Accidental landlords?

[SarahMayF]

So like a lot of mums these days, I had a fairly good job, took some time off for the baby and then went back to work only to find I'd been replaced. Not long after, my aunt died and I inherited her home - rather than selling it in this kind of climate, I decided to hold onto it and run it as a landlord from home.

Does anyone else on here do this? Generally it's not too much work and you can just let the money roll in each month...as long as you put in the effort where it's needed, like in assessing potential renters and getting the right appliance insurance in place so you don't end up having to replace two washing machines at work (this has actually happened to me).

Anyone who is in the same position?

Sort of. We bought our first flat when it was just us and two kids but when 3 and 4 came along we had to buy a house. We bought at the height of the market and the flat is now valued £10,000 under what we paid for it so we would be in negative equity. We now let it out to another couple until the market picks up and we can sell it. We rent it out cheap so we don't really make anything off it but we just want the bills paid on it until the time comes when we can sell it.

Yeah well as long as you're not actually losing money on the place I don't think it really matters. There's always that risk though.