Mortgage mayhem as Bristol & West withdraws deals and First Direct raises cheap rate

IveSeenTheLight

m00m00 wrote: »

the landlords bought virtually the entire block for pennies (relatively) many many years ago.

their yield will be massive relative to their initial outlay.

hence I have about as secure a tenancy as can be expected without it actually being a secure tenancy.

I'ts nice to hear that you agree that there are LL's whose figures add up.

So often its referred on here that LL's are all stupidly morgaged, MEWing idiots who compensate the mortgages.

Some on here would still call your LL stupid as they should have sold at the peak to capitalise on the equity, thus making you potentially homeless.

I guess for you, it's lucky that they are not in it for the short term capital gain

WTF?_2

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I too do not increase rents for existing tenants. If they are good tenants and they pay on time, I'm happy for them to stay as long as they want. The tenants benefit from not having increasing rent and I benefit as having longer tenants and lower risk of voids.

I do however increase the rents between tenants.
On two of my properties I have increase them 22% and 14%.

A sensible strategy - for starters, decent tenants are worth their weight in gold. ie. They pay on time, treat the house properly and don't keep pestering the LL with unreasonable requests. It's well worth keeping them sweet as a single months' void as a result of such a tenant moving out could cancel out the net benefit of a rental increase for many months.

And you never know for sure if you are going to be saddled with a troublesome idiot until after they move in, after which point it's going to cost you a lot of time, hassle and possibly money to get rid of them.

Too bad many novice BTL LLs think that they are just going to be able to jack rents up to cover their insufficient margins when their mortgages go up.

BTLers need to understand that they are running a business. Too many treat it like some sort of self-maintaining cash cow or a profitable (maybe) hobby.

WTF?_2

m00m00 wrote: »

the landlords bought virtually the entire block for pennies (relatively) many many years ago.

their yield will be massive relative to their initial outlay.

hence I have about as secure a tenancy as can be expected without it actually being a secure tenancy.

I'm in a similar situation. The LL bought the place at a very reasonable price a decade ago and has paid off half the mortgage. The payments are easily covered by my rent which from my POV is cheaper than the interest component of a mortgage if I wanted to buy the place (Well at peak prices anyway. At current prices, a lot closer).

It's absolutely not in his interest to try to screw more cash out of me as the rent is broadly in line with the average for the area and a lot of 'To Let' boards have started going up recently. Should he lose one month of rent due to a void, there goes the benefit of the rise to him for at least half a year and probably more. Plus of course, the next tenant is a completely unknown factor and might not pay so promptly, treat the place well etc.


Expecting to be able to raise rent to cover mortgage repayments is a bit like expecting to be able to demand a 10% payrise this year to cover price increases...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/06/23/cost-of-living-up-11-6-89520-20617827/

.... Maybe you can do it if you are in a good position but the chances are that you aren't......

m00m00

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I'ts nice to hear that you agree that there are LL's whose figures add up.

So often its referred on here that LL's are all stupidly morgaged, MEWing idiots who compensate the mortgages.

Some on here would still call your LL stupid as they should have sold at the peak to capitalise on the equity, thus making you potentially homeless.

I guess for you, it's lucky that they are not in it for the short term capital gain

if you actually checked my posts you'd have discovered I'm not one of the dogmatic HPC posters. I have nothing against sensible landlords who've done their sums and not run up immense debts in the hope of phantom future profits.

a good landlord is an asset to a community, a bad one a drain.

IveSeenTheLight

m00m00 wrote: »

if you actually checked my posts you'd have discovered I'm not one of the dogmatic HPC posters. I have nothing against sensible landlords who've done their sums and not run up immense debts in the hope of phantom future profits.

a good landlord is an asset to a community, a bad one a drain.

m00m00, I never intended to refer that you were a dogmatic HPC poster.
Just commented that it was nice to hear of people praising LL's when so many posts are negative of LL's

neverdespairgirl

!!!!!!? wrote: »

A sensible strategy - for starters, decent tenants are worth their weight in gold. ie. They pay on time, treat the house properly and don't keep pestering the LL with unreasonable requests.

I think that's why our LL likes us, and our rent is low. We pay on time, always. OH does the minor stuff around the flat, and I organise the gas cert, etc. The LL just gets money, month-in, month-out.

Sir_Humphrey

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I too do not increase rents for existing tenants. If they are good tenants and they pay on time, I'm happy for them to stay as long as they want. The tenants benefit from not having increasing rent and I benefit as having longer tenants and lower risk of voids.

I do however increase the rents between tenants.
On two of my properties I have increase them 22% and 14%.

From what I have been able to discover, my LL asks for about 36 PCM more for an equivalent room for a new tenant than he did 5 years ago. That is 36 PCM more than the discounted rate he offered me.

I also happen to know he is over-leveraged, so I have contigency plans in place in case his empire goes belly-up.

MrDT

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I think that's why our LL likes us, and our rent is low. We pay on time, always. OH does the minor stuff around the flat, and I organise the gas cert, etc. The LL just gets money, month-in, month-out.

Ditto, no rent increase at all in the two years I've been at my place. I pay by standing order every month, don't make a nuisance of myself, and have improved the flat cosmetically in the time I've been there. I'm a hassle free tenant, and landlady gets her money month in month out regular as clockwork. She has owned the property for decades mortgage free and I'm benifitting from this fact just as much as she is (no mortgage payment shock filtering down to me etc)

I very much agree that a good landlord is an asset to the community. Two years ago my options were:
1) move back to my parents house :eek:
2) buy an overpriced house at the height of a bubble and pay more than half of my monthly income in mortgage payments
3) rent somewhere cheap as chips and save a deposit

Suffice to say, renting was the right option for me!