In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting up with a few investors who were looking to enter the Walsall Property Market. There are so many approaches to investing in property and many ‘Guru’ type figures out there, all willing and able to help…all for a fee of course (some of the fees are eye watering)!! Having attended the course, some of the investors found my Blog and decided to take me up on the offer of a meeting over a cuppa. The common theme/ question that came up repeatedly was… “Do I buy with or without a mortgage”!?
For most Walsall people, a mortgage is the only way to buy a property. However, for some, especially Walsall homeowners who have paid off their mortgage or Walsall buy to let landlords, many have the choice to pay exclusively with cash. So, the real question is, should you use all your cash, or could a mortgage be a more suitable option?
A two bedroom semi detached house on the popular Reedswood estate in Walsall, WS2. The property has the perfect spec for rental.
There are two double bedrooms, one with fitted wardrobes. A modern kitchen with integrated oven/ hob, a family bathyroom with shower, a fair sized rear garden and off-road parking. It would be better appreciated by a viewing. The location is within easy reach of all the major road networks, services and other amenities lending easy access to Walsall town centre plus Reedswood Retail Park is just around the corner.
The Best Type of Walsall Property For Buy To Let is…
In today’s Walsall property market, the Walsall homeowners and Walsall landlords I talk to are always asking me which attributes and features are likely to make their property comparatively more attractive and which ones may detract from the price. Over time buyers’ and tenants’ wants and needs have changed.
The conformist way of categorising property in Britain is to look at the number of bedrooms rather than its size in square metres (square feet for those of you over 50!). My intuition tells me that homeowners and tenants are happy to pay for more space. It’s a little obvious, the more bedrooms a house or apartment has, the bigger the property is likely to be. Also, it’s not only the physical additional bedrooms, but those properties with additional bedrooms tend to have larger (and more) reception (living) rooms. However, if you think about it, this isn’t so surprising given that properties with more bedrooms would typically accommodate more people and therefore require larger reception rooms.
Brexit – What’s the ‘Deal’ with Walsall House Prices?
On a daily basis in Walsall I am talking to landlords and homeowners from all walks of life. Some are serial investors whilst others are accidental landlords or holding a small portfolio. I have always shared my thoughts on the local property market in Walsall and Brexit has come up a few times. Here are some links to past articles I have written on the topic:
I have been holding off giving my thoughts, as I did not want to add fuel to the stories being banded around in the national press. However, it’s obviously a topic that you as Walsall buy to let landlords and Walsall homeowners are interested in…
We may or may not as the case may be, have a potential deal in the offering, there is still an amount of ambiguity about the exit plan so I am going to try and give you what I consider a fair and impartial piece on what would happen in Walsall if a hard Brexit takes place in March 2019.
Walsall Landlords – Are you abiding by all the laws?
As the dust finally settles on the manic world of returning to work after a small hiatus, my thoughts return to the Blog. I have been asked on many occasions where I get inspiration from when writing such ‘out there’ and ‘interesting’ articles (which I take with compliment). The truth is a lot of my inspiration comes from talking to Walsall landlords and Walsall property owners.
Approximately a fortnight ago I was talking to a professional landlord who has an extensive portfolio up and down the country including a few in Walsall. We got talking about Housing Law and all the regulations/ legislation that landlords need to adhere to.
Did you know, there are over 125 individual acts of legislation that landlords must adhere to if they’re to remain on the right side of the law? Most landlords can’t name the specific acts but know and understand the basics, which are:
Tenancy deposit protection
Annual gas safety inspections
Energy Performance Certificates
Smoke alarms
Carbon monoxide alarms, and;
Serving of prescribed information
But, can you name the acts these rules come from? Can you name the recent legislation that demands an energy efficiency assessment be ordered before the property to marketed to let and a valid EPC in place within 7 days and where reasonable to do so, this can be extended up to 21 days. This is detailed in the act The Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015.
What about the relevant act that gives tenants the powers to report poor housing conditions? This is covered by Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It is this act that obliges tenants to keep the property in a “tenant-like manner”. Later acts gave tenants the right to complain without fear of revenge evictions making it a criminal offence to evict a tenant who requests “too many” repairs.
More legislation is working its way through parliament, being written into law, including the upcoming tenant fee ban, deposit cap and potential three-year minimum tenancies!!
