Revisiting 2005 - Property Confidence Flying High

[Its time to buy]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.j....xml&page=1

The growth in value of our own homes and the relative ease of remortgaging that equity, as well as the cheap cost of borrowing money and the availability of buy-to-let mortgages, has made this possible. National figures are hard to come by, but Ludlow Thompson, a major London estate agency, says that 40 per cent of their 25,000 landlords are women, a figure that's rising by about five per cent a year.

One woman who is not surprised by these numbers is Lisa Hulyer, who has set up a company, Property Smarts, [ www.propertysmarts.co.uk ] to train women on the ins and outs of property development and investment. Ms Hulyer believes women have a natural ability when it comes to property investment and development.

[Its time to buy]

To raise the money, I talked to the manager at the Co-op Bank, and he advised me that the best way to go about it was to set up a company and take out a business loan against the equity I had in my house.

My first project was a three-bedroom semi in Flixton in Manchester that I bought for £150,000. It had some land, too, and after some research into the area I realised that, with a lot of work, I could make some money on it. Structurally, the gable wall had to be rebuilt; it needed a new roof, new windows and general modernisation.

Looking back, it was a nightmare for a first job and I was out of my depth. It was difficult to co-ordinate all the workmen - lots of them didn't turn up and there was a lot of hanging about. I didn't feel confident enough to do anything with the land and I sold that for £70,000 and, six months later, sold the house for £122,000. I'd spent £25,000 on the work, so after expenses I made about £20,000.

[Its time to buy]

I have 14 properties, including real and off-plan. Mostly we've done this with what I call pretend money - remortgaging our own home or our other properties.

I wonder what happens when pretend money disappears!

[Lone_Twin]

They'll find out soon enough how "pretend" the bank views that money.

.

ST

[Moo]

I have 14 properties, including real and off-plan. Mostly we've done this with what I call pretend money - remortgaging our own home or our other properties.

Something tells me the bank may think differently about this. Looks like a serious case of Silly Cow Disease to me.

[Daft Boy]

Something tells me the bank may think differently about this. Looks like a serious case of Silly Cow Disease to me.

Don't be too hard on them, they have not long had the vote. Women need to learn by their mistakes as well.