UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi everyone. I'm new to this site and have just joined today.ive been in buy to let for 20 years after renting out my first house in order to buy another to renovate and live in.I did this again 12 years ago and now own both rented houses outright and my own house.im 56 now and thinking is it time to sell the rented houses to fund an early retirement. With all the changes that are happening with buy to let and CGT  ,a little something in my head keeps saying is now  the time to sell?Both houses are worth around £250000 my wife does not work any more so her tax free allowance is put to good use.in am a 20% tax payer.there must be other people in the same position asking themselves the same question.

Absolutely!

What are you waiting for? You have worked hard for this,I say go for it while you are fit enough to enjoy life.

Impossible to answer this question without knowledge of important things I.e. health and wealth. However tax implications and income needs are best Answered using a financial advisor. Note, I am neither an Financial advisory or a doctor, but have benefitted through investing time talking to experts in these fields.👍🙂

Could the rental income not form the basis of your retirement income?

unless you had the desire/need to use the lump sum of cash for something else, seems like the properties will be a steady income until you see fit.

only my 2 pence, but definitely worth speaking to a financial advisor.

2 for, 1 against, 1 abstention (wants more info.). The clear winner is - sell up, get out of the game, move on 'cos it's time to groove on...

There are couple of things you might want to consider as regards timescale. Firstly, there's an annual allowance for CGT so you might want to dispose of the properties in different tax years to take full advantage of that. (You may also wish to adjust the ownership split between yourself and your wife in order to make full use of both your allowances).

Secondly, unless you're planning to sell with tenants in situ, you'll need to bear in mind the current requirement for six months' notice on a Section 21. From that point of view you might be better just selling each property as and when it becomes vacant.

Sell them & spank the money life's to short.

We are in exactly the same position but with just one small property.  Most things seem to be in the tenants favour these days. We have spent a few months decorating and fitting new kitchen, updating bathroom, putting in new heaters etc. We have had several people interested but many of them are very cagey when you start asking questions. OH also says it would break his heart if we got new tenants who wrecked the place. We have owned it outright for 12 years and have been lucky with 2 tenants in that time.
Houses round here are selling well at the moment so we are very tempted to sell up.

Quote from: Tricia on January 31, 2021, 12:38:41 PMOH also says it would break his heart if we got new tenants who wrecked the place.

I would sell up. Why? Because this bit that I've quoted here is not what Landlording is... this is something else. There's no room for emotional attachment to a property you let out. That is not a judgement on what your OH has said... many people feel that way... I'm just saying that is not being a Landlord... it's kind of half-way between parent and Carer... or A. N. Other responsible adult... that's not a Landlord's role. You provide a service... a product... in return you receive rent. You aren't making friends. You aren't socially responsible (not really). You are in it to make some kind of notional profit so that life can be better for you (not the Tenants - although they don't need to be mutually exclusive by any means) in the future. You do up a property to tempt Tenants in... that's a business decision. If you could get away without doing any work to it and still get Tenants in, paying the same money, then that is what you should do.

Quote from: Hippogriff on January 31, 2021, 12:59:12 PM

Quote from: Tricia on January 31, 2021, 12:38:41 PMOH also says it would break his heart if we got new tenants who wrecked the place.

I would sell up. Why? Because this bit that I've quoted here is not what Landlording is... this is something else. There's no room for emotional attachment to a property you let out. That is not a judgement on what your OH has said... many people feel that way... I'm just saying that is not being a Landlord... it's kind of half-way between parent and Carer... or A. N. Other responsible adult... that's not a Landlord's role. You provide a service... a product... in return you receive rent. You aren't making friends. You aren't socially responsible (not really). You are in it to make some kind of notional profit so that life can be better for you (not the Tenants - although they don't need to be mutually exclusive by any means) in the future. You do up a property to tempt Tenants in... that's a business decision. If you could get away without doing any work to it and still get Tenants in, paying the same money, then that is what you should do.

you are dead right Hippogriff.  We have become emotionally attached to the house after all the work we've done and Money we've spent but it did look dated although it was clean and tidy.  On reflection we could have just rented it out as it was but we got a bit carried away.  😝