At one point, I had dozens of rental properties. When I started out in my working life, I invested in properties because it felt like something I understood.
So when people ask me in my local cafe: “Should I buy property rather than invest in a pension?“, I can understand where they’re coming from.
I was in my early 20s when I bought my first two-up, two-down terrace in Brierfield for £4,600 and rented it out for £65 a week. Soon I had two houses, and then three, and so on. I’d buy them, do them up myself and rent them out.
The best tenant I ever had was in a property I owned in Lancashire. They were a perfect renter – until they burnt down the entire back of the house. The whole street had to be evacuated.
That’s just one reason I don’t really do rentals anymore.
