Dear HPC members,
Please dont laugh, I am not alone here and I want people in the same position as I am to start admitting mistakes they have made. I have and I have learnt from it. Here is my story...
I am losing money (£659 per month) because I bought an off-plan apartment in Manchester that has been vacant since completion (2 months ago). I am about to complete (June) on another apartment I bought in 2003. The rent I was told to expect was £850-900 a month. I cant get viewings, let alone tenants, at £750 a month and am going to drop the rent to £700 - although letting agents have so many two bed new build flats its going to be hard work. The apartment that I am about to have to complete on will fail its mortgage valuation as the rent is now 100% interest cover (my mortgage deal says i need 125% interest cover). That means I will have to put another 12% (£17k) equity in order to complete.
I went on a few (free) workshops and decided instead of paying exorbitant fees I would go it alone. I negotiated a 10% and 14% discount on the two deals directly from the developer. Even this 'cushion' - which I thought was a built in profit on the deal for me - has not protected me from the fact that rents have fallen and tenants are few and far between. If I cant remortgage on the first one I will have to pay standard variable rate which is 6.75% - that means I will be paying £860 a month mortgage interest and receiving if i am lucky £700 a month rent. Then there are the lettings/management fees etc. What I thought was going to be a relative no-brainer is turning into a nightmare.
I want to talk to people in a similar position (I know I am not alone) and see what they are doing and what the options are.
Any help would be much appreciated. (jxxxxx@xxxx)
Posting your email address is not a good idea, mate. You'll get flooded with spam and email from jokers. Please communicte through the PM system