Search the Community

Dear Property Hub Community I am a first time investor in Portugal, in Lisbon and I wanted to know from anyone with experience with long term lets and knowledge of property managers in the area. Can anyone recommend a good company experienced with long term lets in Lisbon/Portugal? From the majority that I have spoken with the service reviews seem to be mixed at best. I would be very grateful for anyone to come forward with a recommendation or lead to finding a good property manager in the area and/or any advice on pitfalls to watch out for when choosing one! Many thanks for your time

Hi, I'm 27 years of age and live in Hull, I acquired my 1st BTL 2 months ago at 75% LTV with a 25 year repayment mortgage fixed for 2 years. Bit of a pension plan for the future and had saved enough to take the plunge so went for it, maybe went in a bit blind compared to most but I learn on the job. House finally in a good condition decorated throughout with elec and gas certs now present. Looking at self managing as its local to me and feel I would learn quickly about the ins and outs of the property game. Plus been an electrician by trade I'm quiet handy if I do say so myself. Looking for a tennant and have some one interested now, just need to sort finer details such as tenancy agreement and itinerary and where to hold the bond so that is how I stumbled across the property hub and ended up here writing this. Going to do my homework on this site and hopefully find the answers and maybe help others looking to take the plunge with my limited experience but that will grow over the course of this investment I have taken on. Cheers.

Hi everyone, I've just posted this story as a reply to Simon's post and thought actually, this is a good chance for me to say hi, introduce myself and tell you a little bit about where I am with property at the moment and my story so far..... I've spent the last couple of years researching, learning and getting ready to invest and when we came in to some inheritance this year I thought this was it....we can start. However, my other half had other ideas so we bought our own house. Back to square one. I had just £15k (as I had to put money in to the house purchase) so I knew the only way this was going to start was to get investors. In August a house came up at auction and I knew it was the perfect project. I just thought sod it, even if I don't go and bid, I wanted to go and see it to get an understanding of what a property that needed a refurb looked like and the potential issues that might arise. I went along with my builder (a trusted builder whom my father in law has used for years to renovate property), assessed the potential and knew it was the perfect house to start on. I went away and worked and reworked the figures based on what I had learnt over the two years and it all added up....all I needed was money. So that was that...I set about asking those I knew who had cash and guess what? They said yes! All of a sudden I now have £95k! I needed to top up with the bridging loan and I'm there but thought I can't sort that out until I have a property. All I now needed to do was win the house! So last Wednesday (this house had been on for months due to a cancelled auction), I went to a packed auction thinking there is no way I'll win as it was so busy with only three lots, however, I only went and won it!!!! It went to my middle figure so not the best case, not the worst case. So there I was last week with a property that I wasn't really expecting to have! I was in total shock. The last week has been a massive learning curve and I have learnt so much about financing, solicitors, auction properties, renovations, building regs, party wall agreements and it's only my first week. My head is now spinning for different reasons! I have already made a few mistakes, mainly not having things in place sooner such as solicitors and bridging however it's coming together. They say you don't really learn anything until you start doing and that is soooo right!!! Also, I've now had another person want to come in as I'm offering a better ROI than anything they can get elsewhere so I now have £155k including my own money! All raised in two weeks. Which means I can reduce my bridging. I met some of the neighbours at the auction who were there to see who'd won and they were lovely and invited me round to their houses to see what they had done. So last night I went to see a few of them and it was so helpful. There are a few options with how I can do the refurb that I hadn't considered before and I'm meeting the builder on site later to get things ready for when we get the keys in a few weeks time. If anyone has any advice about refurbs, budgets etc I'd love to hear it. I'm so excited about getting this going and having the first one under the belt and moving on to the next! Thanks for reading this far.....

Hi All, Just a quick introduction as I will be reading through the forums and possibly contributing anything I can. My Name is Mpf, based in north Liverpool and a part time investor. I currently have one property (4 Years) and just waiting on completion of a second. I also work full time in IT. So far I've stayed on my doorstep for investing but will start looking further a field in the future. I have a huge love for apps and productivity tools, and love the resource of the week (thanks guys) I will hopefully post some of my resources for sharing. - Thanks Rob & Rob been listening to the pod casts back to back for the last 6 months trying to catch up and can only say all the 5 star reviews are true and Ill get round to rating on itunes soon

Hi, my name is Fiona, i'm 35 and I am an IT contractor and mum of one on maternity leave. I've been interested in investing in property for years, but as of today 4 December 2014 I have only managed to get on the ladder via the old 'My Choice Home Buy' scheme. I have spent 5 years helping and watching my dad bring my distressed two bedroom maisonette in West London into a sound modern and beautiful home and want to do it again, and again...and again... I want to invest fairly nearby to begin with, but this idea may change when I start doing a bit of homework. My thinking is that as I am a new mum I want to be able to balance new mum activities with my career and investing. I guess I feel this would be easier if its all local... So I am also an IT contractor specialising in HR systems, and enjoy my job, but now that I am a mum would like to pick and choose contracts that are most flexible and suitable to me spending as much time as possible with my baby boy. This is why I would like to supplement or even eventually replace my income with a property Investment return. My skills include project management, implementing and maintaining databases, scoping requirements and testing. Hopefully this forum will be the start of some great inspiration and guidance for me in 2015!!