Have you read the property book '3+1 Plan"?

[geek84]

Hi Folks

Has anybody read the property book '3+1 Plan" by Brett Alegre-Wood?, which is supposed to be a number 1 Amazon best seller?

In it he states the idea to buy a new build or an off plan property to let out to tenants. He goes on to say the reason being the low amount of deposit required, the significant discount which builders sometimes offer in order to get some cash flow, and you won't be stuck in a property buy/sell chain. However, as you know, new builds are usually over priced, which would of course eliminate any discount which the builders may offer.

So taking this into consideration, would you buy a new build or off plan property?

Thanks

[Richlist]

Yes & no......its difficult to generalise without all the details.

Personally I wouldn't unless the price & the package was right and whats right for one is often wrong for another.

I would make the following points:-

* You CAN sometimes negotiate a good money off discount on top of the existing incentives builders will already offer (such as .....they pay the SDLT, legal fees, deposit etc). If you buy more than one property on the same development......especially if the builder has, say, X3 left, you can often get a significan discount if he needs to offload them quickly.

* The big downside with new builds is that they are nearly always built to an inflexible plan ie they will usually come with carpets/ floor coverings/ laminate, white goods, turfed gardens etc etc. You are usually paying a premium for these new things and as soon as the ink is dry on the contact they have very little value to the next buyer of the property.

* As they are initially overpriced their ability to appreciate in value is restricted. So although they often provide a good to excellent rental return, the value of your investment MAY increase much slower than other property.

[Melboy]

I wouldn't buy either but there again our very own Trenners who use to frequent these forums has just bought 2 new builds to rent out to add to his ever growing portfolio of rental property.

I must email him about this and I believe he is lurking somewhere in Tenerife at the moment on permanent holiday.

I wonder if he has a Sunseeker RL that we could borrow.

[Richlist]

I wonder if he has a Sunseeker RL that we could borrow.

No need......he's already borrowed mine for his holiday.

[Mortitia]

Price/yield is everything - do the figures stack up? Will there be capital growth - meaning will the property increase in value?

These must be the key issues.