Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Well for the past 5 months iv been non stop, i made the decision to put a plan into place that i had on my mind for ages. Property!!!! Myself and lins decided to take a huge gamble and do up some property, and then Rent it out for Future investment. Now with both of us working, my dad had alot of input in the plans for the flats, and did most of the work to keep the Expense down. I help out with all the Electrical side of things. As of last night i can safely say it was the best move iv made, we now have 2 flats, fully refurbed, fully furnished(No Tv), and brought upto a standard that my Dad and myself was happy about. This took a huge amount of time and money, to get this plan finished. The first flat went to an Irsh Guy, within 1 week of being completed, the 2nd flat is not even on the market yet, and we had our first veiwing last night, all im waiting on is good news today, which means our 2nd flat will also be gone. With both properties making money now, we put into place another plan if the first came off. With having the 1 flat rented and the other nearly completed at the time we made a decision and bought a 4 bedroom house, which we move into on the 30th Oct. we got this for a bargin and behold the 2nd plan fell into place. Thank God Im soooo glad this plan of mine has actullay paid off, at one point i thought we had bitten off more than we could chew?? But its worked and im glad to be done with bloody DIY for good i can now spend some time and money on the car, lins, and things we couldn't do due to lack of funds and time. well that it folks, Loui the Landlord has left the Building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Congrats. Property is still dodgy at the moment. When I did my first house up 6 years ago, I doubled my money, I doubt that's possible now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 Congrats. Property is still dodgy at the moment. When I did my first house up 6 years ago, I doubled my money, I doubt that's possible now though. cheers bud with the property the way is it bud, no one can afford the 10% - 15% deposit for buying, so renting is the way to go just now, in time i will sell them but for now, im keeping them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 I would love to do something like this, if we had the ability to pay for it whilst waiting we would probably go for it. /jealous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 cheers bud with the property the way is it bud, no one can afford the 10% - 15% deposit for buying, so renting is the way to go just now, in time i will sell them but for now, im keeping them. Indeed, renting is always viable. We've got tennants in one of ours that love it and say they never want to leave! lol... ca-ching! The most important thing is ensuring that in the worst case scenario you can cover the monthly mortgage payments on each of the properties if there are no tenants. With interest rates as low as they are however, you can easy cover a mortgage plus profit each month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snooze Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Property is way too risky for my liking. There's still the possibility of things coming crashing down when the real recession hits. Property was good when you didn't need a deposit - you could just invest all the bank's money! These days you have to drop big deposits for BtL property - IMO money that could usually be better invested elsewhere. That said - if the BoE carries on with its ridiculous quantative easing then the £ is going to collapse through the floor. The more mortgage you can take on the better if that happens! Edit: PS. congrats on the hard work, though - if you can turn a profit from doing the properties up, that's money well earned! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 These days you have to drop big deposits for BtL property Or get a normal one, wait on it a bit and inform them your status has changed and need to let. You obviously still need a minimum of 10% down, with a preferable 15% to get rentable rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozz Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Sometimes you just gotta take a chance, and usually property pays. About 5 years ago both my wife and I worked in IT, owned a nice small house. After a family bereavment we decided life was too short and we would look for an alternate lifestyle. We found a large property in west wales, no residential permission but for holiday lets (2x2bed flats and 5 bed cottage in one large barn conversion). We offered, they accepted, we put our house on the market but it took months to sell and the owners of our new property got very nervous. So, we decided to just go for it, put business case together, secured finance, bought the new property without selling ours, then gave up our IT jobs to move down there. Very luckily we sold our house within a few weeks of completing on the new one, but for about a month/6 weeks we owed 120k on our original home (sold for 230k) and owed 120k on our new homes (bought for 250K) and no jobs/income!!! We had 240k debt with no jobs/income, didn't sleep much that month and had no savings left at all. If the sale had fallen through on our house we could have lost the lot. Fast forward 5 years, we've converted the flats to a cottage, given up on the holidays we were running from them and gained residential permission, bought some land to go with it and are now considering selling current value 400k+ and only 80k mortgage left. Ironically, I'm back working in IT. When I look back I can't believe how stupid we were, but lucky. I also can't believe they lent us the money, very different times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snooze Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Good workaround. Round here, though, 15% would be at least £20k. That's money I'd rather spread out into stocks, precious metals and (if I'm feeling lucky!) soft commodities at the moment. The main problem with a property investment is that it's damn hard to get rid of quickly if things go pear-shaped. Ozz - great story and sounds like it worked out well for you. One of the big problems