Mortgage Free - so good they'll do it twice! Wynnvegas aiming for the big house

wynnvegas

Hiya Gally,

Pitch and putt won't cut it. A 9-hole crazy golf course may be worth exploring. I'll need to think of some appropriate themes for each hole!

Cheers,

Billy

gallygirl

wynnvegas wrote: »

There's certainly money to be made there but i'm a principled soul and profiting off the back of pain and suffering doesn't sit right with me at all. Is anyone actually choosing to rent property?

Billy I have 3 BTL's at the lower end of the market and have had a few more in the past so a fair bit of experience. Out of say 10 tenants overall I've had maybe 1 who could realistically have bought a house at some stage. The rest were/are not the type to buy houses - put bluntly, too !!!!less/irresponsible with money to save up for a deposit or take responsibility for a property. For example, 'forgetting' they would have a quarterly gas/electric bill so not saving for it, taking on a part-time job at £100 a week and using it ALL to buy presents for the children, full Sky Sports package but gas cut off etc. I don't think my experiences are untypical. There are lots of people on here who are managing to buy houses on low incomes but remember this board is not typical of the population as a whole.

If you provide decent quality housing and keep it in good repair you won't be 'profiting off the back of pain and suffering' but will be providing a decent service. You need to keep a distance from the tenants and have a good working but impresonal relationship.

Good luck if you go for it!

wynnvegas

Thanks Gally,

It's maybe just my ignorance of the general populous that's led me to my half-baked conclusion. I've always questions why someone would want to pay £600p/m forever instead of buying a house and paying £600p/m until it's paid off and you don't have to worry about your biggest bill ever again. Anything that just makes no financial sense goes over my head.

In saying that, I'd let the gas be cut off before Sky Sports so I may have some sympathy on that one!

Landlord Billy, here we go!

Cheers,

Billy

Brodiebobs

I must admit were looking to either buy a property to let, or buy another for ourselves and rent this one, but i had the same feelings as you, mainly because of the problems we had trying to buy our first house in 2004, and kept loosing them to BTL'ers. Same as Gally a friend of ours pointed out more or less the sames things. He rents houses, even offered to sell a few to the renters, but they didnt want the responsibility, even though they could have afforded. In his smaller properties he has DSS claimants and they dont see it as dead money as its mostly all the rent paid for them by benefits, so they dont associate the money with being 'theirs' to loose.

wynnvegas

Morning Brodie,

It's settled. We've got a gang of four on the case. A letting agent to flow through the property options, two middle men with the funding to buy the things and a joiner / jack of all trades to get in and about any necessary sprucing up / repairs and the like. We're going to meet later this month to talk about how we all make money out of the venture then I can get cracking with a myriad of spreadsheets to work out exactly how much we should be looking at. We'll probably start with half a dozen properties (and a good deal of those may be through where I grew up as there are a number of folk we know who are looking to rent from me as opposed to their current landlords.

Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Billy

gallygirl

wynnvegas wrote: »

Morning Brodie,

It's settled. We've got a gang of four on the case. A letting agent to flow through the property options, two middle men with the funding to buy the things and a joiner / jack of all trades to get in and about any necessary sprucing up / repairs and the like. We're going to meet later this month to talk about how we all make money out of the venture then I can get cracking with a myriad of spreadsheets to work out exactly how much we should be looking at. We'll probably start with half a dozen properties (and a good deal of those may be through where I grew up as there are a number of folk we know who are looking to rent from me as opposed to their current landlords.

Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Billy

What will you do when the people you know don't pay the rent? Very difficult when you are personally involved and if things go pearshaped it would be you who would be seen to be in the wrong. Sorry, don't mean to be so negative, but I think it would be better to keep a distance.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

That's a very good point. In my experience it's not the starting of something but the ending if needs be, that causes the problems. You would need a very clear contract showing exit clauses on both sides to protect the friendship.

Good luck - I will watch your progress with interest as I am interested in doing this also.

diadeb

Hi Billy, just wandered over to have a catch up and say hello again. As always I love reading your thread and can only dream of the money saving you do.....;)

I am still on target on the MFit2 challenge, but it's getting more difficult. Most of the money I save is offset and so I get very fed up when I check my actual mortgage as the monthly interest charged barely goes down. Mind you the rate is 1.49% so it's hardly big numbers!

Good luck on the BTL mission. I think if you've got the bottle it's a great idea. I have just completed on property no 2 as a second holiday rental home (only just over two months delayed ). It's been fun but time consuming getting to this point and I've spent far too much kitting it out. Bills now in awaiting payment......drat!

So I too do BTL but have holiday guests rather than tenants, so much pleasure involved for everyone. I don't feel at all bad taking money off them as they get their holiday of it.

wynnvegas

Hi Gally,

That's hopefully where the middle two come in. We've got investor 1 (S) who is the enforcer and will wander round with an appropriate baseball bat, investor 2 (me) who will take the legal route (for want of damaging my nails in any kind of fight!!) and the leasing agent who is very experienced in dealing with that kind of thing. The simple answer is that, beyond drawing up a comprehensive agreement in the first instance and enforcing it as necessary, I'm not sure what would happen. The idea of squatters is one that doesn't appeal at all. That's when our resident gunner will come into the equation!!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Hi Tilly,

We've got a meeting to have the initial discussions to set up. Beyond that, I'll project manage the various bits and pieces and there should hopefully be enough expertise around the table to make it work comfortably. Most of the family members I was thinking of have their rent paid for them at the moment by the local authority so getting money off them wouldn't be the issue of note for the majority. How it all works with benefits and the like is a mystery to me but that's where some of the other guys involved have a greater knowledge base. I'm going in with my eyes open and won't press go until I'm completely happy with the idea.

Cheers,

Billy