|
|
Post by Financial Thing on Jun 27, 2015 13:08:15 GMT
I have been considering investing with Property Moose but one important expense that appears to be left out of the projections is stopping me from doing so.
Quoting from PM's website:
" Are there any other costs?
There may be other costs that occur during the investment period due to the maintenance of the property or operation of the holding company. We do all that we can to mitigate any expenses as our interests are directly aligned with yours because of the profit share.
It is also important to remember that all of our projected figures are shown net of known costs and expenses. We want to give our investors full visibility of their investment and believe in transparency throughout the life of the investment. You can see all of the estimated costs within the finance section of each investment."
If I'm reading the projections correctly, there is no money budgeted for future maintenance / repair costs. I have been a landlord for many years and there are always extra expenses with regards to maintenance and repairs during a tenancy. The largest cost for me is mostly when a tenant vacates a property and money has to be spent to prepare the property for sale. Painting, new flooring etc.
Every good landlord knows they have to budget a monthly repair and maintenance fund for the inevitable.
Just wondered what other people's thoughts are on this?
|
|
pom
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,922 
Likes: 1,244
|
Post by pom on Jun 27, 2015 14:03:13 GMT
I think it's all a bit of an unknown until they sell the first property, and as they've only been operating just over 6 months (I was told) it'll be a while before that happens.
I'm investing on the basis of any profit at the end being a bonus without worry too much about how much it'll actually be, as the net rents they're quoting are higher than the 5-5.5% I was advised to expect locally, and with (hopefully) considerably less hassle. Depending on how the predictions/realities work out over time then I may increase my investment levels quite significantly.
If you do register you should then get a phonecall from them (or it might be triggered by an investment, not sure as I only registered when I was sure I was going to dip a toe anyway so may have been a bit quick for them!) so plenty of opportunity to quiz them. I also got the impression that as much as anything the call was to check my expectations were realistic....as well as invite lots of feedback as to how they operate. I liked what I heard and now have small investments in 4 of their properties, only one has completed funding so far but at least I know the rest will be earning more interest from them than it was sat in the bank.
|
|
|
|
Post by Financial Thing on Jun 27, 2015 18:47:48 GMT
Very true and thanks for sharing your experience. I guess only time will tell how this will pan out.
|
|
webwiz
Posts: 1,133
Likes: 210
|
Post by webwiz on Jun 28, 2015 22:13:54 GMT
If you can afford to buy a number of properties then you can probably make more money doing so than investing in PM. Renting a single property is a gamble. If you have no voids and no rogue tenants you should do OK but one bad experience can be traumatic. This platform is more suitable for investors who want to spread their investments across a number of properties but have only a relatively modest sum .
Personally I am hoping to eventually reach a portfolio of £500 shares in 20 properties, so a total investment of £10K. So far I have 7 funded and 2 funding. IMHO the platform would be suitable for someone who wanted to invest in buy-to-let with a investment of up to about half a million or so (if PM had enough properties). With more than that you could buy enough properties in the cheaper parts of the country to withstand one of the deals going bad.
BTW I did not get a phone call so either this is a recent move or they only phone a sample.
|
|
pom
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,922
Likes: 1,244
|
Post by pom on Jun 29, 2015 7:58:44 GMT
BTW I did not get a phone call so either this is a recent move or they only phone a sample. Maybe - admittedly I had dropped hints about wanting to know more about how their discretionary service will work but my email reply included "We usually give all our new investors a call to welcome you to the platform so .." which did suggest everyone. But this was only a couple of weeks ago - you've obviously been using them a bit longer, so maybe it's new. I hope they do now call everyone as I thought it was a nice touch. Oh well am sure if you needed/wanted to chat to them they'd be happy to do so, they seem pretty friendly 
|
|
|
|
Post by Financial Thing on Jun 29, 2015 9:49:02 GMT
I did post this question on another thread but they haven't responded as of yet. They must have been Moose hunting over the past few days  |
|
|
|
Post by propertymoose on Jul 3, 2015 18:29:28 GMT
Hi all
Thanks for the messages and apologies for the relative silence for a while. It's been very busy at 'Moose HQ' and I've fallen behind on keeping up to date here.
Our policy on phone calls is that everyone that signs up will receive a call, assuming we can reach them. We make three attempts to call, after which we do not want to pester people so stop. We've had really good feedback from people in relation to calls and it is something we are constantly improving on. If anyone does want to speak to one of the team, please just give us a call or send an email with a suitable calling time and we'll be sure to be in touch.
For the personal investment service, if anyone is interested here, please send us a short email and our CIO, Stuart, will be in touch to arrange a call.
In relation to the question on maintenance, as with any BTL property, any unforeseen maintenance will be paid for by the SPV out of the rent. If there are insufficient funds available (as has been the case once before), Property Moose will make an interest free loan to the SPV to cover the maintenance which will then be repayable on exit. It's worth me pointing out a couple of things here also. The returns we show on the site are calculated assuming no additional maintenance AND the relevant tax deductions being made by the SPV. As we only deal with tax returns at the end of the year, we can't work out the exact tax position each month so we withhold a flat 20% of net rent each month. This excess is held in the SPVs bank account and will be returned to investors once the returns are filed so that month will see a larger payment and 'top up' the yield.
At present, we give all investors a document showing the accounts for that month broken down into broad categories. In the next few months, you will see a much needed improvement to this process where you will have access to full accounts for each SPV in real time - an incredible achievement when we crack the tech! This will give full breakdown of costs, even so far as telling you if we've had to get keys cut! Any feedback on this would be very welcome as we are building the tech.
Hope that helps but, as always, you can reach me at andrew@ ...
propertymoose.co.uk
kind regards
Andrew
|
|
|
|
Post by Financial Thing on Jul 6, 2015 13:38:50 GMT
Hi all Thanks for the messages and apologies for the relative silence for a while. It's been very busy at 'Moose HQ' and I've fallen behind on keeping up to date here. Our policy on phone calls is that everyone that signs up will receive a call, assuming we can reach them. We make three attempts to call, after which we do not want to pester people so stop. We've had really good feedback from people in relation to calls and it is something we are constantly improving on. If anyone does want to speak to one of the team, please just give us a call or send an email with a suitable calling time and we'll be sure to be in touch. For the personal investment service, if anyone is interested here, please send us a short email and our CIO, Stuart, will be in touch to arrange a call. In relation to the question on maintenance, as with any BTL property, any unforeseen maintenance will be paid for by the SPV out of the rent. If there are insufficient funds available (as has been the case once before), Property Moose will make an interest free loan to the SPV to cover the maintenance which will then be repayable on exit. It's worth me pointing out a couple of things here also. The returns we show on the site are calculated assuming no additional maintenance AND the relevant tax deductions being made by the SPV. As we only deal with tax returns at the end of the year, we can't work out the exact tax position each month so we withhold a flat 20% of net rent each month. This excess is held in the SPVs bank account and will be returned to investors once the returns are filed so that month will see a larger payment and 'top up' the yield. At present, we give all investors a document showing the accounts for that month broken down into broad categories. In the next few months, you will see a much needed improvement to this process where you will have access to full accounts for each SPV in real time - an incredible achievement when we crack the tech! This will give full breakdown of costs, even so far as telling you if we've had to get keys cut! Any feedback on this would be very welcome as we are building the tech. Hope that helps but, as always, you can reach me at andrew@ ... propertymoose.co.uk kind regards Andrew That's a great upgrade! Look forward to it.
|
|
