Women making homes into a business
As guests sipped champagne at the awards party, there were mutterings that there must be something in the water up here after a Yorkshire investor was crowned Property Woman of the Year for the second year running.
The truth is that the success of our high-flying female landlords is down to good old-fashioned hard work and lots of it.
Shona Davison, whose story we featured recently, faced tough competition to take the title this week, while Teresa Galley, of Doncaster, won the 2008 National Landlords' Association award. Both women started with nothing, saved hard and worked on their properties while holding down full-time jobs. Teresa has a string of buy-to-lets and now runs her own lettings agency.
Shona, of Sheffield, has built up a portfolio of properties in her home city and impressed judges with her tenacity and plans to extend her business despite dealing with a serious, degenerative illness.pp
NLA judges said: "Shona's success is a real triumph over adversity. After initially getting into buy-to-let as a practical way on to the property ladder, she caught the 'property bug' and hasn't looked back. We were impressed with the way she is planning for the future of her business. She has overcome difficulties and made a real success as a landlord in just seven years. She is setting a wonderful example to others."
Analytical consultant Shona bought her first buy-to-let property seven years ago after a struggle to get on the property ladder where she was working down South. She spent three years saving for a deposit and bought a flat in her native Sheffield for 65,000.
"The idea was to rent it out and sell it in a few years, using any profits to buy myself somewhere to live. But I met my husband and we ended up buying somewhere together. I kept my buy-to-let and that was the start of my property portfolio," she says.
The couple now live in the city, where Shona sold the flat to fund a deposit on a run-down house that had been turned into three flats. After redesigning and refurbishing the flats to include two extra rooms, she added value, found tenants and remortgaged the property, while project managing the renovation and working full-time.
She paid 208,000 for the property using 50,000 profit from her previous buy-to-let for the deposit and revamp. Once finished, the flats were valued at 370,000 and generated 1,340 a month in rent. She remortgaged and used some of the equity to buy and refurbish a house that had been split into two flats. Her five buy-to-lets are now worth 660,000 and her borrowing is 440,000 giving her a pre tax and expenses profit of 220,000.
Shona, 31, manages her own lets and after being diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy and having a baby son, Dexter, she is planning to buy more property.
"This bad news means I am now more motivated than ever to build up my buy-to-let portfolio while I am young and still healthy. It can then provide me with an income for when I am older, and this will help me maintain some independence."
Runners up in the regional Yorkshire category of the awards were Sandra Widdrington, of Selby, and Samantha Allen, Doncaster.pp
For information, visit www.propertywomenawards.org.uk
'Buy-to-let is a long-term investment, not a quick fix'
Sandra Widdrington, 56, of Selby, has a portfolio of 13 buy-to-let properties and is the founder of the Jigsaw Letting agency and chair of the Selby and District Landlords' Association.
Concerned that she had no pension, Sandra bought her first buy-to-let in 2001.
It cost her 45,000 and is now worth 110,000.
"I started to get worried about having no pension and decided I'd better find an investment," she says.
"I saw a terraced house in Selby and bought it with a 15 per cent deposit.
"My husband and I worked really hard cleaning it, painting, laying laminate floors, buying curtains, blinds and light fittings. When we had finished, I stood back and was so proud of how we had turned the property around.
"I was paying 300 a month in mortgage and got 400 a month in rent and that was it. I was hooked."
Within six months, Sandra had bought six more properties in the Selby area using her husband's redundancy money for the deposits.pp
Although she was working full-time as a PA, she renovated and managed the rental properties herself.
"I'd be working in Bradford during the day and then at night I'd be at a house working.
"It's important that they look good and I'd never let a house I wasn't prepared to live in myself," says Sandra.
Since then she has bought seven more properties and using her hands-on experience as a landlady she started her agency Jigsaw Letting in 2002.
After passing a raft of professional property exams, she is now a member of the Association of Residential Letting Agents and she employs six members of staff.
She says: "I make it my policy to treat landlords and tenants alike with respect and listen to what they have to say.
"I have tenants in my own properties that have been there for eight years which gives me the satisfaction that I am doing a good job in looking after them.
"But while I am compassionate, just because I am a woman does not mean I am soft or fluffy, I do not suffer fools and I am straight talking.pp
"If a tenant is in breach of contract, I take the necessary action required. I also make sure landlords are aware of their responsibilities."
Sandra has plans to expand her business and to buy more houses for her own portfolio, but she stresses that her success hasn't been easy.pp
"The phone never stops ringing and that's 24/7 and the lettings market is very competitive.
"You also have to deal with tenants who don't pay their rent. I've heard every excuse in the book.
"For anyone interested in property investment I would say it can have its rewards if you buy property at the right price, but be prepared for a lot of hard work and a few knocks.
"Plus, it's no use looking for a quick fix, property is a long-term investment."
'There are always deals to be done'
Samantha Allen, 35, of Doncaster, combines running her own buy-to-let business with a full-time job as a project manager.
Becoming an accidental landlord sparked Samantha's passion for property investment.
She didn't want to sell her house in Scarborough when she moved to Doncaster so she decided to rent it out instead.
"It went from there.
"I started buying properties about six years ago, doing them up and letting them and I've bought all over from Whitby to Spain and the properties range from terraced houses to bungalows and detacheds.pp
"Because I started in a property recession I picked the first lot of houses very cheaply."
Her investments, which she has funded by remortgaging existing buy-to-lets that have increased in value, have varied from renovation projects to converting large derelict houses into flats and self-builds.
"It's hard work having a full-time job and doing the property. It's like two full-time jobs, but I love it," she says.
"I mostly do renovations and conversions and I'm lucky that I can see at a glance whether a property has potential and is a good investment.pp
"It's an intuition and I can see past the dereliction and dirt and visualise what it could be like. I have built up a good team of builders I can call on and they all tend to be the older generation. They work to the highest standards and they always clear up after themselves."
Samantha, who doesn't want to divulge how many properties she has in her portfolio, manages the lets herself and is meticulous about taking up references and doing credit checks.
She has had three bad tenants in 15 years.
She also believes "buying right" is the key to success. That means the right location and at the right price.
At the moment she believes that South Yorkshire is a good area to invest in thanks to the amount of planned regeneration.
"Whether the market is going up or down there are always deals to be done. I have good relationships with a few estate agents who let me know about properties, but I don't buy at auction. It's too rushed and when you rush you tend to buy wrong."
She adds: "You also have to buy for the long term. Buy-to-let is not a get-rich-quick business and there is a lot of hard work going on behind
the scenes."
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