Guest Blog – Landlords … more despised than Katie Price?

Guest Blog – Landlords … more despised than Katie Price?

23:41 PM, 2nd February 2011, About 13 years ago

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This article was written by Vanessa Warwick @4_Walls on The Property Tribes forumVanessa is ranked by Twitter as the 11th most trusted Tweeter in UK Property.  I’ve been investing since 1989 and I still learn something new on the Property Tribes forum pretty much every day.  I am a raving fan!  Thank you so much Vanessa for allowing me to share your work here.

VANESSA’S BLOG

“I have been looking at some other forums and comments on newspaper articles and I am shocked by the vitriol and spleen vented against Landlords.  Comments like “scum” and “greedy b**tards” are common – please excuse the language, these were the more decent names.

The thing is though, I think these people are missing a few vital points to their colandar argument.

First of all, someone has to own property – whether it be institutions, companies, individuals, or owner/occupiers.

Second of all, buy to let is simply a mortgage product that came into existence about 12 years ago, allowing the man on the street to create wealth through property, as opposed to the privileged and wealthy (as previously throughout history).  This product was open to everyone, yet only the minority decided to try and use it to shore up their pensions, improve their financial position etc.  Why does this make them bad?  I believe that the BLT product narrowed the gap between the “have’s” and the “have nots”. 

Prior to BTL, private individuals still bought property – but they paid cash or used commercial type mortgages.
So there have always been owners of property, and renters of property … or sometimes surfs or tenants if you go back further in history.

A friend of mine was a bus driver on a modest income and could not afford the deposit to buy his own home.  He managed to get two BTL properties which he held for three years.  He was then able to remortgage and pull out the deposit for his own property.  What is so heinious about trying to better your position in life?  This chap was far from wealthy.

Yes, some LL’s treat tenants badly, but all LL’s should not be tarred with the same brush just like all LL’s should not tar tenants with the same brush.

At the end of the day, LL’s are a service provider.  Just like you rent a taxi and the driver’s time, you rent a house and the LL gets rewarded for taking the risk of having a mortgage.  Why despise people who offer a service, just like any other business?

Do all the people that hate BTL LL’s live in rented accommodation and continue to wish for the demise of the “greedy scum”.  If their LL goes down, they will be out of a home!

Where is the logic in all of this?”


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