By Jess Macaulay
London’s October meeting was really invigorating. A huge thanks firstly to Raj Sharma for joining me to co-host this month’s meeting and to everyone who joined us from London and further afield. This month’s meeting was all about staying ahead of the technology curve within your property business as well as using auctions to supercharge your purchasing pipeline in the right way. If you couldn’t make it, the presentations will be on The Vault ready for you to catch up.
After getting introductions from everyone in the room Peter Vandervennin from the Mortgage Consultancy talked us through what had been happening in the lending market since we last met. There were discussions about how to utilise equity within your own home to support your investment strategies and using this to purchase multiple deals. Pete also outlined an interesting deal he’d done with a client where they had altered the tenancy type and the spec of an existing unit and how this had been funded to pull out all the equity. Whilst it is a difficult lending market, the market remains busy, and they are working with new lenders to ensure they can provide the most relevant and competitive rates to everyone.
James Pick from Konnexsion provided an interactive session for the members, building on a presentation he made earlier in the year. This month’s talk was all about the latest developments in artificial intelligence and how this could be practically utilised within your property business. One example that we ran through was a telephone call from a tenant to a lettings agent to identify a property maintenance issue. This call and the attached AI technology were cleverly able to extract information, answer questions and provide actions which was really fascinating to see happen in real time. One not to miss on the vault to see how technology can help you save significant time within your business.
After a short coffee break James Shuttle spoke from Insurance-Desk. Providing the latest details around property insurance he talked through the issues in the sector around underinsurance, complex cases, and the requirements to regularly get the portfolio revalued to ensure its valued at the correct level.
Finally, we heard from Andrew Binstock from Auction House London. In this interactive and entertaining session, he shared funny and detailed insights in terms of what can go right and what can go seriously wrong within the auction space and auction trades. With over 25 years of experience Andrew shared fabulous sector knowledge and practical advice with our London members. We discussed where the sector is moving right now and where he felt it would end up in the future.
All the presentations will be available for members that could not attend on the PIP Vault.
Next month we are meeting at the Dickens Inn on Thursday the 9th of November, 9.30-4pm with networking post meeting. November’s meeting will see talks from Rod Turner who will provide a property market update and Blandine Pais who will share information about establishing and scaling her serviced accommodation business alongside our usual event sponsors.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all next month, Jess, and Sue.
