Inside Track

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Inside Track was an award winning^{[citation needed]} British property investment information company^[1] that went into administration in April 2008 following a sharp downturn in the UK property market. Its sister company, Instant Access Properties, which sold properties to Inside Track clients, entered administration in September 2008, primarily as a result of the global economic crisis.

The company advertised in newspapers, on radio and TV and through mailshots, inviting customers to attend a free property investment session. The company offered free seminars that claimed to give insights into property investment, with a view to getting attendees to a paid two-day course.

Many potential customers did not have the time or skills to locate suitable properties, even after the training courses. To respond to client demand, Inside Track created 'Instant Access Properties', a sister company of Inside Track, designed to research and source "off market" opportunities for buy-to-let properties. These were typically off-plan properties, with the stated aim of achieving price appreciation before the property had been built, and with a view to holding the property on a medium or even long-term basis. Inside Track received a portion of the purchase price for this service, 3% if purchased through its sister company Inside Access Properties. Properties bought through the Instant Access company were sold at a nominal 15% discount (in order to access buy-to-let mortgages, which typically required a minimum 85% loan-to-value ratio).

With house price growth mostly over 10% each year continuing until 2007, some of Inside Track's 25,000 customers did not make money as the company was over inflating valuations and most customers ended up losing money, many of the developments were not finished, it was rapidly found that the system used relied on a constantly rising market and very lax mortgage lending and the company went into administration in April 2008.

Inside Track's methodology was based on gearing, with customers encouraged to borrow against properties in order to buy more, a methodology that broke down when the property market went into free fall in 2007/8.