Huge discrepancy in valuation.

MONEYTREE_2

somethingc That's interesting, thanks!

Bowlhead Grr. Just when I thought it sounded like a good way to invest, you smash it to bits. OK no P2P for me then <sigh>. I can't have any risk. Thanks for writing such a detailed message, by the way, it's kind of you to "look out for me" like this, knowing my ignorance of investing.

Hoploz

The place is immaculate and nothing needs painting. The declutter is actually in hand already,

I'm a little miffed that you suspect my house might have "ancient paper hanging off the walls and mould all round the bathroom". It has to be in very good order as I run it as a business!

"I'm a little confused by your lodger requirements. It seems as if you're buying a big place purely for the income"

You must have missed a post or two, easy done. I have housed three lodgers for the past 18 years. This yields me an income of £1,000 a month, which supports me. Three lodgers also means plenty of company for me as I don't go out much. It works perfectly and I just want to swap my house here for a similar house in another town, and carry on doing the same, except moving will give me the chance to get a ground floor bedroom and bathroom in preparation for getting older and more infirm.

I am happy to downsize to a 3 bed and only two lodgers, because room rents are higher in the new town (£120pw compared to £90 here) plus next year I will receive a workplace pension of £55pw, so (£120+£120+£55=£295pw) my income would be just over £1k a month, same as I get now.

"surely if you had money left over having bought a property that's ideal for you yourself living alone (or even leaving room for your BF) you could do without the rental income."

No. buying a 2-bed would save me £100k but (as has been established) the only safe place to put £100k yields only 1%, which is £20 a week. A 3rd bedroom brings me £120 a week.

Having two lodgers or three makes almost no difference in outgoings. A house with two lodgers has the same outgoings as one with three lodgers (maintenance, heating, water, gas, electric, TV licence, insurance, phone line, broadband, CT, etc). An extra lodger costs only a bit more in water and electric, wear & tear etc. The £120 additional income covers that ten times over. I know this from 18 yrs experience. For the past year, one of my rooms has been let purely for storage and not having that third person here, cooking and taking baths etc, has barely reduced my outgoings.

Another huge drawback to having a 2-bed place is that if it's a house, it won't have a bedroom and a bathroom on the ground floor. It'll be a two-up-two down terrace or semi. (I will not buy a leasehold flat.) The only bungalows are way out of town, and lodger demand is for town centre, so it has to be a house. I've seen online several in-town houses for sale which have been converted to create a ground floor bedroom and wetroom/bathroom, for around £350k - £400k.

I cannot think of anything I would hate more than living alone. It'd feel like Solitary Confinement in a prison! Boyfriend cannot live with me as he has a residential job, and doesn't retire for 8 years.

The agent who valued at 240k rang yesterday to say he's revised after research and now values it at 280k. Pah!

Mr.Generous

Very interesting and diverse thread, stick with what suits you IMO, you like the company and the income. I'd go down the route of buying several small properties and letting out the one / two I wasn't living in, that would suit me. Everyone's advice is based on their own preferences and is generally well intentioned.

When you see all the 'in debt' and 'trying to get on the ladder' threads it reminds you how lucky you are owning outright. Count your blessings now and again and give yourself a pat on the back for getting where you are today.

MONEYTREE_2

6am yes thank you I have allocated £10,000 for costs which includes those things plus removals.

Aw thank you Mr Generous! You are indeed generous in spirit!

Yes I have seen those threads and I feel so sorry for so many people.

I'm not "lucky", I worked hard for this! I am proud that as a single, working class woman, I got to where I am without a penny of financial help from any man (or woman!) The happy position I am now in really is "all my own work".

I grew up in a council flat and when my parents died they left me nothing. I struggled to get on the property ladder at age 24, worked full time in a low paid blue collar job for 34 years, did not have any kids, just bought and improved properties, making a profit on each until I eventually bought this 4 bed house in 1999. I bought it on a 25-yr mortgage, I retained my previous property, a flat, let it and that paid the mortgage on this house.

Eventually after years of trouble with a sequence of tenants I sold the flat and used the money to pay off the mortgage on this house. So I've owned it outright for 10 years. (Incidentally, when I sold the flat I sold it without an agent and did my own conveyancing. It was really easy and saved me thousands!)

