Property entrepreneur Stephen Cleeve Slams Jenman and his system

Businessman Stephen Cleeve who has had years of worldwide property experience today slammed the Jenman system and its’ owner Neil Jenman in an exclusive interview.

“Neil Jenman thinks he is the messiah and that his system is the only way to act.  He disagrees with property auctions and even has strange views about advertising properties.  Well let me tell you I have known many buyers and vendors myself included, who have done well using auctions.  I personally would never say that I know everything about property and I would certainly not say that one strategy is the only strategy to use; that would be a very arrogant statement to make.  Indeed if you look at some of the biggest property entrepreneurs in the world they have all used different methods but the key thing is that they work for them; everyone find their own ways to operate.”

Here at Jenman.org we could not agree more but what is more interesting is what Cleeve’s view of Jenman’s real motives is.

“Jenman is a marketing man; he is good at selling himself to an uneducated public. From what I have seen of his methods he simply calls journalists who have no real property knowledge and then he blows out of proportion one side of a company he is about to attack  business operations.  Sometimes he may have a point but usually the reality is that his work is ill researched or if it is fully researched the other side of the coin is not shown.  For example he slams off plan sales as he thinks that off plans are over priced, well are they? They may be but usually you are paying for property which is not yet built, of course there is speculation involved and in some cases people will win in others they will loose. If you buy a share on the stock market and the company goes bust does it mean that all stock market investments are bad of course not it just means you need to do your homework.  Jenman used to be a real estate agent, then he trained them and if you read his notes that he gave out when he was training (which you can see some of on this site) he hardly covers himself in glory.  I think he promotes himself well and makes himself a lot of money and that’s why he does it, but I know that he does not respond to every person that writes to him he just seems to take on the odd case where he thinks he can make some publicity for himself, does he ever get those people their money back? I have never seen a case where he has.”

What about Cleeve’s view on the world property market for 2008.

“Well there’s a good question and of course I can only predict what may happen and things can turn very quickly in today’s markets so be prepared to move fast.  The UK market looks flat, I am sure commercial property will fall and if I had to give you a number I could see 20% coming off this sector in the next 18 months.  There are many commercial property funds and if people want their money back as they loose confidence in the market this will have a large effect.  There will be deals to be done in this sector but I would and will, keep my powder dry until the summer. As for UK residential market I think the prime stuff is not economically driven people want trophy homes and will pay a unrealistic price so I think you can continue to make hay here, however I would not want to own city centre flats in Leeds or Liverpool for example and I doubt that the Olympics will do that much for fringe property prices it is already in the price. Cross rail will raise prices but your still years too early.  The USA - I can’t see the dollar falling too much more from these levels no more than 8%, and I think again there will be bargains here towards the end of the year; the downside is minimal although raising capital may be a challenge.  Australia seems to be booming so I won’t say anything that may jink it!