The joy of being a landlord

[fez]

It seems you didn't read your article:

These things are never easy but renovating these properties would be easier, faster and cheaper than trying to build new ones. As to insulating them, we don't live in a period where everyone has well insulated homes. Most don't. I think most people would be more than happy to be in a house that is a big more expensive to heat than one that was more expensive simply to exist in. They would be doubly happy if they owned it instead of renting.

I would also argue that insulating terraced houses is the easiest of all houses to do. You can do external insulation and you only have a few walls to do instead of 4 or more.

After some really bad encounters with vile landlords, i'm firmly of the belief that landlords should be referenced just as much as tenants. Luckily i'm in a position right now I have a unicorn landlord.

I don't know if you can be banned as a landlord. You probably should be.

 

[fez]

So, these tens of thousands of people crossing the globe and spending their alleged life savings on a risky Channel crossing to get to England, they're masochists then, right?

I'm not sure what you are arguing here. Because our country is a bit of a mess, others can't be worse?

Plenty of people who come here quickly realise it isn't the promised land either. People are making good money out of trafficking people and its in their best interests to paint the UK as a nice destination.

 

[ColdAsIce]

So you think people who work hard to achieve what they have is wrong then? You are just a jealous bitter **** because you didnt have the brains to do what other people do to get ahead in life.

I was lucky, as I already explained I was there at the right time when banks were literally giving away free money.

Which is it?

 

[bigmike20vt]

Which is it?

to be fair in life unless you are given a boat load of cash i always think you need a combination of *at least* 2 out of the 3 of the following (even then the way things are right now there is no guarantee)

luck, hardwork, talent

as such neither of the comments you quoted are incompatible.

 

[Scam]

why would you assume that? you know what they say about assume!. (my wife lived in it before i met her and we moved into my place together)

I only assumed because I was interested in the maths of your investment, and how much your tenants have paid towards it for you. You can go-ahead and just lay out how many years you paid the mortgage in comparison to your tenants. £300 in profit every month isn't to be sniffed at, especially when added to the total of your mortgage that your tenants have kindly paid for you.

It seems you didn't read your article:

Doesn't really affect the numbers though. I'm sure a lot of people spending 50% of their income on rent would happily buy a fix-me-upper for a similar monthly outgoing. Only they can't because the actual price of the property is still astronomical. Those long term empty numbers probably don't even include the golden ticket of boomers - the holiday home!

 

[fez]

to be fair in life unless you are given a boat load of cash i always think you need a combination of at least 2 out of the 3 of the following

luck, hardwork, talent

as such neither of the comments you quoted are incompatible.

Yeah, as soon as you look into it, success is a combination of application and luck and almost everyone massively downplays luck because thats implying they don't deserve something in their head.

Watched a talk from Tim Peak last year where he explained that becoming an astronaut was hugely influenced by luck. If luck played only a 2% part in selection it could take you from being selected to not even being in the top 50. Ask a group of people what percentage of a job they do and instead of a sum adding to 100% you will find that its more like 120-130% because everyone only sees their own work and downplays everyone elses.

 

[ColdAsIce]

to be fair in life unless you are given a boat load of cash i always think you need a combination of *at least* 2 out of the 3 of the following (even then the way things are right now there is no guarantee)

luck, hardwork, talent

as such neither of the comments you quoted are incompatible.

My brother is 10 years older than me. His first property was one of those now banned 110% mortgages. He still made money when he sold up. Then moved onto a larger property and then sold again and moved to another larger property. He had no idea how much I was paying in rent until we had a proper sit-down conversation about it. I've paid more in rent than he's ever paid in a mortgage. That's comparing a 2 bed Edinburgh flat to a home he owns with 4 bedrooms / garage / front and back garden

 

[bigmike20vt]

Yeah, as soon as you look into it, success is a combination of application and luck and almost everyone massively downplays luck because thats implying they don't deserve something in their head.

Watched a talk from Tim Peak last year where he explained that becoming an astronaut was hugely influenced by luck. If luck played only a 2% part in selection it could take you from being selected to not even being in the top 50. Ask a group of people what percentage of a job they do and instead of a sum adding to 100% you will find that its more like 120-130% because everyone only sees their own work and downplays everyone elses.

indeed..... luck and self confidence are 2 massive massive parts.
I dont deny i have had plenty of luck - and help from friends and family when things were down.

my lack of self confidence however will mean i never make it mega rich... but i fully realise i am far more fortunate than many - most even tbh.

