Advice please. Do we buy?

gingercordial

mb008 wrote: »

Hi
The house is £250k to buy - which in Reading is a good price for this type of house. It needs work - tidying up etc and we planned to add some value to it. Rental potential is good - around 6% yield. But, we don't want to hold onto it for that long (i.e max 1 year, ideally less). Prices in this area have gone up every month for the last year, or more, due to the planned arrival of Crossrail.

If it needs some work you won't be getting tenants into it immediately. You'll need to do the work then take photos, advertise, have viewings, sort out the contract and so on. Even if there is a tenant looking to move in straight away this will take a bit of time, and you're paying the mortgage from day one.

If you only want to rent for a short period of time you are going to be restricted in the tenants you'll find, because most people don't want to move repeatedly. Yes, there will be some looking for short-term only, but you might not find one straight away. However please make it clear to your potential tenants that you only want to let for a short time (and tell the letting agent to be clear on this too). I'm about to have to move again because our landlords want the flat back after a year to be able to get their child into the local school - they knew this ahead of time but the letting agent neglected to mention this despite us being clear we wanted a long-term place to live. It isn't fair on the tenants.

Then you have to be prepared for the tenant to not want to move at the end of their first fixed term and to potentially make things very difficult if they don't want to go. You could of course sell with tenants in-situ to another investor but that limits your market.

Six months sounds like far too short a period to be even achievable let alone worth the hassle.

hazyjo

mb008 wrote: »

No early repayment penalty - deliberately sought that when taking out a mortgage.

And the other points made? Seems you're answering the ones you have thought about and are ignoring the rest lol.


Oh well - good luck with it


Jx

jimpix12

Buying now is crazy. The market is going to tank... probably.

Pick and choose which opinions on an internet forum you want to trust, and go with it. Always best.

hazyjo

spunko2010 wrote: »

Buying now is crazy. The market is going to tank... probably.

Pick and choose which opinions on an internet forum you want to trust, and go with it. Always best.

The only person who's not saying 'don't do it' is the OP lol! :rotfl:


Everyone else seems to be saying not a good idea. Would be VERY surprised if anyone said yeah go for it, great idea.


Jx

jimpix12

hazyjo wrote: »

The only person who's not saying 'don't do it' is the OP lol! :rotfl:


Everyone else seems to be saying not a good idea. Would be VERY surprised if anyone said yeah go for it, great idea.


Jx

My point was that some people apparently do place an important life decision on the feedback of a handful anonymous internet users :rotfl:

hazyjo

spunko2010 wrote: »

My point was that some people apparently do place an important life decision on the feedback of a handful anonymous internet users :rotfl:

I don't necessarily have a prob with that - sometimes it helps you put things in perspective, or realise what you're proposing is a complete load of... hmm.


The OP doesn't seem to be seeing things clearly and in this case should listen to a bunch of strangers on the net


But I get what you're saying...


Jx

Hoploz

Feel sorry for the seller

chelseablue

I'm from Berkshire, not far from Reading infact.


While prices have risen due to Crossrail, me personally I wouldn't buy a property just to keep it 6-12 months.


It costs a fortune with the extra stamp duty, plus buying and selling costs, I doubt you'd make any money

Niv

Is there a way to bookmark a forum member? I want to save the OP so that I can check in a year to hear the sob story.