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Real Estate, Property & Plant
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 Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
doing who a favour?, 02 Jun 2007
The problem with this book and the accompanying tv programme is that it encourages maybe too many people to try their hand at 'developing' property. As another reviewer pointed out, 'developing' is buying land and building on it from scratch - what property ladder is describing is 'property modernisation', nothing more.
There are a lot people out there who know what they are doing, they buy a property for the right price, they know what needs to be done to it for the market sector it is in, and sell the property on for a reasonable profit (note 'reasonable' being about 10% of resale value, dependant on the timescale). The key to all this is in the INITIAL PURCHASE PRICE.
Go to a property auction and for most properties there is always some hopeful who will pay just that little bit too much for a property because he or she thinks there is a killing to be made. That is the problem - too many people want to try this for a living and the net effect is that for those that DO know what they are doing there are far less properties to go around. Net result, a market flooded with amatuerish 'makeover' jobs at inflated prices as people try to recoup what they have unnecessarily spent on their new money making scheme.
The bottom line is - you need to buy sound properties at minimum 25-30 percent below their potential value. By sound properties I mean properties which do not have unseen structural problems, this means you have to know what you are looking at. You then do 5 things:
1. Replace or renew kitchen
2. Replace or renew bathrooms, preferably fully tiled.
3. Replace or renew Fuse board and electric system
4. Replace or renew Heating system
5. repair and repaint everything else including gardens.
(NB 1 and 2 include plumbing)
These books spend far too many column inches on how to 'dress' the property for sale and not enough on how to identify and rectify underlying problems which is where most people fall down and 'go over budget'
I must add to this that (having met her) Sarah Beeny is a very astute and knowledgeable businesswoman who knows her stuff. However please remember that Property ladder is a TV programme which needs ratings - To do this they select the programme applicants that have paid over the odds for problematic properties and either dont know what they are doing or have plans to spend far too much on the modernisation.
What this book should tell you is how not to do it.
Thank you very much, Sarah!, 23 May 2004
I would like to say, that since we have seen the program Property Ladder, my husband and I have bought a property, which have made us a very healthy profit. As a result we are able now to open the business, that we've always wanted. I am ever so greatfull for this lovely program.
Interesting, 30 Mar 2004
Maybe not the best guide, more of a transcript of the shows which i absolutely loved. good book from a good series. interesting read at the least.
Good value for money, 24 Feb 2004
This is a very simple book, easy to read, clearly laid out and also cross-referenced well in case you want to follow a theme through the book instead of reading it through straight away. I would say that its' strengths lay in clear descriptions of the types of market and what different buyers are looking for in a property. It also pointed me to things like the Hometrack survey which allows you to see how property prices fare in your local area. Where there is less detail is in the mechanics of things like financing. While there were good descriptions of the various types of survey, I felt more time could have been spent on exploring different avenues of gaining the all-important money to start the project in the first place. Having said that, as a whole the book is a good way to focus your ideas before you start and I would definitely recommnend it to people contemplating property developing for the first time.
Dangerous., 30 Jan 2004
While she does make some points about buying a property (in ENGLAND - different sstem in Scotland remember!!), she does little more than articulate what should be common sense. I suppose if you knew nothing about the property system this would be a helpful starting oint, but there its applicability would end. Surely no-one would buy a property to live in based on her reccommendations alone, and certainly would not try to profit from it. Incidentally, she is not a property developer as she asserts. A poperty developer buys land and builds on it, ie, develops. She is little more than an interior designer who has profited from property sales. To deal with property in anything like a sensible manner takes much more than her overly optimistic, get-rich-quick ethos. I wonder how many people have lost money as a result of hearing about her successes and those on her TV show? Even those who have made money (on her show, which are presumably her most successful followers) have made relativley little. Many have given up their careers to redesign the interior of their house, and made only £10,000 or £20,000. If money was as easy to earn as this book implies, why wouldn't everyone do it?
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
doing who a favour?, 02 Jun 2007
The problem with this book and the accompanying tv programme is that it encourages maybe too many people to try their hand at 'developing' property. As another reviewer pointed out, 'developing' is buying land and building on it from scratch - what property ladder is describing is 'property modernisation', nothing more.
