Better to buy than rent!!

Batchy

Ill throw a spanner in the works and say I know a landlord who brought for 107k and rental is 650 per month.

It bothers me, as its expensive

It doesnt bother my sister, as the government is paying it for her... however, with rents this high she would need a well paid job to afford to pay for it while working on her own. Its a sorry state of affairs and the only winner, is those who takes the risk!

My sister will never be in a position to buy, she is out of work, no money and single mother with a dependant... but the time she works saves up again, and is ready she will have no prospect of getting a 25 year mortgage and would struggle to save anyway, but added to the fact she is a smoker, and getting closer to 40 by the day, its not looking good for her... She has no pension provision, sufficient to support herself independantly upon retirement so far, so will be poverty stricken throughout retirement! Im personally gutted for her, as she and her ex partner have always worked hard!

LittleMissAspie

abaxas wrote: »

Exactly my point, the market dictates the price, not the LL.

I cant comment on the Cambridge market, but from your figures, it does look like a right pain in the bum!

One thing I would recommend is longer term contracts, also if you dont insult with your first offer, it's now low enough.

Expect 10% for 12 months, 15% for 18 month contract. If the LL wont do it, move away, as they are best avoided.

Trouble is, they rent quickly even at those prices so there is no need for the LL to go lower. When we moved out, the LL had no void period - our tenancy ended on a Sunday, bloke moved in on the Monday.

Initial 12 month contract then you renew for 6 or 12 months at a time. They issued our S21 notice two months before the end of each AST so there was no chance of us taking the risk of not signing the new one (and having to pay the renewal fee) in case they were stupid enough to actually get a court order. It's all very well saying just move out and show them that tenants won't stand for that, but who wants to risk their home? It took us months of hard searching to find a house that cheap with parking and to find a LL that would let us have a cat, the you have all the hassle of deposit money, moving costs, taking time off work etc. Even worse if you have children and schools to think about, which we don't.

They were nice people, but LLs have got tenants over a barrell. Renting can be advantageous financially but I would never consider it as a lifelong choice.

abaxas

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Trouble is, they rent quickly even at those prices so there is no need for the LL to go lower. When we moved out, the LL had no void period - our tenancy ended on a Sunday, bloke moved in on the Monday.

Initial 12 month contract then you renew for 6 or 12 months at a time. They issued our S21 notice two months before the end of each AST so there was no chance of us taking the risk of not signing the new one (and having to pay the renewal fee) in case they were stupid enough to actually get a court order. It's all very well saying just move out and show them that tenants won't stand for that, but who wants to risk their home? It took us months of hard searching to find a house that cheap with parking and to find a LL that would let us have a cat, the you have all the hassle of deposit money, moving costs, taking time off work etc. Even worse if you have children and schools to think about, which we don't.

They were nice people, but LLs have got tenants over a barrell. Renting can be advantageous financially but I would never consider it as a lifelong choice.

If you receive a S21 and it isnt sent signed for. You never recieved it.

Finally, if you have a LL who serves as S21 like this. You are better off without.

chucknorris

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Trouble is, they rent quickly even at those prices so there is no need for the LL to go lower. When we moved out, the LL had no void period - our tenancy ended on a Sunday, bloke moved in on the Monday.

Initial 12 month contract then you renew for 6 or 12 months at a time. They issued our S21 notice two months before the end of each AST so there was no chance of us taking the risk of not signing the new one (and having to pay the renewal fee) in case they were stupid enough to actually get a court order. It's all very well saying just move out and show them that tenants won't stand for that, but who wants to risk their home? It took us months of hard searching to find a house that cheap with parking and to find a LL that would let us have a cat, the you have all the hassle of deposit money, moving costs, taking time off work etc. Even worse if you have children and schools to think about, which we don't.

They were nice people, but LLs have got tenants over a barrell. Renting can be advantageous financially but I would never consider it as a lifelong choice.

