The Think Tank Group - Furniture Packages & Residential Lettings

New Office in Manchester Marks a Milestone for Innovative Residential Lettings and Furniture Package Company.

Recognising the huge amount of property development within the Manchester area, The Think Tank Group Residential Lettings Agency has now opened a new office serving Manchester City Centre and surrounding areas.

“There are many young professionals working and living in and around Manchester City Centre, and The Think Tank Group has recognised the requirement for well managed properties throughout the Manchester region” Says Daniel Latto, Director and owner of The Think Tank Group.  “All of our available properties are uploaded to our own site, which receives around 35,000 hits every month, along with the properties being uploaded to the major property portals including Rightmove, Fish4Homes and Propertyfinder, which should make it very easy for professionals to find their next home.  We’re now on the lookout for more property in the Manchester area.”

Lawrence Nisbett has taken on the role of Lettings Negotiator for the Manchester area and has lots of experience in the Lettings industry.   

“This role allows The Think Tank Group to expand its already excellent Residential Lettings services that first started in Leeds over to Manchester and is a natural progression in the growth of the company.” Says Lawrence, who has himself lived in Manchester all his life.

Innovative Furniture Packages

As well as Lettings, The Think Tank Group provide an innovative solution to the problem of furnishing buy to let properties by doing the job for them.

“Our Furniture Packages can help a property rent quicker, reduce the amount of time the property is empty and can often increase the rental valuation” says Daniel Latto, Director.  “Now, we can install a property full of high quality furniture in just a single day, allowing tenants to just move in, drop their bags and live in the property immediately”.

The Think Tank Group are currently looking for more property, as they have already rented everything on their books in the Manchester area.  They can be contacted on 0870 360 9600, or website at www.thethinktankgroup.co.uk

About The Think Tank Group :

The company was formed in Leeds during February 2004 to ensure the rental of the Directors own properties.  From this beginning, the company grew, adding Property Sales and Furniture Packages along the way.  Today the company is looking forward to further expansion plans including offices in Manchester, London, Bristol, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

The website can be viewed at www.thethinktankgroup.co.uk

The furniture packages can be viewed at
www.furniture-packages.co.uk

The office can be contacted on 0870 360 9600.

How times have changed from the initial days of buy to let.  The market has matured, investors have come and gone, and in particular, the way in which people invest has changed dramatically.

Only a few years ago, then focus seemed to be on “The art of the deal”.  You know, a decent return on investment, or a good yield.  Things seem to have changed now to “how much is it, and do I need a deposit”, and there are a flurry of deals available out there.

The “No money down deal” is now the holy grail for many property investors, as opposed to the old fashioned way of making sure that the rent covers the mortgage each and every month.  I know I sound a bit old fashioned, but at 34, I wouldn’t say so.  Just an investor with experience, who has seen enough investors buy below their “perceived” market value, only to either lose the property, or sell it at a loss later on, simply because they thought it was a short cut to success (There isn’t one by the way, despite what many property clubs may infer, at least not in my experience).

Originally, The Art of The Deal I refer to was about the rental income, less the mortgage costs and any other fees, and whatever was left should have been profit at the end of each month.

The profit was then multiplied by 12 (as in the months of the year), and divided by my initial investment.  This is your Return on Investment (ROI). This was the way in which you could compare one property deal, against another deal especially at different rental values.

For example, is a property purchased at £150k with a rent of £650, as good as a deal at £95k and a rental value of £425.  Do you know the answer ?  Well you need to know what the service charge is on each one, then add in the property management charges.  Then you can do your comparison.  Usually, it’s the lower price properties that give a better return on investment.  An added bonus of a lower priced property is also the fact that you don’t need to pay stamp duty.

As well as having a better return on investment, having two smaller properties rather than one big property helps with void periods.  If one of your two smaller propreties are empty, then its only a 50% void.  But having the one large property empty means 100% void.

In fact, when you’re first starting out in property investing, there’s a line of thought that suggests you should only buy properties under the £120k mark in order to avoid stamp duty, and to spread the risk across multiple properties, which takes advantage of a better Return, less risk in terms of voids, less up front costs (although you will have two mortgage fees, and two sets of solicitors fees).

I think buying a property at £220k as your first property is potentially “property investing suicide” and you need to cut your teeth on something a little bit less risky, without all the massive upfront costs that come with such a high priced property (and potential mortgage commitments)

But the main reason why I think that the Art of The Deal has changed, is that these days its not about doing the maths on the deal, its about the discount you get from the developer so that you don’t need to put down a deposit.

While this seems like a good idea, in practice it can mean a lot of similar properties completing at the same time, all with lower rental valuations, and a potential loss of anywhere upto £250 per month.  Incidentally, it is usual for rental valuations to be low on new developments, due to normal supply and demand, but not when you have already paid over the odds for a property just to get a no money down deal.

That said, not all no money down, off-plan investments, are the bad deals. Some of them do stack up, but you need to do your research.  For example, why buy a city centre brand new off-plan property, with no previous history of rentals, when you can buy a 2 bed back to back (or two of them) and know that the property has been there 100 years, its already got history of being rented in the local area.

Of course you could say that you have guarantees for the first few years that the white goods (fridges, dishwashers, etc).  But that sometimes isn’t the case (as my tenants in one of my Brand new Manchester properties discovered when they were left without a shower for 6 weeks). 

But do you do the maths?  Do you know whether it’s a good deal or not.

And that’s why I think that The Art of The Deal has changed.

Let me quote an example.  I spoke with an investor recently who had purchased a property off plan from a property sourcing company.  The property was valued at £140,000 by the RICS approved valuer.  The property however was purchased for £150,000, less a 15% discount, and the landlord didn’t have the funds available to fund the rest of the property, so he was going to lose the £3,000 deposit he had paid to reserve it.

The property itself didn’t stack up either, as it’s a one bed and the rental value on this is £550 per month.  The problem here is that the property just doesn’t stack up, the rent wont cover the mortgage, and it seems to be all about getting a discount on the purchase price.  “But you make money when you buy property” said the landlord.

Im afraid that’s too much Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the book that launched a thousand investors, which does quite rightly state that you make money when you buy.

But the context is incorrect.  What Robert Kiyosaki meant was that you negotiate well in order to secure a discount, not that you purchase an already inflated property at a discount just so that you don’t have to put any deposit in.

It is by the way, still possible to buy a discounted property, and still make a decent return, but if you don’t know how to find out whether the property is a good purchase compared to another property, then you’re going to make mistakes and this may cost you dearly.

The bottom line on this is, is simply that if you can work out how to value one property against another, then you can do a direct comparison and make sure that you reduce the chances of buying a property that may be too expensive, or not cover its costs.

Daniel Latto is the Director of The Think Tank Group (A Residential Property Management Company based in Leeds) and Furniture Packages Ltd (A Furniture Packages supplier nationwide).  Daniel owns a decent sized growing portfolio of properties and has 9 years experience of direct hands on experience.  He holds one to one training sessions to help investors learns the tricks of the trade.

The Think Tank Group can be contact at www.thethinktankgroup.co.uk or 0870 360 9600

Furniture Packages can be found at www.landlordfurniturepackages.co.uk