There are a lot people out there who know what they are doing, they buy a property for the right price, they know what needs to be done to it for the market sector it is in, and sell the property on for a reasonable profit (note 'reasonable' being about 10% of resale value, dependant on the timescale). The key to all this is in the INITIAL PURCHASE PRICE.
Go to a property auction and for most properties there is always some hopeful who will pay just that little bit too much for a property because he or she thinks there is a killing to be made. That is the problem - too many people want to try this for a living and the net effect is that for those that DO know what they are doing there are far less properties to go around. Net result, a market flooded with amatuerish 'makeover' jobs at inflated prices as people try to recoup what they have unnecessarily spent on their new money making scheme.
The bottom line is - you need to buy sound properties at minimum 25-30 percent below their potential value. By sound properties I mean properties which do not have unseen structural problems, this means you have to know what you are looking at. You then do 5 things:
1. Replace or renew kitchen
2. Replace or renew bathrooms, preferably fully tiled.
3. Replace or renew Fuse board and electric system
4. Replace or renew Heating system
5. repair and repaint everything else including gardens.
(NB 1 and 2 include plumbing)
These books spend far too many column inches on how to 'dress' the property for sale and not enough on how to identify and rectify underlying problems which is where most people fall down and 'go over budget'
I must add to this that (having met her) Sarah Beeny is a very astute and knowledgeable businesswoman who knows her stuff. However please remember that Property ladder is a TV programme which needs ratings - To do this they select the programme applicants that have paid over the odds for problematic properties and either dont know what they are doing or have plans to spend far too much on the modernisation.
What this book should tell you is how not to do it.
Thank you very much, Sarah!, 23 May 2004
I would like to say, that since we have seen the program Property Ladder, my husband and I have bought a property, which have made us a very healthy profit. As a result we are able now to open the business, that we've always wanted. I am ever so greatfull for this lovely program.
Interesting, 30 Mar 2004
Maybe not the best guide, more of a transcript of the shows which i absolutely loved. good book from a good series. interesting read at the least.
Good value for money, 24 Feb 2004
This is a very simple book, easy to read, clearly laid out and also cross-referenced well in case you want to follow a theme through the book instead of reading it through straight away. I would say that its' strengths lay in clear descriptions of the types of market and what different buyers are looking for in a property. It also pointed me to things like the Hometrack survey which allows you to see how property prices fare in your local area. Where there is less detail is in the mechanics of things like financing. While there were good descriptions of the various types of survey, I felt more time could have been spent on exploring different avenues of gaining the all-important money to start the project in the first place. Having said that, as a whole the book is a good way to focus your ideas before you start and I would definitely recommnend it to people contemplating property developing for the first time.
Dangerous., 30 Jan 2004
While she does make some points about buying a property (in ENGLAND - different sstem in Scotland remember!!), she does little more than articulate what should be common sense. I suppose if you knew nothing about the property system this would be a helpful starting oint, but there its applicability would end. Surely no-one would buy a property to live in based on her reccommendations alone, and certainly would not try to profit from it. Incidentally, she is not a property developer as she asserts. A poperty developer buys land and builds on it, ie, develops. She is little more than an interior designer who has profited from property sales. To deal with property in anything like a sensible manner takes much more than her overly optimistic, get-rich-quick ethos. I wonder how many people have lost money as a result of hearing about her successes and those on her TV show? Even those who have made money (on her show, which are presumably her most successful followers) have made relativley little. Many have given up their careers to redesign the interior of their house, and made only £10,000 or £20,000. If money was as easy to earn as this book implies, why wouldn't everyone do it?
Disappointing..., 28 Sep 2008
While this book does contain some useful information, much of it is simplified and superficial, and the book contains very little information you couldn't find on the internet. I am disappointed in the overall contents, for 2 reasons:
1) Some of the information is simplified, to the point of being inaccurate. For instance, early on, the book makes reference to "checking your credit score from one of the agencies", which is incorrect - there is no such thing as a credit rating or score, only a file, and each credit agency holds a different file, so you should check ALL the agencies' files on you, not just one. This is a really important distinction, and makes me worry that other information has been over-simplified or is inaccurate. On occasion, the author just skips sections altogether (eg. ISA mortgages), on the basis that they are too complicated to explain. The book barely mentioned brokers, and the work they do, despite the fact that they're instrumental in finding the best mortgage.
