Does anyone rent a property out?

Chris_Boro said:
I have a house I jointly own with my ex, its been a nightmare as each time a tenant has left, its cost a fortune to bring back to a rentable standard.

If you're lucky you will get the "perfect" tenant who treats your house like their home and are no bother.

Selling now at a loss just to get rid of the stress its caused. I would only ever do it again if I could dedicate more time to it or had a few properties so its enough to be a full time job.
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This is the side you never see on these property shows... Just like the hassle of fixing stuff quite often they make that seem easy.
My outside frost free tap went and I was quoted $500 to replace it whilst adding a ball-valve stop-****. Did it myself , including n the soldering for @$50 but I was stressed out in case it didn't work and I flooded the house.
My point is, the maintenance side of home ownership is often overlooked when people do the numbers.
 
Disagree on letting agent. I have used them both as a landlord and tenant and found they delay solving any issues and can cause as many problems as they solve. Nearly all issues can be sorted with a call to a plumber, electrician etc. You tend to sort issues better than how an agency would since it is your house and therefore also keep the tenant happier.

Each to their own but that is my experience.
 
Yeah I dont think you really need an agent especially if you only have a few. On top of the 10-15% they charge, they also make money out of any routine work with their own contractors. Its actually really easy to manage things yourself just do a little research and you will save using your own tradespeople.

Even with all of the changes over the last few years, I still maintain its the most profitable long term investment you can make.

What area were you looking to buy in out of interest?
 
I've got two I let out, one 2 bed flat and one 4 bed house, but actively trying to sell the flat, and then move onto selling the house, hopefully to the existing tenants.

I think being a landlord is a pain in the ar$e, and I've had it pretty easy.

The only way I could see it being worth it is if you had loads of them, not under massive mortgages, all were close to you and close together, and looked after them all yourself (keen/ skilled DIY'er) and the "profit" was enough to live on, as much as your needs are.

Wouldn't bother now though, especially in the North East, with flat house prices. The biggest positive about it (increasing house prices) no longer exists.

There's also the theory of the aging population (from the baby boom) and record low birth rate now (uk and world), which means old people go into homes, and there's not enough young uns to keep filling these houses, this could cause absolute havoc to property prices.

If dealing in property, there's probably better money in buying, doing up and selling, but you need to be organised and do quick turnarounds.

I'm selling up, buying a slightly bigger forever place and then putting the rest into shares, albeit a bit of a strange timed for that.
 
UKLL1981 said:
With the current climate it seems inevitable I’m going to lose my job in aviation, this pandemic has taught me that I really don’t want to have to rely on a employer any more.

I owned a house with a previous partner, we purchased it during the financial crash and sold it 2 years later for £70k profit when we split, it was never the plan but that’s just how it worked out. I think there will be the opportunity to do that again with what I see the market doing but I’m looking for something a bit more sustainable like maybe the rental market.

Does anyone own property they rent out? Just looking for some general advice, pros and cons etc. I’m not expecting to earn what I do now but if I can pay the bills without getting out of bed that will give me more time to spend with my son.

I currently don’t own any property per se, I have a house owned in trust for me that my dad can live in until he dies. There seems to be some confusion over whether this constitutes owning a property to get a buy to let mortgage? I’ve heard different opinions from every mortgage advisor I’ve spoken to 😤

Me and my current partner could quite easily live in her flat and start our family there with me being a stay at home dad and my income coming from property. I have £265k in savings and £30k in shares in terms of a budget although I am in Sussex so it won’t go as far.

Would appreciate any advice, pros, cons, pitfalls or anything I need to be aware of as neither of us have a clue.

Thanks in advance.
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If you have 300 k and want an easy income I would suggest adding Unilever, national grid, Diageo, admiral, legal and general, glaxo, bae systems and barrat developments to your portfolio. They will give you an income at present of around 5.3 percent without any problem tenants or all the other b***ks that comes with being a landlord. I learnt the hard way.
 
I had two properties let out. A complete nightmare. Choose your tenants carefully. Have a good management company to look after the facilities too. You will otherwise get calls at the most inconvenient times.
 
Humpty said:
Not sure about that ...
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Haha, I know, to be fair there's some decent increases at the minute due to stamp duty reductions, I just meant in general, compared to previous, like the boom. Might be artificially high at the minute, as tons of people have been lock down decorating so they can sell and not sure if the increase is up here, seems mainly down south.
 
