How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow...

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How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor

Transcript of How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow...

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How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

Page 3 We live in a very different world now

Page 3 Who is Handsfree for and not for?

Page 5 What’s in it for Progressive?

Page 7 Where might you turn for investment recommendations traditionally?

Page 8 Contrarian and little known benefit of high inflation

Page 8 Weary OAP’s, who will be working into their 70’s

Page 8 Hidden opportunity in this New economy

Page 9 Property prices comparison from 2007 – 2012

Page 10 Expensive properties versus sensible investment properties

Page 11 Mortgage costs fall to all time low

Page 12 Unprecedented need for housing, housing shortfall

Page 13 About the Progressive Property community

Page 14 About Mark and Rob

Page 16 Stages for the Property investor (First 4)

Page 19 What should you be looking out for in an Handsfree service

Page 20 Property buying models, the right way

Page 24 4 Stages of motivation

Page 25 D.I.S.R.U.P.T

Page 27 Progressive buying model

Page 29 Deal scrutiniser

Page 30 5 Stages for the Property investor

Page 31 How to access leveraged funds

Page 34 Progressive giving back

Page 37 Our People

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www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

“How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor”

We live in a very different world now, don’t we?People are overloaded and overwhelmed. No one seems to have any time for each other. It’s hard to know who to trust in the economy and corporate world. The volatile stock market is no higher than it was a decade ago.

Inflation is eroding money and the cost of living is going up. There’s no margin on your savings; inflation is eroding that too. The retirement age is ever increasing and pensions are evaporating fast.

What can you do about it and is it really that bad for you? Or is there an undercover, contrarian opportunity for you to make a healthy profit whilst enjoying the lifestyle you desire?

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to read “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor.” Your time is valuable, and we appreciate that, and are grateful for you being here. Our commitment to you is that we will not waste your time, and add value to your already busy life as much as we can.

So because of that, let’s make it clear to you who “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” is for and not for :

Who is Handsfree for and not for?If you have no money, and don’t believe you can ever get access to any, “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor” is not for you. It’s not a judgement on our part. In fact, if you are prepared to give your asset of time [and lots of it, let’s not kid each other], then you can get going with little capital.

Don’t yet dismiss that you can’t get capital [read on for details of how to access capital]...

But without any funds, it’s long, it’s tough, it’s the hard knocks way of building a business, because Property investing is a business. It’s learning as you go, accepting many mistakes and lots of lost money [your ‘entrance fee’].

If this is where you are at, there’s no need to read the rest of this document. If you want help becoming a full time Property investor and you want to do it on limited funds, here’s a gift to you. Download the Progressive *Be Your Own Bank* Joint Venture Blueprint - http://beyourownbank.co.uk

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If you’re still here, it means that you see the benefit in leveraged investing. Sure, you want to use as little capital as possible, and you want to leverage the banks, other people’s time, knowledge, expertise or specific areas of skill, but you don’t want to spend all day everyday doing it, and you know that to make money, and to create your ideal lifestyle, some funds are needed, or need to be accessed, to get these leveraged results.

You’re clearly not someone who believes in get rich quick with no effort with unrealistic promises.

You’ll find none of that here. In fact, we’ll do our best to put those kind of people off, so you know that “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” is right for you.

You will not be clicking buttons and retiring from this document, or entering into schemes that involve bugging everyone you know, or be given huge, damaging promises of unrealistic returns doing nothing.

If you do find a genuine version of this, let me know and we will read your book on it ;-]

This being said, what you also will not get in “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” is the old, slow, industrial way of ‘get a job, work hard for the same company for 35 years, get a Rolex and then be looked after throughout your retirement.’

You don’t need us to tell you those days are gone, and that the world is a very different place – we will give you strategies that work in the new, future economy and how you can leverage this change while others are still complaining about it.

Who is “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” for?

If you are a busy person, you want to be able to leverage the skills and expertise of other people [powerteam] you trust, you want to utilise new strategies that are quicker and work in the new economy, and you want longer term income and pension replacements, then “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” is for you.

If you take action on what you read in this document you’ll certainly save yourself lots of time, probably many tens of thousands of pounds in mistakes, you’ll be able to continue to do, or make time to do the things you enjoy the most, when you want, with the people you love the most.

What is in it for Progressive?At this stage you might be thinking we are leading up to selling you a £200,000 investment in an overseas development that is the next big upcoming area, sponsored by some celebrity and a 1st division football team.

Well you’ll be glad to know, this couldn’t be further away from the reality.

We will be up front with you, now. We are a business, just like you probably have, and we do have products and services that we believe, and many people will testify to, could give you great results in your life.

If you decide that one or more of these are for you, we’d be honoured to work with you, and we’ll do everything we can for you to help you achieve your financial goals and beyond.

But there will be no hard sale. “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,” is not a veiled attempt to sell you a load of stuff. You’re smart, you’ll know if we are right for you, and if we are not, and at the very least you would have learned some new distinctions that could make a big difference to you.

And if that is the worst that happens, then we feel grateful and we feel that we have served you best. You’ll get to know more about us later, but this document is not an ego trip for us, it’s a value add asset for you.

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

So what is “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor,”?It’s the how-to and how-not-to of being a hands off Property investor.

What to invest in, and what not to. How to get the most leverage on your money, how to select the right partners to work with, how to cash in on this opportunity, how to benefit from short term and long term opportunities, and how to align that with what you want from your life.

If that sounds OK to you, then let’s get straight in on the next page...

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Where might you turn for investment recommendationstraditionally?

Traditionally many people turn to their IFA’s. The problem as of late has been they have been given heavy commissions to advise on certain products, which, it has come to light, could affect their unbiased advice. When those kinds of investments fail, so does the credibility of the recommendation. That is a big shock to people who for years have always trusted in this way of being advised on investments.

The following is an excerpt from the BBC Homepage:

It doesn’t end there…

More and more in today’s climate, as a reaction to the above realities, investing as an individual has become both more accessible, de mystified and often more profitable.

Hargreaves Lansdown pioneered this in stocks, bypassing the IFA to allow you to personally invest, saving in commissions and taking personal responsibility for your investments. No one but you has any ulterior motives.

This is as much a mindset as it is a strategy, and the same thing is happening in the Property world. Before 2007 pension companies used to swallow up portfolios of Property before any entrepreneur or private investor got a look in. Many of those are now going bust or selling off at a reduced price to the very individuals who couldn’t get a look in.

More on how you can get a part of that later too.

Case Study:

Two very close family members put faith into their IFA to invest their money securely, as they approached retirement age. They didn’t want high risk, in fact their specific requirement was low to low-medium risk, and this is what happened:

Their investment via their IFA was placed into what was meant to be, as requested, a low risk product. The details of the product didn’t say who it was backed by, and the IFA didn’t tell them. The investment, £105,000, was over 50% of their total investment pot, and was recommended as a low/medium risk investment. This was important to them coming into retirement.

The first they even knew who Lehman Bros were was when they received a letter to say they’d lost the £105,000 that ‘they had invested.’ They’ve been fighting now for 4 years with the ombudsman that they were mis-sold the product by their IFA, and as of yet have not had a penny back.

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

Contrarian and little known benefit of high inflation Inflation is causing ‘polarity’ right now. Most people just see the downside – high inflation equals increased cost of living and the devaluation of their money. Here are some interesting statistics for you:

• A half-loaf of sliced white bread which Tesco has raised from 60p to 93p almost overnight• Average bag of fusilli pasta has gone from 64p a year ago to 86p- an increase of 35.4 per cent• English butter has gone from 93p to £1.21 and a 3.4lb pack of chicken fillets has gone up by 24.5 per cent to £4.65• Prices of electricity, gas and other fuels have risen at an annual rate of 20.9pc, the fastest pace since February 2009.

And this is really affecting the cost of living in the UK:

• Households only saved just 6.4% of their disposable income in the first three months of the year, down 0.5% from the previous quarter

• UK households’ real spending power fell 0.6% in the first three months of the year as wages failed to keep up with rising prices

• Real incomes fell by 3.5% last year with average household that stays in work, real disposable income could be 9% lower a year from now than it was two years ago1

• The continued rising cost of goods and services means that the UK’s 26 million households would collectively need to spend an extra £33 billion just to enjoy the same standard of living as 12 months ago2

So sure, this is a stark reality, and for many at the lower end of income, the cost of living is becoming unsustainable, having to rent as opposed to buy and having to make cut backs, not able to get on the housing ladder and becoming part of their own problem.

But there is a huge, contrarian and little known benefit of high inflation, especially relevant to you as a Property investor that we will be getting into the nuts and bolts later. If you didn’t know this before you’re going to love it – you’ll find a way of getting actual ‘growth’ in a falling market. But back to the reality for most people. Anyone who does have a bit of cash has a bit of a problem too at the moment. Interest rates at an all time record low for a record amount of time might be good for borrowers and Property investors, but its bad news for savers, and most people who don’t/can’t invest.