2) Much of the advice is a statement of the obvious. The reader is told that one should make sure one is "mature" before buying a house - several pages are dedicated to churning out the same obvious advice. Some of the check-lists are also pretty uninspired.
Overall, I feel like I've learnt very little from reading this, than I didn't already know.
This book might be useful for those who know absolutely nothing about house-buying or mortgages. For anyone else, it sounds over-simplistic, and sometimes borders on the bleedin' obvious. There are some useful comments, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of the book.
An Excellent guide for FTB's, 26 Feb 2007
Recently purchased this to help in buying our first house. Has proved to be an excellent resource with a clear and very well layed out information for every step you need to take. I would say this book is more for the FTB than investor although there is many chapters which are dedicated to those intrested in Buy to Let / Holiday lets / Commercial lets with information on how to obtain property not advertised on the open market.
All in all a recommended read!
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
doing who a favour?, 02 Jun 2007
The problem with this book and the accompanying tv programme is that it encourages maybe too many people to try their hand at 'developing' property. As another reviewer pointed out, 'developing' is buying land and building on it from scratch - what property ladder is describing is 'property modernisation', nothing more.
There are a lot people out there who know what they are doing, they buy a property for the right price, they know what needs to be done to it for the market sector it is in, and sell the property on for a reasonable profit (note 'reasonable' being about 10% of resale value, dependant on the timescale). The key to all this is in the INITIAL PURCHASE PRICE.
Go to a property auction and for most properties there is always some hopeful who will pay just that little bit too much for a property because he or she thinks there is a killing to be made. That is the problem - too many people want to try this for a living and the net effect is that for those that DO know what they are doing there are far less properties to go around. Net result, a market flooded with amatuerish 'makeover' jobs at inflated prices as people try to recoup what they have unnecessarily spent on their new money making scheme.
The bottom line is - you need to buy sound properties at minimum 25-30 percent below their potential value. By sound properties I mean properties which do not have unseen structural problems, this means you have to know what you are looking at. You then do 5 things:
1. Replace or renew kitchen
2. Replace or renew bathrooms, preferably fully tiled.
3. Replace or renew Fuse board and electric system
4. Replace or renew Heating system
5. repair and repaint everything else including gardens.
(NB 1 and 2 include plumbing)
These books spend far too many column inches on how to 'dress' the property for sale and not enough on how to identify and rectify underlying problems which is where most people fall down and 'go over budget'
I must add to this that (having met her) Sarah Beeny is a very astute and knowledgeable businesswoman who knows her stuff. However please remember that Property ladder is a TV programme which needs ratings - To do this they select the programme applicants that have paid over the odds for problematic properties and either dont know what they are doing or have plans to spend far too much on the modernisation.
What this book should tell you is how not to do it.
Thank you very much, Sarah!, 23 May 2004
I would like to say, that since we have seen the program Property Ladder, my husband and I have bought a property, which have made us a very healthy profit. As a result we are able now to open the business, that we've always wanted. I am ever so greatfull for this lovely program.
Interesting, 30 Mar 2004
Maybe not the best guide, more of a transcript of the shows which i absolutely loved. good book from a good series. interesting read at the least.
Good value for money, 24 Feb 2004
This is a very simple book, easy to read, clearly laid out and also cross-referenced well in case you want to follow a theme through the book instead of reading it through straight away. I would say that its' strengths lay in clear descriptions of the types of market and what different buyers are looking for in a property. It also pointed me to things like the Hometrack survey which allows you to see how property prices fare in your local area. Where there is less detail is in the mechanics of things like financing. While there were good descriptions of the various types of survey, I felt more time could have been spent on exploring different avenues of gaining the all-important money to start the project in the first place. Having said that, as a whole the book is a good way to focus your ideas before you start and I would definitely recommnend it to people contemplating property developing for the first time.
Dangerous., 30 Jan 2004
While she does make some points about buying a property (in ENGLAND - different sstem in Scotland remember!!), she does little more than articulate what should be common sense. I suppose if you knew nothing about the property system this would be a helpful starting oint, but there its applicability would end. Surely no-one would buy a property to live in based on her reccommendations alone, and certainly would not try to profit from it. Incidentally, she is not a property developer as she asserts. A poperty developer buys land and builds on it, ie, develops. She is little more than an interior designer who has profited from property sales. To deal with property in anything like a sensible manner takes much more than her overly optimistic, get-rich-quick ethos. I wonder how many people have lost money as a result of hearing about her successes and those on her TV show? Even those who have made money (on her show, which are presumably her most successful followers) have made relativley little. Many have given up their careers to redesign the interior of their house, and made only £10,000 or £20,000. If money was as easy to earn as this book implies, why wouldn't everyone do it?
