Buy to Let Schemes with Guaranteed yield, are they any good?

matt78uk

LegallyLandlord said:

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

My advice is that if you want to become a landlord, keep it simple. Don’t do rent to rent schemes. Don’t believe marketing hype. Buy a property in a good location that is popular with renters, get the property up to standard, learn about landlord responsibilities and manage it yourself. Buy freehold if you can (many new apartments have uncapped service charges and unless it’s a lease on a new property, many have onerous ground rent clauses). 

Once you’ve found a good property, here’s how to start letting it out:
https://theindependentlandlord.com/new-landlords-guide/

I don't particularly wish to become a landlord, I just wanted to diversify my portfolio and the fact that UK properties tend to keep their values (and increase it, at least they have in the past compared to the Italian market) looked appealing.

Do you think that buying a property and find an agency to look after it would be a waste of money?
It would be very difficult to find a property with a yield higher than 4% in Italy and houses do not appreciate at all and, actually, they are losing value unless they are in the middle of some large towns (and I would need a larger budget), would't it be better to have a 7% from a small Liverpool apartment and pay 10% to the agency? It would be a higher monthly income on top of the (more likely) increase of the house value.

PS I though ground rent had been axed? 

matt78uk

FreeBear said:

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/investor-lost-700k-buying-plan-24459673

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/13/buyer-funded-development-scandal

Buying off-plan in an investor funded development is just asking to lose money.

Thanks for sharing those articles! 😱

user1977

matt78uk said:

LegallyLandlord said:

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

My advice is that if you want to become a landlord, keep it simple. Don’t do rent to rent schemes. Don’t believe marketing hype. Buy a property in a good location that is popular with renters, get the property up to standard, learn about landlord responsibilities and manage it yourself. Buy freehold if you can (many new apartments have uncapped service charges and unless it’s a lease on a new property, many have onerous ground rent clauses). 

Once you’ve found a good property, here’s how to start letting it out:
https://theindependentlandlord.com/new-landlords-guide/

PS I though ground rent had been axed? 

No - as said above, unless it’s a lease on a new property.

If you want a more diverse investment portfolio, I would consider putting your "property" eggs in a more diverse investment product rather than relying on one flat in Liverpool.

Sarah1Mitty2

ProDave said:

matt78uk said:

Thanks everyone for the quick replies!


You have put my mind at rest when it comes to that kind of buy to let 👍

If I wanted to invest and have some cash flow from it in the meantime (£120000) what would you suggest, dividend paying stocks? 

Matt

If you want to invest in buy to let, buy yourself a real property and let it yourself.  You may not get the yield you want, but you will have a real tangible asset.

...that is falling in value.

Sarah1Mitty2

matt78uk said:

LegallyLandlord said:

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

My advice is that if you want to become a landlord, keep it simple. Don’t do rent to rent schemes. Don’t believe marketing hype. Buy a property in a good location that is popular with renters, get the property up to standard, learn about landlord responsibilities and manage it yourself. Buy freehold if you can (many new apartments have uncapped service charges and unless it’s a lease on a new property, many have onerous ground rent clauses). 

Once you’ve found a good property, here’s how to start letting it out:
https://theindependentlandlord.com/new-landlords-guide/

I don't particularly wish to become a landlord, I just wanted to diversify my portfolio and the fact that UK properties tend to keep their values (and increase it, at least they have in the past compared to the Italian market) looked appealing.

Do you think that buying a property and find an agency to look after it would be a waste of money?
It would be very difficult to find a property with a yield higher than 4% in Italy and houses do not appreciate at all and, actually, they are losing value unless they are in the middle of some large towns (and I would need a larger budget), would't it be better to have a 7% from a small Liverpool apartment and pay 10% to the agency? It would be a higher monthly income on top of the (more likely) increase of the house value.

PS I though ground rent had been axed? 

https://buyshares.co.uk/investment-funds/property/

Not recommending anything here, always DYOR, my opinion is that a fair few of the companies in these funds will go bust as the property market unravels.

matt78uk

Sarah1Mitty2 said:

matt78uk said:

LegallyLandlord said:

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

My advice is that if you want to become a landlord, keep it simple. Don’t do rent to rent schemes. Don’t believe marketing hype. Buy a property in a good location that is popular with renters, get the property up to standard, learn about landlord responsibilities and manage it yourself. Buy freehold if you can (many new apartments have uncapped service charges and unless it’s a lease on a new property, many have onerous ground rent clauses). 

Once you’ve found a good property, here’s how to start letting it out:
https://theindependentlandlord.com/new-landlords-guide/

I don't particularly wish to become a landlord, I just wanted to diversify my portfolio and the fact that UK properties tend to keep their values (and increase it, at least they have in the past compared to the Italian market) looked appealing.

Do you think that buying a property and find an agency to look after it would be a waste of money?
It would be very difficult to find a property with a yield higher than 4% in Italy and houses do not appreciate at all and, actually, they are losing value unless they are in the middle of some large towns (and I would need a larger budget), would't it be better to have a 7% from a small Liverpool apartment and pay 10% to the agency? It would be a higher monthly income on top of the (more likely) increase of the house value.

PS I though ground rent had been axed? 

https://buyshares.co.uk/investment-funds/property/

Not recommending anything here, always DYOR, my opinion is that a fair few of the companies in these funds will go bust as the property market unravels.

I think for this year I will stick to good old Vanguard and in the coming year I'll take my time to educate myself, but many thanks for the suggestion I'll take a look with pleasure.

Kins Regards,

Matt