Is it worth doing a "buy to let" as an investment for our pension

I have properties in what is quite a deprived area. They are now being handled by an agent because of the stress involved in making sure rents are paid. I would sell but would lose too much at the moment, just waiting for prices to rise in that area.

Horror stories abound and as you are past retirement age this could be a very stressful thing to deal with, do you really want to? As others have said holiday letting may be the way to go although people definitely expect a home from home or better now and weekly turn rounds can be tiring. Surely your OH should be claiming any benefits to which he is entitled however complicated, far less hassle I should think. A good adviser will help with safe investments, a change of Government could make things more complicated.

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SillyNanny321, how awful to read your experience of the your previous landlord thinking she could enter your property without your permission. That is of course illegal. When one of my sons was at university and renting a student house, the set up being 3 renting in upstairs bedrooms and one in a downstairs lounge which had been turned into a 4th bedroom, the landlord, without any prior discussion, had put plans in place to extend the back of the property whilst the tenants were in situ. So one morning my son and friends were woken up to the noise of machinery in the back garden. The boy in the downstairs room was told he would have to sleep on a sofa in the front room because his room would be affected as the proposed extension was being adjoined to that area. The landlord, assumed because they were a bunch of kids, he could get away with this. The upshot was we, the parents contacted him and told him he was breaking the terms of the lease, that didn't stop him. In the end we had a solicitor friend who contacted the builders direct and told them they would be served with a court order if they didn't stop right away, as the landlord had no right to instruct them, what he was doing was completely illegal. At that point they cleared off and the work ceased. We also notified the university but the landlord was not on their panel of letting agents but they made a note of his name anyway.

Unfortunately there are some shit landlords out there. I would never dream of entering my property when it 's been tenanted, the only exception was when one of my sons and friend were renting and at that time I didn't have a managing agent acting for me. Other than that they make any necessary appointments to inspect through the tenant at a mutually convenient time.

I do wonder how much buy-to-let and second home ownership contributes to the problem of young people finding it difficult to buy their own homes.

I have 5 b2l houses. 3 are interest only and 2 repayment. I put 25% deposit. I manage them myself. Example 1 house mortgage £156 per month and I charge £575 (interest only) another (repayment) £456 mortgage I charge £670. You will get profit but also need to be aware of legislation on gas/elec certificates, deposit protection scheme, have work men you trust who will come quickly when needed and you must do your checks. We ask for passport to check not illegal immigrant, bank statement, employer ref stating employment is not temp/seasonal. My husband checks they have not been bankrupt and I meet them and see if I like them. I charge lower rents to get tenants I like. You will need to do self assessment. Keep all receipts. You need to be on the ball and prepared to do itinery and gas/electric readings in between tenants, b2l insurance. I try yo build relationship with tenant as less likely to trash house. I buy champagne if they get engaged, married and give £50 voucher if they have baby. Some of my tenants have stayed for 8 years and several 5 years or more. I only increase tent every 3rd year by small amount. I quite enjoy it but I would not use ahent as they just put first people to apply in and you lose control. I have not had a bad tenant yet but I am picky and charging lower than going rate means I get choice. Good luck if you do go ahead. If you need any specific help starting up you can ask me.

If you live in a ‘touristy’ area you might want to consider buying something as a holiday let rather than a long-term let. You can charge more pro rata, especially during the holiday season. My step sister has two holiday cottages in Scotland and finds them a very profitable source of income and without the hassle of trying to evict rent defaulters.

Often the same families or couples return year on year.

I'm surprised that, apart from Terribull, no-one has mentioned having to pay full Council tax from the day the property becomes empty.
My tenant had left 2 months previously without my knowledge owing £2500 rent and there was a gap of 2 more months before a new tenant, so over £500 of Council tax to pay. No concession was allowed even though the tenant, as a single person, was allowed 25% reduction, an empty property is liable for full Council tax.
My late father's property took over 2 years to sell because of several complications and Council tax was charged at 150% after the first year!

When I got divorced (about 15 years ago) part of the settlement was the marital home which, after the last of my children left home, became too big for me. It has been let to just two tenants in the past 12 years, the present family has been there for 3 years and wants to buy it but I am waiting for the market to rise. I manage it myself as it's only in the next county 45 miles away and it saves paying agents any money ?
I've had no problems BUT it can depend on the sort of tenant you get and the area in which you buy.
I myself have rented my home for 12 years on a yearly renewable agreement (which has simply rolled over) and I've never seen my landlady since I signed the original TA. She texts me before the gas engineer comes to do the annual checks and she has landlord insurance which covers stuff like dripping taps and many other expensive inconveniences, after I mentioned that it would be cheaper. One 12 minute call out for a dripping tap cost her £72 last year. As a landlord, you can make 4 separate claims per year EACH of up to £4,000. That's pretty good I reckon.
Remember to put the deposit into a registered scheme (otherwise you can face a HUGE fine) and DHSS payments are almost always paid to the tenant who are responsible for paying the rent. If they don't...it could be your private nightmare. Make sure they don't sub-let rooms either.
I do bi-monthly checks in person giving the required 24 hours (or more) notice and the more checks you do on a person (social media, CR file/electoral register and verifiable refs + guarantor) the better.
Good luck.

I like having property. But having said that you get nothing for nothing ...

Some tenants make your life a misery and pester and moan every day it sometimes seems...
You have to put up with it and get on and keep COLLECTING YOUR RENT!!!

Do you know anyone who would be your "on call DIY expert...
Are you prepared to cope and deal with direct hassle from tenant when you want a quiet afternoon....
Can you stay professional with your tenant... not become "friends"
If YES... go ahead and manage the property yourself...
Using a management service costs you a fair whack...