at the moment is there's an unrealistic number of property investment success stories (and poxy TV programs!!) because of the boom over the last 20 years. Good to see you recognising it as "taking a chance". Too many people these days see investing in property as a safe bet. Hope Geo has a similar success story to tell in another 5 years time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Sometimes you just gotta take a chance, and usually property pays. About 5 years ago both my wife and I worked in IT, owned a nice small house. After a family bereavment we decided life was too short and we would look for an alternate lifestyle. We found a large property in west wales, no residential permission but for holiday lets (2x2bed flats and 5 bed cottage in one large barn conversion). We offered, they accepted, we put our house on the market but it took months to sell and the owners of our new property got very nervous. So, we decided to just go for it, put business case together, secured finance, bought the new property without selling ours, then gave up our IT jobs to move down there. Very luckily we sold our house within a few weeks of completing on the new one, but for about a month/6 weeks we owed 120k on our original home (sold for 230k) and owed 120k on our new homes (bought for 250K) and no jobs/income!!! We had 240k debt with no jobs/income, didn't sleep much that month and had no savings left at all. If the sale had fallen through on our house we could have lost the lot. Fast forward 5 years, we've converted the flats to a cottage, given up on the holidays we were running from them and gained residential permission, bought some land to go with it and are now considering selling current value 400k+ and only 80k mortgage left. Ironically, I'm back working in IT. When I look back I can't believe how stupid we were, but lucky. I also can't believe they lent us the money, very different times! Brilliant Story Ozz! That was mental! and you're right about the loan situation, you've never get the same help from the banks howadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 with property value in Scoland no were near how mental it is in England, then if things go tits up, we can afford to run 3 properties at a push if the 2 flats were unoccupied, one of the properties mortage is what i prob spend on food for 3 weeks, we did think of this before we took it all on. With more and more people struggling to find any sort of deposit for a property, more people are looking to rent than ever, ''yes' things might go tits up, but hey yo, if you dont try it, 20 years time you'l be kicking yourself thinking why didnt we invest in my plan. P.s Ozz hope thats me in the near future, having the backing of a good Investment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Raven Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 I will say the student rental i have is the best thing i ever brought. I have had it 4 years, and its gone up in value due to the huge return dispite the rest of the house market falling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony tt Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Loui the landlord hehe pay the rent or your gettin butt fu##ed! Well done mate im happy it all worked out. The stress of that would tip me over the edge and thats not a good thing for me lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 Loui the landlord hehe pay the rent or your gettin butt fu##ed! Well done mate im happy it all worked out. The stress of that would tip me over the edge and thats not a good thing for me lol cheers bud, it was pretty stressfull i didnt think it would be, but Oh my god it was. So balls to doing that again anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony tt Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 cheers bud, it was pretty stressfull i didnt think it would be, but Oh my god it was. So balls to doing that again anytime soon. Hard works done now big yin so time to relax mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 Hard works done now big yin so time to relax mate. Sure is big man, with an outing round knockhill this weekend You moved up here yet??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Fantastic... until till the tenants turn nasty! So a quick word of word of warning & don't put the DIY bag away yet! Good investment though Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted October 7, 2010 Author Share Posted October 7, 2010 Fantastic... until till the tenants turn nasty! So a quick word of word of warning & don't put the DIY bag away yet! Good investment though Geo Yeah your right dude, that IanW fella was a nightmare in the flat, walking around bollock naked, bring men back at god awful hours, drinking buckie, worst ever. Na dude i hope not, but you can never be certain i suppose, DIY is put away for a good while, iv got a BAT here with your eviction notice stapled to it, ''Have a Nice Day'' incase the worst happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozz Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Fantastic... until till the tenants turn nasty! So a quick word of word of warning & don't put the DIY bag away yet! Good investment though Geo You are right there, after we did holidays we tried rental, 2 old sisters. One died, the other moved into sheltered accommodation after about 2 years with us. We've had to gut the place, it was disgusting, new carpets throughout, painting, even the remote controls were mouldy. The smell... And that was in the other half of our house! They used to lie as well, best excuse for not paying rent was the bank had burnt down but it would be open next week. Luckily we transferred the bills to their name when they started messing us around, they left a year later and it transpired they hadn't paid a penny to anyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony tt Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 Sure is big man, with an outing round knockhill this weekend You moved up here yet??? Not yet bud still waiting on my transfer gettin sorted but if nothing gets done soon ill just switch companies mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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