Buying investment property with investment clubs – My Story Part 2. | Property Consultant & Property Sourcing Agent, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Buying investment property with investment clubs – My Story Part 2.

June 17, 2011 |

Author walkerfox

This is the second part in a series which has been contributed by a friend of Walker Fox. In this true story they tell how they first came across the concept of property investment through a property club, how they get started and how it went wrong.

Part II-The Introductory Seminar- Money, sun, swimming pools…FREEDOM!

The seminar is held in a smallish room of a brown, sullen-looking mediocre Hotel/Conference Center on the edge of a big roundabout. The ex footballer isn’t there, but the fat man from Spain is, and so are many other men.

While we get some free coffee and some some free biscuits, a man (that looks as if he’s tended to his hair with Marmite) wearing a pin striped suit, gives us a free information pack and tells us to sit where we like and that, soon, the man from Spain will begin to speak about how all his dreams have come true, and how all our dreams are about to.

I look down at the mans shoes and am surprised to see he isn’t wearing spats…or carrying a violin case.

So, we sit and drink coffee and read our packs which are packed with A4, ink jetted sheets of paper. The pages feature pixelated pictures of houses in Spain; the houses we will presumably live in once the property club helped us buy up half the houses in England and we’re living off the torrent of rent that pours in from them. In fact, the pack is so dense with information that it reminds me of one of those websites for courses that teach you how to draw (for free) or play the piano (for free) or to tap into the self confidence you never knew you had…(for free). Then you scroll through pages and pages of promises and testimonials to find the part that tells you the introductory lesson is free, but the 84 part book/cd rom package is $329.99.

The houses in the pictures have sweeping stair cases that lead to pools areas shaded by giant potted palms.

As I turn the pages, I feel I am being sucked in to a dream sequence from a 1930′s musical. Each page sings, louder and louder, that ’A Life in Spain can be YOURS, too’, as if investing in property is an aside. That we won’t have to trouble ourselves with any of that nuisancery.

The property club will do neeeeearly everything for us.

The only requirement?

WE give them OUR money so they can get started on realising OUR dreams for US.

It seems that Spain, or what it represents, is the REAL goal. And if you’ve spent your entire life enduring 11.5 months of winter for a 2 week summer, then Spain promises everything you’ve never had in Upper Miserableington-Upon-Crapp, Dirgeshire, UK.

Money, sun, swimming pools.

FREEDOM!

There are, however, some things the pack doesn’t mention.

Like what to do if a tenant in one of the many properties you are about to buy kills themselves and, after not being found for days, becomes ‘one’ with the carpet.
Like what to do if a tenant in one of the many properties you are about to buy destroys your house and then crack addicts moved in, leaving Lidl shopping bags of shit in the bedroom cupboards and syringes all over the living room.
Like what to do when your insurance company won’t pay up on one of the many properties you are about to buy because your letting agent hasn’t taken references from the tenant who destroyed it.
Like what to do if a tenant in one of the many properties you are about to buy flushes a load of drugs down the toilet, ruining your plumbing and doing a runner….after only ONE night in residence.

And it doesn’t mention what to do when you find out that at least one of the directors of this property club you are about to buy into, has been been investigated (more than once) for running companies that have collapsed, leaving investors thousands of pounds out of pocket.

And it certainly doesn’t mention what to do when the very same thing happens to YOU.

But by then, it’s too late.

The traps are set.

And by the time the the fat man from Spain begins to speak, I can hear them snapping shut.

Next time….

Think Simple Minds!

Think I Promised you a miracle!

Walker Fox Ltd are Commercial Management & Property Consultants who act for property investor clients in and around Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Please leave a comment if you have enjoyed the article or contact Walker Fox on 01924 896190, via email info@walkerfox.co.uk, Skype: walkerfox or connect on Twitter @walkerfox

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Buying investment property with investment clubs – My Story Part 1. (walkerfox.co.uk)

Posted in Ethics, Financial, investment club, Networking Events, property club, Property Investment, seminar, Walker Fox, Walker Fox |

Tags: blog, building, development, discussion, education, investing, networking, Property, walker fox

Buying investment property using an investment club | Property Consultant & Property Sourcing Agent, Wakefield, West Yorkshire:

June 27, 2011 at 4:45 am

[...] Buying investment property with investment clubs – My Story Part 2. (walkerfox.co.uk) Posted in Business, Ethics, Financial, Networking Events, property club, Property Consultant, Property Developing, Property Investment, Property Mentor, seminar, Walker Fox | Tags: building, discussion, education, Houses, investing, networking, Professional, Property, walker fox [...]