Thinking of becoming Landlord...Many questions

Cautious_Optimist

ognum wrote: »

cautious, are you a LL?

There are of course some nightmare tenants and nightmare LL but in my experience, and I am a LL, the majority of tenants react to the way they are treated and if a LL responds to their issues they pay the rent on time and respect the property that is their home.

No, I am not a LL.
I am a home owner and my home is my castle!


My question is WHY does OP want to become a LL?

G_M

lordmoney wrote: »

@ G_M - So do you pay the agent for passing tenants to you? What would you recommend for a newbie LL? Agent or no agent?

No. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts,a dnbecause they just love me.

Depends on
* how much time you have
* distance to property
* access to contractors
* willingness to study/learn
* people skills/patience

The fact of being a newbie, per se, need not put you off, just means you have to accept and take on a learning curve.

lordmoney

Lol @ G_M... Sorry I wrote that incorrectly... It should have said "So HOW MUCH do you pay the agent for passing tenants to you?".

FYI:-

* how much time you have - plenty
* distance to property - plan to purchase it within 2-3 miles of where I live
* access to contractors - what contractors are you talking about mate?
* willingness to study/learn - more than happy and eager to learn
* people skills/patience - have excellent people & customer service skills due to having my own computer repair business in the past.

I'm willing to take on a learning curve,. Just to let you know that I'm only thinking about this and will not jymp in just to make a quick buck... I'm in it for the long haul. As long as I know that I have enough money to cover for contingencies and any emergency costs and do some forward planning and research, I am confident that I can succeed.

G_M

lordmoney wrote: »

Lol @ G_M... Sorry I wrote that incorrectly... It should have said "So HOW MUCH do you pay the agent for passing tenants to you?".
Varies. Negotiate.

FYI:-

* how much time you have - plenty Good
* distance to property - plan to purchase it within 2-3 miles of where I live Perfect
* access to contractors - what contractors are you talking about mate? Electrician, plumber, odd-job-man, etc. All the contractors agents have access to and you may need unless you are competant yourself
* willingness to study/learn - more than happy and eager to learn good
* people skills/patience - have excellent people & customer service skills due to having my own computer repair business in the past. are you sure? I don't take kindly to being called 'mate'!

You're well set-up to DIY. Start researching, reading, learning....:beer:

lordmoney

FYI:-

* how much time you have - plenty Good
* distance to property - plan to purchase it within 2-3 miles of where I live Perfect
* access to contractors - what contractors are you talking about mate? Electrician, plumber, odd-job-man, etc. All the contractors agents have access to and you may need unless you are competant yourself
* willingness to study/learn - more than happy and eager to learn good
* people skills/patience - have excellent people & customer service skills due to having my own computer repair business in the past. are you sure? I don't take kindly to being called 'mate'!

You're well set-up to DIY. Start researching, reading, learning....

Apologies for calling you mate. I have access to qualified electricians and gas expert. I am very good at all sorts of building work, including plumbing, decorating and many many odd jobs. In the past I have gutted my whole house and renovated it myself.

ognum

Cautious_Optimist wrote: »

No, I am not a LL.
I am a home owner and my home is my castle!


My question is WHY does OP want to become a LL?

Thank you for the clarification.

It understand your interest in the OPs reasons for becoming a LL, there are of course many reasons.

I wondered why you needed to add the final line about bad tenants. It seems to be non LL who write this.

I like many others are aware of the possibility of poor tenants and those who suddenly through no fault of their own come to a life crisis but in my experience these are a tiny percentage. This may be to do with the type of properties I own, the type of tenants I have or luck but I do think we need to keep in in perspective.

tumbledowngirl

My husband and I have been LLs for 3 years.
In that time, we've had 4 sets of tenant's, each with their own particular problems.
You can do every check under the sun, run the tenancy by the book and be the best LL you can BUT you can never account for the quirks of others.
For eg - last tenants moved out of our property and into another rental property round the corner midway through their AST. They even went as far to forge a new AST to try to argue that it was their right to do so.
When challenged, they got relatives under fake names to contact us, threatening us with all sorts of action, claiming the house was dangerous, they'd had stuff stolen etc.
They even tried to pull one over on our solicitor, telling him one thing and then later claiming they'd never said that etc, etc.
It went on for weeks, and even though it was clear they were nutjobs, the onus was on us to follow procedure and prove our case.

Regarding using an agent to manage the tenancy for you - it really comes down to the quality of your agent; a good one will be worth the money...a bad one will be worse than useless and end up costing you much more than just the management fees.

lordmoney

Thank you for your input ognum and tumbledowngirl.

@ Cautious -With all due respect, it's a silly question to ask why I want to become a LL...it can't be for charity purposes, can it? The reason is because I want another form of income and to invest in mine and my family's future by obtaining another property that can help me when times are tough. I also enjoy doing DIY, property work in general.

With regards to bad tenants - There's a risk with any business where you can get a bad customer or in a LL's case, a bad tenant. If no-one ever took that risk, then there wouldn't be any rental properties on the market. In my case, I'm prepared to take that risk, so long as I know that I've followed the correct advise and procedures.

@ tumbledowngirl - So from your own experience, would you recommend becoming a LL or not?

tumbledowngirl

lordmoney wrote: »

Thank you for your input ognum and tumbledowngirl.

@ Cautious -With all due respect, it's a silly question to ask why I want to become a LL...it can't be for charity purposes, can it? The reason is because I want another form of income and to invest in mine and my family's future by obtaining another property that can help me when times are tough. I also enjoy doing DIY, property work in general.

With regards to bad tenants - There's a risk with any business where you can get a bad customer or in a LL's case, a bad tenant. If no-one ever took that risk, then there wouldn't be any rental properties on the market. In my case, I'm prepared to take that risk, so long as I know that I've followed the correct advise and procedures.

@ tumbledowngirl - So from your own experience, would you recommend becoming a LL or not?

Good question!
I guess the fact we haven't stuck the property back on the market says something. I also think every LL' s experience is different - I suspect our problems have been at least in part due to the type of property we own and where it's located - it's a 2 bed semi in an ok but not hugely sought-after area, which means we get a lot of pre first-time buyers who perhaps haven't got much idea about living independently and the responsibilities that come with it.
It is in no way an easy way to make a buck, I don't personally think. Our situation is that my husband's father died and we put down the money he left us as deposit, the idea being that we would keep the property for at least ten years in the hope of it paying our daughter's uni fees.
I doubt we have broken even on it so far, which means keeping it - the catch being that bad tenant's make you want to sell, but also mean you can't if you want to try to claw back any losses.

So, my answer to your question - if you go in fully prepared and with as much knowledge as possible, and anticipate problems, go for it. If you think you can control everything that may happen, think again!

lordmoney

Thank you tumbledowngirl for a helpful answer.

I forgot to mention one important reason as to why I would like to go down the rental route. In say about 5-10yrs time, I want to be able to purchase a decent home and since right now I can't afford a high priced property, I'm thinking that I already own a home for which there isn't a huge mortgage, why not buy a 2nd home, rent it out and when the time is right, sell both homes and purchase my dream home.

Does that sound like a plan?