Research, or who can help us figure this out?

research, or who can help us figure this out?

There is a shopping list of things which we need to research. But since my background includes Knowledge Management, I’m a big fan of the “learn before, learn during, learn after” approach. Chris Collison & Geoff Parcell’s Learning to Fly was my introduction to this technique and I’ve heard Chris speak on this and other topics many times.

Knowledge Management is as much about the tacit knowledge (what’s in peoples heads) as it is about explicit knowledge (what’s written down). So as well as finding traditional resources to help us learn before, we need to find people who can help us figure this out.

traditional resources

• Books. Local library, amazon, Waterstones, general web search for books on this topic. Look for the most popular ones because they’re likely to be the most helpful? Double check that they are UK focused – buy to let is popular in other English speaking countries too.
  
  
• Websites. Experts who share their knowledge on a website. Could be another blogger or a YouTuber? Podcasts possibly?
  
  
• Magazines and Newspapers. Possibly not as helpful for specifics but definitely useful for general market advise, keeping aware of the law and regulation changes, mortgage rate fluctuations and more.

people who can help

• Accountant. We’re lucky that we already have one and that we have a good working relationship. They’ll probably have a view on buy to lets and possibly some advice for us on how to make it work effectively.
  
  
• Solicitor. A solicitor who specialises in real estate will help keep us legal and advise on what we need to do and think about as landlords.
  
  
• Mortgage Broker. We’ve always had one for our house purchases and remortgages for the house we live in. Can they help us with buy to let or do we need to find a new one who can advise us on how to fund a purchase and what the banks need to see from us to get a mortgage.
  
  
• Friends, family and colleagues. We can’t be the only ones to be thinking about buy to let. Somebody somewhere in our network must have thought about it and dismissed it or thought about it and done it. Lets find out what they know and the lessons they learned.