Renting and renovating.

[Schoolmarm]

Ages ago I read an article in a magazine in which the lady doing her house up, and being photographed with all her work and beautiful furniture, was only the tenant.

It was a NT property. I was impressed that someone would do all that when she would never own the house.


Do we all own, (mortgaged or otherwise lol!) our properties on here? Or are some people doing just that?

 

[Penners]

Not bloody likely!

I'm not doing all this work for someone else to reap the benefits!

Being of the elderly persuasion, Mrs P and I are in the happy position of owning our house without a mortgage. I still count the day that we waved good-bye to the building society as one of the most memorable of my life!

 

[Schoolmarm]

Oooh am striving hard for that. Currently overpaying the mortgage by 300 quid a month.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock: Well done you, that's amazing. I long for the day too. We're currently running 2 mortgages, plus a monthly train fare that's equivalent to another - so I think the bank currently owns most of BC and the Highgate flat.

I also admire the lady who looked after the NT property. Was it this one you read about? Because I think Virginia's house was in "Country Living" in the last year. The tenant was talking about what a great privilege it was to look afer it, and how inspirational it was to live there, which of course it would be.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-monkshouse

 

[Schoolmarm]

Yes! Well found! That's the one.


You will reap the benefits of all that struggling with two mortgages. Sooner rather than later I hope.

 

[Flyfisher]

It was a NT property. I was impressed that someone would do all that when she would never own the house.

I suppose it depends on her personal circumstances. Perhaps she negotiated a reduced rent in return for maintaining the property. Perhaps renting was the only way in which she could live in such a nice house. It certainly embraces the concept of only 'passing through' a period property and keeping it safe for future generations.

Oooh am striving hard for that. Currently overpaying the mortgage . . .

Stick with it 'marm. That's exactly what we did to re-pay our mortgage as quickly as possible. It was tough at first (especially with the much higher interest rates than today) but as the repayments dropped we could overpay even more, which dropped the repayments even more so we could overpay even more - a virtuous circle that got rid of the mortgage in a little over half the normal term.

 

[Pford75]

We have a current account mortgage which enables us to do exactly this (all spare cash is automatically offset throughout the month against the mortgage). Interest is calculated daily and therefore, just after payday (or when I have received expenses for business trips, but not yet settled the Amex bill), I can have the benefit of several 000's basically overpaying the mortgage.

It's my aim to be mortage free by 40 :wink:

 

[Feltwell]

Myself & Mrs F own just over half of ours - not sure which half! I confess we did take advantage of the lower interest rates currently to add some extra borrowing on to do some building works, the garage principally. All calculated so we will be OK if the rates go up, although life would be less comfortable. We did own outright a previous house, which was rather nice - but then decided that we wanted a bigger house, so back to having a mortgage again....

Grand Designs in it's early days featured a couple in London who were rescuing a Georgian town house - it was a in a right state - anyone else remember it? The ground floor had been used relatively recently as a shop selling bearings and tranmission parts I think, the rest was derelict. The chap found a completely smashed original marble fireplace in the cellar and had it all glued back together again, the result was amazing, it looked like it had never been broken.

The point was, they didn't own the house - the local Council did - and I think they had some form of long term tenancy such that the house was theirs for as long as they wanted it, at a relatively modest rent.

 

[Wren]

I think the National Trust rental arrangement is a different ball game from your average rental where you could get chucked out at any moment because the landlord decides to flog the property, think the tenants are often in there for a longer timescale. And if you were a huge fan of the person who used to live there I can see why some people would do it for the love.

 

[Feltwell]

Ahh, here we go, by the power of Google and now showing if you live in Austrailia!

Tony and Sharon Relph have fallen in love with a completely dilapidated Georgian house. They hope to restore it to its former glory with very little money. Tony plans to do all of the work himself while Sharon will earn the money as a freelance make-up artist to pay for the scheme. It’s an unbelievably ambitious project, but both seem determined to keep as much of the original building in tact as possible, no matter what it takes. If they manage to restore the grade two listed house in Georgian style, the council will allow them to live there rent free for a period of their lease. For the time being the couple are also renting a small flat in Bermondsey. Sharon works long hours at London fashion week while Tony tries to fix the roof and make fundamental repairs. As work presses on, Tony reveals many period features. He peels back layers of wallpaper to find a historical scrapbook of finishes which is donated to The English National Heritage. He has the original marble fireplace totally restored despite having found it shattered into a hundred pieces, while some careful chemical peeling reveals a beautiful cornice in the living room which had been concealed by layers and layers of paint. Despite such wonderful architectural finds, work is often inhibited by dry rot and peeling plaster. In some parts the house is still the embodiment of decay and the roof is still not fixed. Tony only has three months left of the project to finish the four essential rooms so that he and Sharon can move in on schedule. Sharon chooses a colour scheme and wallpaper, while Tony scours markets and salvage yards for original fittings on a shoe string budget. But the house is far from the finishing stages. It’s a rush right up until the day Tony and Sharon move in. Only four rooms are completed, but the result is stunning. A modern interpretation of a period home with close attention to detail and sensitive repair. It’s been a true labour of love and the couple are keen to move in. As for the rest of the house - at least they have a long lease!

 

[Flyfisher]

(or when I have received expenses for business trips, but not yet settled the Amex bill),

Nice trick, although I avoided Amex because I found there were too many places around the world that wouldn't accept it whereas I never had my mastercard refused anywhere.

