Post credit crunch property investor story

Lucasz is a post credit crunch property investor. In other words, 100% of his property success has been achieved since 2009, arguably the most difficult property trading period in two decades!

Mark Alexander’s story has inspired thousands but there have always been the doubters who have said that he was lucky and and that his successes were all as a result of fortunate timing of the property market. They have used this as a reason to justify doing nothing. Lucasz’ story blows this misconception out of the window! Lucasz wrote to Mark to ask for advice and Mark was delighted when Lucasz agreed to his suggestion of providing free online mentoring as it gives them both an opportunity to inspire thousands of others as well as the obvious benefits to Lucasz.

Below is the bulk of the email which Lucasz sent. We have tidied up the grammar slightly as Lucasz is from Poland and still improving his English. That said, he’s doing remarkably well at that too. Mark said “I wish my Russian was as good as Lucasz English – I’ve been trying to learn for five years so that I can communicate with my extended family.”

The remainder of this post is written by Lucasz and tells his story to date, Mark’s responses will follow in the comments section below. Feel free to join in. Given the nature of this thread we suspect it could run for several years as a result of interaction between Lucasz, Mark and other investors. The ONLY way to stay in touch with this story is to “Subscribe to comments in this post”. You can do this by adding your email to the section bolow the article and clicking the subscribe button. You will then receive an email from Google feedburner asking for confirmation of subscription. The service is FREE.

“I moved to the UK in 2005, found a job as an IT engineer and focused on saving as much money as I could to invest into property.

In 2009 I purchased my first property – a lovely semi-detached in Edinburgh. I purchased at auction and managed to sort out a first time buyer mortgage in four weeks. It was a VERY stressful time! I was really concerned about getting the mortgage on time to complete the purchase, whether the surveyor would find a structural problem in the building etc. etc. However, it all turned out OK in the end.

My friends were very sceptical as I was risking all my savings purchasing at auction. I also had a lot of doubts as I had lived in the UK for only a few years and my knowledge of being a property investor was very limited, not to mention my lack of auction experience. However, after some time I can say – it was worth it 🙂

Two years later I purchased another property (needing refurbishing) – took a further loan on my house (£20k) plus managed to save more money. I am looking to sell that property as it is a bit to far from my place to manage.

In the mean time I have found a new, better paid job and managed to save even more money. I have also taken a personal loan – again a lot of people were just shaking their heads and said that I will regret all that one day. However, I have now three loans to pay each month but I still pay less then the rent I paid every month for the rented property I lived in before I purchased my home – pure maths.

I thought a lot about the strategy of buying/selling/renting out properties, made some notes, read articles, but struggled to find useful information … until I found your forum that is. I must admit that your forum is really amazing. A lot of ideas I have developed over last two years on my own have been confirmed by you in your forums. I still have a lot of doubts, but your website helped me a lot.

My small (yet!) portfolio is:

• My current home in Edinburgh – worth £150K, mortgage + further loan on the property bringing total borrowings secured against that property to £90,000.
• The property which have refurbished and am now I am looking to sell – 100% ownership – worth £70,000
• New property I have just purchased at auction and which I’m planning to rent out for £600-650 after minor cosmetic refurbishments. Purchased for £65,000 but a home report has resulted in a valuation of £130,000. Yes, I got it half price 🙂

As mentioned earlier I am going to sell the property worth £70,000 and invest in another one.

I was planning to remortgage the property I have just purchased and use the money to invest in another property. However there is one thing I had not realised until reading your website. You have mentioned in one of your articles that it will be difficult to get a BTL/remortgage within six months of the purchase date (I understand the reasons). You have also mentioned that you use “private banks” to refinance your properties within six month of the purchase.

Could you please advise what private banks you will allow remortgaging within six month of purchase? I would like to refinance the property I have just purchased and invest in the next one. Do those banks operate in Scotland?

Given that I purchased a property for £65,000 but it has been valued at £130,000 – does this mean that I could borrow 75% value when I remortgage the property, i.e £97,000?

Could you please advise whether I am heading in the right direction with my property strategy?

Thank you for your help.

Lukasz

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