They may have been relying on cash investments income, and now it has disappeared. Banks trick people into believing they are getting 3% or more, but the reality is often 0.61% from a Cash ISA [a specific product available now] and 0.2% from a typical instant access savings account.

How do you replace that loss of income? What if you don’t know where and how to invest? Let’s not be fooled, this is not only a problem for people who don’t earn much money; it’s also a big problem for people who earn lots of money. Perhaps even a bigger problem for them, and a reason why many people like you are looking into Property and other leveraged investment vehicles, and taking personal responsibility for it.

Why would anyone hold cash at a net negative figure when Property can give them double digit returns, and that is just cash on cash, without any form of leverage? We will be covering turning double digit into even bigger, yet low risk and realistic returns utilising leverage models, later on.

Although on the surface a financial decision, people often invest for an increased quality of life for the future. And the big spanner in the works now is the ever increasing age of retirement. People’s long terms plans are being taken away from them, and everything they have done for the last 30 years to increase that later quality of life is slipping away for many:

• 2009 Global Pension Assets Study’, found the UK had suffered the largest reduction in growth with a drop of 35% between December 2007 & December 2008

• Annuity rates - which determine how big an income you can buy with your pension pot - have more than halved in the past 20 years. Back in 1989, a pension pot of £50,000 would have delivered a single 65-year-old man a pension income of about £150 a week. Today it would buy just under £65 a week. That’s less than half the money to survive in a world where things cost almost twice as much.

1 Robert Joyce, “Bleak outlook for living standards”, Public Finance, 15 September 2011 2 http://www.mgmadvantage.co.uk/

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• Panorama found that paying £120,000 into one HSBC pension plan over 40 years would result in £99,900 being taken out in fees and commissions.

• In 1989, a 45-year-old person saving £200 a month for 20 years until he or she was 65, would have been promised a pension pot of £206,967. This would have been expected to produce an annual income of £32,443 based on the annuity rates of the time. Today, however, the reality is that he would end up with a pension pot of less than half what he’d have expected, £101,144. This will buy him an income of a mere £7,140 a year, or just under £600 a month, at present annuity rates.

Retirement used to be something to relish. You could look forward to settling down after 40 or 50 years of hard graft, sitting back and enjoying the twilight years of your life.

Not anymore. We now live in a world where retirement is a luxury fewer and fewer can afford

“Weary’ OAPs who’ll be working into their 70s”“Many of tomorrow’s pensioners could be forced to work into their 70s and beyond due to the looming pensions crisis, experts warn. By 2020 a generation of ‘Wearies’ – Working, entrepreneurial and Active Retirees...”

To read the full article, visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084078/Pension-age-increase-Weary-OAPs-wholl-working-70s.html

Time really is running out for many people to live the life they have always wanted to live. It’s a case of survival of the fittest right now.

Although much of the media does use scaremongering, and as investors we should keep perspective, it’s tough to deny that those who aren’t doing something about their finances now are going to struggle, and it’s not going to get any easier.

But what for those who are ready to do something about it?

Hidden opportunity in this new economySince 2007, Property prices in the UK have fallen by 20% - 30% in the past 5 years leaving millions in homes worth less than they paid for them. Of course this is bad news for ‘home ownership,’ it is bad news if you have a 100% mortgage, bad news if you are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments, and bad news if you have to sell fast.

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But what about if you want to buy now? Would you rather buy properties at peak prices at £200,000 or would you rather buy the same Property at £155,000? Here’s a comparison of pre and post crunch prices we bought personally –

There’s no doubt we were very happy with this purchase in Peterborough pre crunch – good discount, happy days. But compare this to the property in Corby where the property value is almost halved and the yield is in double digits.

Here is the official copy of the land registry title for the Corby purchase:

You might notice that these properties are not the types you’d put in a glossy folder and go and show off at the local Golf club, or put on your mantle piece. We must admit to being ‘emotional’ about buying Property when we started many years ago in our keen but naive former years –

Ooooh it’s got gated entry, professionals will only want modern looking houses, there’ll be less repairs on new properties, it comes with a furniture pack and the developer is selling them cheap

Commons Drive, Peterborough• Cost in 2006: £167,000• Value in 2007 £205,000• Value now: £150,000• Yield: 5% gross• Mortgage £555 a month• Rented pre crunch at £800,

now will only rent for £700

Blenheim Walk, Corby• 4 bed house• Bought for

£41,000• Value: £80,000

[evidence below]• Yield: 20% gross

[a particularly good example, not typical!]

• Rent: £700

Property prices comparison from 2007 – 2012

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How we, and many hundreds of thousands starting out, got suckered right in by those big, colourful, lifestyleee brochures and dreamy holiday homes.

No. Not anymore. This, as we learned the hard way, is vanity. It’s emotional buying. Perhaps you can relate? You can, and are, leveraging our [necessary] mistakes and experience. So let’s focus on helping people and making a profit doing it, and we’ll deal with exactly what makes the best, most leveraged profit, later on.

Back to buying opportunities nowWould you rather buy a Property where the mortgage is more than the rent or a Property like this where the mortgage and costs are 2/3 of the total income, leaving 1/3 net profit per Property:

Would you rather buy a Property at 7% rate or would you rather buy when interest rates are 0.5%, and lending is anywhere from 1.50% over base rate to a 5% fixed for long term security.

For instance, Northern Rock is lending on a 5 Year fixed rate at 4.49%, and the Coventry Building Society is doing a similar product on a long term fixed until 2017 at 4.89%.

Lending rates are at historic lows which mean there’s more money in each purchase for you, and less to pay back. Add to that the increase in rents, and the big need in the UK for housing, and your margins are even better.

Stumpacre, Peterborough• Purchased date: 2008 • Purchase Price: £80,000• Value: £125,000• Rent: £850• Mortgage: £364• Gross Cashflow per/month:£486

expensive properties versus sensible investment properties

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Mortgage costs fall to all time low

“Mortgage costs fall to all-time low as average

monthly repayment drops to £494 a month”“Homeowners are benefiting from the cheapest ever mortgage deals with the average monthly repayment now just £494 a month. Low interest rates have enabled lenders to offer some of their best ever deals...”

Maarten Jonckers

“I can highly recommend Progressive Property’s services to anyone who has the money to invest, but no spare time available..”

I have always been interested in investing in property; however I’d never had the time to do anything about it until I was

introduced to Progressive. As I run my own business, my plan was to attend the Progressive Property course and subsequently dedicate one day a week to property investment.

I was blown away by their 4 day course and wished I had done it 10 years ago!

However it was clearly evident that to succeed in this sector I would need to spend far more than one day a week on it, which made it impossible to do it by myself.

As an armchair investor, I reap all the benefits [for a small fee]

from Progressive Property’s past success and experience, with the minimum amount of my effort and time spent.

In the last 6 months Progressive Property have bought two properties on my behalf, the refurb is managed, the tenants are found and the rent is collected - without me lifting a finger!

I can highly recommend Progressive Property’s services to anyone who has the money to invest, but no spare time available and, most importantly, to anyone who does not want to make costly mistakes with the first few properties they buy [maybe by themselves].

I would also say that the Progressive Property team has been efficient, effective, friendly, helpful and great on the communication side.

I cannot speak highly enough of them and the business!

Maarten and Debra Jonckers

[Handsfree Investor of Progressive Portfolio Builder]

“Record low rates shake-up mortgages”“Homeowners are benefiting from the cheapest ever mortgage deals with the average monthly repayment now just £494 a month. Low interest rates have enabled lenders to offer some of their best ever deals...”

To read the full article, visit:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086068/Mortgage-costs-fall-time-low-average-monthly-repayment-drops-494-month.html

To read the full article, visit:http://www.independent.co.uk/money/mortgages/record-low-rates-shakeup-mortgages-8007244.html

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Unprecedented need for housing, housing shortfallDo people need Gold like they need air and water? Do they need the stock market, bonds, guilts or other investments like they need food? No

But what about housing? Is it a staple basic human need for shelter? To protect and build a family? Now you might think we’ve gone a little fluffy here, but don’t you think this has an impact on the demand? Would you rather invest in something everyone needs, or a few people like?

And here’s the reality on housing supply right now:The Homes and Communities Agency has announced that the number of “affordable housing starts” for 2011-2012 was just 15,698 - a 68% fall on the previous year.

The Government’s proposed 150,000 affordable homes over four years is less than a third of what is needed.

The Institute for Public Policy Research [IPPR] concluded that England is facing a “growing housing crisis” & estimated a shortfall of 750,000 homes by 2025. Think tank who studied a number of different economic scenarios stated there was a need for 280,000 more homes a year needed if the economy bounced back strongly. On a regional basis the biggest effect would be in London, with a housing gap of 325,000 homes, followed by Yorkshire and Humberside with 151,000 homes too few.