Statto1 said:
Haha, I know, to be fair there's some decent increases at the minute due to stamp duty reductions, I just meant in general, compared to previous, like the boom. Might be artificially high at the minute, as tons of people have been lock down decorating so they can sell and not sure if the increase is up here, seems mainly down south.
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Reluctant landlord , moved in with my now wife & prices plunged on my house . Have never had a good tenant & as someone else mentioned its a nightmare putting the place right when the tenants leave . Last one took the biscuit & once I put the place right (again) ill be getting rid regardless . Everyone seems ro think its a gravy train " that's your pension sorted " etc - but not jn my experience.
 
If you use an agent then you probably get guaranteed rent and you get someone who can take care of all the little things that happen when you rent a house. But you'll lose >10% of your rental income and have no say on the tenant. The agent will let it to anyone with a credit rating better than 0.4.

Let it yourself and you'll have to find a way to deal with leaky taps and boiler breakdowns. On the other hand you can choose the tenant yourself. Spinsters and middle aged women are the best tenants in my experience. They are house proud and tend to leave the place in at least as good a condition as they found it.
 
Agree with some of the comments on here about it being a chew.
Was a reluctant landlord for about 5 years.
Suppose quite lucrative (eventually) but was just another level of stress I didn't need.
Started off with an interest-only mortgage of about 5% (£900 per month).
Rental income £650. I was thinking this is a right mug's game, house prices in decline too! :(
Fortunately was tied into a tracker mortgage which dropped to something like 0.78%.
Finally was making money but got out when I could to concentrate on running my business.

Looking back its hard to explain just WHY it was a pain in the bum - loads of little bits of twattery.
Guess you've just got to experience it yourself?
 
There are plenty of solid property funds you can buy shares in which comfortably pay 5%+ yield. As mentioned above, decent blue chip company stocks also yielding 5%+ although I wouldn't necessarily pick all those listed. These decisions also take a good amount of research, but once you do, you can sleep pretty easy. Of course, £20k per year each into your ISAs shelters you from CG and Income taxes on those investments
 
Borotommo said:
There are plenty of solid property funds you can buy shares in which comfortably pay 5%+ yield. As mentioned above, decent blue chip company stocks also yielding 5%+ although I wouldn't necessarily pick all those listed. These decisions also take a good amount of research, but once you do, you can sleep pretty easy. Of course, £20k per year each into your ISAs shelters you from CG and Income taxes on those investments
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Not sure if they have the same name in the UK but I've invested in REIT's over here
 
Yes, REITs give you good potential yields and tax efficiencies. But there are good ones and bad ones, so (very much like business equities) do plenty of research first
 
Emmersons_BrazillianDong said:
Oh mate that's gutting. Please tell me you have rental income insurance? It's only £150 per annum for legal and income protection.

Been burned myself
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Sadly never found out about rental insurance until the trouble started.
Don’t think I’ll see any of that money and it is only going up.
The bailiffs were all set to go in recently - just before Leeds went into Tier 3 and they were stopped from going out (n)
 
for anyone thinking flipping a house is a sure fire winner, has anyone watched the great house giveaway? presented by Simon O'brien, A couple are given a housse to renovate sourced from auctions, with a restricted budget. Aim is they use thjeir skills and labour to don the property up and share the profits.
Of the 18 or so episodes i watched only 2-3 made any money eiother through poor choices of trying to do too much OR the sheer effort required took its toll. The hidden cost of buying at auction plus legal fees, council tax all factored in as well. Certainly illustrates that it's not plain sailing if that's what you want to try and do.
 
Artie Fufkin said:
You can also claim back some maintenance expenditure back as expenses, although I cant comment on the exact details, as I say Mrs Fufkin deals with that side of it
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Last Tax return I did you could claim £1000 deduction in income for maintenance. Income is taxed therefore if it puts you into higher rate then consider transferring ownership of property into your partner/family.
You can insure against loss of income for tenants who default. I've used the council officers to help in negotiations with a tenant who fell behind on payments. It's only happened with one tenant who was on benefits.
I don't believing giving anything to letting agents ,they aren't going to work harder than I to do what needs to be done. As I am relatively local to the property I don't have the usual issues that distance may cause.
I rent out unfurnished, lower rent but doesn't come with worries of replacing and big repair bills as a consequence of damage. Allowing tenants to furnish and decorate within reason gives them a sense of ownership/responsibility.
All the tenants have been local and by word of mouth usually from previous tenant and provides a nice pension top up.
 
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