Author Archives: Amer

Are you tracking your mortgage rates?

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With the credit crunch in full swing, more and more landlords are falling into negative cash flow. This occurs when their rental income can no longer cover their ongoing property-related expenditures.

For example, if your rental income is £500 and your property expenses are £600, then you are making £100 negative cash flow on your property business. This means that you have to subsidise you property through other means.

The biggest expenditure landlords have is the cost of finance on the property (i.e. their buy-to-let mortgage) and the single biggest factor that is turning positive cash flow properties in to negative cash flow is the increase in interest rates!

How do I avoid falling into this trap?

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Meet us at the Landlord Show this weekend

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This Friday (13th) and Saturday (14th) we will be exhibiting at the Landlord Show in Manchester.

This is the UK’s premier landlord show in the North West.

It is free to attend and we will be demonstrating our property management software solutions on Stand 24 throughout the day.

I will also be delivering two talks, titled Property Management: Tools and Techniques.

I will be discussing the five biggest challenges landlords are facing in the current market and what we can do to overcome them.

I will also be sharing strategies on how to boost your property cash flow, so that you can ride out any negative impacts the credit crunch is having!

If our last exhibit at the landlord show is anything to go by, it will be standing room only!

It really would be great to see you here at the show and you will get an excellent chance to meet the team and see the landlord software solutions demonstrated in a live environment.

To register for free and get full details of the show please visit:
http://www.landlordshow.com/home.asp

We’ve been rebranded!

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In December 2007 we underwent a re-branding exercise where we hired a software marketing specialist and conducted a major survey with our existing customers.

This week we have been busy upgrading our existing software customers to the newly launched software versions.

What branding has been done?

Well, Landlords Property Tax Manager, which we had been selling since 2003, has now been rebranded to Landlords Property Manager Professional.

And Property Portfolio Software has now been rebranded to Landlords Property Manager Regular.

Why has the software been rebranded?
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Is Now a Good Time to Invest in Property?

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Interesting question, isn’t it?

The doom mongers (many who missed out on the property boom) say property prices will fall dramatically (and so do most newspaper columnists), yet the property ‘optimists’ say that now is a very good time to start buying.

So who is right?

Everybody has an opinion but what I always say to myself is “look at the person who is giving the opinion and what their motive is.” For example, if someone is selling property, will they say prices are going to fall? And which headline sells more newspapers? Prices to Crash by 30% or Prices to Drop by 3%?

Nobody knows how far property prices will fall (if they do) and how quickly they will recover. The important point is that if your property investment deal stacks up, there is no reason not to buy in the current market for the long term.

In fact, experienced and smart investors are starting to see some GREAT deals coming through now!

The important thing now is to make sure you can answer ‘YES‘ to the following three questions:

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Our top five property management problems

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Lately I’ve been asking myself what the biggest problem facing Property Investors is. The answer? A growing portfolio!

Why is this? Surely a growing portfolio is a good thing? Well, as your portfolio grows, your paperwork grows with it. I know people who are drowning under paperwork and struggling to keep it organised. I know what that’s like. I used to be one of them. That’s why I got into designing property management software. I started investing back in 1999 and according to the results of our recent analysis of 3 years of customer feedback, nothing much has changed! Paperwork is still the biggest problem for Landlords.

The top 5 concerns were:

1. Increasing paperwork: keeping on top of bills and rental income

2. Staying legal: keeping track of safety certificates and legal documents

3. Good tenant management: making sure they get the information they need

4. Income tax management: knowing what is due when

5. Maintaining a positive cash flow: becoming harder with increasing property prices

In other words, exactly the same problems I had in 1999 and all the same reasons I got into designing property management software!

You can check out the results of my labours here.