The life of this Landlord

Now, I cannot completely say that this is representative of all landlords out there as I am fairly new to the game compared to some and fairly experienced compared to others.  Anyway, let me tell you a little about my week –

This last few weeks, I have been speaking with sellers, solicitors, mortgage brokers and more, trying to streamline the process of buying a few properties that I have managed to obtain at pretty good prices.

1. A 3 bed property that was on the market originally at 95k which I managed to negotiate down to 52k.  After a little work, it will rent for £550 at least unless I let it out by room which will increase the return received.  I am buying this with an investor.
2. A 3 bed property I am buying for 63k which will rent for £550pm again.
3. The leasehold flat I talked about in a previous post which I am now buying for £58k with an investor and will rent for £500
4. A house I am renting from another investor which I am about to start multi-letting

Now this post is really about the last property.

Some non-property people think of landlords as people with loads of money, taking advantage of their tenants by putting them in dodgy accommodation etc.  We all own Porsches and live the life of Riley built on the blood of other people.  I almost wish it was true :-).  The reality is however different at the moment, though I am working towards some parts of that dream…

This last week, I have been running from pillar to post trying to source furniture for this house, trying to get appliances, trying to keep the babies happy and trying to locate suitable paying tenants!

I had a lovely guy do most of the renovation for me which was great but then he had to go away and we hoped to get it all done on time but as can be the case in renovations, Things are never quite as they seem on first look.

One of the first things we discovered was that doors did not close, so fitting locks became great fun.  The fact that I was running around trying to source things meant I was unable to go to the house before he left on holiday so there were things I still wanted doing which had to be delayed.  He did manage to sort out the doors before he left.

I finally found everything and after calling around a few people to help me do some cleaning at the house – I decided to try to do it all myself as no one was available and I had three viewings on Friday.

So late on Thursday, after being let down by someone who offered to help me carry things up the stairs, tloml and I and a family friend (that I had to go pick up from Birmingham late that night), with the children all went to the house to try to make it look like a home for the new tenants.

Tloml went ahead and started putting up curtain rails and I came with bucket and mop and vacuum cleaner ready to clean away.  The children had their DVD Player to keep them occupied – ish!.  My family friend got to work helping me clean all the dust away.  For a place that had supposedly been lived in recently, there is an enormous amount of dust.  And this is the glamorous life of a property investor/landlord!

Anyway, we cleaned away and then when the curtain rails were up, the beds started to be moved upstairs.  And guess what?!!!

For the first time in my life, I realised that some staircases do not like single beds.  No matter which way the bed was turned, the men just could not get the beds upstairs!!!!!  And then, while trying to sort out the downstairs bedroom, the fireplace fell off.  Oh and did I mention that some of the carpets had been changed which resulted in one of the doors refusing to close again!!!!!  Aaargh!

So, I have ended up with three bed frames that could not get to their rooms and which the seller refused to take back.  I am now trying to dispose of them on Gumtree and I obtained another three  bed frames which came flat-packed :-D.  Tloml and I managed to get two of the rooms sorted in time for one viewing as I cancelled the rest as the house was just not as ready as I would like but thankfully, despite all that, the guy that did come and take a look put down a deposit.  So All’s well that ends well!  Woohoo!