It seems abaxas is used to renting in areas where demand is limited and tenants call the shots, I only buy in areas where the yield is good (I think this is why we have differing views on the market). I live in Dorking but I never bought an investment property here as the demand for rentals is low so consequently so are the yields . It makes you wonder why some landlords bother to trade in such poor rental areas, we only bought in London.

For the last 19 years I have always had tenants move out and in on the same weekend. However most of my tenants stay on beyond the initial year on a periodical contract. They usually move out because of a change in circumstance (changing job location, moving in with partner etc). It suits them and it suits us as sometimes real work and effort is required during a tenancy change. I don't use letting agents so there are no silly fees like 'renewing a contract' 'inventory fees' etc and we offer the tenants the opportunity to show us their bank statements, employment details etc. in lieu of a credit check

If you have a pet I can understand it might be harder, we too do not currently allow pets but it is something we are considering. As it is out of line with our feelings as I do quite a bit of voluntary work for dog rescue centres.

chucky

abaxas wrote: »

Exactly my point, the market dictates the price, not the LL.

I cant comment on the Cambridge market, but from your figures, it does look like a right pain in the bum!

One thing I would recommend is longer term contracts, also if you dont insult with your first offer, it's now low enough.

Expect 10% for 12 months, 15% for 18 month contract. If the LL wont do it, move away, as they are best avoided.

you got to give it to Abacus, he tries hard...

he's moved, twisted and squirmed himself out out of his original point that he must be getting very diizzy by now...

i'd go back to your first point where you reckon that rent is always more expensive than the expenses of a rental property...

chucky

chucknorris wrote: »

It seems abaxas is used to renting in areas where demand is limited and tenants call the shots

basically where nobody wants to live...

i'm sure he's a nice chap that lives in a not so nice, high crime, high unemployment area...

chucknorris

chucky wrote: »

you got to give it to Abacus, he tries hard...

he's moved, twisted and squirmed himself out out of his original point that he must be getting very diizzy by now...

i'd go back to your first point where you reckon that rent is always more expensive than the expenses of a rental property...

I've started preparing next semester's lectures now which is taking some time, the first year of lecturing is quite demanding preparing all the lectures and I need to focus on that. Hopefully after my first year I will be able to relax a bit more.

So I'm trying not to be drawn into long meaningless discusions as I haven't really got the time, especially if I want a few days off over Xmas when my parents come down.

chucknorris

chucky wrote: »

basically where nobody wants to live...

i'm sure he's a nice chap that lives in a not so nice, high crime, high unemployment area...

The Tyne valley is quite rural, I think he means Corbridge/Hexham way. It's a nice enough area but bloody freezing in the winter. I've had many freezing days at Hexham races which is a place where you really feel the wind chill factor in the winter, far too cold for me, I migrated South from Tyneside over 20 years ago. It's a great place to live if it wasn't for the winters but additionally all my friends, properties, wife's family and both our careers are down here in Surrey/London.

the_flying_pig

The main weakness of the OP is that it uses a combination of: (1) a distinctly long-term view on house prices [by saying that they won't fall when even the biggest VIs around seem to be predicting modest falls for 2011]; and (2) a distinctly short-term view on interest rates [by saying that they’ll stay low].

This is clearly a nonsense – one should take either a long- or short-term view but not cherry-pick elements of each.

My personal view/hope is that right now we’re in fairly special circumstances, namely a slowly deflating bubble that was pricked by the abrupt end to kamikaze lending practices 2-3 years ago. In these circumstances my opinion is that likely capital depreciation makes it almost always better to rent for the time being.

Just generally [e.g. if houses are neither particularly overvalued or undervalued] I’d expect scope for medium-term capital appreciation to make buying better than renting [other than in the case of someone who particularly wants the flexibility offered by the latter] provided that, well, provided that, say, rental yields were at least as high as a middling interest rate.

carolinehunt200

Yes, one of my friend got the house cheaper by 20% and mortgage at 1.29%