My landlord journey...

[p4cks]

Just starting a thread to document the trials and tribulations of being a brand-new buy-to-let (BTL) landlord in the Northeast of England. You might think I'm mad with the new regulations coming in but this was always my plan, having been very lucky during covid with some car purchases and sales. It culminated in me getting my dream car (Lamborghini Gallardo) but the plan was always to have that for 2 years and then move into property.

Once the car was sold I had a decent-ish starting pot of about £70K which would allow me to get up to three BTL properties with 75% LTV. It's not lost on me that these would be near-bottom of the market properties, and as such I'll have to be very careful with the tenants who I choose to rent to.

I set up a limited company and started looking.

The criteria was:
ground floor 2 bed flats (opens the market to mothers with pushchairs, people who cant manage stairs and also reduces the risk of someone using it as a weed-grow
long lease (cost)
not in the worst parts of town
£70K asking price maximum (cost)

And now I have two of these in my portfolio and will see how these get on before committing to a third.

Flat 1 (which will give me £4,500 annual profit):

Empty and needed new carpets and paint on the walls - £1,600, a garden tidy £200, a new back gate as the Police broke it when they raided the wrong property (still waiting to hear back from them) £90, new blinds all round £350. Oh and some electrical and gas certification - £200
It's been up for rent 4 weeks now, albeit over Christmas so not an ideal time to market but hey ho which means I've made a £220 mortgage payment on it. Had two viewings, first was not interested and the second was someone on the dole with a staffy so he was a no.

Flat 2:

Bought it with a sitting tenant, although they were paying way below the market rate for rent in that area. They are intending to move out at the weekend so I'll go and inspect it before getting it ready for the next tenant. This tenant has been lovely, and shows that you can be selective about tenants. Bonus with this property also, is that it was owned by a larger landlord company and they recently did a full rewire.

Flat 3:
?

I'm not sure if there'll be enough interest in the thread to keep it going, but we'll see.

[Simpo Two]

Into the Lions's Den!

I prefer lower risk investments though.

Like Venezuelan Crypto

[Luke.]

You'd make a better return on Trading212's interest rate. Seriously. And I say that as an ex landlord.

[Wacky Racer]

Good luck, Bookmarked.

[snuffy]

I love streetview, you can find anywhere !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Osborne+Ave,+S...

[Sheepshanks]

Maybe I've led a sheltered life but I don't recall ever seeing older purpose built flats like that, with the double front doors. Yet there's a whole street of them. Are they unusual?

[p4cks]

Aye it's not lost on me that it's a bit of a risk but, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And sheepshanks, these are called 'Tyneside Flats' and are very, very common in the northeast

[Blib]

Best of luck! I'll be following.

[Puzzles]

Good luck

[Peterpetrole]

I'm as boring and risk averse as they come, but even I would have kept the Gallardo instead.

[MonkeyBusiness]

One of your properties is right round the corner from my daughters student house.
You are in a prime student area and those houses should be snapped up straight away.

[Essarell]

Good luck, our B2L went on the market this week, a friend has one of his up just a few doors away, his tenants were s and trashed the place, we were extremely fortunate, didn’t make a lot of money but didn’t get any grief.

We’ve had ours nearly 20 years, I’d have loved to modernise it, a builder friend does turn key, give him the keys and you get a ready to move into place back but it’s just not worth the risk anymore, the government are siding with the feckless and using a wheel of (mis)fortune to determine tax policy so for that reason we are out.

No idea what we’ll do with the funds, first time in my life I’ve felt unaspirational, probably give the money to a good cause like BA or Cunard.

Good luck on your journey, hopefully your tenants / tenants string of transient partners will too high on weed to do any significant structural damage.

[Abc321]

Best of luck, following with interest.

A friend has a few properties rented out, all at this end of the market, shall we say, and says he has never had any issue with any tenants. But you do hear some horror stories on PH.

You have some cajonies on you, Sir. Fair play.

[snuffy]

MonkeyBusiness said:

One of your properties is right round the corner from my daughters student house.
You are in a prime student area and those houses should be snapped up straight away.

The second flat looks just like the flat I lived in when I was a student. Which wad indeed in the North East.

[davek_964]

p4cks said:

...and the second was someone on the dole with a staffy so he was a no.

In 6 months time, it will be very difficult to say "no" to somebody like him unless you have other offers you can accept.

[jonsp]

davek_964 said:

p4cks said:

...and the second was someone on the dole with a staffy so he was a no.

In 6 months time, it will be very difficult to say "no" to somebody like him unless you have other offers you can accept.

But if he's on the dole his rent will be paid by the government - obviously their credit's good. The issue is the dog and the guy's probably a flake so he'd move on, then you're back to square one.

Wouldn't it better to rent to a nice couple with kid(s) who'll likely stay longer?

[davek_964]

jonsp said:

davek_964 said:

p4cks said:

...and the second was someone on the dole with a staffy so he was a no.

In 6 months time, it will be very difficult to say "no" to somebody like him unless you have other offers you can accept.

But if he's on the dole his rent will be paid by the government - obviously their credit's good. The issue is the dog and the guy's probably a flake so he'd move on, then you're back to square one.

Wouldn't it better to rent to a nice couple with kid(s) who'll likely stay longer?

Of course it would.

But if you don't have an offer from a nice couple with kids at roughly the same time, you are in clear violation of the new rules (from May) - and you face hefty fines if he decides to take you to court.

[Blib]

jonsp said:

davek_964 said:

p4cks said:

...and the second was someone on the dole with a staffy so he was a no.

In 6 months time, it will be very difficult to say "no" to somebody like him unless you have other offers you can accept.

But if he's on the dole his rent will be paid by the government - obviously their credit's good. The issue is the dog and the guy's probably a flake so he'd move on, then you're back to square one.

Wouldn't it better to rent to a nice couple with kid(s) who'll likely stay longer?

In the 'olden days' the rent was paid by councils directly to the landlord.

Now, councils pay the tenant who may or may not pass the money on to the landlord.

Such a stupid decision.

Ask me how I know.

[p4cks]

I use an estate agent as a finder, and inclusive of that is a report giving the particulars of the potential renter. This one was on the dole, including PIP, had a staffy and was also being served a section 21 eviction notice from his previous landlord. I had his name, so a quick look on FB told me all I needed to know.

The legislation will be almost impossible to enforce.

[davek_964]

p4cks said:

The legislation will be almost impossible to enforce.

Maybe - if there is sufficient demand, and you receive a number of offers in a short period of time. I assume it's considered reasonable that you don't have to immediately accept the first offer when the property has just gone on the market.

On the other hand, if you still don't have a tenancy agreement in place a month later, he'd have a pretty strong argument that you've breached the rules.