‘I never raised my rent’: Accidental landlord reveals tips for real estate investors
Becky and design manager Joe, 37, paid an upfront fee of £203 to the platform to advertise the flat, manage deposits, create contracts and execute. Tenant referenceAlso make sure the couple complies with all the required regulations. They pay £5 a month for the company to collect the rent, but since Becky and Joe moved in they have managed the property themselves using WhatsApp to communicate with the tenants who live in the property. I’m here.
Joe checks in with the tenants monthly to see if the property is in good shape or if they have what they need.
Becky, who lives more than three hours away, finds it important to build strong ties with merchants based near her apartment so she can call on local help if something goes wrong. say.
Despite saving money by managing the property themselves, Becky, the owner of Story by Design, says she made a costly mistake.
“I didn’t know I had to pay taxes on my rental income, so I actually took a loss,” she says. “At first, I thought we were going to break even, but no wonder accountants told me that I had to pay taxes, too.”
In one year, Becky and Joe collect £23,240 in rent and pay the mortgage lender £25,836. The mortgage lender agrees to rent out the house without converting it into a buy-to-rent mortgage under a “content to let” agreement. However, the couple faces a tax claim of £4,620 for property they failed to take into account.
Accountant Camilla Taylor of RSM UK said: If your taxable rental income exceeds £2,000 a year, it may affect your student loan calculation. A landlord must register for self-assessment by her October 5th following the end of the tax year in which she received rental income. “
The couple hope to sell it this summer after the cladding is replaced.
However, as Emma Parsons Reed discovered, not all landlord relationships are smooth sailing.
“My dream tenant installed solar panels”
But as Emma Parsons-Reid (right) discovered, not all landlord-tenant relationships are smooth sailing. Emma, 55, became her landlord after moving in with her husband, Kevin, 61, who retired from her chemical engineer 16 years earlier. To maintain her independence, Emma has decided to rent her two-bedroom house.
In 2017, a former civil servant living in Cardiff found herself juggling a lease. “The market was sluggish and my house was old, so I had a hard time accepting it,” she says. I rented out the house without doing anything.”
Tenant deals go awry and Emma decides the best course of action is to start over and use a real estate agent next time. Emma has a dream tenant. She paid the agent her £600 to find, scrutinize and draw up her contract. Emma says this is money well spent.
Living just a mile away and managing the property herself, she says being a landlord can be “nerving” at times. But her freedom to retire at age 48 gave her the freedom to spend more time with her daughter Hannah, 32, and her five grandchildren. increase.
Emma maintains a small mortgage of £8 a month to keep her credit score up and charges £725 a month in rent, even though the market rent is £900.
“If you have to increase your rent, work with them to make an affordable arrangement,” she advises.
Emma’s tenant receives a Universal Credit top-up on her income. This benefit allows tenants to apply for grants to improve the energy efficiency of their properties.With Emma’s support her tenant was able to claim solar panela new radiator and a boiler worth a total of £11,000, lowering our monthly bill.
Emma recommends joining a national or local support group. She is a member of her two Facebook groups. Advice for Welsh landlords and landlords and tenants.
“I never raised my rent”
Ashley Richie and her husband Michael first rented a three-bedroom terraced house five years ago. They had planned to sell the house and move into a new home they had built in the countryside of Coleraine on the north coast of Northern Ireland, but could not find a buyer.
