Lulabelle's MFW Diary

edinburgher

Well done on the Christmas shopping Lula, credit card defrosted?

lulabelle1

Morning!!

Wow, since my last post we've moved from Summer to Winter......

Trip to the States went well, still recovering from the jet lag, seems to have knocked me for 6 this time round. Yawn........

Ed - yes, CC defrosted and has seen a fair bit of action to say the least.

Seem to be entering a spendy time - Christmas, house insurance, car insurance, various school trips, school shoes - it just seems to go on (and on and on).

Feel like going in to hibernation and just sleeping for a week....

Lulu x

CathT

Hope you are over the jet lag lulabelle. You're so right about the weather, it's really miserable isn't it.

lulabelle1

Morning!

Jet lag has finally passed..... The sleeping tablets seemed to make it worse. I laid my hands on a lovely product called This Works deep sleep pillow spray.... Lovely stuff. They also do it in tiny travel size bottles so will get some for my travels.... Recommend for anyone who has trouble nodding off. (Got my sister one for Christmas)

We've been touring the secondary schools in the area and need to submit our choices in the next few weeks.. And then, the long wait until the end of March to see which one we've been allocated.... It's somewhat of a lottery!

Spent some money on some new floor lamps for the lounge this week.... We shouldn't have really but they've made a big difference to the room and I just sat and started at how lovely the room was last night. It's amazing how a few lights here and there can really make a difference to a room.

In other deliberations..... I've long admired my neighbours house and declared it as the perfect family home. Anyway, it looks like my lovely neighbour may be selling in the new year and moving down to London with the new lady in his life (this house was bought with his past partner and they had 2 children, life happened and he's now there alone apart from very other weekend).

We'd always said that if he sells we would be interested.... So, let's see heather he decides to take the plunge. The short term plan from our side would see us buy the new one using the overpayments from this house for the deposit. That would leave us with a mortgage on the new house of around £260k. We'd then rent our current house out and have a mortgage of around £140k on it.

Going from a mortgage of £53k to two combined mortgages totalling £400k seems rather scary but I guess it would be a good investment for the future and we'd have a lovely house with tonnes of space to enjoy in the mean time.

Not 100% sure yet! lots of thinking to do.

CathT

Sounds like a good plan, you then get your rental property investment. I've just realised how close the new year is too!

The secondary school lottery worries me. My eldest is 6 and our local high schools are in special measures. This is why I always want to move house, hope you get the choice you want.

gallygirl

My tuppence worth -
1. I wouldn't want a rental property on my doorstep. Too much 'gggrrrr they haven't cut the grass' etc.
2. You are talking about committing a LOT of money into one btl property. Btl is risky and not spreading the risk is ... well, risky :rotfl: How long could you pay the mortgage if the tenants didn't pay?
3. What would the rental yield be on your property compared to 2 small ones?
4. I've had a look and there are no houses like yours for rent - which may be good, or indicate they don't go for rent as agents advise no demand?

Personally, if I was desperate for the other house, I might consider forking out for 2 mortgages to make sure I secured it. But then I'd sell your house and buy a cheaper btl. Or if you were happy with that level of debt, maybe 2?

lulabelle1

CathT wrote: »

Sounds like a good plan, you then get your rental property investment. I've just realised how close the new year is too!

The secondary school lottery worries me. My eldest is 6 and our local high schools are in special measures. This is why I always want to move house, hope you get the choice you want.

Hopefully by the time yours is old enough for secondary school then the local schools will be out of special measures.... The good thing about a school going in to special measures is that it gets lots of attention to bring it up to a good standard. Or perhaps it might become academy? Seems to be the thing at the moment.....

lulabelle1

gallygirl wrote: »

My tuppence worth -
1. I wouldn't want a rental property on my doorstep. Too much 'gggrrrr they haven't cut the grass' etc.
2. You are talking about committing a LOT of money into one btl property. Btl is risky and not spreading the risk is ... well, risky :rotfl: How long could you pay the mortgage if the tenants didn't pay?
3. What would the rental yield be on your property compared to 2 small ones?
4. I've had a look and there are no houses like yours for rent - which may be good, or indicate they don't go for rent as agents advise no demand?

Personally, if I was desperate for the other house, I might consider forking out for 2 mortgages to make sure I secured it. But then I'd sell your house and buy a cheaper btl. Or if you were happy with that level of debt, maybe 2?

You make perfect sense....... The attraction of renting ours out was so that we could move quickly on the other house without the hassle and stress of selling ours.... I knew the yield wouldn't be as good as two smaller/cheaper houses but then liked the fact that we wouldn't have any buying costs or mortgage arrangement fees. For the short term it seemed like an attractive option but no idea whether we would keep our house as a rental in the long term.

lulabelle1

gallygirl wrote: »

My tuppence worth -
1. I wouldn't want a rental property on my doorstep. Too much 'gggrrrr they haven't cut the grass' etc.
2. You are talking about committing a LOT of money into one btl property. Btl is risky and not spreading the risk is ... well, risky :rotfl: How long could you pay the mortgage if the tenants didn't pay?
3. What would the rental yield be on your property compared to 2 small ones?
4. I've had a look and there are no houses like yours for rent - which may be good, or indicate they don't go for rent as agents advise no demand?

Personally, if I was desperate for the other house, I might consider forking out for 2 mortgages to make sure I secured it. But then I'd sell your house and buy a cheaper btl. Or if you were happy with that level of debt, maybe 2?

Keep thinking about one of your recent posts when you overheard the two men on the train..... I really need to be careful not to end up like the fella that who "thinks" he is living the dream..... contemplating whether I really want to have this potential noose around my neck.

lulabelle1

Morning!

Super windy here, thankfully the rain has subsided.....

So pretty outside with all if the Autumn colours. We have lots of feathered visitors to the garden at the moment - all fighting over the one bird feeder... which, of course, inspired me to go and buy another three of them yesterday - but the birds don't seem interested in the new feeders and are continue to bicker over the old one. weird. Perhaps they need to get used to it?

The boys need to take in harvest festival contributions tomorrow for the local food bank. I've emptied various cupboards and put aside a carrier bag of stuff for each of them. DH did question some of the things I was putting in there (because he'd bought the stuff for various meals plus there was treat things for children) but he agreed in the end that we can just buy more on the next shop to replace what I've given away. I'll make him charitable yet.....

I've decided to take next week off work... I just need a break and don't even want to think about work things for a little while. I'm hoping to fill the week with various pumpkin related activities and trips out with the boys.

DS1 has gone off on his first school trip at the new school today - shame about the weather, but I'm sure he'll have a great time. Moving school was the best thing we could ever have done for both of them......

Had weird dreams over the last few days - it must really be playing on my mind the whole idea of buying the bigger house and increasing our debt. It's unsettling me. As much as I "like" the idea of the bigger house and the ready made buy to let I don't know if I want what feels like a noose around my neck. So, much more thought needed in that direction. In the meantime, we need to tighten our belts and focus on making OP's - we seem to have slipped a little bit in the last month..... I blame myself.

Off to catch up on diaries for some inspiration to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Lula x