Should I pay for a development finance course?

Honestly?

No.

The information available on all of the courses you see advertised is readily and freely available online and there is absolutely no reason to pay for a development finance course.

Are property training courses a scam?

There is absolutely no question that some of these property training courses are nothing but scams. Fortunately, the vast majority do offer valuable information but as we have said before, the information you receive on these courses is already in the public domain so there is no need to pay the vast sums that they are asking.

In our opinion, the only value you will extract from these courses is the ability to network with like minded individuals who are also starting their property journey. This will give you an opportunity to share stories, success and disappointments. But again, whilst valuable to do so, it’s really not value for money to pay £10k + for the property training just to network.

But they tell me I can buy property with no money down?

Yes they do but no you can’t. Not now anyway or to be more precise, you can, but with a very limited set of options which are also hugely expensive.

There used to be a way of doing this by buying a property under value, also known as BMV. This is an example:

Property is valued at £350,000.

Property is actually for sale for £325,000 because the seller is in financial distress and by accepting the lower offer they can repay their outstanding mortgage of £315,000 before their lender repossesses the property. Obviously speed is the main factor here.

Now, most lenders used to offer 90% of the valuation (in this case £350,000) and 90% of this figure is £315,000…Exactly what the purchase price is so you would think that is a real result.

Two problems here. One is that very few lenders currently do 90% of the PP anymore. Those that do will really make hay by charging a high interest rate and high fees. The second problem is that there are still other fees to pay such as Solicitors fees, valuation fees, possibly QS fees so the reality of it being a ‘no money down’ bridging or development loan is sheer fallacy. Yes, a first time property developer can borrow money to undertake a development but there are so many other factors to consider.

Social media is part of the problem here. So many YouTubers, Instagrammers and TikTokers will tell you how they have made a fortune buying a property with no money down and how they have made their fortune from a career in property development with absolutely no experience.

Complete rubbish.

If the information they provide is so valuable and can lead to a lucrative career, why would they provide this information?

You are absolutely right.

Surely if the information that these so called property masterminds or trainers provided is so valuable and earns them hundreds of thousands of pounds even millions of pounds (according to a few property trainers), then why on earth would they allow people to take advantage of what they know? Giving something back? Don’t make us laugh.

It doesn’t matter if one of these courses charges £20,000 (and some of them do), the fact is there is not one single person who would sell this information if it meant that they could potentially lose out on their own earning potential.

No one will sell information, no matter how much they sell us information for. It doesn’t matter. This is why most property training courses or a complete scam.

It comes back to the same thing every single time. If the information provided was so valuable and potentially so lucrative, why on earth would they offer it to the general public, surely they will keep it to themselves so they can earn even more money. It just doesn’t make any sense