How many of you guys are renting your houses out??

[ali]

We sold too, partly because we wanted to make a clean break and give Aus our full attention. Agents sometimes want alot of money to look after the house, didn't want the hassle of repairs and any problems, and the added pressure if it was left empty for any reason and we'd end up paying for a house in the UK and in Aus. Selling up in UK has meant we've been able to use that money to buy pretty quickly here in Aus

Ali

[gail.crease]

Hi

We're renting our house out. We've had a few investment properties in the past and my advice is:

1. Don't rent to friends.
2. Don't get family to manage it for you. Use a reputable letting company. It'll cost 10% to 15% of the rental but they should internally inspect the house every 3 months and give you a report. Negotiate them down to 10% by saying it'll be long term let i.e. many years they'll have the property on their books.
3. Take out letting insurance to cover damage and non-payment of rent. It usually covers for emergency repairs such as plumbing and gas in the price too. It doesn't cost that much and it'll give you piece of mind. Your normal home insurance will not cover letting.
4. Get permission from your mortgage company to let the house. They can't stop you or force you to sell if you do rent it out. Most letting companies require this permission before taking a property on.
5. Don't leave any furniture especially TVs. If they get broken, you're expected to fix or replace them. Would you want to replace a plasma? Sell them or take them with you. We're taking ours. I know they don't travel well but we'll not get anywhere near its value selling it. If it gets ruined en route I'll claim on the insurance.

If you can afford to keep your house then do so for as long as you can. There will be a honeymoon period in Australia so wait until that's over before making any decisions.

Good luck

Gail

[gail.crease]

Sorry one more thing to add:

Letting companies will require you to get non-resident tax status from inland revenue otherwise they will deduct tax from your rental income if you live overseas. They are legally required to do this. Just call inland revenue helpline number from their website and they can advise you on what to do.

Regards

Gail

[johatts]

Originally Posted by Stu:0

Are you renting or selling your houses??? Im renting mine but i keep hearing the old horror stories and its starting to worry me! Spent a fair old bit of money on it the last couple of years and dont want it wrecked. I want to rent it until we'r 100% sure oz is for us! Even the 2 plasma's are staying up on the wall,cant take em down as the rooms wouldnt be right without them there. Must be mad. Can see me popping back in a year and they'l have been used as poker tables!

Stu

We had 2 properties in the UK. We had a flat that we rented when we moved into our 3 bed semi in Essex. Prior to leaving we sold the house and moved back into the flat. We then sold the flat - only ended up being there for 8 weeks and left. Flat was sold as fully furnished!
I think if you have "an option" to go back you will not give Oz its full potential. There is always something to go back to. At the first hurdle you could jump on a plane, go home and never have given Oz the full opportunity it deserves.
Renting is always risky. We had our flat rented for 10 years through a management company which guaranteed us rent no matter who was there. They promised us no DSS renters......Guess who they rented it to! DSS of course. Our flat was then rented to a weirdo who had security camera everywhere and had pictures of me and hubby when we came to collect outstanding mail! This guy wrecked our flat, ripped off doorframes, hammered through walls, everything! Quite glad that I never saw it, hubby dealt with it.

Sell up, come to Oz, give the life the full attention it deserves. UK has good and bad points just like Australia does and any other country in teh world.....however...having been here 2 years now, I can see there is much more good than bad.

I had never been here before and after 2 weeks I knew I would never go home. Life is good here and life is what you make it. It may never be perfect but what the hell is perfect? You may not enjoy every aspect of it. BUT look at the quality not quantity of what you will have. That will be so much richer.

Thats my view anyway!!!!!

[Stu:0]

Lots of different views on renting. I have had agents round to give me an idea of what i would get and there fees. Its the small print of what they charge that puts me off going with an agent, fees for this fees for that. I have mates in every trade that have all said leave my no. for any repairs so that side of things is coverd and i was going to leave it in the hands of my brother in law to look after the checking of the house. Still need to decide on this.
The main reason im not selling it staight away is we'r going on sponsership(girfriend katy is a nurse) and there is always that risk that if she lost her job we'r kicked out of oz in 28 days so its just a safty net in case that happend. We will be applying for pr once she has done a years nursing(september). We do intend to give oz a real go, wev both always wanted to live there and katy has allready spent a year there, iv had a hol so we'v an idea what we'r in for. It always seems to be family that drags people back and i will probably see my mum and dad more over skype than i do now and katy's mum is waiting on visa, she's going anyway!

Stu

[gail.crease]

Stu

You can still use your mates for repair work even if you use an agent. Just specify that to them. Don't go with the first agent. Ask them if they are a member of a regulatory body (can't remember what it's called). If they are the will be governed by a code of practice which may give you some piece of mind. If you use your brother-in-law to manage it, will he run credit checks on the tenants? Every time we rented a place the agents called us to discuss prospective tenants before placing them. We were told their backgrounds, jobs whether they were a family or single people sharing. We chose which ones we wanted to rent to. Of course there are no guarantees but if you take our the right insurance specifically for letting you're covered for non-payment of rent and damage.

Hope this helps.

Gail

[Stu:0]

Originally Posted by gail.crease

Stu

You can still use your mates for repair work even if you use an agent. Just specify that to them. Don't go with the first agent. Ask them if they are a member of a regulatory body (can't remember what it's called). If they are the will be governed by a code of practice which may give you some piece of mind. If you use your brother-in-law to manage it, will he run credit checks on the tenants? Every time we rented a place the agents called us to discuss prospective tenants before placing them. We were told their backgrounds, jobs whether they were a family or single people sharing. We chose which ones we wanted to rent to. Of course there are no guarantees but if you take our the right insurance specifically for letting you're covered for non-payment of rent and damage.

Hope this helps.

Gail

Thanks gail

yes good points you made there. I work as a maintenance spark at our local hospital and the first thing i was thinking of doing was putting an advert on the notice board in the hope of one of the doctors coming forward for it. They come and go every 12 months so it would be ideal if i could get one in for a year. Thats probably as long as i would want to rent it. If that was to fail then agents hear i come. Do they do the credit checks and things if you only use them to find someone not to manage the property?

Stu

[Julie&Ricky]

Hi Stu,

I agree with Gail.crease, use a really good letting agency it will cost you around 15% of the rent but at least you will have peace of mind that your property is being looked after. I used to manage a letting agency in Essex and every six months we checked that the property and furnishings were being kept in good order and also collected rent etc (full management package).

I personally wouldn't rent a property we are selling up but if you want to 'TRY BEFORE YOU BUY' as they say then renting your property out is probably the right thing to do.

Good Luck
Julie

[tonyandlynne]

We are selling ours as couldnt be doing with all the hassle of repairs etc and maintenence and couldnt afford it anyway as we need the money from the sale of the house too.

Lynne