 

[Freakbro]

Pretty much - people making money or having some form of money is the number one enemy of those in SC.

What a stupid thing to say

 

[bigmike20vt]

My brother is 10 years older than me. His first property was one of those now banned 110% mortgages. He still made money when he sold up. Then moved onto a larger property and then sold again and moved to another larger property. He had no idea how much I was paying in rent until we had a proper sit-down conversation about it. I've paid more in rent than he's ever paid in a mortgage. That's comparing a 2 bed Edinburgh flat to a home he owns with 4 bedrooms / garage / front and back garden

indeed. renting is fine for a few years whilst you find your feet and decide what you want.... but once you know then its best to get on the ladder asap.

which is really difficult now........ i dont deny that at all, and do not know what the answer is........ but blaming landlords is not going to get much traction i feel.

lets imagine that someone like Corbyn got his way and people like myself was forced to sell our flat. Does anyone really think here that any government would have the chops to go after massive organisations like oxbridge universities who own a vast swathe of land and 100s, likely 1000s of properties spanning the entire of the country? or what about the wellcome Trust all all the properties and land they own?

as usual it would be the normal working person doing ok but not big enough to fight it who would get butt kicked, but the rich (and i mean REALLY rich) would not be touched... because they never are

 

[dowie]

Given there are currently 257,331 long term empty homes in the UK - no I don't think it's anything to do with population increase.

Nah, @NVP is pretty much on the money here; the lack of housing supply for our growing population is the biggest issue here.

Just highlighting that there is [big number] of empty homes is silly as an argument, empty homes aren't always in the right areas and there will always be *some* vacant dwellings at any point in time, we're a country of 67 million+ people.

IIRC you could by a house for £1 as part of a scheme in some parts of Liverpool not too long ago, fat load of use for people living in the South East or London and not necessarily desirable for everyone local to them either, if they were they'd not be run down and part of such a scheme in the first place!

Anyway here are our empty dwellings in context when compared with other countries, perhaps a visualization will help more than just big number seems big.
(Note Iceland and Switzerland have fewer empty dwellings and are the first and second most expensive places to live on the planet.)


Secondly, are we building a load of new housing to compensate for this situation? Not really:



Source: https://www.oecd.org/els/family/HM1-1-Housing-stock-and-construction.pdf

 

[EddScott]

I was then about to mention holiday homes, but the flood of soy tears from some on here would be catastrophic.

Here in Pembrokeshire, 2nd homes have been hammered by doubling council tax.

Thing is, you'd expect Labour to be all over private landlords like a badly maintained shower in a private rental, but most of the worst measures imposed on the private market has been from the Tories.

Rent Smart Wales and the new rules brought in for this year have near enough made paying rent almost optional.

 

[ColdAsIce]

indeed. renting is fine for a few years whilst you find your feet and decide what you want.... but once you know then its best to get on the ladder asap.

which is really difficult now........ i dont deny that at all, and do not know what the answer is........ but blaming landlords is not going to get much traction i feel.

lets imagine that someone like Corbyn got his way and people like myself was forced to sell our flat. Does anyone really think here that any government would have the chops to go after massive organisations like oxbridge universities who own a vast swathe of land and 100s, likely 1000s of properties spanning the entire of the country? or what about the wellcome Trust all all the properties and land they own?

as usual it would be the normal working person doing ok but not big enough to fight it who would get butt kicked, but the rich (and i mean REALLY rich) would not be touched... because they never are

I truly believe that more Council housing is the answer. It shouldn't be a long term option and it should never be an opportunity to buy! Like the Tories allowed. Decent Council housing stock to let people get some savings together and then they move onto their own property.

 

[dlockers]

I truly believe that more Council housing is the answer. It shouldn't be a long term option and it should never be an opportunity to buy! Like the Tories allowed. Decent Council housing stock to let people get some savings together and then they move onto their own property.

Disagree RE: it shouldn't be a long term option.