Disappointing..., 28 Sep 2008
While this book does contain some useful information, much of it is simplified and superficial, and the book contains very little information you couldn't find on the internet. I am disappointed in the overall contents, for 2 reasons:
1) Some of the information is simplified, to the point of being inaccurate. For instance, early on, the book makes reference to "checking your credit score from one of the agencies", which is incorrect - there is no such thing as a credit rating or score, only a file, and each credit agency holds a different file, so you should check ALL the agencies' files on you, not just one. This is a really important distinction, and makes me worry that other information has been over-simplified or is inaccurate. On occasion, the author just skips sections altogether (eg. ISA mortgages), on the basis that they are too complicated to explain. The book barely mentioned brokers, and the work they do, despite the fact that they're instrumental in finding the best mortgage.
2) Much of the advice is a statement of the obvious. The reader is told that one should make sure one is "mature" before buying a house - several pages are dedicated to churning out the same obvious advice. Some of the check-lists are also pretty uninspired.
Overall, I feel like I've learnt very little from reading this, than I didn't already know.
This book might be useful for those who know absolutely nothing about house-buying or mortgages. For anyone else, it sounds over-simplistic, and sometimes borders on the bleedin' obvious. There are some useful comments, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of the book.
An Excellent guide for FTB's, 26 Feb 2007
Recently purchased this to help in buying our first house. Has proved to be an excellent resource with a clear and very well layed out information for every step you need to take. I would say this book is more for the FTB than investor although there is many chapters which are dedicated to those intrested in Buy to Let / Holiday lets / Commercial lets with information on how to obtain property not advertised on the open market.
All in all a recommended read!
A very good starting point for the novice..., 04 Oct 2007
I'm not sure why some reviewers have given this so few stars, when they seem to agree that its actually quite a good introduction to valuation techniques. Its not perfect, but I can't name a better starting point.
The author doesn't claim to go in to huge amounts of detail. As he says, himself, there are other texts for that. He recommends "Modern Methods of Valuation", and I would agree with that.
He clearly explains to the complete novice the theory behind the main valuation techniques, in an idiot-proof manner.
If you have already progressed beyond a basic level, you may find some of the chapters somewhat patronising. But if you are a beginner still struggling to get your head around the baisc concepts and the maths behind them, you will probably greatly appreciate the very clear explanations.
Overall this book is a good introduction, that's all the title claims to be, and it does it very well. To expect more is a little unfair.
An Introduction to Property Valuation, 04 Nov 2004
The book is very good for property valuation or estate management student to understand what is the real estate needs to increse the value.
good grounding for the basics of valuation, 02 Mar 2002
a good book to introduce you to the basics of valuation - not much by the way of worked examples that would have made it an ideal book for the first year estate management student
Excellent book for the basics of property valuation, 10 May 2001
This is an excellent book for students and those interested in the property market in general. However it does not touch upon anything above a basic level required for more complicated valuations. There also appears to be too few worked examples.
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
doing who a favour?, 02 Jun 2007
The problem with this book and the accompanying tv programme is that it encourages maybe too many people to try their hand at 'developing' property. As another reviewer pointed out, 'developing' is buying land and building on it from scratch - what property ladder is describing is 'property modernisation', nothing more.
There are a lot people out there who know what they are doing, they buy a property for the right price, they know what needs to be done to it for the market sector it is in, and sell the property on for a reasonable profit (note 'reasonable' being about 10% of resale value, dependant on the timescale). The key to all this is in the INITIAL PURCHASE PRICE.
Go to a property auction and for most properties there is always some hopeful who will pay just that little bit too much for a property because he or she thinks there is a killing to be made. That is the problem - too many people want to try this for a living and the net effect is that for those that DO know what they are doing there are far less properties to go around. Net result, a market flooded with amatuerish 'makeover' jobs at inflated prices as people try to recoup what they have unnecessarily spent on their new money making scheme.
