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David's Bio
Hello, I am David Humphreys, a politically incorrect author & lecturer, serial property investor & developer, who loves crunching the numbers to find the answers to "what if" in buy to let terms.
I launched the first version of buy-to-let.com over 10 years ago to provide information and advice to both thinking about it and actual investors and also to promote my business, providing consultancy services to buy to let investors on a fee paying basis and that is still the case today.
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At that time, 10 years ago, buy to let was in it's infancy, search on the phrase "buy-to-let" in a search engine of the day, not Google, as I don't think it existed, and a few hundred pages appeared at best, today the number of results that appear on Google is in the millions. A search on buy to let mortgages alone produces over a million results.
When I first formed my company, my accountant asked me what was "buy to let", how times have changed!
Today there are more websites out there selling or promoting one or more aspects of buy to let than you could read through in some months and new content appears daily.
A whole new industry has grown up around the concept and whilst many of the suppliers are reputable, some, in fact quite a lot, are not, and the validity of some of the claims made astound me but often still look very plausible.
In my opinion buy to let remains the best deal in town for most investors prepared to take a long term view given that a substantial portion of the cost of the investment can be borrowed.
In fact buy to let was miss-named when first launched by ARLA in 1996, it should have been called "borrow to let" because it is the effect of using borrowed money in the investment that increases the profits and that borrowed money is more readily available to buy to let investors than is the case with other asset classes.
But whilst buy to let remains the best deal it also remains completely unregulated and able to make claims that can lead the unwary or un-educated investor deeply into debt and possible bankruptcy.
And over the past 10 years, whilst most investors have enjoyed the results of a property boom, some investors have lost substantial amounts of money through schemes such as Practical Property Portfolios (PPP) that was wound up by the DTI in 2004, followed by Sterling Mansion and related companies in 2005 and more recently with the failure of Inside Track and associated companies that persuaded their students to invest in over valued flats that nobody wanted to either rent or buy!
None of these investors have an insurance scheme such as the one that covers your bank deposits to fall back on. But the promoters made a fortune, as is often the case in these instances, at the investors' expense.
So I am now going to try, through this website, to make buy to let safer for investors by promoting good practice and quality housing.
You will find links to being a good landlord , letting quality properties, using reputable suppliers and also attempts to teach what, in my opinion, is good practice.
Now this is not all for free, I also need to pay bills, but a lot will be for free as many of the suppliers that feature on this site pay me for any business that I am able to introduce to them. So, if you want to keep this site broadly free, visit my affiliated sites and buy their quality products and services.
Now what expertise do I have that makes me a cut above the rest or some of them at the very least.
Experience, I have been in the residential property game since the late 60's, been round the block a number of times, seen and lived through a number of boom and busts, made and lost a load of money and still make mistakes even though I am regarded by some as an expert or guru.
Experience, I published a book, Investing in Residential Property, over 10 years ago which was regarded as the then bible on the subject. Whilst it is still in print I would not recommend it as it is not up to date. I have also developed a suite of software in Microsoft Excell which again is still available and up to date.
Experience, I have appeared on TV, Sky & Bloomberg, and BBC National & Local Radio plus contributed to newspaper & magazine articles.
Experience, I deliver lectures at Landlord Events and Shows such as Homebuyers & Property Investors plus 3-day Advanced Training in Buy-To-Let for Whitney UK Ltd and our own 1-day Workshops.
Experience, I have been involved in developing portfolios of residential property in Oxford, Wandsworth London, County Durham, the M6 Corridor & The Valleys of South Wales both for myself and our clients.
I have been involved in a whole range of buy to let activities and know a great deal but not the lot, which brings me to EDUCATION!
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