The Housing shortfall3 by 2025 is estimated to be in: • London: 325,000 • Yorkshire and Humberside: 151,000 • East of England: 132,000 • South East of England: 77,000 • East Midlands: 66,000 • West Midlands: 28,000 • North East of England: 16,000 • South West of England: 7,000

And what is being done about the current housing crises?

The official house building figures concluded more homes were built in 1875 than were built over the past 2 years, with fewer than 81,000 completed in 2011.

Kay Boycott, director of policy and campaigns at Shelter said4 “successive governments have failed to build enough homes to meet demand, pushing house prices even further out of reach.”

“This government urgently needs to take decisive action to build more affordable housing so that young people now and in the future can afford to move out, start their own lives and begin families of their own,”

And John Marais, of campaign group Defend Council Housing, said “It’s the failure of governments past and present to build genuinely affordable houses.

“If there had been a reasonable rate of building houses we would be in a position where we could cope with these sorts of population rises”

So what does this mean? Will you have more or less chance of letting your Property; fast and for a longer time? Are tenants likely to move once they’ve found your house? Does this mean your rents will stay firm or drop? As you can see there’s a big opportunity for those who can see through the media scaremongering.

Across the UK, the rental market is suffering from a severe lack of new rental stock, according to Spareroom.co.uk

Outside of London, there are 8.8 applicants for every room available to rent - Property demand has become so high that many new rental properties are snapped up within a few hours of coming onto the market - creating a hard and frustrating environment for people looking to rent.

3. The good, the bad and the ugly: Housing demand 2025, by the IPPR 4. Census reveals housing shortage, The Telegraph, July 2012

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This has led to a shortage of new stock just at the time when the demand for Property is at its highest.

ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents recently reported that demand for quality properties within the private rental sector is still firmly outstripping supply - 58% of members are still reporting a significant gap between supply and demand in terms of rental properties, an increase of 3% from the previous survey.

Rents in the private rented sector are now higher than they have ever been.

So our guess is that you know some of this already. It’s unlikely, this far in, that you subscribe to the mass media brainwashing, and unlikely that you have a negative, can’t do attitude.

Most people’s reality IS doom and gloom. Let us be clear here, you, we, are not in the business of exploitation. The world will boom and bust with or without us. People will be people - fearful and greedy - with or without us. Most people will struggle with or without us.

The rest of “How to be a Leveraged, Handsfree Property Cashflow Investor” is about how you can take you share, and help people, and add value to the world. People are experiencing pain and you offer the solutions they need [Handsfree, of course].

The ‘how-to’ of this, the leveraging models, the buying and investing models, that what to and what not to do, is all in the next but one chapters. You can skip straight to them if you wish...

But if you want to know more about us, how we can help you and what gives us the right to help you, then the next short chapter will help us to get to know each other better.

If we were in your shoes, we’d want to know what gives us the right and credibility to help you. Your time and money are precious, you should use it wisely. And there are plenty of people out there who don’t have your best interests at heart - with your permission we’d like to earn that.

About the Progressive Property Community

This seems like a good time to tell you a little more about us [without the ego trip]...

And it’s at this point that Guru’s give you a whole CV of how great they are. Our guess is you don’t much care for our ego’s, but you might want to know more about the Progressive community, and also what gives us the right to help you.

OK. We absolutely regard ourselves as 2 normal guys. Despite both getting degrees in Architecture & International Business economics, we don’t have a long CV of master degrees and diplomas as there are no such qualifications in the Property ‘industry.’ Even if there were, they would probably mean very little to us, because we like to be able to give real life evidence and experience.

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About Mark and Rob We both started from relatively humble beginnings in our mid to late 20’s with no silver spoons or hand-me-downs. Rob was £35,000 in credit card debt after trying to make it as an Artist, and after Mark’s Dad’s death from Cancer, Mark got stuck in the corporate world where career progression was slow and limited.

Fast forward 5 years to now, and things are very different.

You see we never actually intended to build the largest Property Investor community in the UK, we certainly never planned to train over 120,000 people live at our events or have over 250,000 people subscribing past and present to the Progressive Property newsletter all over the world.

Because none of this existed in 2006, we simply wanted to buy Property for ourselves and our families, with good yields and discounts & cashflow, and retire either side of 30.

We did. For 19 days. And got bored.

And the only reason we ever started building portfolios for Handsfree Investors, and Joint Venturing, was because we could not service and buy all the properties we were finding locally, and didn’t want to lose the pipeline of deals through the Estate Agents.

Mark didn’t even want to tell anyone, he certainly didn’t want his friends and family members bringing him down about it, and certainly didn’t want to brag about achievements that other people might resent, even when he was buying 10 discounted properties per month with other people’s money.

But 350 properties and 5 years later, 3 best selling Property books, one as high as no.5 in the all time book list on launch, bought in 35 countries, the 3 biggest UK Property Events of the last 2 years with guest fellow Entrepreneurs James Caan, Bob Geldof & Lord Alan Sugar, and a total Joint Venture portfolio of over £25Million…

And it no longer became just about us. It became about helping people like you achieve the same.

You see we have to be honest and confess that none of this was due to a special gene, or a gift, or even because we’re lucky, but all about the *system* of Property investing, that we learned through risk and trial and error, and many mentors far smarter than us, that the results came.

And they can for you too.

And it is this same *system* that we have now packaged into this document for you. Everything in here is what we do ourselves, having attended seminar after seminar [some good and some ridiculous] having been on 100’s of courses, 15 years and over 30,000 hours combined experience in Property, many silly mistakes in the past, and many opportunities that came our way simply because we are in the game, that never would have appeared and we never could have dreamed of.

In fact we’d have to be idiots not to spot the opportunities and learn from the mistakes, just because of the amount of hours we’ve put into the game.

And over the last 5 years we have recorded TV shows with Living, The Business Channel, BBC & Channel4 [many broadcast, some pilot shows] and had articles in The Independent, myintroducer.com, LandlordToday, The Wall St Journal & The Financial Times. They have found us, we’ve never sought out the ‘fame,’ [well Rob a little more than Mark perhaps!] and we’re hideous at PR.

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When we got invited to be on the ‘Secret Millionaire’ TV show, we [Mark!] turned it down because we [Mark] didn’t want the attention.

What is also so important is that we have a true passion for investing. Just the talk of Investing money, finding deals with the potential to yield greater returns, and building an asset base that can fund a desired lifestyle, is the very thing we are passionate about.

Sad? Perhaps! Imagine our conversations down the Pub? But what it means is that we don’t have to force ourselves to work, we don’t distinguish between work and play because they are one and the same, and that is the beauty of the *system* for Property investing that has helped us and many thousands of people like you.

So now we’ve stepped back and the Progressive brand and vision is less and less about us every year. We still stay connected, and love to be part of the community, but the brand of Progressive and the community of Handsfree and hands-on investors keep the community growing.

The brand values of Progressive are Progressive, Innovative, Personal and Prepared. We all stand for Progression and Innovation, especially relevant in the economy that we are in. As important is the personal touch, to stay connected with the community, as we don’t like the cold, corporate, impersonal way.

Test us, we would. Send Rob an email at [email protected]. You might just be surprised that you, and when you, get a reply :-)

And now that we have taken a much more backward step in Progressive, and brought a team and community through, we get a chance to spend more time on the things that really matter, such as our charity work, spending time with Bobby [Rob’s son who wants to be world no.1 Golfer but doesn’t know it yet], writing more books, and extending the reach of the Progressive vision…

“Invest for Freedom, Choice & Profit”

16www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 898550

[email protected]

So now you know, let’s move on to the nuts and bolts...

The 5 stages for the Property investorThe 5 Stages of the ‘Leveraged’ Property Investor

There are 5 stages of investing, taking you from unleveraged and hands on to maximum Handsfree leverage. Perhaps you’ve been through these stages, or are stuck at one, and perhaps you can relate

Stage 1: the accidental investor

This is a common place for people to start investing in the Property market and they don’t even know it [which is why it’s called accidental].

Anyone who owns a house to live in; an owner-occupier, a first time buyer, someone who has bought a Property that isn’t for investment or rental purposes, is an accidental investor.

They will make cash in that Property year on year through growth as long as they hold it long enough, whether they like it or not, whether they intended to or not.

In case you may feel like the climate is different now [which it is] look at this graph of prices since 1952..

So let’s take a £100,000 Property that was bought 12 years ago. That Property could be worth £200,000 now, even after the drop. If you don’t believe that, if you were sat in at one of our Property events listening to us ask the audience how much they have made accidentally.

Every time we do it we’re amazed at how much cash people have made, even after and during big corrections. Usually, over 50% of people’s properties have tripled in value in 8-15 years!

Let’s go on a safer bet; it might be worth £150,000. The growth of £50,000 in 12 years has been accidental. There was no strategy set up for it; cash income or equity are completely passive. Some people don’t even know they’ve made that cash and they don’t know what they can do with that cash.

