What's the worst piece of property advice you've ever been given?

Never ever trust dream-selling, savings-gulping Property Gurus. The market is full of Furus (Fake Gurus) selling you snake oil for large 4-5 figure sums of money. Many of them promise the world - 'buy a property for £1', 'control other people's property with lease options', 'buy properties with "other peoples' money' etc.

There are no shortcuts and there is no alternative to learning the hard way. When I was starting out in property, I lost about a large sum of money to a Furu who borrowed money from me (and also connived a lot of other unsuspecting retail property investors like me). They would often start by selling a course or giving away "free tips" and then increasingly ask for money down the line.

Don't do it. Please. For your own sanity.

Property investment 'gurus' at seminars advise attendees to get as many credit cards as possible, then max them out to raise a deposit and obtain a mortgage offer before it goes on their credit record. I think we call that mortgage fraud in the professional world.

When it comes to bad advice it is often parents who offer out some of the worst advice even if it is well-meaning.

I have had a client come to me before who had been advised by the parents to fix their mortgage in for ten years. They did this direct with the current lender, what they hadn't thought about was the fact that they wanted to move within that time period. Eighteen months later they asked their lender to port their mortgage but the porting application was declined and they ended up paying nearly £15,000 to come out of their fixed rate deal to complete on their new purchase.

If they had spoken to an adviser in the first place they would have been advised not to take a fixed rate. Especially for that period of time.

"Trust me, there is no way the property won't get planning permission," said the seller to my client on a potential conversion property, commercial to residential HMO. Thankfully the client didn't, and neither did the property...

Could it be stress testing a mortgage interest rate at 5%. At the time, when the base rate was about 1%, the affordability test seemed ludicrous. Now though.... ?

For many years I was quite coy about what I did work wise, which resulted in a lot of interesting "Pub" chats involving well-intentioned people proffering "advice". One of the very best of these was - "Don't pay into your (work) pension, buy a bigger property!" I should add my employer was paying 10% equivalent of my pay as a contribution if I paid in.
The real implications of this I saw first-hand years later when dealing with interest-only mortgages post MMR. The common theme was - "I will downsize when I retire". The reality was very few people ever did downsize voluntarily, so that nest egg they thought they were building was often illiquid. Who really wants to sell the house they have had a family in, move away from neighbours and friends they have known for decades?

I was speaking to a client on a particularly bitty case last week who was so relieved at getting some proper mortgage advice. She advised that it was always best to keep financial matters "in the family", but felt like a weight was lifted when being able to run her scenario past an expert.

You dont need to use an adviser, they charge a fee, just go to the bank in the high street and ask them for one - Thanks man in pub, now my client is £200pm worse off for the next 5 years. Oh yes, but he saved on his adviser fee.
Oh, and - You dont need to insure it, no one ever checks. Same with life insurance, someone will sort it out if you die. Pub talk needs to be regulated!

"Buy property whatever the price - you can't lose"

"This is probably the worst advice I have heard about property. Whilst historically, over the long-term, investing in property has proven popular, there have been so many changes in recent years that have made it less attractive. It could be the higher stamp duty on buy to let property; the reduction in the allowable deduction of mortgage interest, or simply the stricter requirements on the EPC for the property. Property can still be a good investment, as long as it is looked it as part of a well diversified portoflio and not just bought whatever the price.""

Use the estate agents mortgage broker, just saying…