 

[413x]

It is frustrating that a lot of the people who have done very well got lucky. Having cash at the right time. I don't hate people for it. I'm sure I would have done the same in that situation.

I do hate that rent is so much. And so much higher than mortgages

There needs to be rentals. I can't imagine anyone arguing that.
It is **** there isn't more Council rentals.

 

[Noakesy85]

Why was your agency bothering them? If they want to commit a crime in your flat so be it. If they were paying rent on time leave them alone and let the police deal with any weed growing or dealing?

The second tenants raised a safety concern with your property, you claim it was a couple of cracked slabs, so why were you so scared they would contact Environmental Health if it wasn’t an issue? Instead you as the landlord rectified the problem.

These seem like complete non-problems that are the cost of doing business as a landlord?

The agency is contracted to carry out 6 monthly inspections of the property, The tennants were always difficult to get hold of and would normally be very cagey and difficult when inspections were taking place. If the property was subsequently raided by police for drug offences then a black mark goes against the property and the landlords when the time comes to sell.

With the second point, We knew there were cracks in the slabs but not to the point where they were a trip hazard. We informed them prior to them moving in that it was something we planned to rectify in the new year when the weather improved but she (the wife) insisted it be rectified on her timescale. My wife had also recently lost her job and we were down to a single income leaving our funds somewhat depleted, we ended up having to use our savings to pay for work which we would not normally be required to do. My wife suffers from severe anxiety so the prospect of having Environmental Health on our backs was enough to nearly put her in hospital. Id rather not risk my wifes mental health.

You say they seem like non-problems when infact they are big problems considering the circumstances we found ourselves in. They may not have been an issue for you but for us it was almost breaking point.

 

[platinum87]

Says the man equating wanting a better society to communism... are you secretly American?

I equate you to being a communist because you are spouting communist ideology.

I originally posted below, then i saw your post

Communism, and other such things, emerge due to a cognitive fallacy, essentially, that resources or wealth are finite.

The obvious solution is to take money from someone who has it, and give it to someone who does not have it, and thus, problem solved.

Thus you making money, means someone else is loosing money.

There far too strong a connection between our gains and someone elses loss for that to sit well with me.

Cant really help you past this

 

[EdwardTeach]

Why do people use agencies? They're all crap and take 10%. Do you have some form of protection with them? If I owned I'd rather rent directly to someone and save both of us the cost. Or am I being naive?

They are a filter. The tenant had never contacted us directly. I never have to deal with any issues relating to the apartment. If there is a problem, the tenant contacts the agency, the agent contacts us with the cost of a solution, we OK it. Small issues can get fixed without our involvement. They know reliable plumbers/Electricians etc. At the start we used to try and handle some stuff ourselves, for example we had British gas landlord cover. They were a bit of a nightmare, as they wouldn't enter the property unless someone was there and I would have to come into London to babysit them.

It has made our life much much easier.

 

[malachi]

Every seems to be blaming the landlords for the high rent. But not many can get a mortgage due to the big deposit, including the people who still live at home with the parents.

So probably blame the market or the banks for the difficulty getting a mortgage because they make the rules about mortgage requirements not the landlords.

If 100% mortgages still existed then all of the people in here wouldn't be complaining about renting prices and landlords.

 

[Nitefly]

I’m very privileged when it comes to housing.

My family gave me a £50k deposit for a small city house, which was bought at £240k plus fees etc in 2015. I took responsibility for the fees and paid the mortgage etc. I had to get a 35 year mortgage as that was only basis that I would be leant to on, even being a higher rate tax payer.

In 2020, it sold for £330k. It’s now apparently worth £400k.

So for someone today to be given the same opportunity that I had, they would have to stump up an additional £160k in cash (£210k total). That’s only 7 years later.

Assuming that you didn’t have any help from relatives, how long would it take you to save up £210k cash…? That’s before you even factor the dramatically increased costs of everything in the last 2-3 years.

(Obviously affordability depends on salary, disposable income, location, whether you have a partner sharing the mortgage etc and how much a bank will lend you - so this example is knowingly limited in scope)

Yes, every generation has their own problems to overcome but I think it’s very fair to say that’s the up and coming adults have an insanely difficult time with housing compared to even what I had.