I am having a dilemma about landlords

[shovetheholly]

OK, please don't jump down my throat.

I've got some money to invest and longterm plans involve a move from a cheaper area of the country to a much more expensive one. DH was thinking of buying a small property in the area we're moving to, so that we have a bit of insulation against further price rises. The plan would be to rent it out.

However, I am really uncomfortable with the idea. I know a lot of families are struggling with the housing crisis and that by owning two homes we would really be making things worse. I also feel like there's something wrong about profiting from people less lucky than ourselves (please forgive me, landlords, it's just a personal point of view, perhaps because my own experience of renting was so crap!). So I would want to do something to help the people renting, like maybe help them to build a deposit or something.

I realise this is probably stupid and that the thing is a contradiction in terms. Are there alternatives, like investing in social housing?

How about just pricing it at a fair market rent?

You're trying to mitigate a problem you will have financially in the near future and that's not a bad thing.

To be clear. I'm 'against' second homes but the solution to that is one I want the government to fix by building more houses, slowing the market down, making it not so financially advantageous to own a second home to the detriment of others.

None of that has anything to do with an individual trying very hard to not get priced out of an area they want to move to

YOU are not at fault.

renting out a property is profiting (at least you hope so, you can make a big loss if you get trouble for which you are not insured) from a human need.

no-one spits bile at those who make a profit from selling food. Or indeed from selling mortgages.

be a decent landlord, that's not that hard. But insure against the small number of tenants who won't care, in case you get one of those.

you have to set a fair market rent, as otherwise no-one will take it on.

who sold all the council houses, we ask? Who bought them?

I agree with both of you: housing is a very complicated problem!

I would love to be able to put my cash in something like a sort of shared ownership scheme, where I would buy the house and gradually transfer some of the equity to others. But I think this exists only in my head (I guess because of the complexities of selling such a house when we do need to release cash!)

I would never have considered it til now, but the reason we will need to move is to care for my DP who live in the area. They have had the same house their whole lives and could not move.

There's no shame in renting or in being a landlord. A lot of people rent their whole lives, and some of those by choice. A good landlord/tenant relationship can be a wonderful thing.

It's people who buy up masses of grotty flats and overcharge people to live in them that bother me. The same way anyone overcharging for a crap service does. Those people will always exist - but the more good alternatives there are, the less they'll be able to profit from it!

shove - I felt as you do. When my mother died I inherited enough money to buy a house. So, I moved out and the house I was living in at the time is now leased to a housing association who use it for tenants who would otherwise be on the Council's housing list.

The let house is not a bijou little residence but a very ordinary, modern house where my daughter and I lived after my divorce. I do not know where you are thinking of buying but you could contact the local council to see if there is a similar scheme there.

Even if there is not, you could, for the time being, buy a house in a council area with such a scheme and buy another in your preferred area later. Here the scheme is called Private Sector Leasing and I found out about it on the local authority website.

Hope this helps.

P.S. PM me if you would like further explanation

what shaska said.

to help you be a good landlord - get informed (it is your own business after all), protect yourself with knowledge and insurance. Fulfill all your legal obligations and what I see as the moral obligation, to provide a property that you yourself would live in.

don't get upset if it gets trashed though

Be a good landlord; charge a fair rent, maintain the property as a nice place to live and respond quickly to any problems. You could talk to a broker about finding a BTL mortgage which allows you to take DSS tenants if you want. You could also investigate entering into a contract with the local authority to let your property as social housing. This guarantees rent even if the property is vacant but be warned, it can be very difficult to evict a bad tenant if things go sour.

However, I don't think it's sensible to try and take one the national housing problem single-handedly . Set up a regular donation to Shelter or volunteer your time to the CAB and make a difference that way.

I am a good landlord (I hope). I don't see anything wrong in doing it as there are always going to be some people who want to rent, not buy. Admittedly, for a lot of young people they just don't have a choice anymore, but that's not an issue you will resolve by not being a landlord.

As a PP said, be a good landlord and remove the house from the grasp of a potential bad landlord.