Last year, together with an investor, I refurbished and let another buy-to-let property which I will call Vanilla Project no. 2.
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This one was a 4-bedroom, semi-detached house in the same estate as my previous one, in Kings Lynn. It was a very good location and close to the hospital, easy for a buy-to-let project.
It needed full renovation with a new kitchen, new bathroom, full central heating, new electrics, new windows, basically everything.
After my offer was accepted, I started with the procedures for the bridging finance, but this time it took so long.
The lender messed us around so much asking for all kinds of guarantees and proofs where the money came from. I thought this was not going to happen.
My investor was going to contribute with the money, and I was going to put the work on. The lenders asked so many questions and proofs about the money that we felt as if we were criminals trying to wash dirty money.
After wasting a lot of our time, they finally approved the bridge, but it was more time than I would have liked to have waited. I will not use this lender again, for sure.
Next, was to wait for the solicitor’s work that also took longer than it should be. In the end we finally completed in the beginning of December after about five long months! I’m surprised that my seller was happy to wait for us all this time.
With the keys in hand, I was keen to start with the works. I had already contacted the previous builder I used on the other project, (see my other post “My vanilla” Buy-to-let Project – How to do it in a budget”).
He had already given me a quote for the works that I accepted. However, he was finishing another job and could only start at the beginning of January. He agreed to send some of his workers to start with the strip out of the old kitchen and bathroom though.
In the meantime, the plumber started by installing the new heating system and new radiators and the electrician also started with some first fixing.
I also ordered the new kitchen, new bathroom and WC, all to be delivered in the beginning of January.
The plumber finished his work, Christmas and New Year’s passed and in the new year the works started for good.
This time I used the same builders for the decoration as well, including decorating the exterior of the house that was not looking very nice.
I didn’t use the decorators from the last project as they were the only ones that I definitely did not want to use again. All other trades were fine, and I will still use them again.
This project was quicker and easier and by the end of February, the house was ready to advertise.
As before, I used “Open Rent” to advertise and provide all the necessary documentation such as the contract, insurance etc.
We had a lot of interest in the property, but unfortunately the same story has repeated itself. People that had CCJs on their name and bankruptcy wanted to rent it, but I had to decline. In the end, I had to put clearly on the advert “if you have any CCJs or bankruptcy on your name, please don’t apply, as you will not pass the credit check and will just waste your time and mine”.
When the refurbishment was finished, I did manage to let the property for a family that inspired me a lot of confidence. They moved in, in the middle of March. Since then, they are very happy at the property and did not give me any kind of trouble or issues with payment (fingers crossed).
I was able to re-finance the property quicker than what it took me to get the bridging loan and now all is in order.
We are ready for the next one now!
If you want to invest in a buy-to-let property but do not know how to start or do not want to actually do the work, you can do a joint venture with me. Send me a message and we can arrange a meeting to discuss the possibilities.
I hope this post helps you to understand what involves the refurbishment and the process of letting a property in the UK and if you have any questions, you can contact me via the e-mail on the contact page.
All my other posts are travel posts and if you would like to check it out, have a look at this post: ” A weekend at Goodwood and West Sussex“.
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