The bottom line is - you need to buy sound properties at minimum 25-30 percent below their potential value. By sound properties I mean properties which do not have unseen structural problems, this means you have to know what you are looking at. You then do 5 things:
1. Replace or renew kitchen
2. Replace or renew bathrooms, preferably fully tiled.
3. Replace or renew Fuse board and electric system
4. Replace or renew Heating system
5. repair and repaint everything else including gardens.
(NB 1 and 2 include plumbing)
These books spend far too many column inches on how to 'dress' the property for sale and not enough on how to identify and rectify underlying problems which is where most people fall down and 'go over budget'
I must add to this that (having met her) Sarah Beeny is a very astute and knowledgeable businesswoman who knows her stuff. However please remember that Property ladder is a TV programme which needs ratings - To do this they select the programme applicants that have paid over the odds for problematic properties and either dont know what they are doing or have plans to spend far too much on the modernisation.
What this book should tell you is how not to do it.
Thank you very much, Sarah!, 23 May 2004
I would like to say, that since we have seen the program Property Ladder, my husband and I have bought a property, which have made us a very healthy profit. As a result we are able now to open the business, that we've always wanted. I am ever so greatfull for this lovely program.
Interesting, 30 Mar 2004
Maybe not the best guide, more of a transcript of the shows which i absolutely loved. good book from a good series. interesting read at the least.
Good value for money, 24 Feb 2004
This is a very simple book, easy to read, clearly laid out and also cross-referenced well in case you want to follow a theme through the book instead of reading it through straight away. I would say that its' strengths lay in clear descriptions of the types of market and what different buyers are looking for in a property. It also pointed me to things like the Hometrack survey which allows you to see how property prices fare in your local area. Where there is less detail is in the mechanics of things like financing. While there were good descriptions of the various types of survey, I felt more time could have been spent on exploring different avenues of gaining the all-important money to start the project in the first place. Having said that, as a whole the book is a good way to focus your ideas before you start and I would definitely recommnend it to people contemplating property developing for the first time.
Dangerous., 30 Jan 2004
While she does make some points about buying a property (in ENGLAND - different sstem in Scotland remember!!), she does little more than articulate what should be common sense. I suppose if you knew nothing about the property system this would be a helpful starting oint, but there its applicability would end. Surely no-one would buy a property to live in based on her reccommendations alone, and certainly would not try to profit from it. Incidentally, she is not a property developer as she asserts. A poperty developer buys land and builds on it, ie, develops. She is little more than an interior designer who has profited from property sales. To deal with property in anything like a sensible manner takes much more than her overly optimistic, get-rich-quick ethos. I wonder how many people have lost money as a result of hearing about her successes and those on her TV show? Even those who have made money (on her show, which are presumably her most successful followers) have made relativley little. Many have given up their careers to redesign the interior of their house, and made only £10,000 or £20,000. If money was as easy to earn as this book implies, why wouldn't everyone do it?
Disappointing..., 28 Sep 2008
While this book does contain some useful information, much of it is simplified and superficial, and the book contains very little information you couldn't find on the internet. I am disappointed in the overall contents, for 2 reasons:
1) Some of the information is simplified, to the point of being inaccurate. For instance, early on, the book makes reference to "checking your credit score from one of the agencies", which is incorrect - there is no such thing as a credit rating or score, only a file, and each credit agency holds a different file, so you should check ALL the agencies' files on you, not just one. This is a really important distinction, and makes me worry that other information has been over-simplified or is inaccurate. On occasion, the author just skips sections altogether (eg. ISA mortgages), on the basis that they are too complicated to explain. The book barely mentioned brokers, and the work they do, despite the fact that they're instrumental in finding the best mortgage.
2) Much of the advice is a statement of the obvious. The reader is told that one should make sure one is "mature" before buying a house - several pages are dedicated to churning out the same obvious advice. Some of the check-lists are also pretty uninspired.
Overall, I feel like I've learnt very little from reading this, than I didn't already know.
This book might be useful for those who know absolutely nothing about house-buying or mortgages. For anyone else, it sounds over-simplistic, and sometimes borders on the bleedin' obvious. There are some useful comments, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of the book.
