When The Bell Tolls

Rich Kids In Bright Shirts

In the wake of the Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS (does anyone really believe that it's a merger?) there has been an outbreak of  "agreement" up here in the Scottish Parliament. 

First Minister Alex Salmond called short selling, which he blamed for the demise of HBOS, economic vandalism.  Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott welcomed the suspension of short selling saying  "Rich kids in bright shirts in London, New York and Tokyo are making money at our expence, Scotland loses its bank, people lose their branches and the country is worse off."  In fact all parties were in broad agreement on the the issue.

However Patrick Harvie of the Green Party took a swipe at the other parties. While he also welcomed the UK Government's action in respect of short selling, he said "Isn't the root cause of the problem the culture of deregulated buccaneer capitalism which all of these political parties have supported, celebrated and even courted?"

I have to admit that my own opinion leans toward his. We all recognise that a free society needs policing.  So why should the financial markets be different?  Perhaps if the Financial Services Authority had spent less time going after easy targets, like independent mortgage brokers, and more time on the banks and the city  things might have been different.

While everyone is rightly criticising the "spivs and speculators" in the city lets not forget that the banks have been acting like spivs for years by ripping off their own customers with their outrageous charges.

And doesn't bad management also come into the equation?

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Win In The Property Market With Joint Ventures No. 2

As the old adage goes, "you make money when you buy, not when you sell".  Our repossessed property sales newsletter is your source of some of the best investment and development property at forced sale prices you can get.

I mentioned in my last post on this subject that we are introducing a joint venture scheme for subscribers to the "Early Bird" newsletter.  The idea is to help you join forces and combine skills or finances with like minded investors and developers.

Some of our lenders will soon be letting us have properties before they are repossessed. The intention is to find joint venture partners who can help to save faltering projects that just need a small injection of cash to complete them or that need some additional expertise.  We'll feature these in the newsletter whenever they arise and it will be a simple case of calling me to register your interest.

In addition I've set up a group in Linkedin.  This is specifically to enable subscribers to the  "Early Bird" newsletter to interact with each other if they wish to search for  joint venture partners.  With the right JV partner projects currently out of your reach could become possible.  Join it here.

Best Regards

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Housing Development Opportunity For Sale With Guaranteed £1.8 Million Exit

A consequence of the current state of the housing market is an increase in the number of repossessions. In the property investment and property development markets we are also seeing a similar increase.

It's important for the market that these properties are sold quickly by the lenders and development projects put into the hands of developers who can complete them. Jobs depend on this. When projects stall, building workers are laid off, builders merchants lose orders and the local economy suffers. The "Early Bird" Repossessed Property News Letter is your opportunity to buy properties and building developments at well below market value by negotiating directly with the lenders disposing of the properties. Follow the link above to find out more or complete the form below to subscribe immediately.

Here's  an exceptional example;

We have just had released to us a development opportunity with full planning consent for 15 dwellings. Valued at £720,000 (price negotiable) there is a guaranteed exit with an offer on the table of £1.8 million.

You can gain access to further details of this and other repossessions by subscribing free to the "Early Bird" Newsletter.

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Blind Optimism And The Happy Client

I borrowed this old joke from the blog of Clayton Makepeace one of the most highly respected copywriters in the USA;

A guy has two daughters.  One’s a perky little blonde - a cheerleader and a hopeless optimist.  The other is a Goth:  She’s dyed her hair black, painted her fingernails black, wears black lipstick, heavy black mascara and is a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist.

Wanting to show each of them a more balanced view of life, Dad hits upon an idea:  He’ll give his little pessimist a pony - and he’ll present his optimistic daughter with a steaming pile of horse poop.

So when the little Goth comes home from school, Dad follows her to see how she’ll react to the pony he left for her in her bedroom.  "Oh no - not a pony," shrieks the Goth.  "This is terrible:  I’m going to have to feed and water it every day, clean up after it every day – and someday, it’ll get sick and die!"

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Dad checks to see how his little optimist is reacting to the pile of manure in her bedroom.  Sure enough – she’s dancing around, throwing manure in the air like confetti and shouting "Yippee! Yippee!"

Baffled at his daughter’s euphoria, the father has to ask:  "I filled your room with manure – why  are you so happy?!"

"Because with all this horse poop," says the little optimist, "there’s got to be a pony in here  somewhere!"

If I've got one major weakness in amongst all the regular ones, its blind optimism.

However even my brand of optimism was shaken when at 2pm last Thursday a lender slashed the loan offer on a development land purchase by £58,000.  This on the day it was supposed to complete. There was no chance of the client finding the extra, the deal was already tight.

So I found myself on the phone to my lovely lady developer, she close to tears and me frantically trying to get my brain unscrambled. I heard myself saying to her "don't worry, we'll get it sorted".

Why do I say that?

Once I'd calmed down I realised the situation wasn't just bad for my client. It was also bad for the vendors. In the current market how would they get a quick sale? The prospects for them didn't look too good.

But the key was to be the estate agent.  Times have got to be bad for them just now. They are sitting with property on their books that no one can get finance to buy. No property sales - no commission.

I phoned the agent to explain the problem. I made sure that she understood the implications to her under the present market conditions. Then I suggested a solution.

Approximately two hours later she phoned back. The vendors had agreed to a deferment of the £58,000 shortfall until the completion, in twelve months, of the development by taking a second charge behind the lender.

It was a great feeling going into the Easter break with a happy client and a deal that will now complete almost on time.

Now the blind optimism's running wild. There are deals to be done, problems to be solved.

Life's not too bad after all, despite the doom and gloom.