Getting into buy to let property business

The problem is property price have gone up so people are unhappy they someone else that took the risk is making money.

It could have gone the other way. Price fell about 30% in Prague and there are a lot of people that bought flats to rent out sitting on huge losses. They took a risk and it did not work out but that is the how the game works.

The uk is full of jealous people:rolleyes:

Pretty much sums up my opinion on people with a chip on their shoulder with regards to landlords.

I dont agree with some of the posts above that the boat has sailed in the UK, we are still buying, and aim to have a handful more by year end. There are still good yeilds to be had all over the place.
 
I don't understand the acrimony either, we let out a couple of properties (we didn't buy to let mortgage them or anything but we still own them and rent them out) and its a decent return and we provide a good place to live in the local area to people who probably can't afford to buy their own home / are saving up to (and we take the commitment seriously). One of our properties is let to a company who frequently relocate families into this area. Who really loses from that?

We just look at it as a way to keep the property we have ticking over to make some money and in itself it is a fair investment in the very long term for when we are kicking around the idea of retirement.

I can't see why renting property out makes one a parasite in any way, unless a landlord is a scumbag who allows a property to be unsafe and knows it (but that's about them, not letting in principle). How you acquire it also doesn't seem to make a difference, obviously if you are buying it on a mortgage you need to be careful with yields and returns but its not more parasitic than inheriting it, as far as I can make out.
 
So you want to become a property parasite? Bear in mind we have just seen the top of a property bubble and stuff could go south pretty fast. The property bubble has only partially subsided due to this country being a total ***** for foreign capital.

How about putting your capital into something productive rather than speculative?
 
Buy to let is a business for a lot of people the same as any other. Do you dislike everybody with business acumen? Property is a commodity the same as any other.
But it isn't.

Only a finite amount of houses exist within the UK & a large percent of the population has been squeezed out of the market by people viewing homes as investment opportunities.

A home is one of the core requirements for an person to live, not something which should be used & abused by people with a higher disposable income to earn a few extra bucks at the expense of others.

I have no problem with people being buy to let landlords out of circumstance - as life isn't something which can be planned so easily - but those who deliberately start buying up homes are parasites - bleeding the disposable income of the population & damaging our economy.
 
So you want to become a property parasite? Bear in mind we have just seen the top of a property bubble and stuff could go south pretty fast. The property bubble has only partially subsided due to this country being a total ***** for foreign capital.

How about putting your capital into something productive rather than speculative?

Isn't any investment speculative. After all if there was a guaranteed yield to an investment the market would price down any yield to that of any other zero risk investment. I.e. the 2-3% you could get by popping the cash in the bank.

I'm confused. You are berating people as liberals left right and centre in other threads yet when someone talks about making an investment for business purposes you refer to them as a parasite. You seem somewhat conflicted.
 
But it isn't.

Only a finite amount of houses exist within the UK & a large percent of the population has been squeezed out of the market by people viewing homes as investment opportunities.

A home is one of the core requirements for an person to live, not something which should be used & abused by people with a higher disposable income to earn a few extra bucks at the expense of others.

I have no problem with people being buy to let landlords out of circumstance - as life isn't something which can be planned so easily - but those who deliberately start buying up homes are parasites - bleeding the disposable income of the population & damaging our economy.

Do you think people could still always afford a mortgage and could buy a home outright if there were no rental properties?

I don't myself.
 
The problem with the whole "buy to let" thing is that a significant amount of people have only the most basic business acumen and knowledge. That leads to a glut of fairly poor standard rental housing as the same people spend the least amount possible (and do the "renovating" themselves a lot of the time). That in turn leads to housing that may be "safe" but poorly decorated and kitted out.

I've got a chip on my shoulder at the moment because I'm looking to rent somewhere out, however most of the options I've looked at so far (including several "newly" renovated places) have the exact problem above. Old houses that are still single glazed, poorly painted (not sanded down beforehand, poor cutting in etc), cheap/old carpets, old kitchens and poor bathrooms, not to mention just not finished properly in general. People have to put up with living in these ****holes and I put a lot of that down to buy to letters doing everything to the cheapest cost and by themselves without the actual skills. Shame really, I've given up looking for older places, now I'm looking at new builds (eugh) as the insides can't be ****** up that much yet surely!?
 
The problem with the whole "buy to let" thing is that a significant amount of people have only the most basic business acumen and knowledge. That leads to a glut of fairly poor standard rental housing as the same people spend the least amount possible (and do the "renovating" themselves a lot of the time). That in turn leads to housing that may be "safe" but poorly decorated and kitted out.

