That’s very kind of you to ask 🙇🏻 In truth, The Complete Guide to Property Finance should have been released in the summer but for various reasons it was delayed. However, the good news is that it should be published late November or early December, just in time for the Christmas stocking fillers lol. If you want to know the exact date, you can follow my social accounts as I’m sure to be sharing more there. Alternatively, if you drop an email to my assistant Karen at admin@thepropertyvoice.net and ask to go on the book announcement list, she will send an email with exact dates and publication details, once finalised. It’s been quite a project and even if I say so myself, I’m kind of pleased with the result. Thank you!

Hi Harry I highly recommend that you make a shortlist of the local letting agents, first of all. You can do some online research about them to help whittle this list down a bit but then give them a call of even better, go there and pay them a visit. Talk to them about your plans and ask them about the local area as well. You might also find them really useful when it comes to arranging trades for a job (when relevant and under/soon-to-be their management) and occaisionally they also find a deal or two for their clients, if you are lucky. I would not bother with a sourcing agent or local broker for now; the LA should be your first port of call, I suggest. Best Richard

Why look for alternatives; is there a problem with Magnets? We use Magnets a fair bit and get an additional discount via our LNPG membership, which I can recommened if you do refurbishments. Not had any problems and recent price benchmarking against Howdens places like for like Magnets at a significant cost advantage over Howdens. I know a lot of the trade like Howdens and one reasons is that they offer retrospective volume credit to the account in some cases, which is a blind discount that most of us won't see. we have used both Howdens and Magnet and find them to be broadly similar, although service levels can vary from branch to branch. The additional discount we get from our LNPG membership tips it in Magnets favour. We have not used Ikea and probably wouldn't if they don't have a measure and design service such that Magnets & Howdens do. Some of my contractors have used independents occasionally but I've not usually been impressed with that route.

Thanks for asking and the kind words @russiansergey, I don't have a definite release date just yet. I do have a goal of writing 50,000 words by the end of March, however (it looks like it will be more than that). The book will then most likely be finished, polished and released in April or May, hopefully. If you want to be one of the first to hear, best to drop an email to my admin assistant (Karen) admin@thepropertyvoice.net and ask to go on the new book wait list. Failing that, I will probably start splashing it around my social media nearer the time 😉

This is part of a chapter on Consumer Financing in my forthcomimg book on Property Financing, so it's a relevant for me to chip in. In summary, I would say this... a) It's not advisable and in some cases even possible to use debt to fund a purchase deposit; most lenders ask the source of your deposit and really don't like it if it's come from debt. b) Consumer finance is often convenient (yay!) but can be expensive, can snowall out of control and sits on your credit file for 6 years (boo!), so it's best done for SHORT-TERM requirements only, such as works/materials funding where you have a clear exit to repay the debat within say 1 year such as through a sale or refinancing. This is the optimal usage of this type of funding strategy I would suggest. c) In truth I have done this in the very distant past but in a similar way to giles s; i.e. it's a last reesort and not a first choice source of fundng I would suggest. The rules were different back then as well. Basically...pick b) if you are considering this. Ping me if you want to know when the book will be published, or look out for it on Amazon some time in Q2... Best Richard

Don't do it, Max! 'Fractional ownership' models such as PBSA, hotel rooms, care home rooms, etc. are usually a poor investment in my opinion. The limited exits are definitely one significant element of that for sure. Also, cosnider title, rental maketability, service/operator charges, developer/operator track record, financing limitations, and so forth. There are so many other alternatives to consider that do not have such limitations but produce similar returns that it's just not really worth it. That's my view at least, I hope it helps. Best Richard

Interesting discussion! I would add two elements... First, with on-market deals, deep discounts even for cash are hard to find, unless you have an in with an agent or prepared to ride the rollercoaster and potential to be ousted just before exchange with a repossession purchase. Therefore, I tend to suggest looking at what I call the 3Fs: Force the discount, value and yield. Basically, aim to get above average in each area rather than going all out for discount alone. You can make the overall pie bigger this way, especially on BRR style projects whewre all 3 Fs can apply. Second, using a blunt instrument like give me a cash discount is well...very blunt! In order to know whether a vendor is willing to accept a deep discount from their asking price, we must first understand their circumstances and motivations, then how we can leverage these. The best way to do that is by having a conversation directly with them. The best way to have a conversation with a property owner is to go direct to them rather than through an agent. It was the subject covered on The Property Voice Podcast last week HERE as it happens.

