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Glenn Armstrong ( G&A Property )
Glenn Armstrong www.glennarmstrong.com. Glenn is very strong in both the BMV (behind market value) & creative finance markets plus running courses for DIY investors and regularly speaking at property network events such as the Berkshire Property Meet. I first met Glenn at a conference organised by Steve Foley www.ukiec.com whose conferences are well worth the money.
Glenn is not the greatest speaker in the world but the message is still well worth listening to as he has a considerable amount of experience in developing property portfolios both for himself and clients.
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Updated 02-03-09
We attended Glenn's BMV 1-day course in Milton Keynes on Feb 28th 2009.
The Score:
- Course Content - Good +
- Delivery - Good +
- Workbook - Average +
- Location & Directions - Excellent
- Room - Good +
- Catering - Good +
- Accuracy of Web Site Copy - Excellent
- Probable Accuracy of Web SiteTestimonials - Excellent
The Report
There were 14 people present including us. The style was very informal with all of us sitting in a semi circle with Glenn in the middle next to the projector.
On registration we were all given name tabs, a work book and a very large calculator. Also, on arrival we were treated to coffee or tea plus an egg & bacon roll which was very welcome.
The workbook was cone bound with a cone that was too small/tight, the result was that it came apart later in the afternoon. The pages were photocopies of an original. Some pages were illegible, possibly due to being reductions of the original. I did not complain so Glenn and his team did not have an opportunity to replace it had that been possible.
The Property Course started at about 10.30 am following talking to other students over the breakfast coffee so it is important to arrive "on time" even if the course does not kick off at 10am as advertised.
At the start Glenn asks each student to outline briefly their history and their aims and objectives for the coming year. At the end of each student's report, Glenn jumped up and made relevant comments specific to that student.
We then started into the workbook and opened up with a review of current market conditions specific to Milton Keynes where Glenn does most if not all of his buying. A year ago he was seeing values of 135k which were now down to 120k, and whereas he was paying 90-100k he was now paying 60k+, a huge reduction.
He covered, in some depth, how he researches an area and whether, in his opinion, it is worth going out to that location and this may be a single postcode in a town or city. In any event it made sense though I don't propose to cover the detail of how he does it as there would then be no point in going on his course! Suffice to say a lot of this research can be completed from your home on the web.
Following mid morning coffee, we looked at how to check out a tenant and one tip that was unusual was that often one of Glenn's' staff or Glenn himself collects the prospective tenant from where they are currently living to take them to the new property and, using some excuse, gets into their existing property to have a good look round at see how they live!
By late morning we were starting to look at the numbers, I say starting because whilst the whole workbook was covered during the day with the exception of Workshop Role Play, it was not as structured as some courses, Glenn's presentation tends to wander around a bit dependent on the feedback coming from the students.
So to the first numbers rule, a property must deliver a 6-12k cash back at 75% LTV plus 200pcm positive cash flow after all costs and that is in the current market. If it fails this test then no deal or carry on negotiating until it does meet this criteria.
He then briefly covering his mentoring programme, without any hard sell, and we broke for a sandwich and snack lunch served just outside the room.
After lunch we got into more numbers and probably what we were all there for.
How do you structure a deal so that following buying with a mortgage through Glenn you can get all your money out at 75% LTV and even get a cash back legally without waiting for six months.
Well I can tell you that it can be done and that it is legal, and Glenn not only outlined the theory but also provided us with a couple of recent case histories.
How you/they do it, well Glenn runs this course every month on the last Saturday if you want to find out.
Now buying properties BMV is all about marketing, the vendor is not going to advertise himself that he will sell his property at 20% BMV, you have to find him. He has to answer an advert of yours and what is quite common along with press advertising are leaflets.
According to Glenn 20,000 leaflets brings in 15-20 enquiries which results in 3-5 visits and one possibly two deals. How you design the advert & leaflet is covered on the course. Approx marketing cost per property bought BMV is 1k.
What is BMV, 15%, 20%, 30% less? Glenn goes for 40%! He uses a technique he calls "nibbling" which is well named and whilst I have yet to try it I can see how it would work, which is half the battle, in that if you believe in what you are doing you are half way to succeeding or maybe even more than half way.