I've got a chip on my shoulder at the moment because I'm looking to rent somewhere out, however most of the options I've looked at so far (including several "newly" renovated places) have the exact problem above. Old houses that are still single glazed, poorly painted (not sanded down beforehand, poor cutting in etc), cheap/old carpets, old kitchens and poor bathrooms, not to mention just not finished properly in general. People have to put up with living in these ****holes and I put a lot of that down to buy to letters doing everything to the cheapest cost and by themselves without the actual skills. Shame really, I've given up looking for older places, now I'm looking at new builds (eugh) as the insides can't be ****** up that much yet surely!?

Well I suppose the issue with generalisations is that they are just that.

I am sure a lot of rental homes are in a poor state but then a lot of homes to buy are in the same condition. Indeed people starting out to buy may end up with somewhere that costs a lot of money to put right or is in poor condition where they cannot put it right due to others not looking after and investing in their properties.

The issue with people trying to do things on the cheap is that they don't know what they are doing and so often do a bad job, but that is the same in every area / walk of life and it doesn't make everyone who does it bad at it.

As a landlord you have to bear in mind the condition in which people will leave a property and the way they will treat it..just as much as there are bad landlords there are also bad tenants. Our experience is mainly pretty good but all the same we have had a house left in a pretty disgusting condition and it cost quite a lot to have it first cleaned and then redecorated. Pursuing a former tenant for the cost isn't actually that easy.

The shoe can really be on either foot.
 
I'm confused. You are berating people as liberals left right and centre in other threads yet when someone talks about making an investment for business purposes you refer to them as a parasite. You seem somewhat conflicted.

Property sitting is a parasitic activity. When I say you should be putting money into a productive activity, I mean one that would produce a product/service that would enhance peoples' standards of living. You seem to think 'business' is a synonym for general wellbeing.

I'm sure you do get confused keeping up with what all the labels mean everytime the media tells you the the meaning has changed. I will send you the newest version of the Newspeak dictionary - did Big Brother not send it to you yet? Ignorance is strength.
 
Well I suppose the issue with generalisations is that they are just that.

I am sure a lot of rental homes are in a poor state but then a lot of homes to buy are in the same condition. Indeed people starting out to buy may end up with somewhere that costs a lot of money to put right or is in poor condition where they cannot put it right due to others not looking after and investing in their properties.

The issue with people trying to do things on the cheap is that they don't know what they are doing and so often do a bad job, but that is the same in every area / walk of life and it doesn't make everyone who does it bad at it.

As a landlord you have to bear in mind the condition in which people will leave a property and the way they will treat it..just as much as there are bad landlords there are also bad tenants. Our experience is mainly pretty good but all the same we have had a house left in a pretty disgusting condition and it cost quite a lot to have it first cleaned and then redecorated. Pursuing a former tenant for the cost isn't actually that easy.

The shoe can really be on either foot.

The difference between buying and renting is that if you buy a house you can do almost anything you want with it. If you rent you can't really replace the windows with double glazing, strip, sand and repaint the house etc...* When you're looking to spend just under £1k a month on a ROOM that is the least you should be able to expect!

Admittedly there are bad tenants but that doesn't neglect a landlord from providing a good house/flat to live in in the first place. As you rightly point out the problem is people doing things on the cheap, mostly after seeing the buy to let style housing programs that advocate renovating yourself, after all how hard can it be...:rolleyes:

Unfortunately it seems to be the professional landlords with several houses that do it right, the ones that are in it cause they want to get rich quick are a major proportion unfortunately.

*TBH that is one of the major problems with renting in the first place, the inability to make a property an actual home, you have to rely on the owner to sort it out for you in the first place.

Yes I am a bit grumpy about it all, unfortunately I don't have £30-50k to drop on buying somewhere, even if the mortgage would be cheaper than the rent I would pay on a similar place (and thats ignoring the fact the rent would be the equivalent of an 8-10x mortgage...)
 
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£1000 pcm on a room? Are you trying to rent in Mayfair? :p

Do you live in London? :p If so you'd know that would probably be about £4k a week!

Nope, somewhere on the outskirts of zone1/2 (north of the river) that isn't a dive. I did also say just under ;)
 
The difference between buying and renting is that if you buy a house you can do almost anything you want with it. If you rent you can't really replace the windows with double glazing, strip, sand and repaint the house etc...* When you're looking to spend just under £1k a month on a ROOM that is the least you should be able to expect!

