Opportunity Knocks For Savvy Property Investors

Over the past 12 months interest rate rises and the summer’s credit crunch have brought doom and gloom around the UK property market with many journalists and industry professionals saying that the golden era of property investment in the UK is over with fat profits a thing of the past.

To some extent this is true because over the past decade property prices have risen at an incredible rate making many people very wealthy and with the likelihood of property prices stagnating or even falling in 2008, many people will be put off buying investment property and dipping their toe into the buy to let market.

However, what a lot of people fail to see is that the current market conditions hold a lot of opportunities for the savvy property investor with the right strategy.

With demand for property falling due to the knock on effects of the credit crunch and the current interest rate rises kicking in, prices are slowly starting to fall and hence vendors have to cut prices to sell property and also many families are on the brink financially as they struggle to meet rising costs.

With the above in mind, property investors have a big opportunity to get some great deals and buy their property investments below market value by precisely targeting people who are in financial difficulty and need to move quickly.

Essentially, property investors can offer to buy a vendors property very quickly say in under 30 days in return for a sizable discount. This obviously helps the vendor as they are avoiding having their property repossessed and property investors are also making an immediate profit by buying the property at a good discount.

This is a tactic that can work again and again for property investors and as long as you act ethically, this can also help vendors as well and avoid repossession of their property.

Property investors can also offer a ‘rent back’ option to vendors meaning that they do not have the stress of moving from their property by signing an agreed tenancy agreement with the property investor. This means that the vendor is happy as they can still stay in their home and for the property investor they have bought a property at well below market value and they are also getting an immediate rental income from the property.

Property investors can also pick many bargains up from estate agents and property auctions as they will be in a position to bargain harder and pick up some very good deals.

In the coming 12 months, repossessions are set to rise significantly, meaning that property auctions and estate agents will have many bargains for the savvy property investor to buy.

One thing to remember is if an estate agent is selling a repossessed property on behalf of a bank or lender, they are required by law to get as much money for that property as possible so my advice for investors is to get to know some estate agents very well find out if they hold any repossessions or vendors who need a quick sale and bargain hard to get the best possible deals.

On a final note, even though the property market is going through a wobbly stage at present, there will be many opportunities for property investors to pick up bargain property deals if they follow a clear and targeted strategy and are willing to bargain hard.