Buy to let mortgages

[Tampon]

Me and gf are planing on a few things, let me explain.

We are going traveling for a year or two in april. One year round asia and then back and either a small boat or round the med or a self built camper round Europe.

We have also have a little bit of money ( £60k+ ) and would desperately like to move to dorset on the coast ( her family are all there and I love it ).

Now we were looking at a few places at the weekend around the £150k mark for 2 beds and cheaper for 1 beds.

She will be getting the mortgage due to a poor credit rating on my behalf, the thing is with a largish deposit and borrowings of 90k ( three time her salary ) I am figuring this should be relatively easy.

What about a buy to let mortgage ? as we would be away for so long risking not being found out with a normal mortgage and renting it seems silly if we can get one.

Would 30-40% deposit be enough at the moment to get a buy to let mortgage ? is it worth it, or should we get a "normal" mortgage and then rent it anyway ?

We have never owned a property nor rent one out so we are looking for advise.

Reason we are wanting to buy now is when we come back it could take a while to get steady jobs again ( we are thinking of changing careers when we get back ) and getting the necessary salary slips of 6 months. With the 2 years traveling and then the time to get it mortgage sort and find a property when we get back would mean not being able to buy somewhere for at least three years, which we don;t like the thought of.

Have thought about just leaving the money in a saving account but family are pushing for us to get something down here and are hinting they would chip in to help as well.

My head is spinning at the moment.

[fatboy b]

Depends on the lender. When I met the O/H, both had properties. I sold mine, moved in with her for a few months then we bought a house and rented hers. Her lender (Virgin) said it would be OK to continue the exsting arrangement (% rate), but let the property out (for a year). We ended up doing it for a bit more than a year with no issue, then sold it.

[JQ]

Something you may also want to consider is : You find your dream home now, rent it out and then you return home in 2 years time and the tenants have wrecked the place. Tenants generally don't look after properties - they won't clear your gutters, paint your windowsills, cut your grass, weed the drive.

I'd wait until you return. Alot can change in the property market between now and then. You never no values you may drop and you can get a bigger house when you return.

[UpTheIron]

JQ said:

Something you may also want to consider is : You find your dream home now, rent it out and then you return home in 2 years time and the tenants have wrecked the place. Tenants generally don't look after properties - they won't clear your gutters, paint your windowsills, cut your grass, weed the drive.

Don't agree with all of this, some tenants are great and you'll get your dream home back in a couple of years with some of the mortgage paid. However there is a risk that you will get the tenant from hell.

JQ said:

I'd wait until you return. Alot can change in the property market between now and then. You never no values you may drop and you can get a bigger house when you return.

I do agree with this.

[Engineer1]

I'd wait till you get back, with a deposit that large you should be fine even if property prices rise as you may well be able to get a joint or even 3.5X income, assuming your GF gets pay rises.

[Vespula]

I have been up and down the property ladder a couple of times now, twice in my life I rented and I was a model tenant. I once went to view a house to rent and the landlord (he was too cheap to employ an agent) told me, "There is a lawnmower in the shed, but of course renters never cut the grass." He then went on to tell me that the place had a garage but I wouldn't be able to use it because it was filled with his crap.

I didn't take the place. I decided to only rent through a proper agent who asks for references and carries out quarterly checks on the property.

It makes me laugh how buy-to-letters have such a low opinion of the people they expect to pay their mortgages and provide an income for them.

Pay for a decent agent.

[UpTheIron]

Vespula said:

It makes me laugh how buy-to-letters have such a low opinion of the people they expect to pay their mortgages and provide an income for them.

Not all of us do. I expect my tenants to be decent people. Most of them are. I take precautions and check them out, and most check me out too.

Vespula said:

Pay for a decent agent.

The chances are it won't help much, they are just chasing their commission so will get anyone in they can. By all means use an agent, but don't expect them to make all the problems disappear, just some of them, and some of the profit.

[Tampon]

Engineer1 said:

I'd wait till you get back, with a deposit that large you should be fine even if property prices rise as you may well be able to get a joint or even 3.5X income, assuming your GF gets pay rises.

We aren't sure of our income when we get back, she won;t have any pay rises as she won;t be working for 2 years ( hopefully ) we know the figures now, and they work, when we get back prices might have gone up and we might not be able to get hold of a mortgage as easily, this way we know exactly whats going on.

It is not being viewed as a investment, but as a home.

[Tampon]

JQ said:

Something you may also want to consider is : You find your dream home now, rent it out and then you return home in 2 years time and the tenants have wrecked the place. Tenants generally don't look after properties - they won't clear your gutters, paint your windowsills, cut your grass, weed the drive.

I'd wait until you return. Alot can change in the property market between now and then. You never no values you may drop and you can get a bigger house when you return.

The place we will buy will be run down anyway, no way a I paying for someones to spruce up a place. It will be bought with a future design in mind but with the ability to do it up to a reasonable standard for rental now.

If it is trash when we get back it will be doubtful it will be worse than the 80's extended houses that have been cut up into flat amd have had either 2 too many people living in them or very old people in them, we have been seeing, so we would just be starting where we bought the place anyway. Would want to knock down walls, put in new kitchen bathroom carpets for us anyway.

Edited by Tampon on Thursday 24th September 23:46