The Tenant gets Revenge on his Landlord in the Sweetest Way

The tenant gets revenge on the landlord where it hurts most - his bank balance.

This post is from a Telegraph article on the Buy-to-let crisis.

"I'm very grateful for the BTL bubble. I moved into a brand new rented property in 2005 bought by my landlord for 220k. My rent has consistently been less than his mortgage interest. At this time last year he had the property valued at 290k, but decided to hang on a little longer.

This year the financial strain got too much for him and the property was repossessed and sold through auction. I lost my home for a couple of months and stayed with friends, but bought it back last week at the auction for 140k. That's about 60% of the 2005 price and under 50% of the 2007 valuation.

And the crash has only just started! Sadly for him my landlord is ruined (with repo expenses he still owes the bank about 100k), but I now own a home and pay less on my mortgage than I did in rent. " Posted by Graham on June 3, 2008 2:14 PM

Well done to Graham for some shrewd property investment moves, he gets this weeks Propertyhawk ' Sharpest Investor Award and unfortunately we know who gets the wooden spoon.

And the award for smuggest landlord of the week goes to this fantastically boastful post from Spencer ( sorry if you're reading Spencer - but listen to yourself - really)

"I've already made a lot of money out of BTL. Even if I sold my 8 properties after prices had fallen by 20% I would still have made enough money to buy my dream home (outright) in Barbados. So please stop moaning about how bad the property market is. Its like everything else in life - a question of being in the right place at the right time."
Posted by Spencer on June 3, 2008 1:09 PM

Well arent you the 'bees knees'.

Property Price Predictions -

Will prices go down and by how much?
We've all been here before - in fact it's all half the population ever seems to talk about. Lets face it we are a nation of property investors due to the lack of space on this tiny island.

Ive found this interesting article on the Market Oracle - that brings in a fairly clear argument for its predictions. It predicts a 29% fall in property prices from the August 2007 peak.

That would bring me down to the point where I stopped buying ( because I thought prices had peeked) - but it worries me for the new property investors who have only started investing in the last couple of years. On this article the wise move might be to off load now before it gets much worse.

But first theres the small issue of finding a buyer.

"Are any buyers out there?"

What advice would you give to other property investors?

The Editor sets out his stall

Hi I'm Chris Horne the forty something Editor of the Property Hawk magazine.

I'm a landlord and property investor but these days my main focus is ensuring that Property Hawk magazine is kept full of useful and interesting news as well as the odd amusing anecdote about being a landlord and investing in UK residential property.

I'm not on here to write my own blog but more to highlight some of the really interesting things that emerge from our bloggers as well as point you our readers towards related topics within the main site.

Chris Horne
Editor
editor@propertyhawk.co.uk

BEE IN THE BONNET FLIES IN!

Specialising in buying houses and then letting them to student groups in the higher end of the market in a town of over 800 student lets is my focus. Learning the business from scratch, I purchased my first buy-to-let property for my daughter when she went to university.

I'm a hands on landlord and fully manage all my own properties. I'll give you tips on how you can do it and also how not to do it! I'll tell you about my letting experiences - some frustrating, some amazing and some just plain mundane.

As an experienced student landlord I've seen many groups of excellent students over the years, however I've also had my fair share of letting issues - burglaries, floods, non payment of rent, angry student parents, collapsed ceilings, university student welfare offices, broken and stained beds and so on. 

I like a challenge. I don't take security deposits, finding a legal way around this hassle has been interesting and I'll let you know how I get on. I've never paid to advertise. Whilst others let properties in the town for 10 or 11 months, I let my student houses for 12 months. 

Whether you're experienced or a novice, I'll address the issues and share my knowledge and hopefully challenge you to come up with some answers as well, for everyone's benefit.

Should Landlords Start Investing in Boats?

I have real concerns for new landlords about the meltdown in the btl mortgage market.

Im finding it incredibly difficult to refinance at the moment and are going to stick to my current deal even though its dropped off its discounted rate. Once Ive factored in remortgaging costs there arent any deals around that will make me any better off.

Those property investors who are highly geared or who have just entered the property market are going to find it difficult to keep their finances intact and are starting to look highly vunerable.

There are definately some stormy waters ahead for landlords.

This Guardian Article continues to spread gloom on the short term outlook for Buy to Let Property.

It just keeps raining and I cant see if this miserable weather is ever going to end.

Maybe we should take the biblical investment tip and invest in house boats to weather the storm.

Would an ark be classed as a HMOs?

Hawkeye - perspective on the buy-to-let property market.

Landlords and fellow residential property investors.

In the words of an old Queen song 'let me entertain you'. I may be too old to dance and I can't sing but my words will hopefully bring about the odd wry smile and make landlords just stop and think.

I'm a qualified surveyor and i've been developing property and investing in buy-to-let long before this rather tired phrase even came into existence.

Landlords will hopefully be able to draw on some of my past experience to generate some perspective on their own property investment decisions and in so doing make sense of a perplexing and dynamic market. All that glitters is not gold but equally even where there appears no hope, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

What I will bring to the blog is my unique perspective on property investment.

Hawkeye