Admittedly there are bad tenants but that doesn't neglect a landlord from providing a good house/flat to live in in the first place. As you rightly point out the problem is people doing things on the cheap, mostly after seeing the buy to let style housing programs that advocate renovating yourself, after all how hard can it be...:rolleyes:

Unfortunately it seems to be the professional landlords with several houses that do it right, the ones that are in it cause they want to get rich quick are a major proportion unfortunately.

*TBH that is one of the major problems with renting in the first place, the inability to make a property an actual home, you have to rely on the owner to sort it out for you in the first place.

I do agree its completely down to the landlord but as one you can't make money without doing the right things, in the long term anyway. People either realise that or get out. I do think they probably inflict some unserviceable living on people in the meantime though and that is a pity.

I think the landlord schemes being piloted in various places around the country should be rolled out, they have compulsory licensing, standards inspections and really are the key to creating a rental estate of some worth. Its the strange dominance of the buying vs renting property estate in the UK that causes some of the issues and if you look at the German example for instance things are very different. No one who rents property legitimately could oppose a proper license and inspection scheme; although it would cost money it would work both ways by raising standards in the market.

We don't rent out for a living at all (its a way of making the property we have generate an income while it remains a long term investment, it makes money but neither of us would want to do it instead of our day jobs) but we pay an agent (and it took two to find the right one) to do the administration and servicing. It costs more than trying to do random DIY ourselves but we are not very DIY oriented and to be honest I'd rather see something done right for some additional cost than take the time and trouble to do it badly myself!
 
I do agree its completely down to the landlord but as one you can't make money without doing the right things, in the long term anyway. People either realise that or get out. I do think they probably inflict some unserviceable living on people in the meantime though and that is a pity.

I think the landlord schemes being piloted in various places around the country should be rolled out, they have compulsory licensing, standards inspections and really are the key to creating a rental estate of some worth. Its the strange dominance of the buying vs renting property estate in the UK that causes some of the issues and if you look at the German example for instance things are very different. No one who rents property legitimately could oppose a proper license and inspection scheme; although it would cost money it would work both ways by raising standards in the market.

We don't rent out for a living at all (its a way of making the property we have generate an income while it remains a long term investment, it makes money but neither of us would want to do it instead of our day jobs) but we pay an agent (and it took two to find the right one) to do the administration and servicing. It costs more than trying to do random DIY ourselves but we are not very DIY oriented and to be honest I'd rather see something done right for some additional cost than take the time and trouble to do it badly myself!

I'm certainly up for some kind of licensing scheme to increase the quality of the rental market. The dominance of the buying market is in part due to two things IMO, rental prices, which are generally significantly higher than mortgage repayments and quality of property in the UK. Why rent when buying (if you have a deposit) is cheaper and you can make your house better? I understand that some of it feeds off the other, for example high rents because people are willing to pay for them, however the buy to let system only works on mortgage repayments being covered (and then some) by rental income.
 
The problem with the whole "buy to let" thing is that a significant amount of people have only the most basic business acumen and knowledge. That leads to a glut of fairly poor standard rental housing as the same people spend the least amount possible (and do the "renovating" themselves a lot of the time). That in turn leads to housing that may be "safe" but poorly decorated and kitted out.

I've got a chip on my shoulder at the moment because I'm looking to rent somewhere out, however most of the options I've looked at so far (including several "newly" renovated places) have the exact problem above. Old houses that are still single glazed, poorly painted (not sanded down beforehand, poor cutting in etc), cheap/old carpets, old kitchens and poor bathrooms, not to mention just not finished properly in general. People have to put up with living in these ****holes and I put a lot of that down to buy to letters doing everything to the cheapest cost and by themselves without the actual skills. Shame really, I've given up looking for older places, now I'm looking at new builds (eugh) as the insides can't be ****** up that much yet surely!?

I really do not understand your post. On one hand you say that the majority have only basic business acumen and knowledge, yet on the other you suggest that they achieve their goal to let their property whilst spending as little as possible.

Surely you cannot expect a landlord to spend more than is necessary, you realise they are in it to make their living, right? :confused:
 
Have you got 25% deposit to put down?

If not don't bother anymore.

That's optimistic for B2L mortgage :D you usually have to lay down 40%.

Better off getting a normal mortgage (10-20% deposit) and using then renting out the house, know a few people who do it.
 
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