I lost my career through an accident at work in 1997 and have never worked since, but the rent from the lodgers keeps me as I live quite frugally.

I would never again get involved in letting to tenants. My last was a family with immaculate references. They paid one month then stopped (for no reason). Despite this the magistrates showed unbelievable leniency, and so it took three court hearings over 9 months and a bailiff to evict them and I lost the £3k they owed me in rent. Lodgers are far superior - you can keep a surreptitious eye on them on a daily basis and they have zero legal rights so it's easy to ask them to leave if they do anything wrong or they lose their job or they stop paying the rent. I've rarely had to ask any to leave, and when I do they go quietly because they need a reference from me. Most stay for several years, and leave only because they are moving town or getting married.

BJV

Money tree have to say good on you!.

I know that nothing in this world comes for free. From the outside looking in it may appear that way but what people do not see is the sleepless nights. The worrying, the juggling.

Ref houses mmm well its hard a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay. We moved earlier in the year. The house started being sold at one price and in the end we got nearly £65,000 off the advertised price. Equally my house sold twice in a weekend for the full price.

It is hard but there are ways you can make your house more salable. There are lots of threads on here about it.

In a nutshell you need to make it easy for someone to buy it. It also has to be immaculately clean. Just search on the forum and there will be loads of help.

Rain_Shadow

MONEYTREE wrote: »

Sorry I didn't realise that I perhaps should have said in my OP that I own the house outright, no mortgage, not getting a mortgage (I am nearly 60).

MONEYTREE wrote: »

I grew up in a council flat and when my parents died they left me nothing. I struggled to get on the property ladder at age 24, worked full time in a low paid blue collar job for 34 years, did not have any kids, just bought and improved properties,


I lost my career through an accident at work in 1997 and have never worked since, but the rent from the lodgers keeps me as I live quite frugally.

.

I'm confused.


If you are 59 now and haven't worked for 19 years then you haven't worked since you were 40. So you started your blue collar job at age 6 to get the 34 years service in?

MONEYTREE_2

BJV Thanks for your nice message.

Once I have viewers lined up I will be bunging £50 to a professional cleaner to make the place shine. That buys you 5 hours of hard elbow grease graft in my town.

This will be my 7th property sale :-)

MONEYTREE_2

Rain shadow

I'm confused. If you are 59 now and haven't worked for 19 years then you haven't worked since you were 40. So you started your blue collar job at age 6 to get the 34 years service in?

Maybe I got my years wrong ... let me check.

I started work at age 16 and stopped working in 2000 when I was 42, so that is 36 years ... ah I see what I did! It's 26 years, isn't it?

I didn't sit down and work it all out with a calculator because I didn't think people would be overly interested in knowing EXACTLY how many years I worked and EXACTLY how many years it is since I last worked. These things are tiny minor details which are irrelevant to this thread about estate agents' valuations!

I had the accident in 1997 but that didn't end my career until 2000 as they found me "light duties" for a while before I was medically retired.

Hoploz

Sorry if I spoke out of turn, it just seems to me you're buying a property larger than is necessary. If it turns out your house is only worth the lower of your valuations then you won't be able to buy the large property you're looking for at the moment, and as you don't have a family living with you it is normally more sensible to buy smaller. And indeed that may turn out to be all you can afford. If you choose to buy bigger and take in lodgers clearly that's your choice and that's fine

No offence meant about paper hanging off the wall, there's some dodgy decor in my own house, it happens when you've been somewhere a long time. All the better for selling if yours is all good

One thing still not quite making financial sense here though ... You're talking about the return on investing the 100k unspent being only 1%. But you would HAVE the 100k to actually USE for your living expenses. It'd go a long way!

MONEYTREE_2

Hoploz

"If it turns out your house is only worth the lower of your valuations then you won't be able to buy the large property you're looking for".


Then I will stay here.

"One thing still not quite making financial sense here though ... You're talking about the return on investing the 100k unspent being only 1%. But you would HAVE the 100k to actually USE for your living expenses. It'd go a long way!"

Oh I see what you mean now. The 100k compensates for the lack of one or two lodgers. I could withdraw and spend £10k a year which I would have got for the two rooms. That would last me 10 years.

However, if as you say the LOWER of the valuations is all I will get for this house, I won't have that 100k, will I?

Hoploz

Have you put it on the market yet?