Preparedness for when

Oldfatgrumpy

Living_proof wrote: »

What is the programme please? I have missed it. Just back from West Wales myself. A wet week in a campervan! But the Botanic Gardens are to die for, whatever the weather.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06750kz/country-strife-abz-on-the-farm-1-green-dreams

moneyistooshorttomention

...and the other thoughts I have on that tv programme are "Wonder if they will go into Culture Shock at some point at just how different things can be apart from the weather and countryside?".

Shopping expeditions for clothes with a friend of mine are an experience - as our ideas about "clothes for best" are rather different to what the "individual" type clothes shops have here:rotfl:(and I'm standing there going "You are not going to buy that"). Then there's going for a meal out and judging carefully whose recommendations to take on board about where to go....if I want a meal out now I start by saying "My tastes in food are very modern" (and start giving examples of what I mean...) - otherwise its down to pubs saying "do you want sandwiches made with white or brown bread?" and me going "Wholemeal please - or sourdough if I'm lucky...."

I shall be interested to see if they come to the conclusion "You can take the girl/boy out of the city - but you cant take the city out of the girl/boy:rotfl:".

You adapt eventually - but, as a friend of mine who has been here 20 years says, "They can still tell I'm an incomer at posh dos, because I dress in a much less formal way than they do".

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

I know a lot of you won't have much sympathy for us landlords. I think some of the problem of landlords treating their properties with contempt originates from the difficulty of getting a tenant to compensate you for damage he has done.

Recently I asked a PITA tenant to leave when he started demanding I go round & change lightbulbs for him.

I knew the place would need new carpets and decoration, and made no claim for them. (Carpets cost £1669.20. Decorating cost £1,776.00) Also a new oven was required costing £600.

My tenant also managed to dent the bathroom door, a kitchen drawer, the bath, and the kitchen sink. The sink was unrepairable and a replacement cost me £336. The other items I had repaired by a specialist firm and cost me £386.40.

Cleaning which I asked the tenant to reimburse me for was £144. Thus for expenditure of £4911, the TDS award was £380.

Perhaps I should have gone and changed his bulbs.

Very little which tenants can do to a property would surprise me, jk0, having seem many a photo of damage and read many a schedule of works needed to bring the property up to the fairly modest, unfurnished status of council lets. I have seen experienced housing officers and surveyors literally rendered speechless by some of the things they encounter.

And yes, we also have people want us to send qualified electicians to change lightbulbs. And some become abusive when we won't. Hopefully you were able to offset the redecoration and repairs against your tax liability? Cost of doing business.

I've often thought that even if I had capital to spare, I wouldn't want to BTL, it's such a minefield. Going to be a lot of landlords without your experience who will be pretty shocked at how things pan out, it isn't easy money, by a long shot.

If I was deep-pocketed and looking for an investement opportunity, I'd have city land for carparks. Reckon that's a nice little earner, Arfur.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

I've often thought that even if I had capital to spare, I wouldn't want to BTL, it's such a minefield. Going to be a lot of landlords without your experience who will be pretty shocked at how things pan out, it isn't easy money, by a long shot.

If I was deep-pocketed and looking for an investement opportunity, I'd have city land for carparks. Reckon that's a nice little earner, Arfur.

I suspect that many BTL landlords are accidental landlords, unable to sell their own home to be able to move so decide to let instead.

As for many of the others they are also swayed by the hopes of tax free gains from rising property prices, completely ignoring the fact that capital gains are liable on second homes. So they then have to get into MP territory and fiddle their taxes by declaring the home that they want to sell as their main residence.

Though many landlords can be complete cowboys in their own way. Some homes are decorated so badly that paint falls of the walls and there is no insulation and to top it off the place is as draughty as hell.

Frugalsod

Some interesting news on Zero Hedge re the next crisis.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-18/23-nations-around-world-where-stock-market-crashes-are-already-happening

The reason this is important is that there is apparently $9 Trillion in outstanding debts liable via the carry trade. So when the borrowers in these 23 countries have problems repaying loans then the losses will flow back to Western banks. Then it will expose which banks are weak. US banks have recapitalised but European banks have only just started and so will not be in a position to cope well should they have big losses to cover.

The other impact is that as these countries go into recession the demand for western goods will collapse and so pushing those countries closer to recession. When you add it to weak economic data it could be enough to trigger panic.

Think big domino's and when domino's fall anything can happen.

GreyQueen

Yes, there are the 'accidental landlords', those who can't sell, or have to move to temporarily to another part of the country for work or to care for an elderly relative, but who anticipate those arrangements being relatively brief. Then there are those couples who each have property before they meet and co-habit, renting out the spare home.

