Period buy to let

[vicky whitworth]

Hello,
As part of life's great changes I'm thinking about investing in a buy to let. Now I know one should buy a horrid modern place devoid of all humanity but I can't do that - I just can't. So knowing nothing of what I'm talking about I'm thinking about this... http://gth.reapit.com/gthrpsdets/CHA130015.PDF
Good idea or total c**p?
Any body an expert on period buy to let in rural locations?
Thanks, Vicky

 

[LadyArowana]

Very pretty property. If you are buying to let then it's worth doing the homework first though ( there is a reason many buy to lets are horrid modern boxes! ). Investigate the local rentals market and find out what sort of return you are likely to get for the money. Would you be managing this yourself or engaging an agent?
Typical agency fees run 10 - 12.5% of monthly rent or they charge a fee for finding a tenant/ getting references etc etc.
Landlords property insurance may be more expensive for a period property than for a box of the same cost, woodburners can also increase that in a rented property.
Looks like it didn't have gas, so no annual fee for a gas safe cert, which is a good thing.
Consider whether it's worth putting in some minimal furniture and renting as a furnished unit ( note there are regs about fire safe soft furnishings like sofas etc ).
From the pictures it looks like there could be a damp problem in the corner of the kitchen and also in the living room, this could be an issue if you are trying to rent it.


Some tenants can be complete and utter pains in the backside.

 

[Carol]

I went for a modern box option buy-to-let in a local spa city when I was widowed eighteen months ago and although it is a great investment it is not worry free! Boiler has packed up twice and good tenants are not so easy to find. But would be concerned at buying something older, although yours looks 'done up' ( and quite sweet!) knowing the 'pains and pleasures of period property'! Could you manage it yourself and save on letting agents?

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thank you both for those thoughts. The property is local to me so I could manage it myself. I know the cottage and the previous tenants so I know about it's 'little problems'. To be blunt the current owner doesn't have the cash to improve his properties so he'll stick in a new kitchen so it looks good on the surface but the water basically runs through this place. He owns the whole run of the cottages which is why they are all estate blue.

 

[DJH]

We still keep a property in England not a million miles from where you are Vicky. We bought it as my pension policy before we sold our main residence and moved over here. We had agents run it for us and, although not entirely their fault as after all we have to agree with the details of the people who rented the house but little did we know that the couple, two women, were going to appear on the front pages of a national newspaper in relation to the pastime they and others got up to!! We were eventually able to give them notice because they kept guinea pigs in industrial size pens in both the kitchen and utility rooms contrary to the lease they had signed which stipulated no animals.

Other tenants overlooked the fact that the rent was to be paid monthly and complained incessantly about lack of car parking spaces, the cost of heating water using off peak electricity. The list goes on but eventually we found the perfect tenants, my grandaughter and her husband along with their two little girls. I've had to put in new windows for her and now she would like a conservatory and an attic room and this and that....

Do they still make clotted cream near you Vicky? I've serviced their steam boilers in the past... They don't have clotted cream here in Ireland and it's rally the only thing I miss

Doug

 

[vicky whitworth]

Doug, thanks for the salacious gossip. Were they supplying guinea pig to the supermarkets for burgers?
Haven't heard about any clotted cream making locally. Dodgy cider making goes on everywhere. Pubs up for sale in the village if anyone's interested in taking it on. Don't want to lose it.
My thoughts were about buy to let as a pension plan but I'm not sure there is much money to made and the size of my pension hole is vast.

 

[DJH]

Sorry Vicky. I'm getting Chardstock mixed up with another village and I didn't work on the church there.. old age doesn't come on it's own I'm afraid.. :roll: That's a thought about the guinea pigs though.

