The final countdown to June 2026

beanielou

Hope the house is rented out soon.

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

Just a quick update, we had a lovely family weekend away. Total spent on treat food and alcohol £70 to come out of the holiday budget. Probably another £20 on petrol but i'll try and absorb that into our general costs.

I made another £18 sale on Vinted which l posted this morning, that's nearly £180 in the last few weeks to top up the kids account.

No news as yet, about potential new tenants but a few viewings are happening today so we will see.

beanielou

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Hopefully new tenants soon.

carboot_karaoke

Afternoon all,

l have had a productive day, catching up on some admin.

I began the morning by l deleting 1500 emails 🙈 l know !! l couldn't believe how quickly they build up.

Next l tackled the rental property paperwork its all up to date, so once l tot up savings interest l can submit my tax return 😊

Finally, l received a call from the estate agent this afternoon we have an application to rent our home 🎉🎉l was beginning to worry after 10 viewings !!. The agent has another 4 viewings tomorrow so we will see what happens but it seems positive at the moment.

The current applicants want to move in the middle of August so potentially not much will need to be paid for utilities etc.

beanielou

Fantastic news.

carboot_karaoke

Morning everyone,

l couldn't sleep so thought I'd provide an update…

Yesterday we had three more viewings and another two applications, we have gone with the person the agent loved. A single professional who has recently sold there home and relocated to the area for work, l couldn't understand why they don't buy somewhere l mean they earn more than me and Mr Ck combined. But it took a year to sell there previous home making a loss so what's to get to know the area before committing. The best part is, the move in date is just 8 days after the existing tenants leave.

carboot_karaoke

But this wasn't the only development yesterday … Mr Ck brakes failed as we were driving on the motorway 😨 thankfully it was as we were coming off so he wasn't going to fast. He literally had to brake using the handbrake scary stuff. It's now at the garage we should find out the diagnosis and cost early next week. Not feeling good about that.

We're both due our mot and service this month and my insurance renewal is due any day. An expensive few weeks ahead methinks.

carboot_karaoke

I need to make a confession, this is the issue that been troubling me the most.

It all began when the tenants handed in there notice, l was initially panicked and even considered selling. But once the disappointment lifted and my head was clearer the figures were undeniable. Even with all the issues this year this investment is a solid one generating returns that can't be beaten with any savings account, stocks and shares maybe, but l don't understand them 🤷‍♀️.

This also prompted my return to rightmove and zoopla to see what was happening with the market. Having not paid to much attention for a while l was surprised to see a clear decline in the prices compared to a couple of years ago. Our estate agent said that there sales department was slow across all there branches.

So on our recent weekend away Mr Ck and I discussed our options going forward. My plan a month ago was to clear the mortgage and redirect that money to savings and pension contributions. Ive even created a 5 years forecast spreadsheet 😂. The outcome should be a good amount tucked away producing perhaps £400 a month in tax free, stress free money depending on how interest rates go.

If however, we reinvested in another property in the short term we would have less income (not strictly true because I had no intention of spending it) but the returns once the mortgage was cleared was more than double that of savings plus in the long-term prices will increase. Speaking as a couple in there early 50's with less than £25k in a pension ( a huge regret) I don't want to HAVE to work until state pension age and potentially property might be our "get out of jail free card".

So the conclusion we came to was, if a property in a good location, with lots of potential and strong rental yield came on the market we would try and buy it.

Guess what? Two days later I'm stood in said property it needs alot of work doing to it, but nothing we haven't done before. Previous experience has taught us to focus on safety and compliance then clean and presentable and the location should do the rest. We got carried away last time costing time and money.

We put in an offer £5k below the asking price, for context there are a number of similar renovated properties in the area on the market for 40-60k more. The offer was accepted but there are two big issues

1. This is a corporate sale so it's not sold until exchange of contracts, it has to remain on the Internet with a public notice declaring the vaule of our offer other buyers can still put forward a counter offer.
2. The estate agent sent me by accident a print screen of the communication log. Basically there was a previous offer accepted that is £5k below our offer. This turned out to be a FTB overwhelmed with the work that needs doing. But obviously said l want to reduce our offer, estate agent who has clearly messed up called me back to say that the client won't go lower than our offer. I don't believe that at all l think it would be embarrassing for them to say client wants to reduce offer because l sent them the wrong email.

What do l do??

Before that email I was comfortable with our offer, but l cant unsee the email and 5k is a huge amount of money.

South_coast

I would tell them you're lowering your offer to match the one previously accepted, and that's that. They need you more than you need them, and you can always increase back up if a better offer is made in the meantime. How quickly do you think you can realistically get to exchange of contracts and secure it?

South_coast

Or (sorry, been thinking about this some more 🤣), accept that you'll pay £5k more than you might have done and move on with your life. It will sting to think that you've "overpaid", but £5k in the context of the cost of a house and how much that value will appreciate over time isn't really that much.

I realise I've given two suggestions which are polar opposites, so not very much help at all 🤣🤣🤣!