Hi James Super-fast broadband is a given really tbh - if you have it then advertise the speed in your ads. Equally, I have heard of some landlords retaining the fast broadband supply in order to avoid that horrible delay period where a tenant has to wait weeks to get their briadband set up. As for Netflix, I have trialled this myself and found that most people either have their own subscription or don't particularly value it tbh. It's more important in a serviced apartment, along with Freeview and possibly Amazon Prime (with purchases disabled) but for BTLs no so much. Best Richard

How come new build houses if I might ask, @Malmopearce?

To stress...Tenants in Common not Joint Tenants if you want to later change the income distribution. Getting that wrong could cost you a fait bit of money and that's why I keep banging on about getting professional advice beforehand. I hope it works out OK for you...

Taking financial & tax advice from a forum is not really a great idea tbh; you really should speak to an accountant tax advisor to be sure. That said, what I believe you need is joint ownership; tenants in common. Then elect to distribute the income much more in favour of your wife (say 99%:1% as you suggest). This will mean that you are protected asset wise by being on the deeds and owning half the property, whilst legitimately sharing the income from the BTL unequally in your wife's favour to maximise the after tax earnings. It will also allow you to get a mortgage with your non-property earnings and later you should find it easier to incorporate as a legitimate partnership and so avoid CGT and most of the SDLT at that time. You could try posting this question on accounting web or similar, or just pay an accountant for an hour of their time instead

Joint names ownership with an election to split the majority rental income in favour of your wife sounds like the way to go. Check with your accountant and solicitor to make sure you set it up correctly. R

Hi Chris It's a case of 6 and two 3s here to some extent. However, the major benefit of incorporation is the ability to avoid the S24 mortgage interest relief penalty and/or to avoid higher rate tax on income you don't actually need immediately. Much depends on the expected income from these 10 properties as well. Higher income properties that would push you into the higher-rate tax bracket sooner would suggest incorporating sooner and vice versa. You mention that you are self-employed and that your wife doesn't work, so you have plenty of options there potentially. This might include allocating income more in favour of your wife with the suitable legal ownership and HMRC elections in place. If this keeps you below the higher rate tax threshold after accounting for mortgage interest-adjusted rental profits, then S24 won't have a negative effect on you for some time by the sound of things. In terms of incorporating later, you can avoid the CGT and some of the SDLT if incorporating a genuine partnership. So, as long as you and your wife are active in the property business 2-3 years prior to incorporation, then your accountant is correct that you could defer the decision until later without too much of a tax implication. Financing is a whole other matter, as you may need to remortgage all the properties most probably but this can be planned with a common remortgage date to lessen the effect. Here is an accountant's opinion on this type of thinking: https://www.optimiseaccountants.co.uk/knwbase/how-to-incorporate-your-property-business-and-mitigate-sdlt-cgt/#:~:text=Stamp duty land tax (SDLT) relief on incorporation,is a way this can also be avoided. What I tend to find is that if the combined incomes of two people are likely to be c£100k a year or less, then incorporation is not necessarily the best option. Clearly, with just one person and if that one person is working or in business, then the c£50k total earnings figure could be breached sooner. Finally, when you retire, if you are likely to remain a basic-rate taxpayer, then incorporation won't make much difference anyway from a tax point of view. That all said, there are some other benefits to incorporation, such as setting up a SSAS and/or helping with succession or inheritance planning among others, so look at the bigger, longer-term picture too. And...running a company carries additional costs (notably financing and accounting!) and tax rules can and WILL change, so what makes sense today may not makes sense tomorrow...or if you believe the rumours, after the next Chancellor's review of S24, CGT, self-employed income, etc. There is a lot of scaremongering about landlord tax. However, as you can see, it doesn't really affect people until the total income gets into triple figures for a couple, so it's not as bad as some people make out...especially if there is an incentive to charge a fee for saying so Hope that helps! Richard

Lots of places that could be mentioned and I am certainly plugged into multiple channels. However, the best way to stay on top of the legislation affecting the PRS is to become an accredited landlord, such as with the NRLA. R

This is poor, especially in this day and age tbh. I suggest that you follow the '3 x Change Rule'. 1. Ask them to change and switch to paperless 2. Let them know that this is an important part of the reason for selecting an agent and again ask them to change by switching to paperless; if not let them know you will consider changing agent. 3. Change agent at the next appropriate opportunity...you have a fair bit of choice after all. However, the next bugbear is that they pay you net of deductions and that means journal/manual entries into your accounting system to reflect income and deductions separately. So, don't get too excited when you start getting PDF statements...they still have a way to go to modernise yet! Best Richard