Investing in Property, Investing in Family?

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As First time buyers continue to struggle to save their deposit to climb onto the property ladder, some of the lucky ones get to call on the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. But other family members are not receiving much interest on their savings so they are also lending to their nieces/nephews or grandchildren.

The more the merrier, Family Crowdfunding, clearly the details need ironing out before you lend to this close network! If the deal isn’t clearly labelled for what it is Christmas and Family parties could get a little awkward.

“The Borrowers/The Kids” sign up for a Two or Three year fixed mortgage with the aim to remortgage once that fixed term is over and from the remortgage they release the deposit raised back to the “Crowd” plus a bit of interest.

Loads to think about before you sign up, especially having various Aunts and Uncles having a percentage in your home, but it’s your family what could possibly go wrong?

It’s not Amazon  

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In early May of this year Bob Ferguson, the Attorney General of Washington State, filed what is believed to be the first consumer protection lawsuit against a Kickstarter campaign from investors wanting their money back.

Many in the US believe the current raft of new tech products across sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter (take Smarty Ring as an example) are either chasing a commercially unviable space or will simply never deliver on their promises and Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit is just the start of a new era where the ‘Crowd gets Angry’.

Kickstarter was initially frequented by a very savvy crowd who had expertise to help them judge whether or not tech projects were ever capable of being delivered. Now the audience of such sites has broadened to include average consumers and some of those consumers treat Crowdfunding like an Amazon.com for products that don’t yet exist.

Stronger screening and better communication of what a project’s level of complexity is along with more responsibility by the platforms is the only way to avoid a free for all in legal claims that could kill Crowdfunding.

ArchOver Launch Party

Wednesday saw the official launch party of ArchOver in the Waterloo room at the Institute of Directors. It was a great event attended by over 100 people on a fine summers evening. There were drinks and canapés a plenty followed by a short speech from our Chairman Brian Basham.

We thank everyone that made the effort to attend and hope everyone had a pleasant evening. We certainly did!

 

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