for a good student let with a high yield? Or is this market not worth getting into?  The next question is from Thomas who has been looking at a property to buy up north in Barnsley.  He’s had the EPC come through showing a rating of 9, which has obviously sparked concerns of how much it’s going to cost to get the property up to standard so they can rent it out.  Do Rob & Rob know the best way is to get this improved? Are there any grants or funding that Thomas can apply for to give him a helping hand? It’s safe to say that Rob B is absolutely baffled by such a low rating but answers Thomas’ question regardless and gives him some guidance.  Tune in to find out what he suggests. 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.

Have you ever wanted to step into Rob and Rob’s shoes and know what it’s like to be them for a day? Well now you can. This week on The Property Podcast The Robs are sharing their top seven brain hacks with you.  These aren’t just brain hacks that The Robs are dishing out from other people. They both live by these day in, day out. If you implement them they’ll make a huge impact on your life too. So what are the seven brain hacks that Rob & Rob live by religiously? Habit stacking Practice gratitude Finding the positive Give yourself a reset Dedicated worry time Visualisation Tracking habits to keep them They go into a lot of detail explaining why they live by these rules so it’s definitely worth a listen.  Who knows, in 30 minutes time you could feel more motivated than you have in a while and have completely changed your mindset.  So if you decide to implement any of these brain hacks and improve your way of living, make sure you get in touch and let us know. We want to hear all about it. Brace yourself, we’ve actually got a positive news story! ‘Property market bounce back? Demand from buyers and sellers increases as Brexit fatigue fades, estate agents claim’.  Granted it is based on self reported data so who knows how true it is but the National Association of Estate Agents have surveyed their members and found that there’s been a 16% increase in the last month of new buyers registering with them.  There’s also been an increase in supply. Nothing significant has changed to cause this, so give the article a read and see what you think. Keeping in theme with today’s podcast, our Hub Extra is an app called Strides, which is a habit tracking app. So if after listening to today’s episode you’re feeling a surge of motivation and wanting to take action, go ahead and download it. Meetups are next tonight! Most events are sold out but there’s a couple with tickets left. If you’d like to attend, you can find your nearest meetup venue here on our website. Or register early for next month! This week on our YouTube channel we published a new video on finding the right accountant for your property business. Now obviously we have Property Hub Tax who are amazing at what they do (not to blow our own trumpet) but they might not tick your boxes. So go give it a watch and let us know your thoughts. Don’t forget to subscribe! 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 brand new 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 answering another two cracking questions sent in by our Hubbers.  First up is Mike. He’s an avid Property Podcast listener and after just four or five months he took the plunge and invested in a great Liverpool buy-to-let deal we launched just a few months ago.  Mike is wanting more information on joint property ventures - particularly on how he can get the ball rolling. Now that he’s made his first investment, he’s got the bug and wants to see how he can secure his second property without having to wait too long to release some capital from his first.  Can an individual go into a joint venture with a limited company? A pretty decent question if you ask us. So what’s the answer? And are The Robs a fan of joint ventures? Our second question comes from James who’s wondering what a sensible loan-to-value ratio is. Do The Robs think having a portfolio at a 75% LTV is a risky move? Rob D explains that a 75% loan to value is pretty standard these days and for it to be a bad idea, the market would have to drop more than 25% overnight.  But there’s much more to be said on this topic. So tune in to find out what else Rob D has to say about loan-to-value ratios when investing in investment property. 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 investments you should be avoiding in the upcoming property boom.  No, they’re not psychic. Nor do they have a crystal ball. But the property boom will come, and when it does, it’s important to know the potential risks and how to avoid them.  If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you’ll know that Rob & Rob believe we’re currently in the mid-cycle wobble, and after the wobble comes the boom.  Quite often in a boom, people start to get excited and you could be sold something that could lose you a vast amount of money. The perk of the property cycle is that you know what’s coming next. So you can look at the last property boom and see what type of investments people were making that went horribly wrong... and avoid them.  So what are the investments you should be avoiding in the next boom? Overseas property No money down (NMD)/highly leveraged Investments that cost you to own it (Always) student pods and hotel rooms Parcels of land There are a lot of issues and warnings in this episode but it’s not just us scaremongering, you genuinely need to be aware of these issues and take them seriously.  If you’ve had a bad past experience with one of these investment types or you were affected by the last property boom, then we want to hear from you. Get in touch over on Facebook, Instagram or even the forum. And in the news this week, The Robs have found another headline that isn’t actually news - it’s more misleading. It comes from the BBC and the headline is ‘flats out of fashion with first time buyers’. According to the article, first time buyers are going straight for houses which is causing a fall in the cost of apartments.  So that’s it. Investors should stop what they’re doing and we need to go back and revise the podcast we did on city living.  Wrong.  Yet again, the media is blowing a simple comment made about the London market completely out of proportion. One comment about one city and naturally that means it’s the same story for the rest of the country.  