General Chat

I thought I should keep a diary of my first venture into 'Buy to let' and here is as good a place as any and some of you might find it interesting ( forewarned is forearmed also lol! ). It hasn't been signed and sealed yet but hopefully won't be too long now.

It is a three bedroomed house on what is generally termed an 'area of social housing' I thought quite a nice area , quiet road ( it seems) and a lot of greenery plus a small play park nearby, a middle terrace ,with a garage in front and a garden behind.

On the viewing of it we went in with little hope of it being a decent size, from the outside it looks small and as soon as we walked in that impression was emphasized by the darkness of the hall,. What we had taken on the agents photo's to be tongue and groove right up the stairs was in fact 'T & G effect' wallpaper, dark and horrible to match the dark and smelly carpets lol. There were two storage cupboards though which will be useful.

The lounge is fairly small, first impression again dark, peachy walls , brown carpet and an old and ominously stained mock leather settee. The ceiling (artex! aaaagggh ) looked to be discoloured by nicotine, but on the plus side...erm ....thinks hard , it had decent looking radiator and sockets :)

A downstairs loo off the hall, and then into the kitchen...which is big! that was a pleasant surprise, T & G on one wall , real and not in bad nick, sink under the window and a couple of adjoining units which I doubt will be salvageable but need to look at that , if i can use them it will save money!

Back door into the garden which is overgrown , brushcutter needed lol, but does appear to have a path and a few nice plants maybe, a rusting rotary drier and an old rabbit hutch . Well fenced I think. Next door on each side they seem to be gardeners , both look cared for which is a good sign.

Upstairs, past the awful paper , top of stairs in the bathroom , not big and probably in need of gutting, though if I can save the bath and loo would save money . But it was light .

Three bedrooms, all had matresses in , I won't describe them, you don't want to know lol! Ist bedroom Wall paper is horrendous 1980s , dark green floral, making the room seem much smaller than it actually is, green carpet . 2nd room mix and match ( not) paper above and below one of those awful borders ( apologies if you like them , i don't :) )
3rd room very much a single, childs room probably.

First thing I need when I get in ( assuming all goes to plan!) is a large skip, to clear out carpets and matresses and then start stripping the paper to see what lurks beneath .

Exciting , if a little scarey! the scariest bit is waiting to get experts in to decide whether gas and electric need updating...that's where the finances will be hit I fear!

Rose xx

Rose, Been there, Done it, never again. ( BEWARE) bad tenants and B devious Letting agents.**M**.Best of Luck though.

LOLOL Thanks Merlin ;))

xx

Good luck Rose - I shall look forward to following your adventure :O))

Thanks McAnne, I shall be taking photo's of the 'old wreck' 'Before' and 'After'.............

will take some of the house as well ;)

xx

Keep posting for us to read Rambling Rose, as it will be of interest to those others who have thought of doing this. Your experience will be a useful guide line.
Good Luck
Julia in Derbyshire

Good luck Rose :-)

Youngest did it about 3 years ago and it has paid for itself so far *fingers crossed*

Sue x

Thanks Sue, glad it has paid off so far, encouraging! :))

I will Julia, it is something I have thought about for a long time , watched all the programmes lol

funnily enough i won a competition a few weeks back, the prize was a Sarah Beeny Property Ladder book lol

xx

Hope all goes well with it Rose. Shall watch your 'diary' with interest.

Ann
Glos

And then it added twice!!!!!!
Ann
Glos

Rose

just a word of warning regarding the wood panelling - don't pull it off unless you have to.

My experience :- thought about painting it a light colour but decided to go the whole hog and get rid at outset - ended up having to replaster the walls T * G had been put up to hide crumbling plaster.

Good luck and have fun doing it up.

TOR xx

Hi TOR , no I thought the same about the wood panelling, it is pine so will paint it white or magnolia :) did that where I used to live and it made a real difference .

xx

TOR, havn't heard from you for a while now. I hope you are well.
Julia in Derbyshire

Like Merlin - been there, beware! I didn't do buy to let, but rented out my house when I was abroad. It was a nightmare!

Out of interest Sheila, and Merlin did you use a letting agent or do it yourself?

Rose xx

Hi Rose :-)

Will look forward to reading this.

Hi Rose, will be interested in future happenings !!!!!!!!!!!
My daughter has a house she rents out, she has no agents does it her self, touch wood the family in there are good tenants but she does do a 3 monthly check on the house and also the family want to rent for as long as she lets them so no 6 monthly tenants who wouldn't look after the house, she also made sure that in the tenancy that they kept the garden in good order as a lot of time and money had gone into it.
Right now for the bad news.............another friend of ours lets out also but has had a awful time with one tenant, stopped paying the rent and let the house go to rack and ruin, in the end a eviction notice was served on them to get them out but he was thousands out of pocket.
So there are good and bad, hope yours works out ok and good luck, x

Good luck!
OH's brother let his flat through an agent to a single woman. After 6 months or so she got pregnant, lost her job and stopped paying the rent. Social gave her money to pay rent with and guess what, she didn't. The agents were a waste of space.

It eventually ended with OH's brother having to get the bailiffs in and change the locks but not before she'd moved the boyfriend in and had the baby.

All in all he lost a large some of money. Thankfully the market was bouyant enough at the time so he did recoup some of his losses when he eventually sold but not sure if that made up for year of stress.

I have pm'd you Rose.

Don't worry, you can set your own bond (that insures you to some extent). Get references (including employers), run a credit check, do all the usual things to safeguard yourself as much as possible.

Of course there are some horror stories but common sense (of which you have loads) will play a huge part in your choice of tenant.

Sue

I've got a house in Morecambe that is rented out. It is with an agent and he is brilliant. He checks it regularly and sometimes takes interior photos and sends me. He deals with everything, boiler repair, fence down in winds,inside emulsioned etc. and all this is included in his fee. The current tenant paid a bond plus a month up front. The one and only tenant that got into trouble with the rent was receiving some sort of income/rent allowance and the agent got this paid directly to him and by the time the tenants left I had only lost 69.00 GBP.

I have had it over 6 years and only had 3 tenants all long term. One left to buy their own house, the next was the one who got financial problems but left the house clean and in order and the present tenant.

To me the agent is worth his weight in gold and takes all the stress out of owning a property in a different country to the one I live in.

The agents are a small company - man, wife, son and one employee and they take 15% commission. Previous agent, who WAS useless only took 10% but didn't charge as much rent so I am better off now

Wendy