An Excellent guide for FTB's, 26 Feb 2007
Recently purchased this to help in buying our first house. Has proved to be an excellent resource with a clear and very well layed out information for every step you need to take. I would say this book is more for the FTB than investor although there is many chapters which are dedicated to those intrested in Buy to Let / Holiday lets / Commercial lets with information on how to obtain property not advertised on the open market.
All in all a recommended read!
A very good starting point for the novice..., 04 Oct 2007
I'm not sure why some reviewers have given this so few stars, when they seem to agree that its actually quite a good introduction to valuation techniques. Its not perfect, but I can't name a better starting point.
The author doesn't claim to go in to huge amounts of detail. As he says, himself, there are other texts for that. He recommends "Modern Methods of Valuation", and I would agree with that.
He clearly explains to the complete novice the theory behind the main valuation techniques, in an idiot-proof manner.
If you have already progressed beyond a basic level, you may find some of the chapters somewhat patronising. But if you are a beginner still struggling to get your head around the baisc concepts and the maths behind them, you will probably greatly appreciate the very clear explanations.
Overall this book is a good introduction, that's all the title claims to be, and it does it very well. To expect more is a little unfair.
An Introduction to Property Valuation, 04 Nov 2004
The book is very good for property valuation or estate management student to understand what is the real estate needs to increse the value.
good grounding for the basics of valuation, 02 Mar 2002
a good book to introduce you to the basics of valuation - not much by the way of worked examples that would have made it an ideal book for the first year estate management student
Excellent book for the basics of property valuation, 10 May 2001
This is an excellent book for students and those interested in the property market in general. However it does not touch upon anything above a basic level required for more complicated valuations. There also appears to be too few worked examples.
For all IT professionals, 22 Sep 2006
I've used this recently for my dissertation, and this is worth buying just for the benefits managerment framework. If any security professional wants to show the business benefits of adopting security technology, then buy it. I have never seen such a clear non-technical framework. This book is written mbased on pratcial experience and it shows!
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Renovating for Profit
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Customer Reviews
essential reading, 21 Jan 2008
This text explained all aspects of supply chain managment. the language is easy to read. examples are very well articulated. Martin Christoper is the guru of Logistics, 23 Aug 2000
I had the pleasure to meet Martin Christopher in person when I was a student of Cranfield University, trying to get my MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Martin Christopher is in reality what is depicted in his book - simply a pure genious. This particular book gives an extremely good explanation of what Logistics is, using a very simple language and many many case studies. It can easily be read by a student but also be used as a manual by a professional. The reader should especially focus on the chapters discussing about global Logistics. This is really a very useful tool for all the people involved with the SCIENCE and ART of logistics. Superb summary of the key logistics issues., 16 Jul 2000
This is a superb summary and introduction to the key logistics issues. Customer service, the benchmarking of supply chains, logistics costs and performance, the strategic issues and the Japanese techniques are all covered. Great for plucking quotes, such as 'uncertainty is the mother of inventory'. Lots of diagrams and case studies. As a practising supply chain professional, I thoroughly recommend this book. As Professor of Marketing and Logistics at Cranfield, Martin Christopher is one of the leading lights in logistics
A short and "down to the point" book about SCM, 28 Mar 1999
Martin not only knows his stuff about logistics he can also write, whitch cannot be said about most authors in this category. A very good book especially for non-logisticans who wants an introduction in this field. It has not too many fancy words and is very much focused on the business process rather than logistics as such. If I were to have one book in logistics management in my bookshelf, it would be this one.
Great first read, 23 Apr 2008
I'd highly recommend this no fuss introduction to the basics of what you need to know about property investment. It is realistic, doesn't encourage irresponsible behaviour, is cheap, yet covers all the fundamental topics you probably haven't thought about.
Nicely written, easy to read - great piece of work.
Research is the key, 11 Jan 2008
I like this book...it covers so much and explains everything clearly. It is well written and has life in it unlike other property books. It is easy to refer to as it is extremely well presented.Well worth the money!
Very Very Interesting., 02 Nov 2007
This is the kind of book everyone should read as it is concise, well written, well informed and very practical. Excellent!