Our Hub Extra this week is for MacBook and iPhone users, sorry Android. It’s an app called Soulver, and it’s essentially the same as the notepad app but it’s designed to work with numbers in a more natural way.  It’s incredibly useful if you’re trying to take notes and make calculations at the same time. Give it a try and let us know what you think. Meetups are next week! Some events are sold out but we do have some tickets left for others. Although they’re selling fast. If you’d like to attend, you can find your nearest meetup venue here on our website.  If you haven’t yet checked out our YouTube channel then what are you waiting for? One of our most popular videos is our UK hotspots one and people have been questioning our choices. So go give it a watch and let us know your thoughts. Don’t forget to subscribe! 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Ask Rob & Rob, the guys are answering two very different questions on the topic of HMOs. The first question comes in from another Rob who’s got in touch for some feedback on a potential HMO in Stoke-on-Trent. The property is fully tenanted and has five double bedrooms, all with en-suite bathrooms. On the face of it, the property seems like a pretty good deal. The monthly gross rental income is £3,870 on a purchase price of £335,000 - that’s a gross yield of over 13%! However, his concern is the bricks and mortar valuation. The property was purchased for £95,000 at the back end of 2015 as an office with a much smaller HMO above. Rob is finding it hard to believe that the refurb price would have cost more than around £130,000 - £150,000 considering house prices have probably only risen by about 15% over the last 4 years. His other concern is the lack of local comparables for him to do a true bricks and mortar valuation. He’s worried that the property is overvalued as a stand alone asset. So what would Rob & Rob do in this situation? Our second question comes in from Mahlia who’s looking to purchase more HMO properties in Manchester and Leeds, but has been put off by article four which requires planning permission to change residential property to a HMOs. Should this be a real concern or should she still proceed with the aim of getting planning permission? Rob D’s response is pretty clear on this one. Tune in to have a listen. 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, we’re giving you seven property tips that you can start using today, because we want you to start taking action! You’ll know by now if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while that we love doing the big picture, philosophical and mindset episodes but now we want to give you something actionable. So on today’s podcast we’re going to cover everything from before you buy a property, through management, through to your exit and how you run your business. The seven main tips Rob & Rob have for you are: Account for your time Become a Rightmove power user - look back at episodes 235 & 14 for more info on this Think about your exit from the start Make sure your mortgage broker is experienced in working with investors Hold block viewings Consider pets Run your investments like a business Tune into this week’s episode and see how many of these tips you’re already doing and which ones you can action today. Our news story this week comes from the BBC, just for a change. The headline is ‘soaring second home ownership is hitting young people’. Apparently the number of people who own a second home or a buy to let has doubled since 2001 and 1 in 10 people now own an additional property. The report claims that this is hitting young people and making property unaffordable and home ownerships for young people are falling. Now unsurprisingly the report hasn’t looked into all the facts and figures, so this is where Rob & Rob clear things up and set the record straight. We also want to say a big thank you to everyone who has already subscribed to our YouTube channel. This week we hit 5,000 subscribers! We’re consistently pushing out more content on our channel with the aim to bring you a new video every week. So if you haven’t subscribed yet, we’d love it if you took this opportunity to do so. Meetups are back again in a couple of weeks time and we’ve still got spaces available for the majority of our locations. Our meetups are a great way for like minded property lovers to meet each other and talk about everything property related and discuss your goals and strategies. If you’d like to attend, you can find your nearest meetup venue here on our website. 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 brand new 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.

The Robs are back again for another fantastic episode of Ask Rob & Rob where they’re talking about property crashes and tenants staying too long. First up we have Pete who has a question about the 18-year property cycle. He’s clearly been listening to our podcasts and taken the university course, as he’s correctly identified that we’re about 7 years away from the next property market crash. Pete already has two properties that he bought for around £100,000 each and is hoping that in the next 7 years they’ll have pretty much doubled in value. If this was just before the next market crash, would it be wise for him to sell up pre-crash? For Pete, his properties are all about the monthly rental income, however he doesn’t want to miss out on that potential capital growth. So should he sell up and pocket the capital growth? Or should he keep hold of his properties but run the risk of being back to square one? Find out what The Robs have to say on this topic. Next up we have Bartholomew who wants to know if he should be worried about his tenant staying too long. He has a tenant who’s been in his property for the last seven years and is wanting to know if this tenant has any long-term tenancy rights. He’s also looking at purchasing a property that’s had the same tenants for the past three years. If they decided to stay long-term, do they qualify as sitting tenants? So what should Bart do? Should he try and evict these long-term tenants? Or should he see it as a blessing that they’re dependable who haven’t caused him any issues for the past 7 years? Find out on today’s Ask Rob & Rob. 