Now, more than ever, landlords should give strong consideration to letting their property and managing it themselves. With more than 125.. and counting.. acts of legislation that landlords must be aware of and adhere to, it is no wonder that we regularly see Walsall landlords and Walsall Letting Agents regularly falling short of fulfilling their obligations.
Walsall Property Blog is Taking a Well Earned Rest!!
Keeping a blog updated can be an exhausting affair and the last time I took a break was August 2017 so, I’ve decided to take a well earned rest!! I hope to return to the blog towards the end of November 2018.
In the meantime, why not visit these property related websites to hone your property investor acumen?
http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/ – This is a great resource of useful information, especially on legal issues and Tessa Shepperson’s Blog has some golden nuggets…
www.periodproperty.co.uk is, as you can imagine, the place to find a thatched, listed or historic home, while www.propertyauctions.com lists dates and reserve prices on upcoming auctions plus tips for those bidding for the first time (great resource if you are seeking a fixer-upper.
This resource/ guide from Martin Lewis is extremely useful for first-time buyers www.moneysavingexpert.com.
Think you can’t afford to buy a property just yet? How about buying as a co-sharer with a friend or family? Visit www.ourproperty.co.uk to learn more about turning this possibility into reality.
Whilst I’m away if there is anything you would like me to pick up on/ discuss/ write about upon my return please send me an email or message me via any of my social media sites. Take care and wish me happy holidays…
Over the last couple of decades, the rise in the number buy to let properties in Walsall has been nothing short of extraordinary. Many in the “left leaning” press have spoken of a broken nation, the fact many youngsters are unable to buy their first home with the rise of a new cohort of younger renters, whom have been daubed ‘Generation Rent’ as landlords hoover up all the properties for their buy to let property empires. Government has been blamed in the past for giving landlords an unfair advantage with the tax system. It is also true many of my fellow professionals have done nothing to cover themselves in glory, with some suspect, if not on some rare occasions, downright dubious practices.
Yet has the vilification and unfair criticism of some Walsall landlords gone too far?
It was only a few weeks ago, I read an article in a newspaper of one landlord who had decided to sell their modest buy to let portfolio for a number of reasons, one of which being the new tax rules on buy to let that were introduced last year. The comments section of the newspaper and the associated social media posts were pure hate, and certainly not deserved.
Like all aspects in life, there are always good (and bad) landlords, just like there are good (and bad) letting agents… and so it should be said, there are good tenants and in equal measure bad tenants. Bad letting agents and bad landlords should be routed out… but not at the expense of the vast majority who are good and decent.
But are the 3,983 Walsall portfolio buy to let landlords at fault?
The Tories allowed people to buy their own Council house in the 1980’s, taking them out of the collective pot of social rented houses for future generations to rent them. Landlords have been vilified by many, as it has been suggested by some they have an unhealthy and ravenous materialism approach to make cash and profit at the expense of poor renters, unable to buy their first home. Yet, looking beyond the headline grabbing press, this is in fact ‘fake news’. There are seven reasons that have created the perfect storm for private renting to explode in the 2000’s.
An immaculately presented two bedroom Semi Detached house, Shropshire Close, Walsall, WS2. The asking price is for offers over £130k and currently marketed by Bairstow Eves (01922 321033). At a rental of at least £600.00 the yield will be 5.54%. Let’s check out why this is such a good investment. The full property details can be found here.
The location is ideal for an investment property being on a very popular estate for rentals and close enough to Walsall and Bloxwich town centres. There is easy access to major transport routes, school and other amenities.
The effect of the recent Interest Rate increase on Walsall Property…
I wrote my thoughts in an article in October 2016 after interest rates were slashed to 0.25%. You can read the full article by clicking here. Then in December 2017 I wrote a further article when it was announced interest rates would be increased to 0.50%. The full article can be found by clicking here. Existing clients and Blog reading friends alike have been asking me for my thoughts on the recently announced increase…the current average value of a property in Walsall currently stands at £181,994 so what will the recent increase in the base rates to 0.75% from 0.50% do to the local property market?
In many of my articles, I talk about what is happening to property values over the short term (i.e. the last 12 months or the last 5 years), but to answer this question we need to go back over 40 years, to 1975.
The average value of a Walsall property in 1975 was £8,285
However, since 1975, we have experienced in the UK, inflation of 807.5%.
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