There is indeed an answer to this question and there are also multiple answers to this question. There is an amount that gives you access to a lot of different options. However if you have less than that amount of money there are still options which of course comes with pros and cons. Firstly we will start with the smallest amount of money you may have and then we can go up from there. The idea is you can think about how much you have got to invest now and find out what your current options are and think whether you can go and take a look into a particular option or if your not keen on it then you can keep on saving until you get into the next bracket. The first category is….

 

1. Having under £10,000 available

 

With regards to this category some of the costs depending on your strategy may alter but this is a good guide to get you started. Rent2Rent is a good option as the down payment is low but you have to be able to source them properly and find the motivated landlords who are fed up with managing their properties. In this situation you can persuade them to let you take the property off their hands, manage it for them and give them a guaranteed level of income and then you can rent it out for more such as renting it room by room. With this situation you do not physically buy the property consequently you do not need as much cash. You may also need to spend some money on training in terms of how to handle it. Question is should you do this if you got under £10,000? You can undertake this an earn cash flow but the negative of this is that you will never own the property unless you have an option agreement in place and also it is indeed very time intensive.

 

 

Another possible option is crowd funding. If you are unable to buy a property outright yourself you can get a number of people to buy the property with you. Where you can all own 5% of the property and split the profit that is made after expenses or when the property is sold you can split the capital increase. Of course the crowd investing platform will also take the cut of the rent and the capital growth as well. It is an option there but the issue is you are giving up control for instance you will only invest in properties that are provided for by the platform.  There is a degree of platform risk because you will be depending on the platform for sourcing, managing the property.

 

 

The other option is to continue to save! It is not an easy thing to do because it is not exciting. It is really hard to hold off. But if you do get a bit more money together you will be able to have a lot more options ahead of you and you would learn a lot more as well.

 

2. If you have £10,000-£25,000 available

 

Real BTLs tend to open up to you in this category but they would be cheap BTLs. So you would be able to purchase for instance a property for £50k and get some leverage. But that is great because you are still building your portfolio and moving towards your aims and objectives and you will find that you will do lots of learning however the type of property that you will be going to go for will provide you with a good yield although the issue with this is that you may have tenants that give you more problems as properties in that price bracket tend to have a higher tenant profile risk. Therefore although the yields are high the management and problematic issues that may arise is more likely. Not always the case but a possibility. Additionally another risk of this option is these types of properties in those types of areas you are unlikely to achieve capital growth. For instance in Liverpool the stronger areas within Liverpool would have higher capital growth however other areas in Liverpool where you can purchase a terrace for £50,000 it is unlikely there would be much capital growth.

 

 

You can also do flips with this amount as you can get a bridging loan for 70% value with a property that requires a light refurbishment. You will not be able to get into major projects but it is enough. If you can use that amount to do a couple of projects in a year you could have potentially doubled your investment to then move onto the next category…

 

 

3. If you have £25,000-30,000.

 

This is where you can have your pick of anything you wish to do. If lease options is your area and it makes sense for you; you so you can still do that and spend more on marketing and do it at a larger scale it just means that with this sum you can almost do what you wish however there are some things where you need a larger amount of cash.

 

4. If you have over £50,000

 

First option is to carry on building a portfolio of BTL properties but you can also do other options and can potentially invest in the South East and London but you will need more cash as the price points are more higher. There are many people who considering the current wave of capital and yield appreciation and have decided just to invest in the North of England and not touch London.  Using £50,000 plus you can invest in the South East and if you are building a portfolio overtime you do want exposure in the South East to balance your portfolio across different areas.

 

You can also do full refurbs for instance you take on a shell property or a full over development opportunity. Having this sort of level of cash opens these doors up to you. It isn’t just about saving there are potentially other options.

 

If you look into your bank account and you do not like what you see you do not have to keep on saving. The other options are Joint Ventures. It may not always feel like it but there are a lot of people out there with money and are looking for something to do with it that would give them a better return than the return in the bank. There are more people who have money than people who know how to make money. So if you know how to invest in property pitch yourself and undertake Joint Ventures because then you can start to build cash flow and once you have a good amount can undertake your own projects. With Joint Ventures your also de-risking and learning as you do each project. Remember there so many options in property and different strategies so you just have to be smart with the choices you make.

 

 

Best of luck!