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 talking economics and looking at data to see whether rental prices really are out of control. It’s certainly an episode worth listening to because we’ve got something exciting coming up... Yes, we’re going to be those people who tease you about something coming up next week and make you wait a whole 7 days to see what it is - sorry! What we can tell you though is that it’s very exciting and it’s exclusively for you - our podcast listeners. So whether you listen to The Property Podcast regularly or you’re only a few episodes in. Make sure you tune in next week when we reveal all! In recent headlines, it’s been said that renting is unaffordable, and action is needed. Maybe even rent controls. But is this true? Zoopla has recently brought out a really interesting report. They’ve taken their own rental data, compared it with average wages and looked at the period between 2007 and 2018 to see how affordability and rent levels have changed over that period. The conclusions are actually quite surprising, so The Robs dig right in on today’s episode. The three main topics Rob & Rob discuss today are: The raw rentals Rents compared to earnings Regional breakdown So tune into this week’s episode as Rob & Rob see whether renting really is unaffordable. Give the Zoopla report a read and let us know what you think. And in this week’s Hub Extra, Rob D is recommending something he uses regularly. It’s a meditation app called Waking Up, developed by a guy named Sam Harris. Sam is a neuroscientist, philosopher, author, podcaster and an all-around interesting guy. This app is a series of guided meditation and lessons - which isn’t dissimilar to other apps, but for Rob D, it’s Sam’s approach that has been the gamechanger. So if you’ve been struggling to make meditation stick or can’t seem to get into it, give this one a try and see if it helps. And in the news this week, The Robs are loving the headlines from The Daily Express. The one which caught their attention is ‘Corbyn’s garden tax: ‘DISASTROUS’ for property market and will hit families and pensioners’. Rob D voices a bit of an unpopular opinion on this. But both of The Robs don’t think it’s half as bad as the media are making out. Essentially it’s just a rebranding of council tax. In fact it might make things fairer! However it was also announced that Labour are proposing that landlords pay tenants’ council tax bills. Needless to say, this sparked a bit of a heated debate, especially over on our Instagram. 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 brand new 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.

The Robs are back again for another fantastic episode of Ask Rob & Rob. After a few weeks of mortgage questions with Dave Cookson, the trio is now back to a duo! First up we’ve got Horatio who’s in a bit of a pickle. He made an offer to purchase a buy-to-let investment property in Birmingham about six months ago and has recently completed. However, he’s run his numbers again and has realised that his investment property isn’t even making £50 a week! A situation no investor wants to be in. So how does Horatio get out of this sticky situation? Is there a way out? Could a change in strategy make him a small profit at least? Second up, we’ve got Nick. He wants to know if there’s a minimum purchase price to look for when purchasing a buy to let property? He’s wanting to know which works better for a portfolio; having six properties valued at £100,000 each or 12 at £50,000 each. Ultimately there are a number of variables to consider and, as always, it also depends on your goals. So how low should you go when you want to buy cheap buy-to-let investment properties? And does cheap always mean it’s an instant money saver? We’ve all heard the phrase “buy cheap, buy twice”... Find out on today’s Ask Rob & Rob. 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 doing something a bit different and talking some hard truths. Which, if you implement them, could be a complete game changer. On today’s podcast The Robs are passing on six lessons from one of the most impressive (and possibly insane) individuals, David Goggins. Rob B has hailed David Goggins’ book ‘Can’t Hurt Me’ as his book of the year, after a recommendation from Rob D. For those of you who don’t know who David Goggins is, he’s a former Navy Seal, an ultra marathon runner, a distance cyclist, an endurance athlete, a tri-athlete, a motivational speaker and now an author. He’s certainly one-of-a-kind and quite possibly like no one you’ll have ever met or heard of before. Today we’re going to take six lessons from David Goggins that you can implement in your life, and we reckon it’ll help set you apart from everyone else. Here’s the six lessons The Robs will go through on today’s podcast, complete with quotes from David Goggins himself: To grow in life, be willing to suffer Don’t let your mind hold you back Self-talk and visualization are the keys to fighting negativity If you choose to do something, attack it Use the accountability mirror Create a vision in your mind This week’s podcast will get you raring to go - so be prepared for a flurry of self-activity afterwards. You’ve been warned! For this week’s Hub Extra we’ve got a great video for you that’s done the rounds here at the Hub It’s called The Contrepreneur Formula Exposed and is done very nicely by Mike Winnet. Mike has attended several wealth creation seminars, and highlights what exactly goes down at these events and reveals how they’re very cleverly designed to separate you from your money. It’s a fitting tale considering The Robs have been vocal in their dislike for courses that charge you the earth and promise you’ll get rich quick, yet fail to deliver. Mike’s formula works for whatever seminar you attend. Go give it a watch, it’ll be well worth your time. The Robs are extremely jealous they never thought of doing this themselves! In the news this week, The Daily Express is revealing the areas of the UK with the best recovery from the financial crash. The City of London has seen the best recovery over the past 10 years, where house prices are up 143%. What’s interesting is it shows the areas that are still yet to recover, which could be a good insight if you’re planning on investing in these areas. 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 brand new 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.