So go on the course and lean how to nibble your way to a cost that is a 40% discount on current value or 40% Behind Market Value.
So what else did Glenn cover, how to stop a repossession a day out from the bailiffs arriving or even on the same day. An indication of refit or spruce up costs for flip purposes.
Mid afternoon and we were introduced to a gentleman called Mark, an ex estate agent who now works for Glenn, gamekeeper turned poacher or vice versa, who spent about 45 minutes explaining how to both impress & deal with estate agents. I say impress because you need to stand out from all the other investors who walk into their offices and quickly become the agent's first call when the deal of the week/month hits their office.
Before tea, Daren Pledger, who designed Glenn's website, and this one as a matter of fact gave a brief talk on websites and internet marketing. Useful because all of you, if you are serious about investing, need a web site, it increases your credibility like advertising in Yellow Pages used to.
After tea, with cakes! Glenn introduced Simon Zutshi who will be known to a number of you. He spent about 45 minutes explaining how to "buy" property using options. There were a number of variations but essentially the core was to agree an option to buy at a price (BMV) with the vendor and then either sell the property at a higher figure or let the property, effectively taking over the vendor's mortgage payments. Again all this made sense and could prove very useful for investors with little or no cash funds. I understand that generally Glenn does not have guest speakers so this was a one off.
Simon was followed by Jim Haliburton of HMODaddy fame who spent another 45 minutes covering the basics of investing in HMO's. Jim is a real character, not for everyone, but is very experienced in his field.
Amongst other points he has three rules:
Rule of 3, an HMO let by the room grosses about three times the income of the same property let as a single let.
Rule of 20, after 20 years the original purchase price of the property, which is then converted into an HMO, will roughly equal the gross rent.
Rule of 40 10, after 40 years, the gross rent of a house purchased and turned into an HMO will be about 10 times the purchase price.
For more information on HMO Daddy go to
Last but not least Glenn introduced a representative of the Utility Warehouse which you can find a link to on this site as we are also promoters of the Utility Warehouse. The gentleman spent about 30 minutes explaining the benefits of this utility company which all investors should join.
After this presentation we all made for the bar with Glenn. The day finally wrapped up at about 7.30pm though you could have left earlier if you had wanted to.
Likes & dislikes:
I liked the informal atmosphere, the opportunity to listen to other students experiences as the day progressed, the lack of any selling of any of Glenn's other products & services at any time, Simon & Jim did try to sell some of their products & services but not overtly. I missed being able to rest my workbook on a hard flat surface and that's about the only moan I've got other than the workbook fell apart.
Now to the cost, £ 500 plus vat for a single person, £ 750 for two people, can be unrelated, £ 100 plus vat pp to re-attend as a refresher.
Was it worth it? Yes but. Why but, because if you have heard Glenn speak at a Network evening such as the Berkshire Meet or at one of Steve Foleys conferences on BMV you might think that you had heard a lot of the subject matter covered during the day before.
In fact this is not the case, understandable Glenn cannot cover in 45 minutes at the other venues the subject matter he covers in about 5+ hours on this course.
Also he is unlikely to pass on his trade secrets or methods to a group who he has volunteered to speak to for little or no fee.
This is the first course that I have been on that specialised in BMV and I have no hesitation in recommending it both with regard to content, style & honesty.
Follow Up 4-03-09
On opening my email box on Wednesday morning following the course, I found an email from Glenn's office with a load of attachments.
Two Words docs were about handling telephone enquiries, one Word doc covered the Mentoring Day offered by Glenn, another doc covered on-location visiting estate agents mentoring and there was an Option Agreement and a PDF file covering the Repossession Process plus 3 Excel Spreadsheets.
I found the spreadsheets very basic, probably better than nothing but could be a whole lot better presented with more info & calcs. The Option Agreement would be better written in "Plain English"! The Repossession Process was good and would be very helpful to anyone who is not familiar with the process. The two docs covering handling telephone enquiries were also good, if a bit basic, but as you use them you will customise them to suit your own delivery whilst hopefully retaining the structure. It is never easy to start with a clean sheet so even basic forms that least get you up and running!
If you require any further information please contact me by email david@buy-to-let.com.
As to investing in Milton Keynes with Glenn, we are investigating this and will report under Armchair Investments. We are an affiliate of Glenn's.
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