However, (cough) I have heard (cough) about someone (cough) who used their own personal credit card for all their business expenses as well as those of many other office staff and general office expenses, apart from doing wonders for their credit rating, the 1% cashback was a very handy tax-free £500-600-ish just after Christmas. Probably an urban myth though (cough). :lol:

No revenue people on here are there? :wink:

 

[Moo]

I still count the day that we waved good-bye to the building society as one of the most memorable of my life!

I'll second that. When the great day came I took my best girlfriend with me, and we celebrated with a slap-up lunch and a bottle of the best house red. And I made a solemn vow that I would never again pay anyone any interest. Ever.

 

[ilona73]

I too am mortgage free and at the age of 37 i think i am blessed.
In fact the day we became mortgage free was my 35th birthday!
this only happened by complete fluke though i had to admit we bought down in cornwall ten years ago and made a few smart moves from terrace straight to grade II small listed manor house in Redruth up to Herefordshire and back to lancashire from where my husband started. i have to admit there have been times when we have literally had our hands down the loo scrambling because 5p had dropped down it because we literally were paying off every penny we had on the mortgage and living rather sparsly while the children were really small, but in a place like Cornwall as long as you have the sun and sea i think its rather easy to achieve.
Now we have fallen in love rightly or wrongly with this beautiful home we are back to debating if to go back to raising a mortgage to get the work we want to do on the house done sooner. We keep wondering between the two. I think we have come to the conclusion that unless something major happens we want to avoid it if at all possible. We are lucky to be young and relatively stress free financially thought we don't take anything for granted.

 

[robgil]

mortgage free but far from debt free.
i currently rent while we work on the cottage and so far ive decorated top to bottom , changed carpets in two rooms for new, fitted two new radiators , repaired the shower , sinks taps and bath taps , fitted a new shower door , helped to fit a new oak floor , re-plumbed the living room radiator ,fitted a missing loft hatch, repaired a broken step on the stairs , landscaped the garden amongst a host of other bits and bobs. it took our land lord 11 months and two attempted car thefts just to make the outside security lights work so rather than wait the best part of a year for anything i have , unwillingly to do these maintenance jobs my self.
i will never , ever rent again.

 

[MdB]

We were about 6 months away from being morgage free when we started the work on the house. Unfortunately, the work hasn't been cheap and we will be paying it off for some time still. At least the mortgage has stopped increasing in size and is coming down a bit. I also consider my wife and myself to be very lucky compared to people trying to save a deposit at the moment. In Cornwall that is hard. Very hard.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

After a near skirmish two years ago we own 70% of our house, hence the tight budgeting for refurbs, entering the world of shabby chic and trying VERY hard to IGNORE the house that beckons.

The NT are very covert about their properties to rent and it is sheer luck if you manage to catch their advert in a National Paper. I gather that they have a waiting list, and fairly stringent requirements for references etc.

We did fill in several pages to rent a house from our local Stately Home, as they like long term Tenants, have some super houses on their estate, and are flexible about decor etc, but it was a case of waiting for a house to come up.

On the subject of buying and selling I have noticed that 2 or 3 properties in our Town have suddenly joined the ranks of 'To Be Auctioned' so something is going on.
maybe some of our local Property Developers are now feeling the pinch?

 

[Moo]

maybe some of our local Property Developers are now feeling the pinch?

Ooh, I do hope so!

 

[Flyfisher]

I also consider my wife and myself to be very lucky compared to people trying to save a deposit at the moment. In Cornwall that is hard. Very hard.

I think it's very hard anywhere at the moment. I've read that first-time buyers struggle to get anymore than a 75% mortgage, regardless of how much they can actually afford, so they end up paying expensive rent which means they can't easily save for a deposit. It's ironic that with mortgage rates at an all-time low and therefore highly affordable, the banks are requiring very high deposits.

When I think back to the first house we bought, we simply could not afford the same house today - and we lived with mortgage interest rates in the 7-12% region, with a short period of up to 15%! And, of course, there were no student loans to repay.

Tough times for young people these days.

 

[Feltwell]

I also consider my wife and myself to be very lucky compared to people trying to save a deposit at the moment. In Cornwall that is hard. Very hard.

I think it's very hard anywhere at the moment. I've read that first-time buyers struggle to get anymore than a 75% mortgage, regardless of how much they can actually afford, so they end up paying expensive rent which means they can't easily save for a deposit. It's ironic that with mortgage rates at an all-time low and therefore highly affordable, the banks are requiring very high deposits.

When I think back to the first house we bought, we simply could not afford the same house today - and we lived with mortgage interest rates in the 7-12% region, with a short period of up to 15%! And, of course, there were no student loans to repay.

Tough times for young people these days.

Very true. The banks seem to have become very risk-averse. When I left University, which was 15 years ago, the bank offered a fantastic deal on a 100% mortgage to new graduates. We grabbed it - and were so glad we did, as in the next 12 months house prices shot up so much that by the time we would have raised a 5% deposit for a 95% mortgage we wouldn't have been able to afford the house that we bought straight away on the 100% deal.

No chance of a 100% mortgage now, and with house prices being so high I can't see how anyone young saves the 25% deposit up, even for a modest flat.

 

[Moo]

The only way they can get round that one depends on two very big 'ifs':
If they have an income that can support a 100% mortgage (now and in the future when rates rise, as they inevitably will do) and
If the bank of mum and dad have enough equity in their home to borrow whatever's necessary to make up the required deposit.

On that assumption, they can pay the commercial lender and mum & dad - who won't be out of pocket.