Hi there. I've been offered a fab job in New Zealand and we are currently renovating our house in London to rent out for at least the first two years we are there (after this we will weigh up if we want to stay there or return home).
What advice would you give to a first time landlord? We are thinking that we will need a letting agent to handle the day to day stuff, since we won't be much use so far away in a completely different time zone. How do you go about choosing a good one? From my years of experience of renting, our best letting agent was a small independent one that always responded quickly to any problems.
What's the best way to approach switching mortgages? One of my friends who has experience of being a landlord advised me to not tell my provider and to continue on a regular mortgage. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this - would it invalidate any landlord insurance? I understand an interest only mortgage is the usual way to go about this. Is there any value of continuing to pay off the capital of our mortgage too or letting the surplus rent accrue in a savings account? I haven't yet got my head around the tax implications.
On the topic of insurance, is it worth insuring our appliances? Some of them are reasonably new and Ao.com have been phoning me to ask if we want to take out policies on the dishwasher and washer dryer we bought from there.
I would be grateful for advice on these issues- and any others I haven't thought about! We have a bit of time before we emigrate but what with the home renovations and trying to fulfill my current work commitments, I'm looking for shortcuts to the best knowledge and figured there was a wealth of wisdom to tap into here! TIA
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Advice for a first-time landlord
16 replies
NotN0wBernard · 02/12/2019 14:53
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