property investment newbie

serendipityjack

Hi, not sure whether this is a good idea or not and would appreciate some advice. I have a mortgage of £50,000 and looking at similar properties on my road, I could have £70,000 equity. I thought about selling my house and buying a a couple of cheaper properties up North for BTL(I've heard that property in Hull and Barrow-in-Furness are still relatively cheap). In the meantime, I'm hoping to do a bit of travelling and locum work, which would mean me renting some accommodation.

If you read the newspapers and some of the comments on this site, it suggests that I've probably missed the boat in terms of making any long term investments with BTL. Do you think this is the case?

Anyone have any other suggests?

Many thanks

Doozergirl

How are you going to manage properties that far away? If you're using a letting agent they'll be taking 10% of your rent straight away and tbh, I don't think that on the whole, they give two hoots about the condition of properties. I think you should be near enough to maintain the properties properly yourself, otherwise you might get a bit of a shock if you haven't seen them in a while.

I think BTL is so overrated, I can't be bothered with it. At least you're making the effort to find a location/proeprty that might actually pay rather than looking at shockingly overpriced 'apartments' or renting out your own house. It has to be long term investment; you need the rent to cover all your outgoings and you should also be repaying the capital.

Though I still wouldn't bother. We've seen ridiculous rises, how much higher can it go? Prices in my area have done nothing for 3 years but I bought a flat in London this time last year to sell on and then the market went crazy; beyond any reason; I found it frightening actually and rather than sitting on it and watching the price rise, just wanted shot of it.