3 THINGS I HATE ABOUT PROPERTY…
But property’s awesome all the time, right?
Wrong!
And here’s my top three reasons why!
PROPERTY HATE NUMERO UNO: REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE
Repairs and maintenance is my number one pet peeve in property – I just
hate hate hate it when things break - and sometimes it’s not even the tenant’s
fault.
Then you have to deal with the call from the tenant saying that
something’s wrong, work out how to fix it, who to call to do so, have to faff
about getting various quotes and solutions and appointments in order, and then finally
set fire to my money to remedy the problem.
Or even worse, sometimes it’s a product or service that needs addressing
by a telephone call to the dreaded call centre or customer service department… where
you waste endless hours of time to untrained people on the other end of the
line, who can’t deal with it, aren’t competent, put you on hold forever, or
just fob you off. There’s nothing more draining than a call centre department.
This week’s issue has been a young 14-month-old integrated Logik oven
from Currys which has stopped working after minimal use. Currys customer
service seemingly couldn’t give a shit about their faulty product, nor helping
me fix it.
Here’s my advice: don’t ever buy a product from Currys – it’s a waste of
your time and money buying their substandard products, then a waste of your
time, effort, energy and patience trying to get them to do the right thing.
PROPERTY HATE PART 2: NAUGHTY TENANTS
Aha, I bet you thought this would be the first on the list, didn’t you?!?
Not me, because the majority of my tenants are great, nearly all of the
time.
Occasionally though, one goes rogue, and starts acting in a naughty
manner.
I have three key rules I tell all my tenants:
1. Respect the house and keep it tidy
2. Respect your neighbours (and housemates)
3. Pay your rent on time
…and it’s when one of these three rules is not followed that things go
wrong, tenants do naughty things, I get irate, start dismembering their wayward
corpses into pieces and setting them on fire etc etc…
I jest, of course…
But there have been instances where people have not paid their rent, gave
me a ream of bullshit about why not, told me barefaced lies to my face, behaved
in ways which damaged the property, accidentally set fire to the kitchen, made
an absolute tip of a pigsty to the house / their rooms, hoarding more things
than I ever thought possible, not cleaning up after themselves in communal areas,
carrying on and arguing so that the neighbours complain and the council send me
whinging letters etc etc blah blah…
Thankfully, these things are not common ongoing occurrences, because
naughty tenants don’t end up lasting long in my properties.
So yes, naughty tenants annoy me, because they are the exception to the
norm in my portfolio.
But I must reiterate that on the whole my tenants are good people.
And when good people do the right thing, there’s nothing to worry about,
is there?!
PROPERTY HATE 3: LE FINALE – EVERYTHING IS SO EXPENSIVE!!
I’ve already wittered on about the expense of repairs and maintenance,
so I’ll not revisit that route… but EVERYTHING in property is just so bloody expensive!
This includes house purchase prices, the survey fees, the legal costs,
the stamp duty land tax, refurbishment costs, gas and electric works, the
insurances, the ongoing certificates and legislative measures.
It all costs a bomb, and that bomb frequently explodes in my purse and
bank balance!
You know I’m Yorkshire, and you know that for me every pound is a
prisoner.
It is always a sad day when money has to be traumatically prised from my
parsimonious whimpering fingers to pay for necessary costs!
WHICH IN PROPERTY IS NEARLY ALL THE TIME!!! *cries*
So there we have it, the 3 things I hate most about property.
But hang on, lets not be a negative Nellie.
Because although there are many thunderstorms and showers in property,
there are plenty of sunshine-y moments too!
Such as:
ü Providing housing
for people
ü Acquiring assets
ü Long term pension pot
plan
ü Majority of
property portfolio work is now passive
ü Time freedom and
independence
ü Gives me a salary!
Can’t have all these nice smooth bits, without a bit of rough too, eh?
That’s life for you!
Proper-teee…dious at times though!
