The trials & tribulations of a 1st time landlord & investor

TallGirl · 16 September 2016 at 3:46PM

Dear all
I've been around a long time on this MFW for a long time and I love it. Keeps me on track and helped me pay off my mortgage 9 years early. I'm on the verge on starting something new so I thought I would start a new diary and focus it more on money saving and less on personal stuff. My life was quite steady and stable until April 2015 when I left my husband and took a one year job in London all made easier and more ore possible because I was mortgage free.

My job ended in July 2016 and I had hoped to stay within the organisation in a new job but I didn't get it and they didn't recruit anyone else. I am a great believer in that things will happen for the right reason and good things come to good people. Whilst on holiday and on my birthday I was told my ex had died and as we were still married I now owned the whole house plus his pensions and share in the small family business.

I applied for a new job whilst on holiday and I start that Monday its 28 hours a week with Friday's off and it's obviously on less month than my previous full time one.

I have been busy in the last two months sorting the house out so I can rent I out from October which will give me an income as well.

I have been trying to get his affairs in order so I can apply for probate and I'm getting there. So good folks if you want to read about the following kinds of topics then please feel free to read and or comment:

How to be an accidental landlord
How to go about getting probate and IHT sorted
How to invest an inheritance
How to keep accounts as a landlord
How to save money on everyday things whilst living in London

There will be more and I often stray into personal totally unrelated money stuff so just gloss over that if you find it boring.

So here we are start of something new so a quick update on where we are with the above topics.

1. Property should be ready after 27/9 as carpets going down then. Estate agent doesn't want to market it before it's completely ready. Once painter is done need to arrange final clean and my old cleaner to hang curtains.

2. My accountant friend has suggested the valuation of the family business is ok to use and my new IFA confirmed the two pensions are outside inheritance tax so I should be able to more forward on this very soon.

3. Meeting the IFA 30/9 potential inheritance will be around £190k will need to pay funeral expenses but want to invest most of it.

4. I need to read up on how to keep accounts as a landlord not sure I need an accountant but as I'm now a part business owner I might have too. Will definitely register with Inland Revenue but as house isn't rent out yet nothing has changed.

5. Finally I love saving money from getting the best deal to using coupons and tokens. I'm very good but can also be very bad. It's expensive to live in London but I'm a property guardian so my rent is so so cheap so I should really save lots of money. I promise I'll do a budget once I get my new wages, I would rather live on this than have to use my income from my property but might be difficult :eek:.

Ok I will end there and try and keep on the straight and narrow in terms of sticking with money saving stuff.

Tropically · 16 September 2016 at 4:02PM

Wow what a fascinating story. I look forward to your posts!!

Secret_Saving_Squirrel · 16 September 2016 at 5:41PM

Hello Tallgirl, I will be following your new diary. I may have missed something on your last diary, but how do you get to be a property guardian?
All the best with everything,
Squirrel x

TallGirl · 16 September 2016 at 6:23PM

Hi Tropically and Secret Savings Squirrel thanks for popping in.

A property guardian has a license so less secure than a tenancy but you rent from a company that is paid by the landlord to look after an empty property. It's cheaper than security guards and less risk of squatters. You have your own room but I share bathroom and kitchen plus communial areas however there are flats and beds it's up for grabs sometimes. You need to be vetted by the guardian company (Google to find them) and if lucky you get a property to live in.

I've been here a year and the council has only just put planning permission in so its hopefully a while before that gets granted and the find a contractor to do the work (they won't to extent upwards and then move the people back in that used it before as a day Centre).

The guardian company are pretty poor in fixing things but we are seven living here and many are happy to fix things themselves. I pay £436 per month and that includes all bills bar broadband. I live in south London and a 1 bed flat would be £1500 or more here. I have loads of space for all my belongings (three separate store rooms plus my room). Also have parking and a garden so a big win. Once you are told to leave the company will help you find another guardian property (if you have been good) so that's what I'm hoping for. You're not allowed guests or candle but everyone break the rules but don't tell so it's fine.

