AT LAST !!!!

Britains largest ´Buy-2-Let´ investment company finally filed for administration this week, as the UK´s Buy-2-Let boom appears well and truly over.

Inside Track, often referred to as ´Inside Trick´, wowed the uninformed public with promises of becoming a ´Property Milllionaire´ in 6 months and retiring to live off the proceeds, have gone into administration. Thank the Lord!

Professionals and serious landlords in the business of But-2-Let have scorned this charade of a company for some time. Set up by failed Pyramid Scheme master, Jim Moore, who has since moved off-shore, pocketing £millions, Inside Track offered ´Free´ seminars in hotels around the country and drew in those who saw property as a never-ending gravy train of growing returns and ´Can´t lose´ investment. Which is all well and good when property values are increasing at double digit rates, but let´s face it, who couldn´t make a fortune given that scenario?

The truth of it is, Inside Track was an elaborate Estate Agency, which sold off-plan property through it´s sister company, to amateur investors, on the promise of rental incomes to pay the mortgage, leaving a healthy income plus capital appreciation. Numerous cases have come to light where this simply didn´t happen.

Moreover, it was duplicitous in it´s loyalty; it claimed to have negotiated ´below market value´ properties available only to it´s members. However, House builders are NOT benevelant societies in the business of selling their product at below market value! They have a responsibility to their share-holders to maximise profit. Show me a developer willing to sell their product ´below market value´ and I´ll see a person about to lose their job!

Furthermore, Inside Track claimed to teach it´s clients the ´secrets of property investing´ yet failed to teach them the first basic rule of property investing, which is not to pay too much money for a property in the first place!

They also failed to inform buyers of the real risks involved in owning property. The Financial Services Authority have been on to Inside Track for some years, but their powers were limited because Buy-to-Let mortgages are not under their juristiction.

So successful were Inside Track, they recorded profits of over £12.million in 2005. That´s profit, not turnover. Imitators starting popping up across the country. Most Notably, self-styled property guru, Nigerian businessman Spencer Michael, who was exposed on BBCs Watchdog program in 2005 for his ´less than honest´ business practices.

So for some, the passing of this high profile company will be seen as the final signal of the end of the property boom, but in reality, it´s a stark reminder of the fragility of the property market and business world.

For all those budding Buy-2-Let entrepreneurs who signed up and bought property through Inside track, we feel truly sorry. When these overvalued properties are reposessed you will no doubt blame the Credit Crunch or the Government, but you only have yourselves to blame and perhaps you will be a little smarter and more careful who you take advice from in the future?

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