r/PropertyInvestingUK

Is it worth buying a fire damaged house on auction for the purposes of BRR? Has anyone done it before and can suggest if it was worth it and any unusual pitfalls to look out for

Mine was getting a message that began with sorry to bother you followed immediately by a photo that looked like the property had survived a small natural disaster. Feel like every UK landlord eventually collects a few stories that sound completely made up to normal people. What’s yours?

Hi all

I am 19 based in South West of England and just finishing my first property renovation aiming to flip full time for a living

I am a semi qualified electrician and know how to plaster, do flooring and some plumbing.

Just want to get some connections to people doing a similar thing to me to mentor

Would appreciate anyone getting in touch

This will be my first buy to let.

When I got the mortgage for my residential property, the mortgage broker didnt charge a fee.

I'm aware buy to let is different, but roughly how much should the fee be? Or if maybe some of you didnt pay a fee at all?

Cheers!

I'm new to property auctions and trying to understand whether tools like Aedifai.com or Docuwise.com actually add value when reviewing the legal pack.

I know a solicitor still needs to do the real legal review before bidding, but I mainly want something to help filter opportunities beforehand and flag obvious issues.

My main problem is that I don't really know what to ask Claude or ChatGPT when reading these packs manually, so the idea of a more guided AI tool sounds useful.

Aedifai seems much cheaper, while Docuwise is around 7x the price. Has anyone used both? Is Docuwise actually significantly better?

Interested in real experiences. I'll probably try Aedifai anyway, for £10 it feels worth testing. Still undecided on Docuwise though. £75 feels quite steep just to experiment with it.

Hi all, first time investor here based in London.

I plan to buy 2 BTL terraced houses in Leeds . Going for capital growth over 5 to 7 years. I dont know Leeds market so I need a sourcing company. After research I narrowed it to two:

1. Property Elevate, Leeds focused since 2009

2. Property Fit, Manchester based since 2004 but cover Leeds

3. Also looked at CityRise but they seem to be more off plan apartments which I don't want.

Has anyone here actually worked with either? Did the deals perform like they promised, were fees clear, any red flags?

Also happy to hear about other Leeds sourcers worth talking to.

Thanks!

What genuinely is the most challenging part about flipping properties? Is it sourcing deals? Analysing them? Getting accurate data? Funding/Financing?

Would love to hear some thoughts from real investors on their process

Hello everyone , How are you today?

I’m trying to understand what actually counts as being a “portfolio property investor” in the UK.

From what I’ve heard, once someone owns multiple buy-to-let properties, they may be seen as a portfolio landlord/investor. But I’m not fully sure where the line is. Is it 2 properties, 4 properties, or does it depend on the lender/accountant/tax situation?

I’ve also been told that once you become a portfolio property investor, you are somewhat more protected from risk because the income is spread across multiple properties.

For example, if one flat is vacant, has a bad tenant, needs major repairs, or has an unexpected issue, the other properties may still bring in rent and help cover the problem.

That makes sense to me in theory, but I’m wondering how true it is in real life.

Does having a property portfolio genuinely make you more “risk proof”, or can it actually create bigger risks because you have more proper , more tenants, more maintenance, more compliance, and more things that can go wrong?

For experienced landlords/investors, at what point does a small landlord become a proper portfolio investor?

And what are the main things a beginner should understand before trying to build a portfolio instead of just owning one buy-to-let?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

I’ve been looking into buying flats in the UK for property investment, either in small apartment blocks or larger buildings, and I’m trying to properly understand the leasehold/freehold situation.

From what I understand, when you buy a leasehold flat, you technically own the property only for the duration of the lease (for example 99, 125, or even 999 years).

What bothers me is the idea that when the lease expires, the flat can effectively revert back to the freeholder unless the lease is extended. Am I understanding that correctly, or am I oversimplifying it?

how can someone take away the flat that you rightfully own?

I know 999 years is obviously far beyond a normal lifetime, but the principle of “not truly owning it forever” still feels strange to me

I’ve also been recommended to look into flats with “share of freehold” instead.

My understanding is that if you own a share of the freehold alongside the other flat owners, you have much more control over extending your own lease and the building overall.

So my questions are:

• With share of freehold, can one owner still extend their own lease even if other owners don’t bother And vote not to?
• How common is share of freehold flats compared to standard leasehold flats in the UK?

Just trying to properly understand the reality before making mistakes later.

1st : Is it hard to turn a real profit when you have a buy-to-let mortgage?

My thinking is: instead of chasing expensive properties with tiny margins, buy flats/apartments in the £50k–£120k range, keep the mortgage as low as possible, and then aggressively pay it down.

The goal would be to eventually own the property outright, or at least reduce the mortgage enough that the rental income gives strong monthly cash flow after costs.

I understand there are things like service charges, ground rent, repairs, void periods, tax, insurance, letting agent fees, and higher interest rates to think about. which MAY makes my basic idea to be even more logical or not?

But is the basic idea flawed?

Would it be better to focus on cash flow from flats properties and pay them down quickly, or is there something I’m missing with this strategy?

I’m mainly trying to understand if BTL is still worth it when mortgage payments eat up most of the rent, and whether paying the mortgage off faster is a smart way to make the numbers work long term.

Hi everyone,

I’m building an AI-native SaaS platform for UK property investors and developers.

The product helps users move from deal sourcing → financial analysis → outreach in one browser-based workflow.

In simple terms, we are trying to replace the fragmented process of jumping between property portals, spreadsheets, public datasets, company records, comparables, planning data and manual outreach tools.

The core use cases are:

• source on-market and off-market property opportunities
• analyse deals with built-in financial modelling
• identify potential owner, company and distress signals
• generate investor/developer outreach letters
• manage early-stage acquisition workflows

Given we are, and want to remain a lean team - looking for tried and tested AI native Go To Market solutions / tools / strategies that we can test, and measure and iterate and what works / what doesnt work ?

Hell bent on getting the distribution right, would really appreciate any insights, experiences for what's worked and what AI tools / apps peeps are using that bangs.

TIA.

Not the spreadsheet theory. The real process. The numbers you actually run, the order you run them in, the point where a deal stops making sense and you walk away. The step that separates the investors who build something sustainable from the ones who buy on yield and ignore everything else. What does your process actually look like and what would you add to someone else's if you could see it?

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Hi there,

I keep hearing from uncles of mine that they purchased their first property in their early 20s in the 80s/90s (in London too so more expensive). They more or less bought it straight out of university.

Has anyone here actually done this, and is it still possible nowadays (obviously straight out of uni you wouldn’t have much money). I’m self employed and I want to get on the property ladder. I have savings and investments but not sure it’ll be enough to get started. Any advice would be amazing.

Thanks 🙏

I’m 23 and starting to properly learn about investing and personal finance.

If you could go back to your early 20s, what would you focus on first? What mistakes would you avoid? And what ended up mattering way more (or less) than you expected?

Could be investing, budgeting, career choices, debt, saving habits, books/resources, mindset, anything really. Interested to hear what people wish they knew earlier.