Hello,

Just signed up as this site seems like its brimming with people who know a lot more about this game than me and that can’t be a bad place to be.

I’m 27 (and three quarters) and I’m involved with property mainly via my dad who’s been a landlord for many years and this is the story of how we got to where we are today.
It started for me when I was around 18, my dads flats had been neglected and left empty for the last 8-10 beforehand. So the best start was to re motivate him and I helped him do it up and get it rented out again and generating an income, the mortgage had been paid off years ago so all was well. But this I thought should just be the start.

At this time, I was doing my degree at a local college and although I could still live at home I often went over to friends parties etc who were staying in student houses close to the college. I accrued to me that given how much each student was paying and the number in a fairly small, cheap house, the owners would easily cover a mortgage on such a property.

Having crunched some numbers and scouted out some houses on the same street we eventually dived in head first in around 2005/6. I’d come into some cash from an inheritance that I’d been sitting on, and my dad had some cash left over so we put deposits down on two 3 bed houses and converted them to student lets.

After the first year, all the numbers worked so we put the remainder of the money into two more the next year, using the income from my dad’s flats to smooth over any unforeseen costs. Since then we’ve picked up another along the way so currently have 5 student lets, housing a total of 28 students. Yields are high, interest rates have pretty much only gone down and rents have gone up and we’ve near as dam it 100% occupancy (bar summer holidays of course) for the full period.

So all is good really, however I’m young and ambitious and my dad is old and unmotivated. As it stands, he does most of the Manuel work where as I now live in Cumbria and work a full time job but keep an eye over the finical side of things.
Hopefully this place will fire my passion to expand and provide answers for all the questions and ideas I’ve got in my head about all manors of things.

(12-10-2012 08:41 PM)Lord_ash2000 Wrote:  Hello,

Just signed up as this site seems like its brimming with people who know a lot more about this game than me and that can’t be a bad place to be.

I’m 27 (and three quarters) and I’m involved with property mainly via my dad who’s been a landlord for many years and this is the story of how we got to where we are today.
It started for me when I was around 18, my dads flats had been neglected and left empty for the last 8-10 beforehand. So the best start was to re motivate him and I helped him do it up and get it rented out again and generating an income, the mortgage had been paid off years ago so all was well. But this I thought should just be the start.

At this time, I was doing my degree at a local college and although I could still live at home I often went over to friends parties etc who were staying in student houses close to the college. I accrued to me that given how much each student was paying and the number in a fairly small, cheap house, the owners would easily cover a mortgage on such a property.

Having crunched some numbers and scouted out some houses on the same street we eventually dived in head first in around 2005/6. I’d come into some cash from an inheritance that I’d been sitting on, and my dad had some cash left over so we put deposits down on two 3 bed houses and converted them to student lets.

After the first year, all the numbers worked so we put the remainder of the money into two more the next year, using the income from my dad’s flats to smooth over any unforeseen costs. Since then we’ve picked up another along the way so currently have 5 student lets, housing a total of 28 students. Yields are high, interest rates have pretty much only gone down and rents have gone up and we’ve near as dam it 100% occupancy (bar summer holidays of course) for the full period.

So all is good really, however I’m young and ambitious and my dad is old and unmotivated. As it stands, he does most of the Manuel work where as I now live in Cumbria and work a full time job but keep an eye over the finical side of things.
Hopefully this place will fire my passion to expand and provide answers for all the questions and ideas I’ve got in my head about all manors of things.

You'll find plenty here to motivate you. With your dad, peoples priorities change as they get older - he may be happy doing the manual work and not have to deal with the stresses that a large portfolio (especially with students!) brings.

Good luck on your journey!

(12-10-2012 08:41 PM)Lord_ash2000 Wrote:  I’m young and ambitious and my dad is old and unmotivated

Perhaps you should just take him to the vet and have him put down Ashley!

Going back to when you were 18 I'm trying to get my head around an investor (your dad) who'd managed to pay down mortgages at a relatively young age even though they'd been left empty for 8-10 what.. years?

I'm also trying to imagine my own kids having the inclination at that age, let alone the nous, to "motivate" me.. so I'm curious to know more!

To be brutally honest (assuming this isn't a wind-up) I'm reading you as either a very astute young man or else a spoilt wannabe middle-class brat, so which is it?

Apologies for my being so overtly direct, must be in my genes.

Ok maybe I was a little harsh, im no brat though.

Regarding my father, he wasn’t a property genius he basically combined a far bit of hard work in his youth with a few lucky breaks early on in life which meant that by 25 he’d paid off his mortgage on his own house and had a small mortgage on some flats he owned. At the time he also worked full time on decent salary which combined with the flats income meant in his early 30’s he could have retired but he found it boring so carried on working as that’s what he likes to do.

However, having no mortgage and an ok salary coming in meant that the constant hassle of dealing with tenants and keeping in the place in good shape started to become less and less of a priority and in time they became empty and in a fairly dilapidated state. The longer it was left the more time and hard work it was going to be to get them in a fit state to rent out again and so for the best part of a decade they lay empty.

When I turned 18, I got some inheritance money (about 25k) and at first I was keen on the idea of trading in stocks and shares, I didn’t know a lot about it but I fairly good with numbers so I invested 20K in the stock market, buying and selling most days just making a percent or two here and there but it all adds up, my farther also got in on it and together in a year or so I made about £10k and he had made about £40k (he had more invested). However we got stung a bit and lost some money but we were still up a fair amount overall and I was starting to think I wanted my money in something safer and more long term.

So I got my dad back around to the idea of property, the obvious first choice was to get his flats up and running again, he had the DIY skills and cash and I had the energy so we spent many a long evening ripping the place out and totally renovating the building. Once they were all let out again we used the income from those to pay the mortgages of the first student houses we got for the first few months while we converted them and got them let out in time for our first academic year.

The goal for me now is to get the mortgages paid down on the student lets, which should take about 6-7 years if all goes well. Then depending on how things are in the future buy several more houses in near buy university towns using the combined income of the old houses and the new to pay everything off at twice the speed. Where as my farther is happy with his situation and has no desire to keep expanding, but we’ll see how it goes.

Hi Ashley, sorry about the "brat" suggestion but yes you were a bit harsh on the old man!

Ashley,

Welcome to PT.

Based on my years of experience, you have to be one of the savviest 'young' investors. Well done. It sounds like you and your dad have found a way to work together (as day traders or as property investors).

Hi Ashley,

Welcome aboard PT and looking forward to your contributions. Sounds like you have a fair amount of experience already. Well done to both of you - you and your dad.