Doug

 

[markm]

We have new and old buy to let properties. We would never buy or let out a property that we would not live in ourselves. Keeping on top of and anticipating problems is the key to happy tenants and keeping the rent coming in. The place we are working on at the moment (old weavers cottage), we bought a year ago and there was rather more work then we thought. However, it will not go out until it is as good as we can make it. We make the properties as cheap to run as we can and build up a relationship with tenants. We do it all ourselves and that is the best way. Charge fair rents and do not put them up until change of tenant. (some of ours are on rents payable 7 yrs ago). Many landlords are too gready, think long term.

We have found that tenants love old properties and they rent out well. They also stay longer. We even have tenants waiting for our current project, which should be done by beginging of May (Allowing us to complete the repointing ).

We are not far from you, Frome and Dilton Marsh (Somerset/Wilts).

Mark M.

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thank you Mark. That's very reassuring.
Today hasn't gone too well. I fell out running - was training for a half marathon - and have broken my ankle. 4-6 weeks in plaster to look forward to.
V

 

[worms]

Ouch! Hope it's not too painful and that you are back out running soon - I guess the half marathon is off the agenda!

 

[vicky whitworth]

Thank you Worms. The plan was for the Isle of Harris half in July but that's not going to happen now. Very frustrating, but a good excuse for not being able to do anything round the house.

 

[Zebra]

have broken my ankle. 4-6 weeks in plaster to look forward to

Oh no!

 

[robgil]

Thank you both for those thoughts. The property is local to me so I could manage it myself. I know the cottage and the previous tenants so I know about it's 'little problems'. To be blunt the current owner doesn't have the cash to improve his properties so he'll stick in a new kitchen so it looks good on the surface but the water basically runs through this place. He owns the whole run of the cottages which is why they are all estate blue.

People like this should not be allowed to rent out houses.

 

[robgil]

Thank you both for those thoughts. The property is local to me so I could manage it myself. I know the cottage and the previous tenants so I know about it's 'little problems'. To be blunt the current owner doesn't have the cash to improve his properties so he'll stick in a new kitchen so it looks good on the surface but the water basically runs through this place. He owns the whole run of the cottages which is why they are all estate blue.

People like this should not be allowed to rent out houses.

Edit - sorry not you Vicky.

 

[vicky whitworth]

You should see the state of his own property though Robgil. If I won the lottery... It's an untouched, neglected, period property lovers dream. He basically lives in one room, the rest is quietly crumbling. Sadly while he's very wealthy all the money is in property and land so he has cash flow issues big time - he's always said he wouldn't start to sell bits of the estate but here's one of the cottages going on the market, and a few years ago he sold two plots of land which are now under development so that we can have 10 delightful mock-old 'cottages (£599,999) crammed onto a site so they have no gardens and blighting the listed buildings in the village centre - which is a conservation village. But don't get me started...

 

[GhostyDog]

OP, I wouldn't buy a property as a buy to let that you can get emotionally invested in, we bought our current home but kept our previous home as a rental property, the previous tenant was not sympathetic with the building, he changed carpets without telling us after nearly burning the house down by using the inglenook fireplace with a guard too small then continued to use the same guard and burnt the new carpet he had fitted.

He left the property in November, but didn't tell us until February, we took possession of the house in a damp, smelly, dirty state with meters where there was once billed service supplies (another thing he didn't inform us of) stained carpets from leaking radiators, marked walls, the list goes on.

Now, if this were a scrappy property bought specifically for rental we wouldn't have been bothered, but we lived and loved in this house and it was emotionally distressing to see it in such a state.

My advice, is if you want to buy a rental property see it purely as a business, do the least you gave to to keep it habitable to maximise your profit. If you cannot do that then you will lose in the long term.

Carpets, decor, etc. should all be good enough for habitation but no more. You also cannot assume that a renter will have the same standard of living as yourself, my renter put his child in a spare bedroom with damp and mould growing in the window carcasses, when queried about the damp he said he never even noticed it...

I hope this helps in some way.

Sean

 

[DJH]

Our letting agent once told us the three c's... cooker, carpet, curtains nothing else.

Doug