One of the best, 25 Oct 2007
Great book. It is an excellent guide. It is clearly laid out and explains in detail how to build a property portfolio without falling into the traps. I think it is commendable how the authour started off from small beginnings and then used the equity in her own home to build such an empire. I admire the way she shares her mistakes but passes on valuable advice in helping others not to do so. Its more than just a book...its a bible!
disappointed in this book, 22 Oct 2007
I was quite disappointed in this book. Essentailly it's in the Property Investor for Dummies genre. Yes it's easy to follow and takes you through all the various aspects of property, however I was expecting to discover how the author managed to build her portfolio, from the perspective of each purchase made and the initial investment made, and the decisions taken. She does touch on a few investments made in the early 80/90 but that is hardly relevant for todays buyers with such a competitive market. So for me this book was very disappointing, and I'm none the wiser about the details of the how the author actually built her portfolio and accumulated her wealth. Not really a self help guide, more an encyclopedia of information.
A Fantastic Book, 04 Nov 2008
This is a very easy-to-read book, that will get you up to speed on the credit quake in one easy sitting. It's so well written that it's impossible to put down - or is that just me ;-)? Covers everything but ends pre Lehmans collapse in summer 2008.
An economic review of the current mortgage crisis, 15 Sep 2008
This is an excellent review of the current economic mortgage crisis that led to financial disaster. The author lays out all facts leading to this fiasco in an easy to understand language. No information is ignored in this fact finding mission; unscrupulous lenders, irresponsible borrowers, greedy speculators, developers, real estate agents, investment bankers/investors and last but not least the inept regulatory agencies destroyed the economic order and passed on the burden to unsuspecting tax payers.
Subprime mortgage is a loan made on the basis of a weak or troubled credit history. Historically it was a peripheral financial phenomenon; a marginal market with few borrowers and lenders, but that changed in 1990s. Mortgage lending companies were not setup as traditional depositories or brokers, but as real estate investment trusts (REITs). It is a corporate form for developers to avoid corporate income taxes. REIT pays out the earnings to shareholders who pay personal income taxes on them. Since they are publicly traded, it avoids regulators. But it comes under SEC which focuses mainly on insider trading, and corporate transparency, and not on mortgage lending. This helped REITs financial mismanagement streak through regulatory cracks. By the time subprime financial shock hit, 35% of the after-tax income was spent on debt obligation (Fig 13.5). The financial benefits of outsized asset price gains have gone almost entirely to higher income households (Table 13.1).
The ripple effect is observed all over economy: The government sold U.S. Treasury bonds to raise cash for the economic stimulus package but the consumers spent the entire check on raising gasoline costs. Saudi Arabia which bought most of these bonds essentially financed the purchase of their own oil! A sharp drop in dollar value in the international market did more damage than good, because this downfall helped the surge in oil prices, and consequently raised food and other commodity prices. Given the higher dollar value of Euro and Yen, Europeans and Asians were consuming more throwing the demand and supply curves off balance.
This book is very well researched, and organized with useful economic data, and this is not for the investors who are looking for juicy financial secrets: Highly recommended.
1. Real Estate Lending in the New Millennium: The Sub-prime Market
2. Lending to Higher Risk Borrowers: Sub Prime Credit and Sustainable Home Ownership
3. Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
4. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do About It
5. House Poor : Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
6. Living in a Bubble: Credit, Debt and Crisis
doing who a favour?, 02 Jun 2007
The problem with this book and the accompanying tv programme is that it encourages maybe too many people to try their hand at 'developing' property. As another reviewer pointed out, 'developing' is buying land and building on it from scratch - what property ladder is describing is 'property modernisation', nothing more.
There are a lot people out there who know what they are doing, they buy a property for the right price, they know what needs to be done to it for the market sector it is in, and sell the property on for a reasonable profit (note 'reasonable' being about 10% of resale value, dependant on the timescale). The key to all this is in the INITIAL PURCHASE PRICE.
Go to a property auction and for most properties there is always some hopeful who will pay just that little bit too much for a property because he or she thinks there is a killing to be made. That is the problem - too many people want to try this for a living and the net effect is that for those that DO know what they are doing there are far less properties to go around. Net result, a market flooded with amatuerish 'makeover' jobs at inflated prices as people try to recoup what they have unnecessarily spent on their new money making scheme.
The bottom line is - you need to buy sound properties at minimum 25-30 percent below their potential value. By sound properties I mean properties which do not have unseen structural problems, this means you have to know what you are looking at. You then do 5 things:
1. Replace or renew kitchen
2. Replace or renew bathrooms, preferably fully tiled.
3. Replace or renew Fuse board and electric system
4. Replace or renew Heating system
5. repair and repaint everything else including gardens.
