And now a bit about me

Ok, now that I've covered what this blog is about, I guess I should tell you a bit about myself. I own 7 properties so far, with another 4 purchases going through at the moment.

I became fascinated with property when I was younger as I was excited by the idea that tenants would effectively buy a whole house for you! I also thought that it would be impossible for me to do it as you'd need to be rich to start with. I now know that both of those ideas is untrue. Tenants don't normally buy a house for you as, typically, property investors will go for an interest only mortgage where the capital isn't paid off. You don't need to be rich to start buying property, though it does help if you have enough cash for a 15% deposit (though there are even ways round this).

I bought my 1st house for myself to live in 1999. I still live there today. I bought my 1st investment property in 2004 for a relative to live in who was looking for rented accomodation and receiving disability benefits.

I then watched the property market in my home town (where both properties are located) boom and thought that it was far too expensive to buy another place. I decided to hold off for a while, wait for what I assumed was an inevitable crash, and start buying again.

During this time, I was reading voraciously about property investment. One of the key books I read was 'The Buy-to-let Bible'. This taught me the concept of hotspots - i.e. areas where rental yields were high. I did some more research and discovered that there will still areas - if not my own area -that offered high yields. I could keep investing in property!

Last year, I decided to go for it and bought a couple of flats. Because I was new to the game I made a couple of mistakes: I put the flats on the market with the wrong letting agent and I didn't think to contact the local council until the flats had been on the market for a few months (some councils will rent property directly from private landlords to house tenants). The letting agent didn't find a tenant but the council were happy to rent them from me. They agreed to pay me rent regardless of whether any tenants were there and return the places to me in the same condition as when they first took them. The rent they offered was a little less than the market value but the difference was negated by not having to pay a letting agent or worry about missed rent or damage. Each flat gave me a monthly profit of around £100 per month. I now see that the same places are on the market for 25% more than I paid for them just under a year ago!

Later last year I bought 3 more places. 2 were let out via a local housing association charity who did a great job of finding tenants for me almost instantly. They generate a monthly profit of around £120 per month each. The other place was let within about 6 weeks via a letting agent. This one gives a profit of around £60 per month.

I've got another 4 purchases going through at the moment which should give a profit of around £600 per month. So that's a combined profit of around £1100 per month -not enough to retire on but a decent start!

I'm no expert, am still learning and have made a few mistakes. But I think I'm proof that it's still possible - and not that difficult - to find decent high-yielding, income-generating investment property.