We visited the Property Investor Show at Excel last weekend, on both Friday and Saturday.
My personal opinion is that it was like a graveyard on Friday, with even the usually packed seminars such as Ranjan Bhattacharya’s time-served and ever-popular offering of “How To Regularly Source Bargain Property Deals 30% Below Market Value To Build A Bullet-Proof, Income Producing Property Portfolio In Today’s Market” from the Your Property Empire trio of Vanish Patel and Parmdeep Vadesha running at less than 50% of the room’s capacity.
Ranjan’s stand - easily identified by the 8 foot high picture of Ranjan’s face gracing it - was similarly empty when I passed by, meaning that I managed to grab a handful of Quality Street sweets from the bowl… Glenn Armstrong’s G&A Property stand was likewise almost deserted, although I didn’t manage to get any free sweets from there.
Nobody could dispute that attendance figures were massively down on 6 or 12 months ago, with many seminars almost empty. I sat in one seminar room with space for 150+ people but just 8 attendees! Despite the almost empty seminars, there were probably more exhibitors (identifiable via their red badges) circulating in the aisles at any one time on Friday than there were visitors. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it would have been possible to play a game of football in the aisle on Friday without inconveniencing anybody at all!
One seminar was packed though: “BUY NOW OR WAIT? What approach is the professional taking towards UK & International property investment?” This comprised a Panel of Speakers ably chaired by John Wriglesworth of The Wriglesworth Consultancy; with John Heron (director of Paragon Mortgages and member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML)); Mike Powell (although it was billed as his son, Alistair Powell, of Seven Continent Investment) who was irritatingly pre-occupied with plugging his hotel room sales business at every twist and turn; Stuart Law, Chief Executive of Assetz Plc, who seemingly spent much of his time watching something (perhaps breaking news?) on the internet via his mobile phone; and Richard Bowser of Property Investment News who was presumably a replacement for the absent Patrick Collinson named in the program. The resultant debate however was lively, and at times heated, with a frank and open exchange of opinions. It lasted about 1.5 hours and (Mike Powell’s incessant sales pitch aside) was never boring.
If you’d like me to write up my notes on this fascinating debate and post them here, please leave a comment below. If I get enough requests, I will do so.
It was a little busier on Saturday but even so, as I sat eating lunch with Chris Bignell of Surrey PWNE adjacent to a very large stand (with 6 widescreen plasma TVs along its back wall) attempting to sell foreign investments, I only saw one visitor on the stand throughout the whole of our meal! Nick Pedrithes had been sat on the table next to us on Friday and will no doubt confirm their stand was equally quiet then.
So, in these interesting times, there were certainly very few new investors walking the floor! Indeed, I only met one ‘new’ investor all weekend, although on the bright side as it was so quiet I was able to form some good relationships with some of the exhibitors for potential JVs in the future, so I certainly don’t feel my weekend was wasted.
The organisers were suffering too incidentally, with some exhibitors telling me that (at the request of the organisers) they had massively upgraded their stands, apparently quadrupled in size in one case, for as little as £100 extra!!! Seemingly the organisers were desperate not to have their vast hired hall in Excel looking almost empty (although a large section at one end of the hall appeared ‘fenced off’ and inaccessible even so) and equally keen to drag in as few extra pounds as they possibly could from the few who were exhibiting.
What I really don’t understand though is why there are not more people investing at present?
There are fortunes to be made (and lost) at present, with the difference being simply down to the investor’s attitude and education.
We can’t help you too much with the former, but for the latter please see my blog post entitled Why You Should Invest In Property Now which refers you to such recent blog posts as:
==> Mark Tolley Webinar Free Download NOW
==> The Death of Property Investing? Ask Dolf De Roos & Simon Zutshi
==> Landlord’s Energy Preservation Certificate (EPC) Deadline Wednesday 1st October 2008
==> Learn How To Convert 70% Of Your Leads Into Profitable Deals
And free reports to download including:
==> Explanation of Bridging Finance
==> The Ten Questions You Should Be Asking Your No Money Down Scheme Provider
And further reports, ebooks & paperbacks including:
==> Dr Dennis Coote’s (of Hampshire Property Club) “Property Development for Profit” ecourse that includes 5 free downloads (review at Dr Dennis Coote - Property Development For Profit - Book Review)
==> Toby Hone’s “Surviving The Credit Crunch” from TaxCafe (review at Surviving The Credit Crunch by Toby Hone - eBook review)
==> Mark Tolley’s New No Money Down (NMD) Finance Methods - Secrets Exposed (review at New No Money Down (NMD) Finance Methods - Secrets Exposed)
And of course our very own:
==> Summit Forum: Free Property Investors’ Discussion Forum where fellow property investors will be pleased to try and help answer your questions.
Finally, to help your attitude and confidence a little, there’s always:
==> Duncan Bannatyne - Anyone Can Do It - Book Review
==> Andy Shaw’s inspiring book “Money For Nothing And Your Property For Free” of which you can currently download the first 5 chapters FREE
So what are you waiting for? There’s fortunes to be made, right now, and you won’t see times - or opportunities - like these for another 20+ years. Start reading, educate yourself, then get out there and start investing!
And when you do find a deal, or if you need some advice, Contact Us at Summit Finance and we’ll put you in touch with our team of solicitors and mortgage brokers who will ensure that everything else works smoothly for you behind the scenes.
