Hi all,
In urgent need of some good old Mustachian advice.
I'm a UK citizen living with my husband and family in the US. We have about 65,000 GBP sitting in UK taxable investment accounts earning 0.20%. Investing in the stock market is a no-go as my husband works in financial services in the US and his company will only let him invest via Fidelity here. The exchange rate has plummeted so we don't want to transfer to dollars. We have emergency fund and investments in US. We are considering buying a UK rental property and have found one in our range but I just can't decide whether to push the button. It doesn't meet the 1% rule, but I don't think that ever works in the UK!
Here's the deal:
1-bed, 2-bath property with parking in pristine condition - no work needed, very nice safe area that is known to me. Valued at 75k but owners have emigrated and need a very quick sale and have already said they would accept 62k. I think they'd go down to 60k.
Monthly rent: 425
Monthly insurance, HOA, ground rent: 86.33
Monthly landlord's insurance: 10
Monthly management fees (12.5%): 53.12
Closing costs: 750
Stamp duty (a one-off 3% tax due on purchase): 1800
We can pay in cash in full for speed and to snag a good deal, but would consider getting a mortgage down the road if leveraging it makes more sense in the long run.
The 89-year lease on the property will need renewing in the long term: cost about 5,000 but could wait five or ten years. Value of property would probably go up once this is paid for, perhaps by about 10k. All other major building costs covered by management company.
What do you all think? Any advice at all would be appreciated. Seriously, anything!