Think about it for a minute. What if you just had 5 of those ‘accidental money boxes’ now? In no other investment vehicle can you make cash consistently year on year by total accident like you can in Property.

But it’s not strategic or intentional, and most people never get past one Property until it is too late.

Martin Flanagan, a Progressive Handsfree Investor, shares a similar vision, as he says below:

“The great thing about Progressive is the personal approach is key. Anyone coming into this market as a newcomer needs to have trust in the company, be able to talk to

the principals, have a mutual understanding of each other’s needs..”

Since I first bought shares in the first privatisation issue, which happened to be BT, I’ve always been looking to do more than invest in the stock market, PEPs and ISAs; looking at the Times Rich List, Property has always been the least complex way to go.

I wanted to enjoy my retirement! I left it a bit late to go into

BTLs on my own, although I was involved in running two BTLs for my kids, who both moved abroad but couldn’t sell because of negative equity problems.

So, after more reading up on the rules and latest regulations that were involved in running BTLs on a commercial basis, I decided a Progressive Hands-free approach was best suited for me.

The great thing about Progressive is the personal approach is key. Anyone coming into this market as a newcomer needs to have trust in the company, be able to talk to the principals, have a mutual understanding of each other’s needs.

I feel I can trust Progressive to do what they say they will

Martin Flannigan. [Handsfree Investor of Progressive Portfolio Builder]

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

Stage 2: the cash investor

The cash investor now understands that they have made cash in Property over time through accidental growth. They are now aware of this, and because of this heightened awareness they understand that if you make cash with one Property [let’s say £50,000 in 12 years on a £100,000 Property] then with 3, 4, 10 or 20 properties you’d make the same amount on each Property as you did on your first.

That makes reasonable sense, doesn’t it?

The cash investor will remortgage their existing residential Property they live in, or they’ll use redundancy money, or money they’ve got from selling businesses, or extra income or a divorce settlement, and buy more properties for cash.

They’ll believe that’s the way you do it. Maybe they have the mindset that they don’t want to borrow extra money and they want to play it safe. They may be scared of debt. Maybe they don’t understand the concept of leverage fully just yet; one step at a time. They’ll buy 4 properties that will cost them £400,000, using the above example, with no mortgages.

That’s a good strategy. In 10-15 years slowly slowly those 4 properties might double, or go up just 50%, and those properties that were £100,000 each might be worth £150,000 each plus. Year on year compounded growth on a £500,000 Property portfolio [original house + 4 investments] could be £250,000 across the portfolio, or more. They would also make income from the rent [no mortgage] of around £528-£625 per Property month before costs.

That’s pretty good. It’s better than doing it once, or not at all [and the stock market pound for pound]. It’s better than most other investment vehicles. But it’s not as good as the mortgaged investor system.

Stage 3: the mortgaged investor

The mortgaged investor understands leverage a little more. They realise they’ve used a lot of capital, there must be a less cash intensive way to make the same cash without using as much cash.’

A lot of people can’t afford £400,000 to buy 4 properties. The mortgaged investor understands that there may be a small risk in getting 4 mortgages but there’s also a considerable risk in laying out £400,000 of your own money. They look at investment from a different angle, from a different mindset; they expand their mindset. They think about achieving more with less.

So instead of buying 4 properties for £400,000 cash, they’ll buy the 4 properties, mortgage them and just pay the 30% deposit on each one.

[£25,000-£30,000 per Property excluding fees]. They’ll raise a mortgage for the other £70,000 per Property and then get a tenant to pay their mortgages for them by renting the properties out.

Let’s look at the numbers.

The mortgaged investor who could have come straight from an accidental investor and skipped the cash investor stage [didn’t have all that cash, understood leverage] has invested £120,000 [£30,000 x 4] to have £400,000 worth of Property. They’ve invested much less; around one fifth of the amount, to get the same amount of Property.

They’ll get exactly the same amount of growth as the cash investor would. They won’t get the same rental income because they have mortgage interest that they have to pay [through the tenant].

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Properties are now cashflowing [net after all costs], which they didn’t pre 2008. Currently, while rates are still relatively low, you can realistically look to get £500 - £1,500 net per year cashflow.

If you have cost of finance at around 5.5% and you take 3% for management and maintenance costs including arrangement fees, on a Property that yields 10% you are left with a net cashflow yield of 1.5%. On a Property value of £100,000, that would be a £1,500 net cashflow per year income on that one Property.

The mortgaged investor will have the same amount of Property, £400,000 worth, and they’ll make compounded growth per year that can be taken as tax free income. They’ve invested £120,000 but they’ve got the same growth, so the return on their capital invested [ROCE] is much, much higher. If the mortgaged investor had the same amount of money as the cash investor they could buy 3-4 times the amount of Property and get 3-4 times the return for the same amount of money. Very good, and if you just stayed on the third stage of the 5 stages of the Property investor, you would make large amounts of cash consistently over time.

Our realistic prediction would be that in 10 years you’ll be financially independent, current income dependent, and you’ll have an asset base that works for you passively, once you’ve set it up. You’ve let your investment mature and you’ve got through some of the challenges that you will naturally face.

Stage 4: the leveraged investor

This is where leverage really comes into its own and this is where your [leveraged] knowledge and skills become your biggest asset. Once you get to this stage it’s amazing what you can do.

The leveraged investor will have become so good at buying Property that they’ll be able to buy Property cheaply enough so that instead of using 4 deposits each to buy 4 properties at £100,000, they can buy 4 properties at £100,000 with one ‘deposit pot.’

Their skill will be in buying at such a discount that they can remortgage and get that discounted amount of money [the ‘deposit pot’] back out of the Property. This gives the leveraged investors a Property that’s been bought leaving little to no deposit monies in the deal.

Important side note: at this stage we are not accounting for fees to purchase properties. It is possible to get a good enough discount to get the deposit back out and all they have ‘left in’ or spent to buy the properties are the fees.

The ‘professional’ and skilful leveraged investor will get an even bigger discount so that they can pull the deposit back out, and the fees and the refurb costs and very occasionally extra cash on top.

The skilful leveraged investor will be able to buy at 25-40% discount, put their deposit of up to 30% in and borrow the remaining 70% [dependent on finance options available]. Then they’ll be then able to remortgage to the higher value [actual value not the original discounted level].

For example, a Property has been bought for £100,000 but it’s actually worth £135,000. You get an initial mortgage of 30% of £100,000 and then you remortgage to 30% of £135,000, therefore you can get your deposit back out, paying off your old mortgage and banking the difference.

This may take 3-5 years to learn. There’s massive leverage in that, so don’t you think it is worth a little of your time? If you work out the figures; instead of investing £120,000 for £400,000 worth of Property and returning growth and cashflow, you can actually invest up to £30,000, buy the 4 properties one after the other, rolling the deposit through each one, and get all or most of your money back at the end.

If you can crack this you’ve actually got an infinite return on investment [iROI] because everything you would make is [compounding] on zero capital employed. Infinite ROI, 100% leverage once all of your money is back.

And if you leverage someone else, all you have invested in is the fees.

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

That’s our strategy. Here is an exact example of a deal we completed on for an investor of ours in 2012:

Location: Corby, northamptonshire Purchase price: £50,000 Market value [revaluation]: £75,000 Refurb cost: £500 Discount: 33% Rent: £400 Gross yield: 9.5% Total money to acquire: £14,850 Revaluation balance: £19,374

And here is an another deal we completed on for an investor of ours in 2012:

Location: Peterborough Purchase price: £60,000 Market value [revaluation]: £95,000 Refurb cost: £8,000 Discount: 37% Rent: £625 Gross yield: 12.5% net cashflow: £301.48

For more examples of deals like this that our handsfree investors have been enjoying, you can visit this page: www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk

Another important side note: there are some key things to remember, and these are the details that will make the difference when building your Property Portfolio. You may be led to believe that if you can get a 15/20% deposit you can get all of your money back in and your money back out. You know that’s not true because there are always the fees associated with buying every single Property. Those fees are going up at the moment and there are always lots of little ones [closing fees, telegraphic transfer fees, valuations, legal fees, admin fees] that build up to quite a lot of money.

The actual cost of acquisition will be closer to £30,000 [30% deposit + fees]. We use a £30,000 - £35,000 deposit pot at Progressive to account for all fees, contingencies and unexpected costs.

If you’ve only got 20% discount, when you remortgage you’re only going to be able to get 25% back. You may need as much as 28% discount [3% to cover costs] to get all your money back. This is fine in the first 3 stages, but at this stage, by the time you get to Property 2, 3 or 4, you could run out of deposit monies and you’ll need to put more money in. Not a disaster, but important to know

Stage 5: Leveraged, Handsfree investor

We will come to this later, but first, what should you be looking for in a Handsfree Investing strategy and what diligence should you be doing? All on the next page...

