Very many people have become wealthy through 'buy to let', and many are still in the process of doing the same with build to let.

Les us describe the concept of buy to let and then take it a stage further and see how the profit can really stack up.

The theory of buy to let

- You use the equity you have or by some other means raise a deposit for a property;

- You get a buy to let mortgage, usually at 85% of the value;

- You buy a property, and rent it out, using the deposit and mortgage;

- The rent covers most, if not all, of the mortgage and running costs.

When property prices go up

- you now have more equity, which you can use against a loan or mortgage to throw up the extra cash;

- you use this cash as a deposit for another house obtained in the same way as above.

This can be repeated as many times as you like, only restricted by how much the properties increase in price and the equity you can make available.

As the number of properties increase the cycle speeds up, as you have more properties whose equities can be added together. Some people have got hundreds of houses now, while quite a large number have well over 20 each, very many have 10 or more.

You can maximize the growth rate by:

- clever buying, buying under the current value self build, making a 25 to 60% saving on purchase costs;

- spotting properties that can be increased in value with minimal work, and cost selecting areas where prices will increase rapidly;

- selecting areas where the demand will increase rents, and keep your properties full;

- making things happen fast getting started as soon as possible.

Build to let

The advantages in self build, over going and buying a new estate house is cost, and knowing the quality of the build is high and you will not have problems in the future.

Any newer house should require less maintenance and be far easier to keep let all the time than older properties.

As the area becomes established, landscaped etc, rents will reflect this increased quality feel.

It can also allow people to get involved who have less capital and those with the same amount of capital to get a number of builds started at the same time.

This is because:

- You spend less on each property saving 25-60%

- You can get a 95% loan/mortgage on a self build (land and construction costs) which can be remortgaged to 85% when completed as a buy to let, using the equity that is already in the property means you need no further deposit, and most likely will get a large sum back to go into the next step.

- Although some do build far larger, and more highly specified houses by self build than are available conventionally, this does not need to be the case, and you can, by the same methods and means, build properties of any style, size or for any market.

To get into property owning or to add an individual property you can see, can be achieved by raising just 5% of a far smaller sum, and even this can be recovered as soon as the house is built.