Hats off to the lenders...

Putting this week’s blog together reminded me of another blog/article I read this week, the aptly named Deacons diary, from Masthaven's newsletter. Richards blog was informative then I got to two sections that tickled me... firstly Richard was lamenting about his team being down in the dumps,(that's Chelski for those of you that don't know Richard). Well it makes the rest of us chuckle, I'm afraid Richard, at the distress of these teams who have done their utmost to destroy football in the UK as we know it. While they're lavishing £50m on the likes of Torres, football league teams continue to go to the wall for as little as £10,000 tax debts.

But what do you expect with the likes of Dame Trevor Brooking and Scudamore in charge, (that pair still backed Wet Spam against the Blades, even though the courts of justice found the East Enders guilty as sin).    I wouldn't put them in charge of a village team. Anyway, rant over, and this week sees my team travel to two of the bottom four in the CCC, in Palace and Scunny, a couple of wins wouldn't do us any harm and lift us out of the bottom three.   That's real football for you Richard!! Real fans!! No diving cheating prima-donna's in gloves and snoods!! And most importantly, a pie and a pint for less than a fiver!!   The second section that tickled me was the parting joke, ice fishing? Don't give up the day job my friend, lol.   Anyway coming back to Masthaven, they've always been a top class lender and to get regulated and offer a fuller product range is brilliant news, a top lender in a top sector, hats off to them.   Back to the survey... The survey that I'm doing on purchasing leads is still work in progress. As I got extremely busy with other introduced leads I haven't purchased any more, but only last night one of the magnificent 7 that I paid a fiver for came back to me with positive news, it's a development finance case and they are ready to proceed, so that's now two of the 7 leads that look like progressing, if that happens I'll be over the moon for so little outlay.   Other news, many brokers cringe when the name Lancashire Mortgages raises it's head but sometimes credit has to be given to this lender. One such occasion was this week when I had a buy-to-let (BTL) case to place. My client is the proud owner of a £3.7m portfolio, which contains 22 properties mortgaged to just over £2.5m. He tends to buy cheap and cheerful properties on council estates in Bradford.The values range from £50,000 to around the £100,000 price bracket, however this week he had an offer of £30,000 accepted on a one bedroom flat, and on the residential BTL lender circuit this couldn't be placed.   The purchase price was well below most lender’s minimum, and on the ones with no minimum purchase price, when looking at LTV it fell below the £25,000 mark so again fell out of bed.   Enter Lancashire/Blemain... On calling them it fitted both lenders’ criteria. Minimum loan size of £10,000 and no minimum property value. So on this occasion it was Lancashire to the rescue, the rate is steep as we all know but on such a small property the £85 per week rent still more than pays the capital repayment mortgage, so job done, well done Lancashire!