What should you be looking out for in a Handsfree service?So here’s what you should be looking out for when working with a service provider or JV partner in Handsfree investing. Whether you decide to choose us or not is fine, as long as you make the choice that is right for you:

Are they walking the walk, buying properties themselves? And not just how many, but are they buying the same types of properties that they are offering to buy for you, in the same areas?

If they’re sourcing nationally or internationally they are unlikely to be buying them themselves, so ask them, and ask them why, and make sure their reason works for you.

If the properties they are selling are ‘cheap’ ask why. Why would they sell a great deal that could be £25,000 equity, and cashflow every month, and 5-10% rental growth every year for the rest of their life? Why wouldn’t they keep them for themselves? If they are good, and they also have a business selling them, then there needs to be enough profit in it for them. Not just to make profit, but to pay for the lost income and profit selling it and not owning it themselves.

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Do they help you with the management, maintenance, finding tenants, refurbs, finance, and ongoing service? Understand the difference between sourcing and selling properties as widgets, that you’ll be responsible for continual and potentially expensive management and maintenance, and if you don’t have the expertise in that area, that could end up being way more expensive than a Leveraged, Handsfree strategy.

And importantly, do you like them? Do you trust them? Can you work with them? Do they share your values?

But before you make any decisions to use any Leveraged models, you’ll need to know the right and wrong types of properties, tenants and areas. All the detailed models are coming up now.

Property Buying models - the right wayBut before we can understand the right [profitable] way of investing, do you think the smart money might be in knowing what to avoid?

As great as the Property business is, because large amounts of profits are involved, so there are risks, and large amounts of money can be lost.

R.e.A.S.O.nThe Progressive R.E.A.S.O.N model is the 6 reasons not to buy [clever eh, us at Progressive ;-) If there’s one big thing you could take from this, knowing what to stay well away from will save you tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds. Even more important, it will mean you won’t have a bad first experience that could put you off the best business we’ve ever seen.

OK, here it is...

R. undown - If the Property is beyond economical repair or you don’t have the right contacts to do major building works, then you need to avoid them. - I’ve spoken to many new Property investors that have fallen into this trap and has cost them tens of thousands. Even more painful, is they gave up thinking the investment class didn’t work because of their first novice mistake.

One of the really early properties we bought needed rewiring, underpinning and load bearing walls supported. But it was c h e a p. So like the 2 naive investors we were almost a decade ago, hunting the deals and discounts, and not knowing the can of worms ahead of us, we bought it. The vendor must have found it hard to hide his smile, and the costs that we budgeted for ended up being 3 times as much. We were forced into flipping it, and came out a few grand down and bruised egos, but valuable ‘entrance fee’ lessons learned. You can leverage our mistakes.

Sue Lockyer (Client of the Progressive Portfolio Builder)

After hearing about Progressive Property I decided to raise the capital using equity from my home to invest in a property portfolio. As I work full-time, my time and knowledge in buy-to-let properties

is limited so I decided to leave it to the experts and went for a Handsfree portfolio.

I am in my early forties and have come to the conclusion that the government is not going to look after me in my old age.

Although I have taken out a private pension I realise that this along with my government pension may not be enough for me to live the lifestyle I would like when I reach retirement age.

I have always known that property is a good long-term investment and often thought of buying a property to let, but never had the guts to do so.

I was very sceptical at first, taking on mortgages, etc but after meeting the guys and learning more about how their Handsfree portfolio works, I decided to go for it.

I know that I have made the right decision to put my trust in them and that this will be the best financial decision I have ever made.

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

e. xpensive – If a house has costs that are more than the rent it brings in, then it will cost you money every month and is not defined as an asset. Anything priced too highly [either actually or relatively] will take money out of your pocket. The basic rule for single lets is under the first level of stamp duty threshold, or £100,000.

A. broad - Risky strategy. Lack of local knowledge. Lack of control. The cost to visit the Property - flights etc, legal fees and translation costs, managing the Property remotely, the list goes on and on. All reasons [and unnecessary costs] for new and seasoned investors to avoid.

Oh we have some stories to tell here, but let’s not bore you with the details. In the heady days pre 2008 big companies with bigger brochures were spending huge amounts of money, some millions per month, on getting you to emotionally desire overseas properties. A3 Glossy brochures of sunscapes, seascapes, beautiful beaches, big Dulux dogs and a couple in their 50’s who look in their 30’s running in slow motion in the sunset in their white linen clothes...

And yes, we fell for it in our youth. We put deposits down for 2 in Florida please. We’ll have a couple in the Caribbean too thank you. A perfect holiday home AND an investment. Boom. All we have to do now is go and holiday in Marbella, and when we return we’ll be millionaires Rodney.

As you can imagine most properties like this have 2 storeys – one before you buy and one after! Thankfully we got our deposits back and learned just in the nick of time. Many of these never rented out, larger deposits needed to be put down, mortgages for overseas investors were pulled and dreams turned to nightmares.

Mark might even share with you the biggest entrance fee later on. Keep it simple, save yourself all this time and wasted money. Are we saying you’ll never make a mistake? Not if you want to get results, but you can minimise them significantly.

S. cattergun - Having properties dotted around the country when starting out is a recipe for disaster, for much the same reason as Abroad. Start local, or have a local area managed for you, and build up from there. Diversify much later. The key to reducing risk is increasing knowledge, and it is harder to have specific knowledge of properties, areas, tenants, refurb teams and so on the further away from them you are.

We knew of one up and coming professional investor on the scene in 2008. A UK big shot who had sourced around 90 properties nationally through online advertising, dotted all over the country.

It all looked good and everyone was mystified by his fast rise. Within 18 months, when we picked up one of his properties in a repossession listing, and paid around 25% less for it than he had, we were able to dig enough to find out the reality.

Remote management of this portfolio had left half of his entire portfolio unrented, to the tune of around £25,000 per month! 90 properties in a 5 mile radius wouldn’t have 5 even in arrears if managed well. Needless to say he lost them all and went bankrupt.

But you don’t know what you don’t know until it is too late.

One really important thing we learned is that you don’t really know the reality of your own portfolio, or a new strategy you are using, until you can sit back and review 2 years of full management accounts. Anyone can say anything, but the accounts tell it all.

O. ffplan - Not as lucrative to do in the present climate, a few years ago the rising market added value to your properties before building commenced, but it’s luck at best and gambling at worst. In this economic climate the value could go down and you’d be putting in good money after bad, plus getting finance on off plan/overseas properties is much harder. More money can be made from smarter investing in properties that are tangible, real and where values are proven.

Mark bought an off plan property in Bansko [influenced by the pretty artist impression of a luxury brochure] in 2003 which completed in 2007. It cost 70,000 Euros.

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The Net annual loss after the mortgage, service charges and maintenance worked out an equivalent of: Euros 5000 x 4 years = Euros 20,000. It was sold in March 2011 for 25,000 Euros. Net loss: 50,000+ Euros.

And here was the sting in the tail...

The property only rented for 3 weeks in total. What looked like a great rental market with a nice income stream and cash flow turned into an absolute nightmare as lots of other apartments were built which flooded the market.

Dishonest solicitors, rental agents, overpriced furniture packs didn’t help either. Word is the developer has now evacuated from the building and - rack and ruin is on the horizon as there is no management company!

Here is how the contracts and legal’s always turned up to me [and this is not a joke] –

n. ew Build - Expensive to buy, overpriced because of taxes, new premiums and developers margins [even with discounts]. Very difficult to prove valuations as there’s nothing to compare them too, and easy to get emotional about new properties. When the shine comes off, that’s money you’ve lost, and it takes decades sometimes for values to start increasing.

The big problem with new build Property is it’s just like buying a new Mercedes straight from the forecourt. As soon as you drive it away you have lost 10-20% of its value.

When you buy a new property you are paying a premium: you are paying over the odds so that the developer can take their profit. This is fair enough, the developer is in business and needs to make a bob or two..

But it doesn’t do your purchase any good - We have regularly heard of shortfalls of £200 - £500 per month on these types of units-no thanks!

Six seemingly simple staples of Property buying - which, if adhered to, can save you years or mistakes and financial loss pain. That’s from experience, on the ground, down and dirty - we’ve been there. Not because we are biased, out to prove a point or are emotional about it. Have you seen what some of our properties look like ;-)

But the bank balance looks a lot better!

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

Despite these obvious warnings, we still hear stories of people who got too cute, got too emotional, forgot or plain ignored this advice. Look it doesn’t make any difference to us, we have no bias or reason to say anything other than what works and doesn’t in our experience. You can try for yourself, or you can leverage the ‘entrance fee’ we have paid over the years in mistakes that we’ve ‘paid’ to learn from.

C.A.S.T.L.e.DSo what does work then? Here’s what to look for when buying, or having properties bought for you.

Ok, let’s take a look...

