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

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Sorry B I missed something out. She only buys houses so no leasehold issues, often HMO and she relies on a team of builder, plumber and electrician - she buys cheaply off eBay, one colour carpet throughout except kitchen and bathroom and buys cheap in sales etc. This does require storage room etc.

Night, Tilly

gallygirl

wynnvegas wrote: »

1. We're only going to buy houses (preferably ex-council houses in the local areas) - flat come with a lot more trouble and risk.
2. We're only going to purchase houses that have a minimum of 20% discounted from the current market value.
3. We're only going to purchase houses where we've seen both the complete home report and sale schedule.
4. We're only going to purchase houses after the gang of 5* have seen it, approved it and given an estimate of what sort of remediation cost we'll be looking at.

I think you're about right with this Billy - location is usually what's key but there is demand for 'council houses' everywhere. Flats come with ground rent, service charges (for services you never seem to get!) and you could get stung with a massive repair bill. The only other thing I would say is to steer clear of the 'prefabby' type houses as they can be harder to resell - but I'm sure your surveyor would tell you that anyway.

wynnvegas

Hi Tilly,

We may have lucked out with the guy we've gotten the first house through (confirmed this morning pending all the usual bits and pieces) as he takes his fee from the seller. Once I get into the way of it, I think we'll likely be able to use a bit of ingenuity to source our own places. In some cases, it will be about having the brass neck to go in and offer something stupid under the asking price - worst case scenario is that someone says no.

Definitely going with houses only so your friend sounds like she's got the idea sorted. We had the chat with Colin about single colour carpeting / flooring across all the properties and the like so that's looking like a promising move in the longer term. I'll need to get myself geared up for quite a lot of shopping in the next wee while!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning Gally,

We're definitely targeting the ex-council stock of solidly built, if unspectacular, houses. Lived in one of the pre-fab houses in Inverness back in the day and, whilst it was alright, it wasn't half as good as a properly built house.

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Morning All,

Deal! That's the first house more or less in the bag at £76,000 (78% of market value). We think it'll need something along the lines of £1,500 of work to get it ready and that will be scheduled as soon as we've got a purchase date. Both mortgages (our offset and the first BTL) are in the process of being set up now so we're on the road in relatively short time. What we'll eat into with the offset with this first one should be more than 60% covered by the bank accounts as we get paid tomorrow but we know we're going to have to shell out a good bit of money in the next couple of months to purchase the first 5 and then get them ready for letting.

Away to see another two this evening. Both look potentially promising although they are out of the way a wee bit. So long as we're not stretching the geography too far, it'll be fine I suppose. We just need to hope there's a queue of potential tenants waiting to come and live in our places...

Cheers,

Billy

abouttimetoo

Yay, big congrats Billy, you are well on the way now, how exciting :j :j

(you do realise don't you that Gally is going to want you to keep one aside for her for when she is in Bonny Scotland and available until you complete her wing in the big house )

Billy, something I was thinking of this morning and I don't know how relevant it is to you but I have it written into my tenancy agreements that the tenants need to pay to have the carpets cleaned when they leave if the 'mess' is deemed beyond 'normal wear and tear' The latter can be frustrating and subjective but I have had a few tenants pay for this to happen when they have left; I also think that it perhaps helps to encourage people to be more careful.

PS, loving the new additon to your signature!

Regards
ATT

waughc01

Hi Billy,
Well done on your first btl property, it will be nae bother to you. We viewed a house 3 bed ex council house in May this year, o/o £92,ooo on website, walked in front door estate agent told us we could have it for £87,000, when we finished viewing it he said we could have it for £80,000. Sold price £72,000, don't go by what is on a website or a piece of paper. When you get your btl put a sign in the window with to let and a phone number, you won' t believe how many people will chap the door or give you a call, take details and pass on to letting agent. In years to come you might decide to drop the letting agent and do it yourself.
Good luck with your other meeting today.
Waughc01

wynnvegas

Hi ATT,

We've got that in the lease agreement that I've seen. Seems only fair I think. The whole signature will need updating very shortly and I'm contemplating a shiny new diary now that we have a different focus.

Gally will have to make do with the spare room at the moment! The East Wing of The Big House will eventually be set aside for her personal use but we're not there yet!!

Cheers,

Billy

wynnvegas

Thanks Waugh,

That's a fair but worrying point. I suppose something is worth only what people are prepared to pay for it. We may have to add in the additional step of getting a trio of valuations before taking the plunge with future properties. We'll likely do a good bit of work when selling it on to make it properly attractive and modern but we'll hopefully have made enough out of the renting game to make the whole project very worth our while.

Cheers,

Billy

gallygirl

Thanks for the offer of a bed Billy, funnily enough am coming to Scotland tomorrow so make sure the sheets are aired .

Buying now means you'll complete January, and sadly you'll have no shortage of tenants as a lot of couples break up over the New Year period.

Re the carpet cleaning - I have never put this in any of my agreements - I didn't really think it was suitable for that end of the market?