(NB 1 and 2 include plumbing)
These books spend far too many column inches on how to 'dress' the property for sale and not enough on how to identify and rectify underlying problems which is where most people fall down and 'go over budget'
I must add to this that (having met her) Sarah Beeny is a very astute and knowledgeable businesswoman who knows her stuff. However please remember that Property ladder is a TV programme which needs ratings - To do this they select the programme applicants that have paid over the odds for problematic properties and either dont know what they are doing or have plans to spend far too much on the modernisation.
What this book should tell you is how not to do it.
Thank you very much, Sarah!, 23 May 2004
I would like to say, that since we have seen the program Property Ladder, my husband and I have bought a property, which have made us a very healthy profit. As a result we are able now to open the business, that we've always wanted. I am ever so greatfull for this lovely program.
Interesting, 30 Mar 2004
Maybe not the best guide, more of a transcript of the shows which i absolutely loved. good book from a good series. interesting read at the least.
Good value for money, 24 Feb 2004
This is a very simple book, easy to read, clearly laid out and also cross-referenced well in case you want to follow a theme through the book instead of reading it through straight away. I would say that its' strengths lay in clear descriptions of the types of market and what different buyers are looking for in a property. It also pointed me to things like the Hometrack survey which allows you to see how property prices fare in your local area. Where there is less detail is in the mechanics of things like financing. While there were good descriptions of the various types of survey, I felt more time could have been spent on exploring different avenues of gaining the all-important money to start the project in the first place. Having said that, as a whole the book is a good way to focus your ideas before you start and I would definitely recommnend it to people contemplating property developing for the first time.
Dangerous., 30 Jan 2004
While she does make some points about buying a property (in ENGLAND - different sstem in Scotland remember!!), she does little more than articulate what should be common sense. I suppose if you knew nothing about the property system this would be a helpful starting oint, but there its applicability would end. Surely no-one would buy a property to live in based on her reccommendations alone, and certainly would not try to profit from it. Incidentally, she is not a property developer as she asserts. A poperty developer buys land and builds on it, ie, develops. She is little more than an interior designer who has profited from property sales. To deal with property in anything like a sensible manner takes much more than her overly optimistic, get-rich-quick ethos. I wonder how many people have lost money as a result of hearing about her successes and those on her TV show? Even those who have made money (on her show, which are presumably her most successful followers) have made relativley little. Many have given up their careers to redesign the interior of their house, and made only £10,000 or £20,000. If money was as easy to earn as this book implies, why wouldn't everyone do it?
Disappointing..., 28 Sep 2008
While this book does contain some useful information, much of it is simplified and superficial, and the book contains very little information you couldn't find on the internet. I am disappointed in the overall contents, for 2 reasons:
1) Some of the information is simplified, to the point of being inaccurate. For instance, early on, the book makes reference to "checking your credit score from one of the agencies", which is incorrect - there is no such thing as a credit rating or score, only a file, and each credit agency holds a different file, so you should check ALL the agencies' files on you, not just one. This is a really important distinction, and makes me worry that other information has been over-simplified or is inaccurate. On occasion, the author just skips sections altogether (eg. ISA mortgages), on the basis that they are too complicated to explain. The book barely mentioned brokers, and the work they do, despite the fact that they're instrumental in finding the best mortgage.
2) Much of the advice is a statement of the obvious. The reader is told that one should make sure one is "mature" before buying a house - several pages are dedicated to churning out the same obvious advice. Some of the check-lists are also pretty uninspired.
Overall, I feel like I've learnt very little from reading this, than I didn't already know.
This book might be useful for those who know absolutely nothing about house-buying or mortgages. For anyone else, it sounds over-simplistic, and sometimes borders on the bleedin' obvious. There are some useful comments, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of the book.
An Excellent guide for FTB's, 26 Feb 2007
Recently purchased this to help in buying our first house. Has proved to be an excellent resource with a clear and very well layed out information for every step you need to take. I would say this book is more for the FTB than investor although there is many chapters which are dedicated to those intrested in Buy to Let / Holiday lets / Commercial lets with information on how to obtain proper | | |