I use an estate agent to LET the property then I'm on my own...
I have a friend who is a capable jobbing worker who is happy to be our call out maintenance person...
I do get bored with our the tenant who seems to want to share her life with us...
but she pays her rent and that's what i want...

ps ensure your Terms and Conditions are good (via estate agent) ... include No Dogs... if necessary...

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We have been doing this for 10 years now and have only had one bad tenant in that time. We have always had an agent look after the property and we have insurance against non payment of rent, eviction costs and court costs in the event it becomes necessary. We see approximately .75 of the rental income after all our fees are paid and we put a third of that to one side in case of repairs etc. If all is well then it is a good saving method but if a big bill comes up then the money is available

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Look at www.ethex.org.uk/, none of the investment businesses can do as well and it is 'green'. Many council pension funds are turning to this as petroleum (BP, Shell, etc.) has become so dodgy.

It is nice to know that the money is also providing such benefits to the recipients.

Have a look at any local community funding projects too. They are often worthwhile and backed by reputable banks.

Good luck.

HARRIGRANit depends where you live /buy.The property market where we are is very healthy with houses selling in days for well over the asking price and rentals with a waiting list.I know things in London and the south are different but countrywide there will be pockets of activity where buying is still a good option.As I said before we have only had 2 tenants who gave us problems in 25 years .The vast majority have been longterm lets ...7 or 8 years in some cases and the property was left in the condition it was let in.Thats not to say we dont refurb after a tenant leaves ...we do ,because people wnat nice modern ,well decorated homes and we wouldn't rent a house to someone that we wouldn't live in ourselves.We dont use a letting agent and I think it helps that the tenant has OUR phone number if they have a problem and that we are quick to get things done.We always have someone waiting for a rental property

No I don't think property is a good investment at present. Where we have our second property there are a lot of horror stories emerging. There is a strictly no pets clause in the deeds and we are finding people renting and taking in animals that are noisy and damaging premises. We once even found a motor bike and furniture in the communal hallway.

I haven't read through all the comments, so someone else might have suggested this too. Have you considered running a holiday let instead. I would only suggest this if you live in a holiday area as we do. We bought a small 2 bedroomed chalet when I inherited some money from my father. It's in the village we live in and has been the best investment we have ever made. At the moment we look after it ourselves, including handling the bookings and doing the cleaning, washing etc. We are now in our late 60s and know we could always pay someone else to do this when we can't anymore. Or we might choose to sell it, knowing there is always a waiting list to buy these particular chalets.

When Corbyn and Macdonnell get in they intend to double or triple council tax. Coupled with crashing the economy and their desire to devalue property prices this might be worth taking into consideration - especially if you intend to vote for him.

We rent out our granny flat. The last tenant did not pay. We had to go to court and fianlly pay an additioanl sum for the baliff who eventually arrived on 20th Dec 2017. He watched over the tenant getting his stuff out into our car port. Tenant cmae in white van with friend and removed his stuff that night. However what he did not remove a week later we took to the tip. In retirement it is just not worth the stress of all this. If an agency can do it for you and you get a profit so be it. We are now renovating this flat new kitchen etc. All very expensive and all very stressful. This is not the first time we have had to take court proceedings. The last time the person was earning, chose to buy a new car, so could not pay the rent. Finally after a lot of hassle my husband got an attachment order. She paid out over 7 years in small sums of money.

We have had a one bedroom flat for rent but only for part of the year as the flat is by the sea and we use it ourselves in the summer. We bought the flat 8 years ago, have had an agent manage it and have had no problems whatsoever so far. (fingers crossed). The rent certainly boosts our income as well as giving us somewhere to go in the summer.

Oh no don't do it! I hate all tenants good or bad.

You are aging, the last thing you want to be doing in your retirement is worrying about water leaking through the ceiling, tenanats refusing to pay the rent etc etc. Believe me I am very experienced !!!!
Split your money up and put some in Ratesetter and some in Zopa, they are well respected peer to peer lending companies, seldom mentioned by financial advisors. They pay good rates of interest. Then you can invest what remains in Isas and then please spend the rest making your life comfortable. Life is not a rehearsal
The trouble with property is that it is not a liquid asset. You cannot easily access it.

We owned a rental flat for six years, operated via a management company as it was sixty miles away. We bought brand new in the hope of avoiding too much maintenance. I dont quite know where we went wrong, but the whole thing was a disaster. We made zero profit when we sold and achieved virtually zero income. The hassle factor was horrendous. Maybe we lacked experience. In retrospect it probably wasnt a good idea to buy new, nor to buy leasehold due to the ever escalating overheads. Having sold the flat we had just about enough resources to buy another, but I vowed never again and instead we gave 'the kids' money for deposits to buy property. My daughter assures me if we ever become homeless in our old age she will put us up - temporarily!

Being a tenant I would just like to point out that not all Landlords are well behaved etc. My present Landlord is a reasonable person & I try not to ask too much & discuss things with the agent every 3 months on the routine inspection. One Landlord we had thought she was entitled to walk into the property, letting herself in with a key, at 10.30 at night as we were preparing to go to bed. Screamed & banged on the door wanting to know why the door was locked. Needless to say we moved asap! I have lived in this property for 9 years & every year (now all through the year) have the fear that my Landlord will want to sell. The thought of packing up & moving is horrendous at my age so hope it does not happen. Best of luck with whatever you decide & I am sure you will be good Landlords!

I would, but let an agent manage it, I have had some awful tenants, so let the agent take the strain.

janeainsworth, my husband has money invested via various holdings but the returns vary, he takes money out from time to time, but he is of the opinion that there is less risk involved in not selling the property as things stand at the moment, particularly as we are lucky enough to have it fully let on an ongoing basis.