I read with interest a recent piece on msn about buy-to-let. The poor unfortunate landlord claims that after 5 years of being a landlord he was actually out of pocket by £3500. Was he an inept landlord or is it just impossible to make buy-to-let work these days? I have
sympathy with his travails. It ain't easy being a first time landlord and it's a steep learning curve. Inevitably you make mistakes and sometimes these can be costly. However, the key message that comes out from his experience is that your pay back for being a landlord isn't likely in the short and even medium term. The reality is that you should work on a at least a 15 year time frame. If he stuck at it for another 10 years then he would have been able to answer the question more accurately and possibly come up with a different conclusion. Have a
read and see whether you agree.
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3 comments:
This article is not about Buy-to-Let, it's about buying somewhere to live and then when it's time to move greed takes over.
Bought in 2001, lived there for 6 years during the boom, moved out in 2007 to live, (probably buy), elsewhere, instead of selling to increase equity in new home decides to rent because property prices will keep going up and I'll make 'loads a money',(everybody says so, it's in all the papers so it must be true, even the chancellor/primeminster says "I've ended boom and bust"), a story of greed and nothing to do with Buy-to-Let.
Having been a hands on Landlord for some 15 years now, I don't seem to have this guys problems. My investments are my pension and hopefully I can pass some of them on to my son.
I personally chose my tenants, I personally checked my tenants and I treated them all well and was treated back with respect. I even buy them Christmas presents, a box of chocs and a bottle of something and it is very much appreciated.
I went through phases where I had problems renting due to too many new builds in the area but today almost everyday, I am asked or called by someone who wants to be my tenant.
I bought with mortgages at 6%+ and today enjoying the low rates, I have also met & kept some very good tradesmen who will do the job properly and at reasonable prices.
I used agents in the beginning and quickly learnt not to trust any of them, hence now being the hands on Landlord.
At some stage in the past I remortgaged & topped up and bought more properties but decided that I would only buy those that I could live in if the need arose, it did and I am now living in the first BTL property that I bought.
Today there are masses of bargains out there but I am in the process of downsizing my portfolio to enjoy my profits and believe me, there's plenty to enjoy.
Would I recommend it to someone else, most definitely !! I taught myself the hard way but willing to give plenty of free tuition to those who ask. Sorry I'm not allowed to give advice apparently.
I AGREE WITH ALL YOU HAVE DONE AND WE HAVE DONE THE SAME AS YOU , CHOOSEN OUR TENANTS AND SENT XMAS CARDS WINE ECT. WE HAVE ONLY 4 PROPERTYS BUT THEY ARE ALL PAID FOR NO MORGAGES. SAVED AND SAVED THEN BOUGHT.
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