Lrimas · 16 September 2016 at 8:20PM

Hi TallGirl.

I'm sorry for your loss (I know that you left your ex, but you don't marry anyone without caring for them). It must have been a couple of rough months.

But, it is an exciting time that lies ahead and you sound like you have your head on straight and is dealing with everything exceptionally well.

Good luck with your journey and I look forward to see how you get on.

newgirly · 16 September 2016 at 10:05PM

Gosh what a roller coaster you have been on tallgirl, I am so sorry to hear about your ex it's very sad.

I hope that you settle in your new job well and good luck with becoming a landlord. Yours was one of the first diaries I started reading years ago when I joined mse and it's great to see how much you have achieved

Floxxie · 17 September 2016 at 8:44AM

Hi TallGirl,

Having subscribed to your threads since you first started out on your MF journey, I am looking forward to seeing what the future brings for you :beer:

Floxxie

TallGirl · 17 September 2016 at 4:15PM

Thanks all lovely to hear from you and glad I inspired others to mortgages. When I found this forum I didn't even know you could overpay and shortly afterwards I got a new job and a much higher salary which did help a lot but also meant we didn't increase our spending due to lobbing everything on the mortgage. Really miss that in a way the discipline of it so I'm going to try and recreate that again.

Plan is to live off my four day salary which is £31.5k pa it will be tough as I'm used to £42.5k however I was saving £6600 p.a. which was £35.9k. However I would still like to save £300 p/m as that is my first direct 6% linked savings account.

If I could manage on £28.2 a year which I don't think I can the whole of my rental income after tax could be saved. Maybe more realistic to use the rental income to top of the savings and then live on £31.5 which would be tight but might well be a relistic challenge.

I will have some pensions coming my way from ex oh which I'm seeing an IFA in how to best invest. Likely to top up my SS ISA this year and next year and top up my pension if allowed.

Back to the discipline of clearing a mortgage it just becomes an overall aim and reading people's diaries just becomes so inspiring and makes you want to stop before you spend.

I'm living with my DG and she earns £32.5k so I have been paying a bit more of the rent to help out. However that will stay as I do have the rental income so it's only fair. She's saving as much as she can but isn't as good as me with money.

An example was this morning we both had a drink last night but we felt fine so made breakfast at 12 noon, bacon and eggs with muffins all from fridge bought in Lidl so really cheap. It's lovely and all we needed. Then about 3 we both wanted more food and started talking about going out. MacD or take the bus to Weatherspoon's (we don't have one near us). We talked ourselves out of it and had something from the freezer instead. We both need to loose weight her more than me.

Well enough waffle I'm going check on my Tomtom which I've finally got to update it was driving me mad that it would work so really pleased it is now.

Enjoy your Sunday.

daisy_1571 · 18 September 2016 at 9:17PM

Hi :wave:

Followed you over, onwards and upwards

Daisy xx

TallGirl · 18 September 2016 at 9:21PM

Been a lovely relaxing weekend played golf well practised golf which was nice and cheap as we had just bought a range card, however I wanted a coffe Saturday at the range and offered to buy DG a cake so that was £6 and they don't take the Costa Reward card so bad. Today has been totally no spend for me just bough some food on the joint account for lunches so that's very good.

Filled in the probate form and the inherritance tax form DG is really good at that sort of thing and I think we have included everything. Our mutual friend is a solicitor so I've emailed her to check the form she's happy to do so. Will not be able to submit it until I've spoke to IFA as I want to make sure the pensions are in the right section. I think the property needs to be added to exemptions but whatever happens we are under the inherritance tax limit.

Had dinner watched ex factor so ready for bed soon ready for my first day tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous and would love more time off but it will be good to get back into the sowing of things and earn some money. My savings are a bit depleted and I've run up my credit cards but nothing I wasn't expecting.

Anyway that is it for now hoping for a good nights sleep.

newgirly · 18 September 2016 at 10:21PM

Best of luck for tomorrow

The trials & tribulations of a 1st time landlord & investor

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