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Post by uown on Aug 28, 2019 10:16:00 GMT
Hi P2P independent forum, UOWN are pleased to announce that within the coming months we will be entering the P2P space. We want to hear your advice on how we can make this a successful part of our business for both our users and ourselves. It would be great to hear:
- Which companies you like in the market place and why?
- What are some must have platform features and functionality that make your investing experience easier?
- What loan structure do you like the most?
- What do you like loaning money to, sector wise?
- What fee structure do you find acceptable?
- What makes you feel safe when loaning your money?
- Or anything else that you feel is important advice
You all have lots of invaluable experience on the other side of the fence, and it would be great if we could use that experience to create a product and structure that works for all of us.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
UOWN
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Post by Ace on Aug 28, 2019 23:05:01 GMT
Hi P2P independent forum, UOWN are pleased to announce that within the coming months we will be entering the P2P space. We want to hear your advice on how we can make this a successful part of our business for both our users and ourselves. It would be great to hear:
- Which companies you like in the market place and why?
- What are some must have platform features and functionality that make your investing experience easier?
- What loan structure do you like the most?
- What do you like loaning money to, sector wise?
- What fee structure do you find acceptable?
- What makes you feel safe when loaning your money?
- Or anything else that you feel is important advice
You all have lots of invaluable experience on the other side of the fence, and it would be great if we could use that experience to create a product and structure that works for all of us.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
UOWN
Hmmm, since you're asking... - Which companies you like in the market place and why?
My top 3, for different reasons: CrowdProperty - better DD than most, so feels safer,
ABLrate - they put more effort in to sorting out problem loans than anyone else,
Unbolted - they do one simple thing very well.
- What are some must have platform features and functionality that make your investing experience easier?
A clear presentation of transactions, including fees,
Easy tax reporting, or, preferably, an ISA,
If there's no easy exit then a functioning SM. Happy to be charged for early access, within reason.
- What loan structure do you like the most?
I like them to be varied, so that I can make use of ISA, interest, dividend and capital gain allowances, but happy to diversify across platforms to achieve this,
Cash drag can bea problem on many platform, so I appreciate platforms that avoid this.
- What do you like loaning money to, sector wise?
I prefer to diversify across many sectors, but I prefer to have many platforms, where each one specialises in one sector.
- What fee structure do you find acceptable?
I prefer structures where the platform only gets paid if the loans succeed,
Don't like paying ISA transfer fees.
I'm not a fan of upfront fees. They reward platforms with reckless lending in the short term.
- What makes you feel safe when loaning your money?
Track record,
FSCS protection (you did ask!)
- Or anything else that you feel is important advice
I'm not really sure it's a good idea to expand in to new areas. As I've said, I prefer a platform to do one thing very well over and over again. I would prefer more of the same from uown. V*****e S****t was my highest XIRR return in P2P so far. I realise that uown struggles to fill it's loans, but I don't know why. Perhaps others can comment on this.
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kaya
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,150 
Likes: 718
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Post by kaya on Aug 29, 2019 7:34:39 GMT
Agreed they do what they do well, yet still struggle to get investor support. (What happened to that Easy Exit property? Pulled?) They certainly deserve more support. No reason why they can't do well in p2p loans also. For me the Ablrate model is hard to beat.
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Post by uown on Aug 30, 2019 22:55:06 GMT
Hi Ace and kaya thanks for getting back to us and helping with our research. We will definitely follow up and look into some of the points that you have raised. Would you care to tell us why Crowdproperty dd is above and beyond? Is it surveyors reports and legal searches? We will be putting together a really good service for you guys and ultimately it will be even better with your ideas and suggestions. Thanks, |
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Post by Ace on Aug 31, 2019 12:56:05 GMT
That's quite a hard question to answer. Yes, getting reports from reliable surveyors, ensuring searches are done and ensuring charges are registered on time are absolutely essential basics. All platforms claim to do excellent dd, even the basket cases (such as FS, FC, etc) that blatantly don't, claim that they do. CP also publishes sufficient borrower details to allow lenders to carry out their own rd, not that I bother doing this much now that I've learnt to trust them. Ultimately, the quality of a platform's dd is best measured by its results.
CP publishes it's loan statistics and has them independently verified, which engenders confidence. I particularly like that they reject the vast majority of applicants for loans and only accept those with the highest chance of success (or perhaps I've been taken in by their marketing!). It seems that they've resisted the temptation to grow as fast as possible and employ extra, less qualified, staff to maintain momentum, which seems to have been a pitfall of other platforms. Somehow they've managed to strike a good, but very difficult, balance between loan flow and lender demand. It must be very difficult for a new platform to maintain sufficient loan flow to allow investors to diversify, yet not too many that they take too long to fill.
CP's rates are at the very low end of where I'm prepared to invest in this type of offering. Generally 8%, which is more like 7% after inevitable cash drag. They were in the 10% range while building up their reputation.
Their insistence on first charge security is also a plus point.
I very much appreciate CP's willingness to engage with lenders, both individually and via this forum. It's very common for new platforms to do this, but uncommon for them to continue once the difficult questions come in.
CP aren't perfect (I still struggle to determine my total funds on the platform), but they're one of the best out there. All IMO of course.
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Post by scookey on Nov 26, 2019 19:17:25 GMT
PLEASE don't go into P2P - I'm stuck in the death throws of L & FS & only really took to UOWN to get out of the P2P market whilst still keeping a decent % rate, everything that I get back from those two site will be going into UOWN, but if you become a P2P site too I'll just have to start looking for another home - you do Student Lets & to a reasonable extent shared risk refurbs so well please concentrate on those rather than the bag of worms that P2P has turned out to be.
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Post by uown on Dec 4, 2019 11:43:41 GMT
PLEASE don't go into P2P - I'm stuck in the death throws of L & FS & only really took to UOWN to get out of the P2P market whilst still keeping a decent % rate, everything that I get back from those two site will be going into UOWN, but if you become a P2P site too I'll just have to start looking for another home - you do Student Lets & to a reasonable extent shared risk refurbs so well please concentrate on those rather than the bag of worms that P2P has turned out to be. Hi, Understood. It's worth mentioning that we won't be getting rid of the types of opportunities that we have on right now, we will still keep on putting up equity based products, but with loans we can see that mistakes have been made in the market. Some companies have been providing loans to projects (and the people behind them) that are too risky and sometimes those loans end up defaulting and lenders are left to fight a battle that they are not equipped to deal with. This has been fuelled by greed and putting growth for the sake of growth ahead of their customers. If and when we go into loans we will do things differently and well. How? Mainly by loaning money to projects that we are more directly involved in, rather than projects where we have little no control over things when things go pear shaped. Currently we are in effect a peer-to-uown and peer-to-parklane platform and we plan to partner with large developers of the same ilk as The Parklane Group rather than individuals and smaller developers. I hope that allays some concerns, if you would like to talk about this in more detail we can organise a call to discuss it.
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