Buying to let -- any advice please?

bundly

missile wrote: »

These are flats which you owned and let or flats where you were a tennant?

Yes you caught me out! I meant flats I used to LET locally. I actually hate it when people get the two terms mixed up and here I am doing it myself! :rotfl:

bundly

Missile You seem to know your local rental market as a tennant.

NO I HAVE NEVER BEEN A TENANT. I BOUGHT MY FIRST PROPERTY AGE 18 AND HAVE BEEN AN OWNER OCCUPIER EVER SINCE. HAVE BEEN A LANDLADY LETTING TO TENANTS IN TWO PROPERTIES IN THIS TOWN 1995-2001 AND 1996-2006

How much research have you done on this as a business opportunity?

ONLY JUST STARTED TODAY

By all means disregard the advice you have been given, but please note I and others have been there done that and we are sincere in our comments. :A[/QUOTE]

I LOVE SINCERITY BUT I REALLY HATE BEING TALKED DOWN TO AND I HATE BEING ABUSED

bundly

johnny_storm wrote: »

Dont let people put you off. House prices always go up in the long term. Had you done this 10 years ago you would be minted now!

Good luck, hugs.

Hello Johnny!

13 years ago I bought a flat for £12,000. I put down £3k (all I had) and borrowed £9k from my boyfriend, paying him back £300 a month for 3 years. So by 1999 I owned it outright. I moved out and let the flat for the next 7 years. I moved into a house, bought for £58k on a £52k mortgage. The rent from the flat paid the mortgage on the house as well as the outgoings on the flat. 3 years ago I sold the flat for £70,000. I used £52k to pay off the mortgage on the house, thus repaying it in 7 years instead of 25. And this house, that I paid £58k for, is worth about £200k. The remaining £18,000 I have saved and added to.

I have always let a room in this house, and made so far about £40k from that, and still have a lodger.

All this from an initial investment of £3k.

Brock calls this a "failure." Ho ho ho.:rotfl:

bundly

dopester wrote: »

don't expect any tenants to put up with bolshy landlord harassment or intruding on their quiet enjoyment of any property

More invention and misquoting by a nasty, jealous man.

I said "I want to live practically next door to the place I am letting, to keep a close eye on things and mostly to let the tenants know that I am!"

Nowhere did I say I would be harassing them, intruding on them, even visiting the property (more than any other landlord). This is an invention entirely of your own.

I don't mind people saying -- Oooh, be careful, do your research, but when they reduce themselves to pure abuse, they shame themselves not me.

As for HASTINGS, see my previous message above, I have done well here, and have made many tens of thousands of profit from buying, selling and letting in this town.

zzzLazyDaisy

bundly wrote: »

I have been out of the borrowing life for so long I am well out of touch. .

I think you are right........

bundly

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Why is it 'wrong' for the OP to set herself up for the future rather than blow her incapacity benefit on a Sky package, depreciating asset such as a car, new clothes ...

THANK YOU Fire Fox for defending me, but I reiterate, it is NOT incapacity benefit that is paying for the Buy To Let property! The money I have is from savings built up partly from my employmental earnings, partly royalties on a book I wrote about the horrific attack I experienced, partly from the sale of my flat 3 yrs ago, and partly from an insurance policy maturing. Not one penny of it comes from IB or any other thing from any tax payer.

IF I do end up borrowing £20k (if I can get a mortgage) the £25 per week repayments will come from the rental income from the flat.

"The taxpayer" -- of whom I was one from 1974 to 2000 -- is NOT funding ANY of this business venture.

I paid into a works pension while I was working and I have phoned them to ask how much they could offer me as a lump sum if I cash it in today instead of drawing it as a pension when I am 65. I am hoping it will be £20k so I will be able to do this without a mortgage.

Lastly, I am truly shocked and amazed that what started out as an enquiry about how I can take steps to secure my future has turned into an avalanche of jealousy and hatred. I came on this board expecting friendly, brotherly advice from people in the know, and I get lies, abuse, etc. What an eye opener into what some people on here are like! So I am going to ignore the nasty jealous dogs and focus on those who truly do want to help and advise me.

chappers

I have to agree why is it silly , provided the figures stack up and you can get the rental you anticipate, currently your investment is giving you a return of around £2k a year, your proposed plan would give you an estimated return of 3 x that, sounds like financial sense to me. Even if the value of your property fell slightly your income should remain the same.
I see no reason not to make this investment , it doesn't have to be a one way street, if in the future you feel you could get a better return by sticking it back in the bank then at that time do the figures again sell up and reinvest your money somewhere else.
I think you may struggle on the mortgage front but it is always worth trying a decent BTL broker as some lenders are more interested in rental returns than personal income, some will however take certain benefits into account.
Most BTL lenders would be looking at a rental income of 120% of the monthly repayment your figures seem to indicate upward of 400% on the money you would want to borrow.
If I were you and the figures you have provided with regards to purchase prices,rental incomes and annual expenses are correct, I would be looking at this as a serious prospect.

Good luck.

bundly

Yes I think your comments are fair enough. But I am not a fool you know, I will check all this out. Just because I know nothing of the current lending situation does not make me an idiot when it comes to property. I've bought and sold many properties in my life and have made profit every time.

There are several properties near my house up for auction, price guides about 40-50k. What puts me off is, you really have to get a survey done, then you could be outbid, so wasting the survey money. Or do you mean go without a survey?

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I'm not going to retract my earlier statement: in general a lower service charge = a lower standard of care. If you are fully self managed or share of freehold that's is different animal, as you are not paying for someone else to cream off a profit just repairs as and when.

I will put my hands up and say I am rather jaded when it comes to commercial management companies, being at the end of a three year dispute with ours. Do not trust invoices, contracts or any other paperwork that looks above board - these do NOT prove work is or has been done. In our case I believe that invoices relating to cleaning and lighting were fraudulent.

As leaseholder you alone are legally responsible for paying for electricity and/ or water that might be included in the service charge. The tenant is legally responsible for paying council tax and utilities that are billed directly to the flat. It is possible to change this via the tenancy agreement, but it is difficult to enforce so is simpler to set the rent to accounting for the 'free' water.

Have you considered buying at auction?

bundly

chappers wrote: »

i see no reason not to make this investment ...
Most btl lenders would be looking at a rental income of 120% of the monthly repayment your figures seem to indicate upward of 400% on the money you would want to borrow.
If i were you and the figures you have provided with regards to purchase prices,rental incomes and annual expenses are correct, i would be looking at this as a serious prospect.
Good luck.

thank you chappers!
:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t:t

ThrowingStonesAtYou

bundly wrote: »

Hello Johnny!

13 years ago I bought a flat for £12,000. I put down £3k (all I had) and borrowed £9k from my boyfriend, paying him back £300 a month for 3 years. So by 1999 I owned it outright. I moved out and let the flat for the next 7 years. I moved into a house, bought for £58k on a £52k mortgage. The rent from the flat paid the mortgage on the house as well as the outgoings on the flat. 3 years ago I sold the flat for £70,000. I used £52k to pay off the mortgage on the house, thus repaying it in 7 years instead of 25. And this house, that I paid £58k for, is worth about £200k. The remaining £18,000 I have saved and added to.

I have always let a room in this house, and made so far about £40k from that, and still have a lodger.

All this from an initial investment of £3k.

Brock calls this a "failure." Ho ho ho.:rotfl:

So you got lucky in the biggest house price bubble in history entirely down to chance timing and you think you are Donald Trump :rolleyes: