Becoming a landlord. How bad can it be

[oinkety]

We’ve had to move for work reasons. House refuses to sell so need to let it out.
Really not keen on becoming landlords but it is what it is.
How bad is it going to be? I think I’m just massively panicking about the whole situation now.

Slightly on a tangent-it sounds like a 3-bed with a small garden? Why don't you advertise it as such and potentially let it out to a family?

Do look into capital gains if you plan to rent it out for a few years +.

And are you really sure the price that the house has been on is a realistic one? 6 months is an an usually long time to sit on the market unless the price is still too high.

@JoJoSM2 feel there’s less costs involved with two professionals working long hours outside the home? More costs involved with dc? Not a reflection of my own life at all

Hi OP. Is the property's EPC certificate E or above?

@JoJoSM2 yes I’ve dropped it £100k now and no visits since. That’s 15% price drop so I think it’s reasonable to have expected someone round. Also had an independent valuation done on the property to see the ‘quick sale’ price on it and that is what we now have it up for. Have also told sales agency can drop further but don’t want to drop so low can’t afford to buy anywhere anyway.

We bought a house to rent out with inheritance. It was run down but in a good rental area. We did it up as if we would live in it.
I used open rent to advertise and put it with them on a Thursday.
There was 8 people interested by the evening and the first couple who came to view wanted it.
They were a lovely young couple and I took to them straight away. They paid the deposit to open rent that evening and moved in on the Sunday.
Been there a year, have had the rent every month, I am managing it myself.
Only had one repair to do, the boiler, and they were very apologetic about ringing us!!
Sorted it out the next day.
Had no problems at all, we are looking at saving for another property.

I've been a landlord for 3 years with no problems. Use an agency and they'll advise on insurances etc.

I also get 6 months in advance. They also have extremely strict referencing and often have insurance for non-payment and eviction

It's all been very straightforward.

Where are you in the UK, OP?

It's different in England from Scotland & Wales.

I've been a semi-accidental LL for 15 years & only had 1 "bad" tenant (fake references, left place dirty).

Definitely use an agency if you are new to it; check out reviews on Allagents. I use a small agency as I find it a better, more personal service.

Oh thanks I’m in England.

Your house hasn't ''refused to sell'' (What a silly thing to say)

You're just too unrealistic in your expectations as to what it's worth.

TELL YOUR INSURER AND YOUR MORTGAGE COMPANY!!! I have a vague acquaintance whod rented out their property while going through divorce proceedings as they’re both moved out, it flooded but as far as her insurance company was concerned it wasn’t tenanted so they refused to pay out, as far as her mortgage company was concerned the house therefore wasn’t insured and she was in breach and they defaulted the mortgage and ended up declaring herself bankrupt. She and her husband worked in insolvency where you can’t be bankrupt so they lost their jobs. So that’s how bad it can be.

Get a really good management agency, a good one is worth the 10%.
Read up on the new laws coming in around no-fault eviction, I’m not sure where these are up to but if they come in there’s a real chance you won’t be able to get rid of your tenant.

I'm an accidental landlord. One tenant so far for nearly 3 years. Pays on time, pleasant to deal with.
Can't say I've found it a good way to make money though, house has needed various expensive things doing to it!
I'd recommend having a repair fund if you can afford it. If things like boilers need replacing you need to be able to do it promptly.

@jemihap it was the estate agent telling us the market is so bad at the moment why not let it out until next year and try again. We had no problems a few years ago.

I’m not sure the market is going to dramatically recover in a year. My brother has been on the market for 6 months, dropped by 80k and still no nibbles (in London). Not unrealistically priced either.

I’m a landlord but the agency handles everything and I pay them handsomely for the non-hassle.

@Whatthefoxgoingon oh that’s also worrying me too. I do want to buy a place not end up renting off the back of what we rent our place out for. We won’t be profiting at all. Everything will go on the new place rent and we will have to pay costs when they arise.

Can you buy somewhere new in the area you are moving to without selling this one?

It is the market at the moment. Our properties aren't selling either - bloody Brexit!

I think you're worrying/making it over complicated - Your letting agent will do everything for you. I do my own tax return which is a piece of piss but if you want the letting agent to do it then they will. It's all simple and easy as the agent handles everything.

@Updownleftrightstart no unfortunately not. This is our one and only owned house new area is ok to rent in but sale prices are higher than our are so even if sold we’d still have to take a new mortgage out.
We’re now thinking sell low and buy something cheaply that we can do up over the years maybe.
Anything but become a landlord

@Sweetpearose probably. I can do a tax return fine but it’s the list of stuff that needs doing before we’ve even put the house up for rent that’s bothering us.

@oinkety - many of the things you need to do to get the place ready for renting can be offset against this year's tax bill eg hard-wired alarms, agency fees, LL insurance, gas safety etc.

@MoreProseccoNow thank you I totally did not think of that. I am panicking.

My advice is to put it on for reasonable rent. We rent one flat out and I always check what have been let and what are sticking on Gumtree. Agents often try to push for high rents to get your business. One months void can cost more than any extra rent.

Thanks and thank you @PrawnoftheShed for your insight, we are not looking to profit just help aid paying for our place in the new area.

Haven't read whole thread but we did it for similar reasons and wasn't so bad. Had a few sleepless nights between tenants worrying about how we would cover the rent in the place we lived.
When we sold it we saved as much of the rental income for six months to cover the costs to sell when it was vacant. Worked well.
Clue yourself up on completing tax returns for property income and what counts as an allowable expense.
I'd do it again, but try and have a contingency fund of 3-6 months rent first...

If you need to sell this to buy elsewhere then I don't see the advantage of holding out. When the market improves you may get more but you'll probably be paying more too.
We became accidental landlords in the same situation only we were lucky we could buy somewhere else without selling our rented house. It has taken 6 years for the house prices to recover enough to sell it for what we paid. And despite us using an agent, the tenants have ruined everything so we are currently having to take huge amounts of annual leave and drive half way across the country to fix everything so we can sell it.
Long term it might work out but if you only want to rent for a year I wouldn't risk it.
Could you rent a couple of rooms out to lodgers in the meantime? You could spend as much time as you can there (weekends, any time you can work from home, annual leave etc) and at least you can be more picky about who moves in and you can keep an eye on it better, plus you can still try to sell it.
In the meantime are you brave enough to put a link to it? Maybe people can suggest small improvements like decor changes or picture updates that might help it sell more quickly.