BTL Is Dead. That’s Exactly Why I’m Buying!

Interesting read, I’m not selling yet either.

Hopefully I survive lol

I have no choice, el tenant'o decided to use my rental gaff to produce/grow vast amounts off green. Police raid, much fixing and sobbing into my pillow accompanying tiny violins playing in the background.

I it time for me to depart with much pain in my rear.

What’s your view on investing in over 55s flats. At some point the renters get older, do they still rent?
Locally some over 55s flats take forever to sell. Will a reduction in service charge suddenly make them attractive? I’m curious as to where the over 55 renters live as they get older.

We are new to the BTL portfolio building and have secured our first flat. We are currently busy making connections and trying to open a bank account as we live in Ireland. We hope to contribute to a high quality rental market in the future and look forward to taking on advice form other experienced buyers like everyone in this area.

Ok I am also sticking with my BTL's. Now a market observation. When going up the property ladder do it right at the bottom of the market, if you can get that evaluation right. Reason the gap between the rungs is at a minimum at that point. If the market is high then the differences are real money that has to be earned. Now conveyancing, what does a solicitor/conveyancer really bring to the party. The answer, is insurance. Note that usually the actual work of conveyancing is done by the secretary in the outer office then the registered person signs on the line. I did my own. Conveyancing is a standard process and is available to download from the law society web page. This is so that everyone conforms to the same timeline/process. You can only do this if there is no mortgage involved for yourself, because mortgage lenders always insist on one. One advantage is that you then have a significant level of control over timing and some actions in the process such as searches. So for one of mine it was low lying so flood search the other was near a church so chancel search. Only pay for what you really need. Make sure you really look at the property you are buying and preferably take a builder mate to look with you then skip the building survey because in my experience they simply miss a lot of serious details which have usually been covered up by a recent paint job, or other things that are buried deep. If possible talk to neighbors because they will know any generic faults on an estate in the local area. In my own house the damp course turned out to be defective in places so the plaster falls off the wall above.Things like lead piping to the house can also be present but even searches cannot find this and when old they leak and are very costly to replace. Wiring can also often not be proven good, again costly rewire.
So as usual it really is your risk whoever you employ to minimise that. Finally good luck.

I'm also buying. I've read today that the Green Party want to get rid of all private landlords but frankly I don't see how they would EVER achieve that and where anyone who wasn't in a position to buy would live.

I don't think you're as mad as you say (or think) you are, well may be a tadge, OK a big tadge. Being well passed my x3 score & 10, I'm shuffling up the queue faster than I'd like or ever envisaged. Otherwise I would be buying right now but only the right property(ies) for the right money (that rule never changes along with a couple of others). Regardless whatever you buy (well almost, there's always an exception) all other rules aside, 'time/timing' is a key factor, even the biggest dump in the street will come good eventually. Having the cash and a better quality property just means you get to the end line quicker.

We've all heard the many refer to buying property (particularly BTL) being akin to gambling. Not wholly wrong but unlike (say) horse racing where there's a fixed start and end, they forget 'gambling' on property does not have a fixed end, the race doesn't end until you want it to.

I found out a long time ago, I was never going to earn enough money working for someone to bring my family up in a 'desirable' home, so I would buy the worst property in the best/good area and we lived in it whilst 'doing it up'. We did this more than x20 times which is OK provided you don't mind living in/on a building site for c50% of your life (plus other discomforts). But even during 'crashes' we always sold at a tax-free profit and went on each time to 'rinse and repeat'. Been personal mortgage free for nearly 40 years and largely financed our BTL's into the bargain.

So, all power to you (and everyone else) to hell with the bamboo, knotweed, naysayers and any other obstacle that comes the way of the motivated to having a well thought out plan and committed to make it happen. [This is where we stand, heads held high, Union Jack flapping behind us and someone plays the national anthem with maybe a tear in the eye of one or two!......Ignore the dog peeing up the flagpole].

Holly Jesus Christ Our Lord Savior, the last time I posted on a WordPress blog was in the stone ages, but here goes for old times sake huh.. (lets hope you don't trash my post to the spam folder though..?)