C. ashflow - Not treating your Property acquisitions as a business is a recipe for disaster. Properties used to shortfall pre 2008, and people topped up each month because they knew [believed] they would get growth that paid it back and more.

The landscape is very different now, but yield and cashflow are better, and properties, if bought well, can produce a monthly income, even on a 70% mortgage.

“The number of properties you own is vanity, the cash flow you make is sanity and the cash you have in the bank is reality”

A. menities - The availability and accessibility to local amenities and facilities such as local transport links, employment opportunities, local businesses, retail parks, supermarkets, schools and colleges, will ensure your investment has strong tenant demand & the highest capital growth potential.

One of our first choice investment areas has a £1billion regeneration programme going on - 7,500 new homes, 20,000 new jobs. Better to get in before and during than after, because that is where you get the ‘forced’ appreciation.

S. upply - Ensure properties in your micro-area have the strongest [and fastest growing] level of demand that outstrips supply for the number of discounted properties it can supply, and number of available tenants.

Not enough properties means that you won’t be able to buy enough for your end retirement goals, and too big an area will make it hard to ‘own’ your own ‘patch.’

A high volume of properties, even at good discounts, could mean there are not enough tenants. You want to have 1,000’s of tenants waiting for a house if possible. One of our chosen investment areas has almost 20,000 people waiting for a houses.

T. enants - You can buy the best properties in the world with the biggest discounts, but have them empty long enough and you’ll be giving the keys back.

Your tenants pay your mortgage, your Cashflow and fund your lifestyle, so the right types of tenants managed the right way make the difference between income and shortfall.

3 simple things you can do to check high tenant demand in an area: talk to Letting Agents, find out where is in demand, gather on the ground data from people in the business. Ask them where they’d love houses to rent for the tenant demand they have.

And put an advert in the local paper for a Property which you propose to buy. List the type of Property and the rent and put your mobile as the contact. Monitor the number of enquires. Clearly lots of calls means that it is likely to be a great area, none means that there may be low tenant demand.

And check LHA waiting lists on your local government website. LHA specific Letting Agents may know that stats too.

Your risk is vastly reduced; you know rental demand BEFORE you buy.

L. ocal - Buy as locally to you, or within a tight Geographical area as possible. There are Goldmine areas all over the country, even in London, from top to bottom.

You’ll have a better understanding of tenant demand, actual sale price, who the local surveyors are, best and worst Estate and Letting Agents, refurb teams, solicitors, competitors to keep close, actual achievable rentals, best streets with highest uplift potential, and so on.

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It’s taken us around 29,700 hours of being in the Property business to get where we are now. No need to show off here, it’s just being in the business, and in addition to some of the good things we’ve been fortunate to do, we’ve got a list as long as an ancient scroll of what not to do, and the crazy things we’ve seen:

Letting Agents running off with deposits, dead people in properties, many companies coming and going, estate agents struggling, new strategies, regulation changes, rises and falls in rents, finance evolution, befriending [and sometimes not getting on so well] with competition, creating our own competition; the list is endless.

We’d just never have been able to learn one hundredth of these specifics, especially the ‘how not to’ if we were investing all over the place.

e.xisting - Focus on 1 or 2 Property types of not new (3 years to 150 years old) in an local area, say 1960’s 2 or 3 bed terraced houses, or Victorian 4 beds that are HMO’able, as you’ll soon know the prices better than the surveyors, agents, vendors & investors. When something comes up that’s priced cheap, you’ll be able to spot it right away, before anyone else, and have first mover advantage.

D. iscounts- “You make your money when you buy Property”

Not only do discounts make you money on purchase, they reduce any risk of loss in a downturn.

You can also utilise the buy, refurb, remortgage strategy to leverage one deposit pot for multiple Property purchases, which doesn’t work without good discounts.

So you now know the right strategies. Time after time though we see people struggling to get their hands on the best deals, the biggest discounts, and the highest yields. And then they give up, leaving all the deals that go thought the agents back office every day to someone else who probably doesn’t know any more than you do, or you could do.

Why?

Because people spend all their time trying to buy properties from people who don’t really want or need to sell, and don’t have a compelling reason. Or don’t have a problem or pain that needs solving.

4 Stages of motivation There are 4 stages of ‘motivation’ from any vendor, where reasons, often painful ones that you can solve, exist.

1. Unmotivated sellers Statistically, they make up 83% of sellers. This might make you whine that there aren’t many opportunities to buy properties at discounts.

There are around 25 million houses/flats in the UK, so 17% of that is still enough. It’s a good thing that it’s not a mass market, otherwise everyone would be doing it, and it would alter the market dynamics.

www.progressiveportfoliobuilder.co.uk • 01733 [email protected]

2. Motivated sellers They make up 7% of the sellers in the UK

3. Distressed sellers Making up 6% of UK sellers

4. Desperate sellers Who make up the final 4% of UK sellers

Most people spend their time trying to convince people in category 1. to sell to them. Big mistake. And as much as things are bad in the wider economy right now, as you can see there are more people who don’t need to sell than do, and less people needing to sell ‘Below Market Value.’

Focus 90% of your time on the 17% who want, need and have to sell.

D.I.S.R.U.P.THere are the reasons why people will sell their Property quickly, and very cheaply:

D. ivorceObviously financially draining, but also if a couple split and fall out, the memories attached to their home are often painful. They’re going to want to sell that Property very quickly to alleviate the grief, the pain, and never to look at that cheating face again!

It’s often messy, but that’s your opportunity to solve people’s problems. The more immediate the problems are, the more your solution looks appealing, and therefore more financially rewarding for you.

You’d be surprised at how much of a discount people will take on their Property just to get their money out quickly and be rid of the pain, the memories, and perhaps ensure their ex partner doesn’t get too much of it.

Here are some interesting stats: the number of divorce’s has increased by 4.9% since 2009: 113,949 couples got divorced in 2010. In 1998 2.2 million couples married and 1.1 million couples divorced in the US!

And here’s a specific vendor divorce motivation on a Property we bought. It’s actually fairly typical:

Mrs Jones [fictitious name for discretion] had been living in her Property since it was built by the council in the 70s. She had a small mortgage but was having problems meeting her monthly costs as she had split up with her husband a couple of years before, and the divorce was messy and costly. To compound the situation her daughter had had a baby, wasn’t working and occupied the top floor of her 3 storey house which Mrs Jones had to help fund.

She approached us and we bought the Property from her below market value in return for offering her a low rent on another Property in the local area of a similar type where her daughter could have a floor to herself as before. The rent was set at 30% below market value for 3 years to rise at 5% per year after that and in return.

We bought her property for 30% below market value. She now has no mortgage; housing benefit covers much of her rent and has a large lump of cash in

her bank account which can be used to fund her lifestyle whilst her daughter gets to work.

Although this deal would have to be structured a little differently today, the concept is similar.

I.n debtThe price of living has gone up considerably; the cost of food, oil, amenities; everything. Vendors have credit card debt, other loans or second charges against their homes, store card debt - most people are feeling the squeeze.

Disposable incomes are getting squeezed, mortgage payments start to slip, and selling a home is often the only way to get rid of the debt.

And it often needs to be fast. This is your opportunity to help out sellers in difficult times.

23 million British people are in debt: 2/5 have over £20k [unsecured debt] they can’t pay back: 62% of population in financial difficulties, they are getting more debt by taking out pay day loans at 4000% interest rates!

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And here’s a specific vendor debt motivation on a Property we bought. It’s actually fairly typical:

Mrs Smith [not her real name, clearly!] was living in her Property in Peterborough. She had lost her managers job at little chef and had been working in a number of different places in between for a much lower wage. As a result she had been struggling with her payments on her mortgage for some months and was worried about the banks increasingly threatening letters.

A letter arrived from a solicitor followed by a visit from a debt councillor which was the final straw. She knew she needed to do something about her issue and sell her Property as she had no other cash. We arranged to buy her house below market value (28%) very quickly and move her into another Property which we owned fully refurbished to her spec.

She then went on housing benefit to pay her rent for this Property, still living in the same area as her kids were at school here and finds her monthly commitments much easier to manage. Nearly 6 years on and we still rent the Property to her, know her by name, and have a great relationship with her.

S.caling backMany vendors prefer to scale back once their children have ‘flown the nest.’ perhaps the pension isn’t paying out what was projected and more cash is required. Forced retirement also creates a scaling back motivation.

4.9 million of the UK’s population are set to scale-back

R.elocationSome vendors need to relocate fast. Very often in job relocation you may not be given 16 weeks’ notice to sell or rent out your Property and sort out the hundreds of things that need to be done.

A lot of people don’t want to be dealing with a Property when they’re miles away from it and may prefer to sell, fast, before they go, where price may not be the main driver. Speed of sale may be more important.

Over 6 million have relocated in the last 2 years: 4000 depart the UK each week

U.psizingUnexpected pregnancies and larger family units create a strong and fast need to sell.

