Buy to let deal of the day - ugly duckling!

Not a looker this one but perfect for rental. Nothing to do to it, good size, two bed first floor flat close to the high street in Teddington. I like it - a lot. 

Only thing to find out is how much the ground rent is and factor it into your calculations.

     

Lets look at the figures.... on at £315k, you should get around £1200pcm for it giving you a yield of 4.6%. 

Better than you'd get sticking the money in the bank at the moment that's for sure! Here's the link....
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34247263


Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

What has the Help to Buy scheme done to the Teddington property market?

The Conservative’s and Liberal Democrats launched Help to Buy last year to give a boost to the housing market. The Help to Buy scheme involves the Government guaranteeing up to 15 per cent of a mortgage, acting as an indemnity for the banks and building societies who sign up (so far only three banks have done so). This means lenders can provide mortgages more confidently to borrowers with a 5 per cent deposit. It will apply to all types of properties, first-time buyers, home movers and re-mortgagers.

Quite interestingly, first timer buyers have had access to 95% mortgages since 2010 so I am not sure what it will do to the market, except highlight that property can be bought with a 5% deposit. Scheme or no scheme, Teddington continues to have a buoyant property market. Prices are rising, but not at the double digit level that was experienced in the early to mid 2000’s. If the scheme enables those who want to buy, to buy, then that can only be good for everyone in the town.

Carrying out a quick search on one of the price comparison websites, I was able to find in seconds that landlords can get fixed rate buy to let mortgages from as low as 2.25% until the end of 2016. With rental yields in Teddington of around 3.5% to 6% per year and the values increasing 10% last year alone in Teddington, investing in property could be a very good idea.

However, buying a buy to let property is full of pitfalls. If you have a good tenant, in a good property and a good relationship between tenant and agent, then not much can go wrong, as long as the relationship between the landlord and agent is exceptional. I pride myself on exceptional relationships with my landlords and their continued business speaks for itself.

If you are considering becoming a new buy to let landlord, feel free to give me a call or drop me an email for some advice and opinion on what (or not) to buy. It is true the property market is showing signs of levelling off, but, if you know where to look, and more importantly, what to look for, there are bargains in Teddington to be had.

Rebecca Smith

http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - Add value in Hampton

This is a lovely little investment property where you can add value AND get a decent yield. 

It's a 2 bed house in Hampton which needs work....

    
  

Its on at £309k but has been on the market since 8th April so definitely a deal to be done. 

If you get it for £302k, for arguments sake, spend £8k on a new kitchen, bathroom and all the other bits and pieces, that will make your total investment £310k not counting costs.

The rental figure for a 2 bed house in Hampton is in the region of £1250pcm which would give you a yield of 4.8%. Not bad considering you would have added around £30k to the value of the property by modernising.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47025995.html

Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - Big 3 bed with curb appeal

What do you think to this?

       
Nice huh?! 

Great location in Hampton Wick between Teddington and Kingston so easy to access 3 stations. On at £500k, so say you can get it for £490k, with a rental figure in the region of £2,200pcm that gives you a yield of 5.4%. Beautiful building and top spec so should be easy to find tenants.

Only thing to find out is the amount of ground rent to pay each year as that will come straight off your bottom line so don't forget to factor it into your figures.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31188144.html

Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - one bed vs two bed

So, spotted this late last night on my usual trawl through the property portals and thought it would make a good comparison for today's buy to let deal of the day.

Both properties are in the same house...yep, the same house, which is why they make a good comparison as all other factors are equal.  The upstairs has been converted into a 2 bed split level maisonette and the ground floor into a decent size 1 bed. Done to top spec so a walk in investment if that's what floats your boat...

Option 1 - The One Bed

  



So this is the ground floor with a private 'patio' so, unfortunately, not a proper garden. On at £299,950 you would get around £1100pcm for it making a yield of 4.4%

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34165659

Option 2 - The Two Bed

    

Looks the same huh?! It pretty much is apart from this one is the top 2 floors so obviously a lot more space. On at £399,950 you would get more like £1300pcm for this one which would give you a yield of 3.9%.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34165658

With no other factors to consider such as location, and the fact that rental demand for one beds in Teddington is higher than for 2 beds, I think I've made my mind up! :o)

Rebecca Smith

http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Affordability of Teddington Property

A landlord I know well gave me a ring earlier this week to discuss the affordability of property in Teddington with the current national property market being in recovery alongside increasing house prices. I've mentioned this before but it's definitely worth the reminder..... the best advice I can give to those looking to invest in property is our trick of the trade. You can judge the affordability of a town by simply finding the ratio of the average property price to the average salary. The lower the ratio, the more affordable property is.

We wanted to put this to the test and also add in a couple of comparisons. We found that Teddington currently has an average property value of around £711,221 with the average salary being £41,808. This is an unsurprisingly high ratio of 1 to 17.0! Meanwhile, in Twickenham, the ratio of property values to salary is 1 to 14.3, which suggests the property in the Teddington is 15% less affordable than in Twickenham.

We also had a look at Isleworth and found the average salary is £29,164 and the average property value is £417,110. Interestingly, this means that property in Isleworth has exactly the same affordability as property in Twickenham with a ratio of 1 to 14.3.

