buying advice needed...

Davesnave

babyblade41 said:

samchops said:

We live near Spalding, the plan is to buy a house near to our work and live in it for a bit.  The property will be around 90k, we will renovate and get up to standard during our time there.   have checked Boston rents, a two bed goes for £5-600 a month, a three bed up to £750.   In our spare time we will house hunt in Eire.  When we find a house, we will buy in and move there.  I have read a letting agent takes about 10% and we need specialist insurance, this is all fine with us.  All we want is enough money to prevent us from starving, we don't plan to ever move back into that house after we've moved.  We are smallholders and would be very happy in a little place where we grow and raise our own food.  We might even have a private water supply, and of course no mortgage.  We would like to work of course but we aren't counting on it, at least to start with.  

Owning a small holding isn't for everyone.. the costs involved can out strip any profit made 

It is more a labour of love than a financially viable life style 

Totally agree. Anyone with little experience, launching themselves into a supposed life of self-sufficiency is very likely to come a financial cropper, especially in poorer rural places where those who've done it for decades already eke out only a bare living.

We enjoy our smallholding, but it's not a money-earner; we pay more £ in than we get back.

hazyjo

babyblade41 said:

There are so many things that you need to do and would be worth looking through the stickies on these pages.

All stickies/info pages have now been removed.

Davesnave

hazyjo said:

babyblade41 said:

There are so many things that you need to do and would be worth looking through the stickies on these pages.

All stickies/info pages have now been removed.

The two permanent threads on renting and buying are still at the top on my version of the forum.

Ah, but apparently one may press the cog thing and 'dismiss' them, giving more space to the questions. I know, because I've just done that and the renting thread has disappeared!

[Deleted User]

We love our smallholding.  It's also set up as an equestrian property.  There are stables in the garden that can been seen from the kitchen window, it has three fenced paddocks, a hay barn and a field shelter.  We never even tried to make a living from it, we both have jobs, but the joy of going out for a fresh egg in the morning from the henhouse, or seeing your lambs born, is priceless.  We have gone off the idea of a rental for the time being, have been looking for a property we can run our own business from instead.  We have been smallholders since 2006 and we don't want to go back to a semi in a street somewhere, we would hate it.

sgun

Do you know anyone living in Ireland who can give you the low down of costs over there? It's not cheap. My husband is Irish and I'm often over there feeling really lucky that we don't have to pay 50 Euro for a GP appointment or pay to have the bins emptied. Yes, some things are cheaper but overall it's much more expensive for roughly the same wages. Vets bills are really scary (his family are farmers). I find the food particularly very pricey compared to the UK, even in Aldi etc. So if you are running a smallholding you need to know where your actual income is coming from.

[Deleted User]

We have done quite a bit of research already as it happens.  Not put off in the slightest.

Davesnave

samchops said:

 We have gone off the idea of a rental for the time being, have been looking for a property we can run our own business from instead.  We have been smallholders since 2006 and we don't want to go back to a semi in a street somewhere, we would hate it.

What, exactly, would your business be?

The people who owned our property earlier tried various things and eventually diversified so much they didn't have a clear strategy. It all ended in tears, partly because equestrian doesn't easily mesh with other activities on a small acreage. It resulted in one of the partnership working full time so that the other could work on the land and lose all their money!

I know many smallholders, both here and via the internet, but I don't know one who's making a living from 10 acres or less.

AdrianC

samchops said:

We live near Spalding, the plan is to buy a house near to our work and live in it for a bit.  The property will be around 90k, we will renovate and get up to standard during our time there.   have checked Boston rents, a two bed goes for £5-600 a month, a three bed up to £750.
...
I have read a letting agent takes about 10% and we need specialist insurance, this is all fine with us. 

Have you actually worked those numbers?

£500/mo - 10% = £450 x 12 = £5,400 = 6% raw yield on a £90k asset.
But you aren't going to be renting out a £90k asset, are you? You're going to be spending money on it and renovating it and improving it. So what would it have cost you, and what would it be worth at the time of letting? £110k? Now sub 5%.

And that's before voids, maintenance, costs, bad debts, tax. Do you understand the hoops that a non-UK-resident landlord has to go through with tax? And you're exposing yourself to currency risk, as well as to the housing market.

The Spalding area is going to be hit hard with Brexit, of course, due to the proportion of the population that are EU27-migrant workers, especially in the agricultural sector.

This is the only ~£90k two-bed in Spalding itself.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-76358002.html
Mmm-hmmm. Spot-the-demographic. I wonder what joys renovation is going to bring?

Go out a bit, and...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61340727.html
Down from £100k to £85k in the year it's been on the market. Doesn't that just shout "cheap tart-up" to you? "Centrally located", "local amenities" aren't often used in conjunction with "Holbeach"...

Boston does indeed seem to offer a lot more - and, again, prices are falling as supply outstrips demand. Honestly, I think you're setting yourself up for a financial drubbing with this plan. IIWY, I'd rent for the short-term, and invest in the Eurozone once you've moved.

[Deleted User]

God I'm not sure I've read a single encouraging sentence in this entire thread.  Just as well we aren't put off by all the doom and gloom on here :-)  This thread was originally about owning two homes and renting one, but we have already decided against renting here (nothing to do with all the negative comments on here mind) and are going to put all our effort into our life abroad.  I get the feeling that people on here think I am either naive or stupid.  I am neither.  I spent 20 years as a systems engineer for IBM, I've had enough of that but we have plenty of other strings to our bows.  I am also a qualified riding instructor and I KNOW I can get work doing that there as I have looked.  I make and restore carved wooden rocking horses and can teach adult English lessons.  My other half is a guitar instructor amongst other things, he also has a forklift and a sprayers license.  We could work anywhere, but we don't want to, we want to do as little as possible for other people and prefer now to work for ourselves.  We can afford to buy somewhere in Eire with lots of acreage, then do nothing for years if we wished to, but we don't.  I think I might try a dedicated Eire forum as I am a bit tired of the "you can't do that" philosophy I am getting here ALL the time.   We are not into making loads of money, we will grow and raise enough of our own food to keep us, we only need enough to buy what we can't make and to pay the other bills.  Bye x

hazyjo

Davesnave said:

hazyjo said:

babyblade41 said:

There are so many things that you need to do and would be worth looking through the stickies on these pages.

All stickies/info pages have now been removed.

The two permanent threads on renting and buying are still at the top on my version of the forum.

Ah, but apparently one may press the cog thing and 'dismiss' them, giving more space to the questions. I know, because I've just done that and the renting thread has disappeared!

Headings are still there.. along with links, but if you open any of them, all text has been replaced with:

"This post is no longer maintained. Since leglislation, regulations, links and processes frequently change, the content has been removed as it may otherwise be out-of-date, misleading, or erroneous."

That "dismiss" thing is a bit crap, I've not pressed it, but how the hell are you supposed to get it back?! Poxy forum *rolls eyes*