There is also a big push to by mortgage lenders to attract BTL landlords as the windows of most banks and building societies will testify. I feel that there is money in the hands of everyday folk seeking somewhere to get a return, and the other options are so pitiful that people are heading into property ownership as the least worst, least risky option.

I do regularly talk to private renters in substandard homes whose landlords are living on the Costa del Sol, or further afield, and don't give a four-ecks that their house is riddled with damp and making their tenants ill. Or that there is a hole in the roof. And some of the letting agents here are little better than common criminals, which contributes, along with personal experiences as a private tenant, with my jaundiced view of the private landlord. Apologies to the decent ones reading.

That book Paper Money Collapse is proving absolutely fascinating, making the argument that elastic money (i.e. government-issued fiat) inevitably leads to inflation and asset bubbles. Which governments prevent central banks from allowing to fully burst and dissipate the pus of misallocated investments. Which then mean that the next asset bubble starts building from the existing one, and the next dissipation will have to be much worse. This is an inevitable cycle which always causes inflation, then ends in hyperflation and complete collapse of the paper currency. No exceptions have ever been seen, anywhere in the world, in any fiat currency.

This is in contrast to inelastic hard (commodity) money, money linked to gold or silver (or both) which can be added to only slowly and cannot be called into existance at the will of politicians and bankers pressing a few computer keys.

Did you know that from 1900 to 2014 prices in Britain increased 70 fold? And in the US 20 fold? These are the two of the oldest currencies in the world and they have never seen such inflation. They certainly never saw it under the gold standard. It particularly speeded up when Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.

Think about it; in 1914 a pound sterling was of 92.5 % purity silver coins or a gold sovreign (8g of 22 ct gold). What is it now, a flipping ugly chunky goldish lump of base metal? Going rate for a gold sovreign, notional value still £1, is actually £180 atm, has been as high at £250.

Fiat currencies have been very useful to governments to finance wars. A useful fact to store at the back of your mind.

Frugalsod

There will always be problems with fiat currency in that governments can be tempted to abuse them. The same applies with a gold standard. There are countless stories of Roman emperors debasing the coins to allow them to keep spending. The problem with gold standards and gold backed currency is that you will have to maintain a balanced trade account otherwise your gold leaves the country and you are forced to devalue your currency which is what the US did in 1933 with their gold confiscation. In 1968 the French had a trade surplus with the US and wanted their gold that would have caused the emptying of the US reserves, especially if everyone else asked for it back as well. Hence the breaking of the Gold link by Nixon. The ability to finance wars was also a plus while it was fighting the Vietnam war.

In addition a gold standard is very deflationary and so prices fall. With a growing population this makes it even worse. So fiat currencies have their benefits. At the moment the UK has a massive trade deficit regularly and so could not afford to join a gold standard.

The Euro area acts like a gold standard, as nations cannot print money, as well and look how that has turned out for the periphery. In order for them to get a trade surplus they have to export to their trading partners but the problem is that they all want to have trade surpluses but with whom? Without a deficit nation they will all spiral down as they try and maintain their surpluses.

The problem is that many who propose gold backed currencies or similar have a vested interest in such an outcome so it is more about lobbying the public than TPTB.

It is like that other big mistake in politics and economics is that governments need to run their budgets like households and maintain a surplus. This is called a fallacy of composition and what is true for one unit ie a household is not true for the economy as a whole. This causes recessions. The other factor that most people get wrong is that governments are printing money and that will cause inflation. This completely misses the real source of money printing are private banks and the inflation it causes called house price increases.

Also the main beneficiary of housing booms are not the public with higher house prices but the banks as it boosts their asset base so allowing ever more loans. A higher house price for you and I will mean either more credit required to buy it and so more business for banks. The higher interest payments act like a private bank tax on the public requiring us to demand more wages which is not good for business so the pressure comes to weaken union power. Over time this leaves us with ever higher house prices but few with the power to get wages to pay for them via interest and loan repayments.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Thanks for the link to that abz guy, I thought it was on tonight lol.. Just watched a bit of it, and he was in the auctions I go to...lol..I bet if he goes there again after this programme, people will just run the price up on things

AnimalTribe

Mobile phones and rural reception.

A bit late I know but, where we are we can't connect to any of the networks, unless we walk down the road a quarter mile or so.

Our telephone exchange hasn't gone digital yet, so we could only get dial up service when we moved in. The only solution, was satellite broadband (which has been excellent), although much more expensive.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I really wish certain people would stop slating/ bring down Wales.. And making it sound like the place time forgot!!.. Its an absolutely fantastic place... And we are proud. Of our way of life and our heritage...if people sell up and come to live here because of the cheaper houses etc, then please don't moan about our way of live and our services etc..