Bounce Back
One day, I just woke up and thought, “No, I don’t even want to get out of my
bed. I can’t be bothered to do anything.” For me, that was the first time I’d ever experienced it,
and that lasted for a solid week; I didn’t interact with anybody. The house that was being
renovated was only two doors down, so I could see it from my bedroom window. I could see the
builders working, and they were phoning me up, asking, “What should we do about this?” or
“We found such and such.” And I didn’t want to deal with it at all, even though I was
geographically so close to everything that was going on.
I then pulled myself out of it, and decided, “I need some kind of quality of life. I never intended
to be a landlord, this is an accident. With everything that’s going on with the economy, I think I
might have made a wrong decision.” So, I made a conscious decision to just concentrate on my
career. When I came to retirement, the houses would be my little pension plan.
Eighteen months went by. I was very low and subdued, and then I started to feel a bit better. I’d
been keeping an eye on this one house that was only a couple of miles away. It had been on the
market for as long as I’d been ill, and I just wondering, “Why is nobody taking this property? If I
wanted to, I could just buy it. I’m going to have to find out some more information about it.” The
price had gradually been reduced to offers in excess of £180,000 for a four-bedroom house in
quite a desirable area of town, with a garage as well. I had a viewing and asked the agent, “It’s
been on the market for over a year, why can’t you sell it?” He replied, “The owner went away,
chucked us the keys, and told us to sell his house. He's just come back and gone absolutely ape
shit because we haven’t sold his house. But we couldn’t get a hold of him to put forward any of
the offers, so that’s why it hasn’t happened. He wants me to shift it.” So I went back to him with
an offer of £130,000. The agent said, “There’s no way in a million years he will go for that.” It
wasn’t even a cash offer, just a mortgage offer. I was expecting him to just point blank refuse
and ask me to reoffer.
Instead, the agent came back, saying, “The lowest he’ll go is £137,500.” The market value was
£180,000, so I bought it and that reignited my fire. I’d had my own house with lodgers in for
about 18 months. I’d also had another rental property and I’d been working full-time, so I’d
managed to save enough money for the deposit. I’d just started to build a bit of money, and then
here I was spending it again. I was in a sticky situation because I now had no money to do the
renovations.
bed. I can’t be bothered to do anything.” For me, that was the first time I’d ever experienced it,
and that lasted for a solid week; I didn’t interact with anybody. The house that was being
renovated was only two doors down, so I could see it from my bedroom window. I could see the
builders working, and they were phoning me up, asking, “What should we do about this?” or
“We found such and such.” And I didn’t want to deal with it at all, even though I was
geographically so close to everything that was going on.
I then pulled myself out of it, and decided, “I need some kind of quality of life. I never intended
to be a landlord, this is an accident. With everything that’s going on with the economy, I think I
might have made a wrong decision.” So, I made a conscious decision to just concentrate on my
career. When I came to retirement, the houses would be my little pension plan.
Eighteen months went by. I was very low and subdued, and then I started to feel a bit better. I’d
been keeping an eye on this one house that was only a couple of miles away. It had been on the
market for as long as I’d been ill, and I just wondering, “Why is nobody taking this property? If I
wanted to, I could just buy it. I’m going to have to find out some more information about it.” The
price had gradually been reduced to offers in excess of £180,000 for a four-bedroom house in
quite a desirable area of town, with a garage as well. I had a viewing and asked the agent, “It’s
been on the market for over a year, why can’t you sell it?” He replied, “The owner went away,
chucked us the keys, and told us to sell his house. He's just come back and gone absolutely ape
shit because we haven’t sold his house. But we couldn’t get a hold of him to put forward any of
the offers, so that’s why it hasn’t happened. He wants me to shift it.” So I went back to him with
an offer of £130,000. The agent said, “There’s no way in a million years he will go for that.” It
wasn’t even a cash offer, just a mortgage offer. I was expecting him to just point blank refuse
and ask me to reoffer.
Instead, the agent came back, saying, “The lowest he’ll go is £137,500.” The market value was
£180,000, so I bought it and that reignited my fire. I’d had my own house with lodgers in for
about 18 months. I’d also had another rental property and I’d been working full-time, so I’d
managed to save enough money for the deposit. I’d just started to build a bit of money, and then
here I was spending it again. I was in a sticky situation because I now had no money to do the
renovations.