Become a landlord

I guess that means I’m a landlord now :)

We decided to use a managing agent which increases the cost but reduces the stress. Hope things go well.

We didn’t accept the highest offer as we didn’t think that it was really affordable for her. I’ve seen people in debt and it’s not fair to help someone get into a bad state financially.

The next highest offer was from an Italian man who I met yesterday. I liked him and he will keep the place in good shape as he currently has a cleaner and is a bit of a neat freak. He wants to paint the living room walls a neutral colour but is paying for and doing the painting himself. Fine with me :)

He moves in just over a week after we move out which will give us a chance to steam clean the carpets and get the furniture items he’s requested.

My aim is to be a nice landlord.

Whoop :)

The first offer was way below the asking price, the second a little below (but acceptable) and the third was for the asking price and she wants to move in v soon too so only a short void.

And the one offering the asking price just loved my purple (well more like the colour of blackcherry yogurt) living room walls and the carpet and curtains too :) The other two wanted to repaint the walls a more neutral (boring) colour.

I hope we get some tenants quickly.

There are some lovely photos on the agents website – we have chosen Hotblack Desiato as we’re big fans of Douglas Adams who lived in Islington and liked the name of the estate agent so much he asked them if he could use it as a character in a radio play he was writing.

We move in 10 days and the place will be ready a couple of days after – need to deep clean the carpets and do the last bit of painting before they move in.

As yet we don’t have a moving out date so it can’t be marketed right now but if the photographer’s done his bit then it will be so much quicker to get it on the market and people looking round once we have a date. Got the estate agent coming round again this afternoon.

The bedroom is decorated now – looks totally different but more neutral. It was such a job and took 3 weekends due to the amount of furniture/fixed shelving we had to move to get to the walls. We’ve put a quite a few things in storage at our parents’ houses to make the flat look less cluttered and bigger.

We just have a shortish list of small jobs to do – not all need doing before people come to look round.

Hope this all goes smoothly…

We’ve redecorated the kitchen and bathroom in more neutral colours that match the fixtures and fittings. The kitchen looks nicer than it ever has but I preferred how the bathroom looked before despite it appearing bigger now.

The living room will only need a lick of paint over the existing paint to smarten it up a bit but this can be done once our furniture is moved into our new house.

We’re not spending loads of money but are choosing carefully where to spend our money.

Almost finished the hall paintwork and are about to start the bedroom which will be a big job. We’ve got an undercoat that covers all bright colours and a fairly neutral but nice wall colour that goes with the existing carpet and new curtains. The only problem is the amount of stuff still in the bedroom that needs moving first…

Once the bedroom is redecorated the estate agent can come round to take photographs and then when we’ve got a date for the completion of our house purchase we can make firm arrangements with tenants.

We’re letting out our current flat when we move to the house we’re in the process of buying.

Not expecting anything other than the mortgage being covered in the first couple of years but into the future it will provide us with additional income and be an investment too.

Our current flat is very nice and in a good location.

My aim is to keep our current flat and let it out whilst we move into another property that is a little bigger but still quite close by.