ASK522: Is now the time to sell? PLUS: Should I buy 2 HMOs?

0:02Rob D:Hi, I'm Rob.

0:03Rob B:And I'm Rob. And this is Ask Rob and Rob.

0:07Rob D:It is Ask Rob and Rob. It's that fixture of your Tuesdays where we get your questions answered. We have got two wonderful questions today from Fatai and David, but you, I'm sure, have got a wonderful question in you somewhere. How do you send it our way?

0:20Rob B:Well, it is very simple. Just go to the one place, go to propertyhub.net forward slash ask, And there you have multiple options where you can submit your question via a voicemail, direct audio. You can even put a written question into us and you may see that appear in the Sunday Times. All very exciting. But today it's two lucky listeners who get their questions answered. So let's get going. Hi, Rob and Rob.

0:43Rob D:My name is Fatai based in sunny city of Glasgow, Scotland. I'm an avid listener of your podcast for the past few years now. and thank you for being my weekly property podcast mentors. My question today is, is it a good time to sell right now? We're in a position where we're looking to move from one side of the city to another for better transport accessibility. So looking at all the drama happening in the world right now and its potential knock-on effects, would you advise we ride out the storm or just get on with it in case things don't calm down anytime soon. Let me know your thoughts, guys.

1:25Rob D:And thank you so much for everything you continue to do for us.

1:28Rob B:Pata, thank you for your question. I'm pleased to hear it's sunny in Glasgow. So is it a right time to sell now? Could be, but I wouldn't do it because of a war. I would do it because it suited your investment strategy. And that's what you should be doing. You should be looking at your investment strategy and ignoring the noise. There's so much noise in the world. And sometimes it feels like it's just intensifying all the time. But when we look through history, there's always something going on. Whatever decade you pick, 80s, 2000s, 60s, it doesn't matter. There's always big world events. There's always massive scares.

2:06Rob B:There's always reasons for us not to invest, to get out of investment. There's always something there. But it always and always will feel the most intense in the moment. When you look back at today in five years time, and I say to you in five years time, what was happening in the world five years ago? You would probably struggle to remember, unless you've got incredible memory and unfair play, but I would certainly have no clue. And that's the point. The point is, is that it's not going to matter as much in five years time. So allowing drama, allowing noise, allowing scary events to dictate what you do as an investor is a big mistake.

2:48Rob B:What you should be doing is deciding whether this right now is the best time for you, based on your circumstances, your numbers and your goals, and that is the only time really you should be looking to sell. Is the UK property market going to collapse because of a war in Iran? No, it's not. it might not be nice what's happening but it's not going to cause a UK property crash is it going to mean that you can't rent your property anymore no that's also not going to be the case because people still need a place to live whether there's wars in other parts of the world or not now interestingly you could actually say the reverse is true in this environment because we've documented on the podcast over the last few months that it's a particularly strong time for deals because of this uncertainty, because of poor sentiments.

3:40Rob B:And when that exists, the type of deals that you're able to achieve are much, much better. The deals that we're doing now and through Property Hub Invest are up there with the best we've seen in the last decade. And that's because of that uncertainty. So I suppose if anything was going to make you move one way or another, I would use this situation to take advantage of the brilliant deals that are available right now because of the nervousness that exists. But you now know as an investor, you shouldn't be making rash decisions based on external events. But what you can do is take advantage of people who are being rash or the market that isn't moving and go, I'm going to get myself the best deal I've ever achieved in my portfolio.

4:23Rob B:And you know what? For a lot of people, that is possible right now. So best of luck. And I can't tell you what to do, but that's my strong advice.

4:32Rob D:Okay, let's hear now from David. Hi Rob and Rob, David here. I've recently separated and a family home has been sold and now have a lump sum of£370 ,000. I am intending on renting a property to live in myself and using this capital to purchase either HMRs or buy-to-lets. I have found two student HMRs in Nottingham near the university and have been advised by independent student letting agents that both are on desirable streets. Both properties are let out until August 27. I wondered, am I daft buying two properties when I've never ventured into this market before. Should I be diversifying or is it okay to buy two student HMOs in the same area?

5:11Rob D:Any other advice? Appreciate it. Thank you. David, thank you for your question. And I'd be careful in this situation. I've seen people doing this and I've seen it work really well and I've seen it work really badly. The reason to be careful is that HMOs are something. They are buy to let on extreme hard mode. And for some people that's absolutely fine and i know you've done some research and you know all the things you have to do and all the considerations but you don't really know what it's like until you've done it and there's a chance that it'll turn out to not be for you and if you are in that position you'd really rather be there with one than with two and with all your money spent the other reason to be cautious is something you said in your question which is that you've been advised by student letting agents that both are on desirable streets now i might be reading too much into this and that implies that you don't know the area inside out yourself when it comes to student HMOs, and I know this is true for Nottingham because I know the area somewhat, location is really, really important.

6:04Rob D:And just being one street over or just a little bit too far down a street can make a giant difference. So in the process of owning one, you'll get to know the area better. You'll get to understand the market more, which means that you might be able to do a better job on buying your second. So unless there's a really good reason to do otherwise, my inclination would be to wait, not necessarily by ages, but maybe go through one complete cycle. Get through a year and see what happens and see if you still want to do it again. The market won't have changed dramatically. There'll still be plenty of opportunities out there and you will be in so much of a better position to know what you should be buying, what you should be paying and if it's something you even want to do at all.

6:42Rob D:Like I said, if you've got a good reason why you want to deploy this money really quickly, if you've researched it to death and you're dead set, then be assured that I have seen this work. But based purely on the minute of what you've said, my inclination would be to take it a bit slower but whatever you decide to do good luck so that's

6:58Rob B:just done for another week thank you for listening we'll be back with the main event of property podcast on Thursday until then take care have fun bye-bye bye-bye