How to buy investment property * avoiding mistakes * best currency exchange rates * cheap mortgages * low cost removals * building a property portfolio * generating rental income

If you are buying investment property near where you live, the chances are that you can do most of the research yourself. However, it is unlikely that the best bargains are going to be found on your doorstep, so restricting yourself to investing in property locally means that you are limiting your chances of making the occasional killing. On the downside, moving out of your comfort zone means you are less likely to know the market and more prone to making costly mistakes. Furthermore, if you are buying property abroad, there are a number of pitfalls that you can fall into that can add additional unforeseen overheads. Currency exchange rates, foreign mortgages, removal costs, advertising the property can all trip the inexperienced investor up.

Start of article about investing in property.

Previous page about where to buy investment property.

Using our property finders to research and come up with suitable properties can save you money and prevent you from making mistakes. They are the people on the ground that know the local market, the laws and bureaucracy and will most likely know where to find the bargains. However, you need to be able to act swiftly when a good deal is located because these properties always go fast. Furthermore, as we are paid per introduction and not if a sale takes place, we respectfully ask that you don't use this service unless you are a serious buyer. Our long term business relationship with our property finders depends on us generating quality enquiries from genuine, serious investors.

BUYING INVESTMENT PROPERTY

The first thing to decide is where you would like to invest in property and establish your reasons for this choice. The previous page gave you a brief overview, so you need to decide if you are investing in the short term with a view to a quick sale, or for the medium to long term to generate rental income and capital growth.

Overseas property is much cheaper than UK property and with some countries, the rental income that you can demand per week for an overseas property will be much higher than a UK property. However, you cannot expect to fill the property for 52 weeks a year and in addition you will have changeover, guardianship and advertising costs. One piece of essential advice here. Do not accept the word of any estate agent or property developer who tells you what you can charge by way of rent on holiday property and how many weeks you are likely to fill. Estate agents and property developers are infamous for inflating potential rental incomes, so do your homework or ask our property finders.

In countries where there are a lot of holiday properties, you will have stiff competition to fill even the summer months. In countries where the property market is just emerging you will face the problem of low demand because the holiday market has yet to develop.

I previously mentioned that there are a number of so called investment clubs that supposedly introduce investors to property developers prepared to sell properties at a discount. No property developer ever sells property at a discount and if the discounts are pre-negotiated you can bet your life that the property developer has over priced the properties and is struggling to sell them on. In fact many aspiring investors have been sucked into these types of deals and actually paid too much for the properties.

The only time that you are likely to pick up an under priced bargain on a new property development is if the developer is suffering cash flow problems, has just a few properties left or there is a speculator who has bought off plan and run into financial difficulties. However, getting in first on a development means you often have the choice of properties and location is everything when it comes to resale value. Sometimes the resale value of similar properties can differ by as much as 20% because of their location.

PICKING UP INVESTMENT BARGAINS

Timing is everything when it comes to picking up the bargains. Our property finders come across them on a regular basis but they can go, sometimes within a matter of hours. These bargains are often repossessions, properties under threat of repossession or owned by other property investors who have got themselves into trouble and need to unload them quickly. Investing is often about profiting from someone else's misfortune.

However, just because a property appears to be a bargain doesn't mean it is necessarily a good buy. You have to take so many things into account. Condition and how much it is going to cost to bring the property up to standard, potential rental incomes and demand, location and amenities in the area and potential resale value both in the short and long term. Most importantly and this is where so many inexperienced property investors run into trouble; you have to have an understanding of what is likely to happen in the near and long term future and build in safeguards to protect your financial position.

Competitive UK mortgages

Euro mortgages

Cheapest European removals

Shipping

UK tradesmen

Euro Currency exchange

Discount car hire

Low cost flights

Property rental

Budget hotels

Cheap airport parking

Increases in mortgage interest rates, property slumps, inflation, unemployment levels, the stock market and overseas markets can all have a negative and positive affect on property prices. I have been predicating the property meltdown and sub prime mortgage crisis in the USA and how it would affect the UK and European property markets for the last three years. Whilst the problems may have only come to light in the last 12 months, this was an accident waiting to happen and the banks knew about this two years ago but did not come clean until they had to go public. Why everyone is acting so surprised now beats me, I thought it was a madness that could never continue. This is why I have been telling people that the UK property market is going to drop big time and fast over the next 12 months.

Having seen it coming, I was able to not just protect myself from the forthcoming European property slump but have ensures that whatever happens, I will not be affected and will continue buying investment property.