Firstly I love reading your posts, the humor goes a long way to carry the mundane crappy facts of reality that lie behind them. My mother used to say I had a dry sense of humor but yours, its as dry as... well lets not go there.

Anyhow just saying that yup I'm a total mug too..

..I purchased a property at auction last October, an absolute cracking deal (or so I thought) and I've just finished investing 150k into the thing along with refurb and fees etc.

After finishing up I only recently discovered the neighbors are absolute cavemen/cavewomen, so no wonder the auction looked like such a great deal - (what a F**** sucker!!)

Anyhow I'll probably try to rent it to some unsuspecting tenant before the warmer weather comes out because that's when the cavemen/cavewomen come out and inhabit the front gardens with barrels of stout and home made BBQ from aluminum garden waste burners..

FFS what the F I got into.

Although at least I wont be alone since it sounds like you're just as screwed as me pal. See you at the bar when it all goes t*ts up - All the best.

Good luck! I'm not selling either and I have always thought about snapping another property up, even dabble in a HMO (oh god can you imagine!). Very interesting read, will await more news!

Fingers crossed it all goes smooth with the completion, you must be tantalising close! Following the title and your intro paragraph, I expected you to be buying at least a small village and was rather disappointed to learn you are buying only one property. Not exactly doubling down, but I will forgive your artistic expression ;-)

We have decided to pack it up, slowly but surely, and spend our children's inheritance while the mind and body are still strong. Have you heard of Rebel Finance School? No, me neither up until December. Started watching it and discovered this whole new way of thinking and financial freedom. They don't believe in brick and mortar as an investment. The school is free and out there and The Donegans are not the only ones, apparently there is a whole movement on the other side of the pond called FIRE. I will not bore you, look it up and tell me what you think.

We have sounded a retreat after our lovely tenant on benefits begged us to kick her and numerous children out so she can get a bigger abode from the state. As we are particularly kind landlords and don't really want to get tangled up into all that once Right to Rent kicks in, we have decided to act. Once other tenants decide to leave, we will slowly pack it up, thank it for giving us fab returns and cushy way of living and wave it goodbye.

Worry not, I do not plan to stop reading your blog. It will provide me with hours of fun and laughter while I sip campari orange on my travels.

Always an interesting read thanks 😂
I have also just bought again being in same position as you? I bought decades ago so I have Mortgage free properties also.
As you say the days of bargains are gone but still some reasonably priced?

Stamp duty on buy to lets is just ridiculous now. For a standard 3 bed house the price in my area is 350,000 and therefore 25k in stamp duty. Makes BTL just impossible for us now. We’re not selling yet but we’re not purchasing anything new either. Unfortunately all this has a knock on effect for renters too. With less landlords then they’ll be less private rental properties.

Interesting, I have enough invested to provide a comfortable retirement, 5 small houses in the North west. Since everyone started selling up the extra tenant demand has helped hike rents, when I have a new tenant and go to nearly market rent its a great income boost. Last Feb my combined rental income was £3k per year less than this Feb from the same portfolio. Most unusual but 4 tenancy changes, the remaining house is £200+ below current market rent, if that tenant moves on its another decent pay rise. Hang in there guys.

Love your post as usual man. Your right about price drops, I'm in London and prices are the same as last year, no one is stupid enough to take a 10-20% hit because of the negative vibes. Yeah maybe if your looking at £5M plus pads in Chelsea, Kensington, and the likes but not in the real world. Professional landlords will not be selling.

Yet more insights (and entertainment) into why BTL isn’t as dead as so many pundits / bloggers etc (for which read: sales reps) would have us all believe. If everyone else is selling, maybe now is the time to buy? After all; If the Banks are still happy to lend on them, who are we mere mortals to disagree with them?

Maybe, just maybe, the questions raised about your owning so much property Mortgage free were because they wanted to check that you weren’t a ‘friend’ of a certain disgraced financier who’d also been given a ‘backhander’ for passing on sensitive information? Na. You weren’t a member of the Cabinet, just a regular guy, keeping your head down and trying to get with your life.

