I’m considering entering B2L for the first time. Rather than securing a B2L mortgage, can funds be released by re-mortgaging our own home and then purchasing the B2L property outright. Rents can then be used to pay the payments on the re-mortgaged home. I’m thinking of seeking a £200k re-mortgage from a £800k property which […]

Last night I finally got around to watching a TV programme I recorded on BBC a few weeks ago called “Meet The Landlords“. I was asked to appear on the programme when it was first considered but when I told the reporter what managing my portfolio entailed he wasn’t really that interested. Who could blame […]

I purchased a property about 18 months ago in the Falkirk District. It needed some refurbishment so was empty for a few months and I applied for and received a council tax exemption. Falkirk Council allow a 6 month tax exemption if property is unoccupied and unfurnished. However, I recently received a letter informing me […]

Being a first time landlord I was very naive in the rules around securing the deposit (yes, I am another one of those!).  I realised this after I tried to issue a s.21 notice seeking possession, being advised that I had to return the deposit in full. I realised this very late on and have […]

I have a house fully managed since 2006 through what is probably the largest agent operating in the UK.  I have not been at all impressed over these years but now I am really disappointed. On my last visit to the property I found that there has been an extension which looks more like a […]

I have 3 tenants who recently vacated a property. During their rental I only dealt with one of the tenants and we went through the check out procedure thoroughly so that he understood what was expected. On the day of the checkout the property was very unclean and the inventory clerk explained to the tenant […]

With growing and easier access to BTL mortgage funds comes the inevitable increase in borrowing, or as I like to call it … debt. BTL is the generic term, of course, for property investment, and for many people investing relies on having the right ‘debt’ in place to make those acquisitions and investments. Many investors […]

A flat that has been rented has developed an electrical problem. It keeps tripping intermittently. We have got an electrician to check out the fault but he has been unable to find the reason for this happening. The electrics tripped whilst he was checking them out but he wasn’t able to locate the fault. Are there […]

Our first flat was bought at auction and cost 33k, spent 7k on a refurb and was valued at 55k, it rents out for £335 pcm. I re-mortgaged for 30k and bought another one bedroom flat for 23k also at auction. It has just become vacant after 2 years during which time it rented for £350 […]

Last year I was in the process of identifying a good interest only re-mortgage – nothing out of the ordinary – just over 55% LTV; bags of rental cover, clean title and excellent credit score – By the time I was ready to move I had reached 70 years of age and all of a […]

Have you read the book recently published by Mary Latham yet? I’ve been talking to Mary about some of the topics in it this week and O – M – G this is going to ruffle feathers!!! This is certainly not your bog standard “how to buy to let” book by all accounts, but if […]

I have always found one particular lender on our panel hard to consider as they’ve always represented (in my mind) the last resort lender. As 99.99% of my clients are prime, own ‘standard’ properties, have sufficient income and mortgage amounts, this lender has never really been on our radar. However, the enquiries which I have […]

There have been some real horror stories of Rent to Rent hitting the press of late and that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it raises awareness of the strategy. However, what I’m looking for now are some success stories from property owners, investors and tenants. I know for sure that the “Guaranteed Rent” business […]

If you have been mis-sold an interest rate hedging product the most common route for redress will be through the FCA Review. Having your complaint reviewed as part of the FCA Review process is subject to an initial classification as a “non-sophisticated” customer. The ‘sophistication’ test is based solely on turnover, balance sheet and number […]

Our Landlords Calculator is a very easy to use, you don’t need to download any extra software whatsoever. It allows you to analyse returns and other important numbers relating to any residential investment property deal with ease. You may want to listen to this first Until now landlords and their professional advisers have struggled with traditional calculators […]

My Question is for a friend of mine… He is in Council rented accomodation, he has been there for 16 years, but the tenancy was originally made in his wife’s name only, he moved in, expecting his wife and son to follow shortly, but she never did when the fell out and eventually got divorced. […]

Leaving us a positive testimonial on Alexa.com might help us to engage with more landlords and associated professionals. We would really appreciate you support with this and it takes less than a minute. The link you will need is http://www.alexa.com/reviews/property118.com Alexa.com is owned by Amazon and monitors the popularity of websites worldwide. It’s a useful tool […]

Earlier this year we spotted an opportunity to set up a buy to let Estate Agency. However, due to lack of resource (time) very little has been done other than a dozen or so sales on behalf of developers, plus setting ourselves up with The Property Ombudsman Service and organising Professional Indemnity insurance to keep […]

I sold my first letting agency business in 2006. In just 12 years my wife and I had taken the business from a standing start to managing 1,000 properties. We have been investing into property for 30 years so property management makes sense to us, we knew what we wanted as landlords so we built […]

We are pleased to confirm that a sufficient number of pre-orders for rent2rent contract templates have now been received. For those who have already placed an order, the contracts, which will be professionally drafted by Justin Selig, will be sent to you on or before the end of this month (July 2013). Justin is a […]

Whenever I walk down a high street I can’t help looking through the window of the local estate agents and letting agents. I stand there working out rental yields and often I get tempted to buy. Do you ever do that? The only reason I stopped buying a few years ago is that I had […]