This often leaves people with 2 mortgages: one for the new house upsizing to, and one for the house being sold.

And frequently people get stuck in long chains where many Property purchases and interdependent on each other. All you need is one in the chain to ‘fall out of bed’ for the pain to kick in.

24% of the UK’s population upsized in 2010

P.robateA relative or a partner can have a lot of pain attached to the sale of a loved one’s Property, and the person may just want to sell and move on quickly to remove the pain.

You can very often get families arguing over probate. Speed, trust and discretion will be a high motivator than price more often than not in these difficult times, and you profit from your solution.

5 million properties were sold last year through a loved one dying

T. enant issuesLandlords who bought a couple of investment properties in the boom thinking it was easy probably didn’t realise the work involved.

Property is a full time business not a part time hobby, and the problems start when not managed with time and experience.

There are also many people post crash who wanted to sell their properties have found they have had to rent because of fallen values. These ‘accidental Landlords’ often get a culture shock doing something they’ve never done before.

Amateur Landlords get distressed too. They don’t like the hassle and pain, maybe they decided to do all of the management themselves instead of trying to find a letting agent. Maybe they underestimated the size of the task, maybe they bought too many too quickly. You offer them a way out.

45k landlords sold their properties as a result of tenant issues between the end of 09/10

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How to get the best deals, in the areas with the best tenants

If you’re not getting the best deals, in the best areas, with the best tenants, does it mean they don’t exist?Perhaps you’ve tried yourself, perhaps you’ve never seen the deals that your competitors bought, because you can’t see what you can’t see, and you don’t know what you don’t know.We’ve interviewed many of the best Estate Agents in some of the best yielding areas in the UK. We’ve hired 6 of them, and we’ve bought through dozens of them, locally in one of the hottest areas.So what right? Well once we started listening to them, things totally changed.One particular agent, who will need to stay anonymous for reasons of national security, told us in 2008 [one of the worst times to buy], that she got 2 bargain properties per week, and 2 of her colleagues in her office, got around 2 per week each too. This was one of around 15 good estate agents in the local area.

That’s at least 30 of these great deals per week. 30 you could be missing, and money going to someone else who doesn’t necessarily know anymore than you.

The Progressive Buying Model - how to get the best dealsIn addition to following the C.A.S.T.L.E.D formula, there are systems for getting the best deals. When leveraging, and following a Handsfree strategy, ensure that your partners are following these models:

Develop great relationships with agentsThis is vital, and a highly leveraged strategy that saves time, effort and money if done well. Estate agents sell 86% of properties from the open market, so why go against the tide? Plus the seller pays all the costs, so it’s free deals for those who have the best relationships.

Try not to meddle with them, or teach them how to negotiate and do their job. They know how to sell properties, and the less you interfere, and the more you let them do their thing, and build a relationship with them, the better deals they will give you, and the less you need to learn and do.

Wordy but very important sentence just there. They say it’s not what you know it’s who you know. And where this might not be the case in everything, it is very much about which Agents you have the best relationships with, and which ones ‘like’ you over other investors [yes, like you]. It’s not as much about ‘knowledge’ as you might think.

And the more you buy through Agents, the more you’ll get. If you can leverage someone who has these relationships, that’s even further leverage.

Utilise guerrilla marketing strategiesAs much as most deals come through Agents, there are many people in this world who [sometimes unfairly] dislike Estate Agents. Often the very best deals we get are through ‘direct to vendor’ strategies such as leafleting, post carding, JV’s with builders, window cleaners, take always and so on.

Sometimes even better discounts than the properties through Estate Agents.

When this personal marketing reaches a vendor who is motivated, desperate or distressed, they are often more comfortable with a personal experience, and in more immediate need to sell quickly. Deals like this come through Guerrilla strategies

Sprignal, PeterboroughPurchased 2009Purchase price: £50,000Value: £95,000Rent: £550: Yield: 13.2%

37 Blenheim Walk CorbyBought for £41,000Value: £80,0004 bed houseRent: £700

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Deal scrutiniser This marketing strategy is quite specific and technical, so if you can work or partner with someone who has experience in this field, you may leverage their experience.

Have a finance ‘system’ and mastermind

Buy to let is specific. It’s not generic residential, high street, sausage machine, cookie cutter, computer says yes or no.

Having access to experienced, professional and buy to let specific solicitors, mortgage brokers, tax advisers and accountants is essential. You’ll get more deals, more often, with less headaches, faster and easier.

We used to cost cut in this area, or try to do some of these things ourselves. It was a car crash. Align with specialist experts and leverage them. Have the baby not the labour pains.

It’s taken us the best part of a decade to build this specific network, and we’re happy to share it with you. Contact details are at the end, make sure you get there.

Know how to properly analyse a deal

Anyone can buy a Property. Anyone can pay full market value, or more, and anyone can out bid someone with their ego.

But not anyone can spot a deal where others can’t. Not everyone knows when big discount deals slip out onto Rightmove unnoticed, or when Repo’s are priced to sell, or where there are huge opportunities to add value that others can’t see.

Mark has spent 6 years developing his third generation Deal Scrutiniser. It has data from 350 properties bought, flipped, sold and rented, reverse engineered to analyse every facet of a deal. There are only a handful of variable inputs, and the rest is calculated through an algorithm, which has taken the human error and emotion out of buying. Software leverage. And if you know Mark, you’ll know exactly what we mean.

Have management systems once you’ve bought

People think that all the work is in buying the Property, but that is just the start. Get it rented, fast. Get the right type of tenant. Manage the Letting Agent. Inventories. Regular checks. Gas and boiler safety testing. Tenants in and out if needed. Management accounts. Every year.

The Progressive Property Deal Scrutiniser

The deal Scrutiniser Property App

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Get any part of this wrong, and it can all go wrong. We’re not saying don’t do it yourself, we’re saying know the full extent of what you are getting into and what you need to do.

Bespoke systems for the above help take the time and human resource out of it as much as possible. Increased efficiency and leverage of time.

Have economies of scaleThe problem with the odd Property here and there is that you have little leverage. If you want the best deals, you want to be buying in volume through the Agents, to get access to the best deals.

If you want rock bottom prices on refurbs, tradesmen, equipment, insurance and so on, you get reduced prices and maximum economies of scale leverage from volume. 15 deals per month reduces many of the costs. It gets you the best tenants first. The cheapest prices on supplies. Trade accounts. Mindspace. Deals find you because you are doing so many, and you’re known for it.

Have a passion for the businessAnd if you don’t love it, live it, breathe it, then the bad parts hurt, and the good parts aren’t good anyway, and you’ll do something else.

The passion was there from the start for us, but we’ve spent a decade, hundreds of thousands of pounds and tens of thousands of hours to get all this. Maybe we can help you?

Back to stage 5 of the 5 stages of the Property investor.

Stage 5: Handsfree investorThe 1st 4 stages went from using cash through to recycling deposits and using mortgages your tenants pay for. The 5th stage is the one that utilises the most amount of leverage, but it’s not for everyone.

95-99% of people will never get to stage 4 because it takes too much work, too much time, too much effort, too much specialist knowledge, it costs money to make mistakes, and you have to buy a few before you know how it all works.

And you’re busy.So despite leveraging financially, stage 4 is not leveraged relative to time. You may not want to be a full time Property investor yourself, doing 60 hours per week, like we have passionately for many years.

You might hit hurdles or feel you don’t have the relevant experience. You might not be interested in investing the time to get that experience.

You may not want to do refurbs, remortgages, arrange surveys and manage surveyors, you may not want to deal with solicitors, brokers and Agents, you may not want to manage the numbers.

The 5 stages for the Property investor

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Stage 5 is for people who understand the benefits of Property investment: the long term cash flow and the creation of your life of choice, and want the baby not the labour pains.

Handsfree investors own Property as an outcome. They invest in Property so that they can have their desired personal life, not so they can be a Property investor at the beck and call of their portfolio. This is where you find someone like Progressive Property who can do the whole process for you.

You pay a small fee and for that fee you get all of the benefits without any of the pain. That’s the fully leveraged system where you don’t even have to be at ground zero, you don’t have to change your lifestyle and you don’t have to spend 5 years learning the process.

The 5th part of the model is using time leverage, as well as financial leverage, by partnering with someone who already does it, or will do it for you.

In order to be totally Handsfree and Leveraged, like using a contractor or an employee, or like being a chairman of the board of a business that the CEO manages, you’ll need the help of others.

At this point, you might expect the ‘pitch.’ After all, why would we give you all the knowledge for free and then not offer our services? We’re a business, right, and not a charity.

Well yes, and no.

The reality of doing everything for someone is that it takes a lot of time. It’s resource intensive, it’s long term, it costs money [even with leverage]. It’s a service, although not for the masses, that is really in demand for busy people who want to leverage their time and money, and for all the reasons discussed in this document.

So the ‘selling’ part is that if we are right for each other, we’d be honoured to work with you, JV with you and serve you.