The one question I asked myself when I ‘purchased’ my BTL property from my siblings was: “Would I want / be happy to live there?’ The answer was; Yes. So I bought it from them. Move forward plenty of years, and following the death of one of my longtime tenants, and the decision of his widow to move to sheltered accommodation, now I’m moving in when it’s been ‘done up’. No Stamp duty to pay and no IHT either when I sell it in a couple of years as it’ll qualify as my primary residence by then. As for where I’m currently living? That’s been my primary residence for the past umpteen years, so no IHT to pay on the sale of that one either when it goes up for sale later this year after we move.

Keep up the great work Landlord. Your insights are appreciated

I'm one of those heading out the door, but for solid reasons, not simply the government singling out landlords for extra special tax treatment.

I've hit retirement, and although my rentals served me well, IHT planning is way easier with assets that are liquid, I can cash in shares or investment trusts in 3 days, versus months selling a property.

The process of exiting BTL was made way easier by having 2 different sets of tenants offer to buy the property they were already living in. I couldn't pass up the opportunity of a tenant paying rent, council tax, & utilities right up until transfer of ownership, coupled with no estate agent fees, (hell, just NO estate agents full stop), I even did my own conveyancing.

Ok, I know stock markets go down as well as up, but for the last 2 years my shares have grown c.20% per annum, and they don't e-mail me when I'm out of the UK, to say the hot water cylinder is leaking. Beats the return on my BTL's even factoring in capital appreciation on the properties, and I don't have to spend a week scrubbing bathrooms and kitchens after a tenant that doesn't know what the stuff they sell in the cleaning product isle of the supermarket is for!!

Good luck to all you folks hanging in there, it was a ride, but I'm off to the beach.

I bought a house with a big bed of 5 metre high bamboo. It looked great! A couple of months after, in the autumn, big stalks appearing overnight in the lawn, between bushes everywhere. It took 2 years to manually hack them and the root system out, destroying all the lawns in the process. It was like a solid wooden spiders web under your property, total nightmare.

Where you at with Bitcoin.

So plan is buy as residential avoiding punitive sdlt and rent current gaff … so you live in hovel… I’ve noticed an awful lot of flat in Manchester sales as abnb no residential. Promising. 15 returns … and what about licences to occupy not a letting … ideas fur next rants

Thanks for sharing so interesting too. Good Luck

You say my final paragraph, should you felt include the national anthem, so maybe have another butchers' .....Union Jack flapping behind us and someone plays the national anthem etc etc.

So now I'm, worried about your latest acquistion, you picked up on the bamboo but what else have you missed? Maybe it's your eyes, yeah go with that, when you get your head tested (common requiste for landlords) make sure they give your eyes the once over or have you settled on Blind Faith?

Good luck with it, nowt to worry about here.

What's your take on PBSA's and these fixed housing contracts offering 20 years guaranteed rents?
I know both are heavily £ loaded upfront because of the guarantees but can you trust them?
Be interested to hear from you & those that have experienced these 'investments'
Cheers and out.
Yasha

Dearest Landlord,

It sounds to me that Debbie Robb is referring to a company like McCarthy & Stone. They build and run blocks of flats which they sell (on a Leasehold basis) or, rent out to over 55s. - Other companies are in the same market too. They all make their bread-and-butter money from the Rent and Leasehold fees. They also make (way more) money from ‘buying back’ the flats from the family of a deceased person and, selling it on to the next person. What they buy it for it way less than what they sell it on for.

Surely this is not something which any individual Landlord would want to be involved in.

Keep those nuggets of information flowing, Landlord. Your insights are so insightful.

I'm not talking about McCarthy and Stone or any of the others. I'm referring to blocks of flats available to people over 55 to live in. An elderly relative is in a care home and her flat has become available for sale. Yes it is leasehold but the freeholder doesn't buy it back, there are service charges involved. I thought I'd heard that the cost of the service charges have to come down with the renters rights act and wondered if you had thought if this could be a new market for landlords. I already own 2 BTL properties.