Negotiating with estate agents

You are approaching from the wrong direction. There is always money for a good deal - just makesure that the real deal is not the one you tell them about otherwise they might steal it off you.
An analogy - if you are going hunting for elephants take an elephant gun. Its wiser not to try and find the elephant then look for the gun.
So ask what financing your do need to buy in your area. What deposit what buying price, what yield, keep working through the spreadsheets.
Why? AT the end of the repeated process you will clearly know the difference between a marginal deal and a great deal AND WHY. Then ask and show the figures to backers for the deposit renovation costs etc.
Keep generating the resources because there is always money for a good deal.

Persistance is what pays in life, finally life gives you what you asked for!

Hello Gavin, thank you for joining in on this forum. The thing is that I don't have any backers to put the money forward for me to be able to invest around my area. My limit is 80k as I have 20k to invest with. I no I can stretch abit further by getting a 15% Ltv. But I don't want to go above water. Thanks

Again then you need to reach out to others, ask your mother or uncles who they know who might invest/have money/be a mentor. Make a real and actual business plan (there are templates online to fill in) thats what I did and then you have seen and worked out all the risks the angles and the upside downsides.
If it still comes up bad then you have to buy cheaper to have a good margin of safety (See Ben Graham for that definiation)

Hi craig
Take a bit of advice from everyone, take what YOU feel works for you. Any landlord who has a decent portfolio will tell you the first few houses are the hardest so be prepared for a roller coaster, because unless you have the luck of rich parents its a hell of a ride lol. Experienced self made people will know what I mean by that, only the toughest survive, take no advice from the talkers ie what we call bar stool people. Keep it simple, like someone else said look at the area you want within reason and if need be concentrate on saving the deposit for that. Save, borrow from cc, personal loans etc but ensure you know how to handle that type of borrowing.

You can keep asking people and then getting lots of different info, this in itself can be overwhelming. Get a rapport with a good estate agent in the area you want to invest in and ask them if you can speak to an experienced landlord. They will know someone and if you speak to them make notes before so you not repeating yourself and looking unprepared. Good luck and remember once you start keep telling yourself 'it could always be worse' all the best

Hello rav, thank you for that information. I can't invest where I live due to the property prices being to high. Hence why I've looked at investing in either Coventry Birmingham Wolverhampton Nottingham and Walsall. My budget is 80k as I have 20k for the deposit. But I'm aiming to get a 3 bed house for the 60k mark. I need my first property to be bmv or atleast a property where I can release half of my deposit out in 6 months. So I can then top it up and buy another property and so on. But I just don't no where to invest for the best. If you have a good way of making my 20k grow then please do let me no. But I'm not sure wether the buy refurb and sell on is the way. I suppose it depends on the area really. Thanks

Craig, I said the last comment would be my last piece of advice but I have to comment again. You obviously don't realise this yet but you have already received the best advice there is available. You could spend thousands on seminars and get nothing like this. What I woud suggest is that you go back to the top of the link and digest EVERYTHING you have been told, starting with Mark's advice. For what it's worth, if you're starting with cash in your pocket, you're in a very privileged position. When I began investing in property I had a 40k credit card debt and I know other hardened investors who started even further back. Read the advice you've been given then re-read, re-read and absorb it, then go and act on it. The longer you spend whining about 'how little' you have the more deals are passing you by.

Hi Craig
Good to chat yesterday. You have now and probably did have already enough information already to make a decision which is best for you. But naturally you want to keep checking that information off with others to make sure you havent missed anything. That is good it shows due diligence but there comes a point when paralysis by analysis may take over and procrastination will become your comfort zone. I hope not.

I have had conversations with one of my plumbers for 15 years now about the ifs and buts and maybes of investing. He has 100K he could have invested but hasn`t. He says he will one day when the time is right. But that was 15 years ago. You are no where near that time scale yet but there maybe is a danger you will reach that milestone if you do not self monitor your personality type. My plumber is destined always to be a plumber and there is nothing wrong with that.

Before you start negotiating with someone, you should build some rapport and give some credibility and background to your offer.

Thanks to all these "get rich quick in property" seminars, estate agents are jaded by obvious newbies trying to negotiate huge discounts with them, only to find that the newbie cannot go ahead with the deal because they were trying to do a no money down deal structure, or some other "creative" financing strategy.

I wrote my top tips for negotiation here:

http://www.propertytribes.com/blog/top-10-tips-for-successful-property-negotiation/

I hope you find them useful Craig and good luck with your deals.

Thank you everyone for all your help so far, I appreciate it so much. What do people think I should do with my 20k. Buy a single let property. buy a shared house property to generate more of an income per month. Or shall I try and make my 20k grow by buying refurbishing and selling for a profit. Get a residential mortgage with no early repayment fees. Do the property up as quick as possible and keep doing that until I've got abit more money to play with. A mortgage broker told me due to not being a home owner. I can buy one property at a time to buy and sell. And not have to pay any tax. What do you guys or anyone else think of that. Also if anyone has a better idea of how to invest my money in property to generate me more money then please do tell me. Thanks

The first person to make a low offer rarely succeeds, but the second person to make an offer in the same low ballpark often does.

View and make your low offer. You'll probably be rejected

Then get an associate - a disinterested friend or colleague with a good pokerface - to view and repeat the same low offer a fortnight or so later.

In my case, it helps enormously that I'm married to someone of a different nationality with a different surname 😉