With the ratio being so high compared to the national average of 1 to 9.7, this could mean that now is a brilliant time to invest in Teddington's property market. Until the ratio comes down, making it more affordable for people to buy, there will always be a need and therefore high demand for rented property. People want to live here, but can't afford to buy, so therefore rent. Simple!

Rebecca Smith

http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - adding value

This is a no-brainer for me. Decent 2 bed flat in a lovely location near Twickenham Green. It's in a very impressive block which has just had all of the outside space re-done to a great standard AND a new long lease. 

   

Double bonus is that you can really add value here as it needs fully modernising....



It's on at £279,950. Spend £10k on it and it should be worth more like £325k. Rental figures are, done up, that it will get around £1200pcm giving you a yield of just over 5%.

I'd take that with the added value and future capital appreciation any day of the week....! :o)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31788540.html

Rebecca Smith.
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - house in your pocket!

I don't think I've ever seen a house that's just 40 sq metres, have you?! Yep, a whole house! Take a look though...

    

Not bad is it?! And a great garden!

Even though it's small it's pretty perfectly formed and the cute factor will definitely appeal to renters. It's in Isleworth so not the greatest area but has high demand from renters being so close to Twickenham and yet quite a bit cheaper. And don't forget, being a house, you don't have ground rent to pay...bonus.

So, how do the figures stack up on this house that would practically fit in your pocket?! Well, its on at £265k and I reckon you may just be able to push that under the stamp duty threshold. If you got lucky and did get it for £250k then, with a rental figure of around £1100pcm your yield would be a decent 5.3%.

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34073641



Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

What can you put in a tenancy agreement Teddington landlords?

I recently had a landlord from Twickenham who wanted to write his own tenancy agreement. Apparently he'd done it that way for years and 'hadn't had any problems so far'! Clearly this is a landlord's prerogative - it's their house at the end of the day, and many landlords operate without an agent, using either a tenancy agreement they've written themselves, or no tenancy agreement at all. However, it did make me wonder why he'd chosen to use a lettings agent at all! It's a bit like me engaging an accountant because I don't have the expertise in that particular area, and then not taking the advice I'm given and deciding I know best. 

Unsurprisingly, the tenancy agreement he gave me was pretty poor and definitely lacked the essential understanding of what's legal and what isn't! When your property is rented by a limited company, you use a contractual tenancy agreement which gives the landlord far greater flexibility to write whatever clauses he likes as long as both parties agree. When your tenant is an individual (99% of tenancies), you use an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) which is governed by legislation, leaving far less flexibility for landlords to insert random clauses. Examples include:

• The Housing Act says what notice periods must apply by law to an AST. The landlord can't simply overwrite this by getting the tenant to sign something.
• The responsibility for arranging the annual gas safety certificate is the Landlords, not the tenants, irrespective of what the tenancy agreement says. You can't simply amend the law by mutual agreement!
• The tenant has a legal right to the 'peaceful enjoyment' of the property, and this right carries more weight than the landlords right to inspect the property or visit the property. From a landlords perspective, this can be frustrating, but it's legally correct.
• The tenancy deposit must be registered in accordance with the rules! Again, you can't include a clause that bypasses this requirement. 
• Generally, and as with all contracts, there's such a thing as an unfair clause. For example you can't insist on the tenant sweeping the patio once a week! Just because you've got your tenant to sign acceptance of an item, if you end up in court over the matter later, a judge could still find in your tenants favour on the basis that the clause in the tenancy agreement was unfair. 

Surely one reason for using a lettings agent is to ensure that the tenancy is set up correctly, and as such any later problems are minimised? If you're using an experienced letting agent, you'll find we all have slightly different tenancy agreements, but the clauses in them all come from:

1. our professional bodies, who update us on changes to legislation and
2. our experience of managing tenancies on a daily basis for many years

Whilst we're constrained by legislation to some extent, our standard tenancy agreement is constantly evolving, learning from experiences and mistakes, to protect the landlord (our client) as much as the law allows. I have solicitors who give me examples of their "latest recommended" tenancy agreements which are never in plain English and, quite frankly, when it comes to looking after landlords interests at a practical level, in my opinion don't stand up to mine. It's an example of an area where, although we're not legally qualified, we actually have more working knowledge than someone who is.

My advice....? Take advice! :o)

Rebecca Smith

http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - easy 5%er

So this isn't the prettiest place in Teddington but it's spot on as a rental. One bedroom, communal garden and great location pretty much bang in-between Kingston and Teddington by Hampton Wick station.

    
It's on at £279,950 so, say you get it for £275k, it should rent for around £1,150 which gives you a nice round 5% yield. Happy days!

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33930254

Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/

Buy to let deal of the day - Too good to be true?

I'm thinking there must be something wrong with this one so definitely do your homework on it if you're interested. It's a one bed flat on Waldegrave Rd which is on for £174,950. Yep, bet you didn't think you could get a one bed for that price in Teddington?! Neither did I.

    


From the pictures it looks in pretty good nick for a rental but, again, a viewing is essential. You'll also want to check out the lease length as that might also be something to do with the price. 

Bedroom a bit on the small side and the bathroom looks like it just has a handheld shower which may put off some tenants but its not a deal breaker.

Even if you got £900pcm then you'd still get a 6.2% yield. Rare in these parts!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30136354.html


Rebecca Smith
http://www.rebeccasmithpropertyservices.co.uk/