But that’s as far as it goes. We only take on a small amount of people to work with - a maximum of 2 per month, so for us to ‘sell’ our services would create too many clients/partners.

Too many partners would mean it would be harder to give great service. If we really needed the money, perhaps we might be tempted, but we already buy sometimes upwards of 15 properties a month. That takes time and resource, and because we got into this business for similar lifestyle reasons to you, we want to keep the enjoyment in Property.

Like you we don’t want another full time job, we want the benefits of Property without a lot of the pitfalls - “the baby without the labour pains.”

If, and only if, you think we are right for you, we want to get to know you much more. You reading a PDF is not enough. We or our service might not be right for you. You might not be right for us. It’s a JV, a marriage, not a mass market ‘product.’

If you want to get to know us more, or work with us [which we wouldn’t recommend until you’ve at least read this entire document], then our contact details are at the end.

So get all the benefits of stage 4 investing, leveraging a partner to get you the results.

How to access the [Leveraged] fundsAny investment needs money, and Property is no different.

It might not be your own money, but it’s money all the same. And money attracts more money, especially when leveraged.

You might already have cash ready to go. Great. But not everyone does.

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It doesn’t mean you can’t invest if you don’t have millions in your bank, and you may not know of the variety of ways to access funds to invest.

CashHolding cash at the moment is dangerous to your wealth. With banks paying virtually zero interest, and inflation at high levels, the value of cash is being eroded fast.

Turning cash into asset, or good debt, will negate and even reverse the devaluation of your money.

equityIt is always surprising to see how few people realise that they have equity in assets that can be restructured or refinanced. Some fear the risk of raising more ‘debt,’ but you know that you could be leveraging good debt to negate inflation erosion, and gain more leverage.

‘Restructuring’ assets simply means ‘moving’ equity from one less leveraged asset to another more leveraged asset, often taking far less risk than you might think.

For example, £100k of equity in a primary residence, [not growing currently], could be ‘restructured,’ with the help of a good broker, into 3 or 4 more properties, for more leverage, more equity and more income.

And currently, the refinance could be accessed at considerably less than the income that money would produce for you.

There are different ‘products’ that can be used for restructuring finance and equity, dependent on your personal situation.

Remortgages access funds in a single lump, with interest from day one, with fixed costs [fees] plus interest. For example, you purchased a Property 5 years ago for £200,000. You have paid £100,000 off of the original loan in initial deposit and repayments. The Property has increased in value 20% to £240,000. Value of Property £240,000 - money owed £100,000. Equity £140,000

If you wish to access some of the equity without selling the Property, you can remortgage up to 70% - 80% of the value, subject to your personal circumstances.

Then you have cash to invest that you’ve offset against another asset.

Drawdowns allow you to set a credit line against your equity, only paying interest on what you borrow, or drawdown. You can drawdown and payback as you wish without penalties, and you don’t pay interest on borrowed money doing nothing.

Offsets allow you to offset any savings against any borrowing, so you’re only paying interest on net debt.

For example, if your outstanding mortgage balance was £100,000 and you linked a savings account to this, which had a balance of £10,000, you would only pay interest on £90,000 of your mortgage. You will not receive interest on the savings you set against your mortgage. A great way to offset cash, reduce inflation erosion and get maximum leveraged from equity and assets.

There are many flexible options for you, or people you know, who have equity. Many people are also accessing this finance at ‘old’ rates as little as 0.25%...

That won’t last forever!If you want access to some of the best brokers to discuss your opportunities personally, independent of us, there are contact details at the end.

Imagine accessing funds at lower than current [new] rates, getting benefit of inflation erosion on debt which costs you very little, then getting the upside equity of other assets, and the income, all leveraged and Handsfree.

And all this tax free until significant income is created.

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More and more people are looking to access funds via friends, family members and JV partners, even if they don’t have immediate access to finds personally. Everyone knows someone with equity.

You should of course be aware of the risks of working with others, but the upside could be significant, and the leverage even greater.

PensionsIt’s old news that pensions are under performing at best. People have lost faith and belief that they’ll ever get their pension, and many people would welcome the opportunity to release it early.

Leveraging money you may have to wait decades to get, that you may never get, and if you do inflation or the government or pension company has eroded it, is a far more attractive option for self responsible investors.

This is an area that you have to know the legalities and viable technicalities to do it. The power team of contacts you have show their real value in areas like this.

If you’d like a contact in this area, independent from us, to run over your personal options, their details are at the end too.

Personal loans, credit cards, overdraftsWe do not advise raising expensive short term debt to leverage against Property. However, if you can access this liquid finance at low rates, and leverage assets that pay a higher income, there could be an opportunity for you.

Liquidating other asset vehiclesStocks, bonds and ISA’s are seriously underperforming right now. The stock market is where it was a decade ago, ISA’s are struggling to cover inflation, and government backed assets are not only paying virtually nothing, but people’s trust in the security of them has eroded too. Perhaps after reading this and taking time to think about restructuring and leverage, you could get better, low risk returns on moving your money?

So what’s next?There’s a saying we love, dating back thousands of years - “to know and not to do is not to know.”

We’re almost at the end here, but perhaps just at the beginning for you. What’s your next step? What decisions do you need to make now?

First decision: are you going to do something?Anything? Second decision: do you want to go and do all this yourself? If that’s your passion

and you have time to burn, you should consider giving it a go. If you want our help in that area, here’s some free stuff to help you on your way:

http://beyourownbank.co.uk/ http://emergencybuyingreport.co.uk/

If you want the leveraged way, and that is a choice you want to make, we’d be honoured to help you. Whether you get leveraged help through us or

someone else, you now know how to analyse that their interests are aligned to yours.

If you’d like to talk to us about next steps for raising finance, and leveraging your Handsfree investments, our contact details are below.

Karl will be happy to talk to you:Direct Dial 01733 898555Direct Mob 07572 861080: email [email protected]

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Perhaps you want to see some deals? Perhaps you want help accessing your finance? Perhaps you want to know more about how you can become a leveraged, Handsfree investor? Whatever it is, we’re here to help.

If you’d like between 17.6% and 53% return on your invested capital every year, Karl will be happy to show you how.

We’re not into railroading. The chances are, and statistics show, that it is unlikely that we will work together, because it’s just not for most people. It’s as good if you say no, as if you say yes, and we’ll help you find the strategy that is right for you, even if we don’t make any money on it, because it will benefit us both in the long run.

And that’s what really matters.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to read this.

Invest for freedom, choice & profit...

Rob Moore, Mark Homer & the entire Progressive team

Progressive giving back Giving back. We hear these familiar words very often.

Both Rob & Mark have had very close loved ones [Mark’s father and uncle], die of Cancer.

Without property investing as an investment vehicle, we doubt we’d really be able to make much of a difference for the lives of other people – tenants, refurb teams, maintenance men, letting agents, all of whom benefit from the work Progressive do, as well as the charity work we do including marathons and events for Cancer Research, Sue Ryder and others.

If you can’t give back and help others, then life just isn’t as rewarding.

The great thing about the Progressive community is you help to be a part of that too, so thank you.

Together, we’ve donated up to 50% of event ticket revenues, and often have charity events and balls, that has helped the community amass well over 6 figures [and looking to step it up to 7 figures] in the last 4 years.

Rob Moore Mark Homer Founding Partner Founding Partner

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Lord Sugar, Rob & Mark at the Property SuperConference2011

Sir Bob Geldof, Rob & Mark at the Property SuperConference 2012

Progressive Property SuperConference 2010 Charity Cheque

Progressive Property SuperConference 2011 Charity Cheque

Progressive Property SuperConference 2012 Charity Cheque

James Caan with Rob & Mark sharing book ideas

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Books

Media

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Our People…

Rob Moore – [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898552

Mark Phillips – Acquisitions [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898555

Karl Spencer – Handsfree [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898550

Wayne Beecham – Lettings [email protected] Phone 01733 293901

Mark Homer – Co-Founder [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898552

Caroline Jackson – Handsfree Client [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898559

Scott Rawlings – Mortgage [email protected] | Phone: 01733 898555

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The necessary Legal DisclaimerWe have taken care to make the figures and specifics in this e-report as accurate and relevant as possible at the time of writing; and of course we hope you understand that these can change dependent on market and economic forces beyond our control. The content, projections, figures and indications contained in this e-book are based on opinion and cannot be relied upon when making investment decisions.

As with any investment, Property values can fall as well as rise. The authors offer this information as a guide only and it cannot be considered as financial advice in any way.

Please refer to your independent financial advisor who is qualified to give you complete advice based on your circumstances.

The authors Rob Moore and Mark Homer are not qualified to give mortgage, legal or financial advice. Please seek legal and financial advice from a qualified advisor before making commitments. Neither its authors nor ‘Progressive Property Ltd’ accept liability for decisions made based on the content of this e-book.