Thinking of Buying to Let.

maggiemayhem

Hi, I live in Northern Ireland and was thinking of buying a small house as an investment for the future . I was hoping to buy a house and rent it out for the next ten to fifteen years.
Is Buy to let a good idea in the current climate? If not what are the indications of a good time to buy? What websites are worth visiting for help?Any thing I should be aware of ?

I am a total novice in all this and would appreciate any suggestions.:)

HappyMJ

You need to diversify. Just having 1 investment property exposes you to a lot of risk. There is very little annual profit in property you will usually make a loss compared to putting whatever deposit you have into a fixed term savings account for the 10-15 years. You will make a small profit on the sale of the property which may or may not exceed the interest you could have earnt.

To me it's not worth the hassle.

googler

Before even considering the purchase, you need to find out if you can get the mortgage for it (assuming you're not a cash buyer). Even seasoned landlords are finding it difficult to get BTL finance on new purchases at the moment.

There's lots of threads on here detailing what you need to look at - getting tenants, vetting tenants, possibility of no tenants and no income for months at a time, what the rental market is like in the area you buy in, repairs, maintenance, landlord responsibilities and legal obligations, etc.

hedger

maggiemayhem wrote: »

Hi, I live in Northern Ireland and was thinking of buying a small house as an investment for the future . I was hoping to buy a house and rent it out for the next ten to fifteen years.
Is Buy to let a good idea in the current climate? If not what are the indications of a good time to buy? What websites are worth visiting for help?Any thing I should be aware of ?

I am a total novice in all this and would appreciate any suggestions.:)

I owned 6 properties in NI and got out of the property game just before the crash. I got lucky. Unless u have a big pool of money to subsidise falling property prices, problem tenants, repairs, rising rates bills etc I would steer clear. There just isnt the return now worth the risk imo

theartfullodger

Beware, law/regulations on letting property in NI is different from England, Wales & Scotland and sources of info may be hard to find, other than paying a solicitor

Only rent property out if you have the emotional & financial reserves to cope with the "tenant-from-hell" who pays you nothing for 7 months. No, those "Rent Guarantees" only guarantee the insurance property makes a profit, not that they would pay out to you the Landlord..