Reasons to be a landlord?

Last week I went to view my house in the UK - that is currently let out.

To get done:

Central heating not as hot as it should be
Flow of water into toilet tank very very slow
Clear moss etc from roof, check gutters
Replace/repair fence between my house and neighbour
Replace kitchen skirting board under cupboards
Replace lino on kitchen (this had already been agreed)
Garage door "spool" counterweight has become unspun
Oven door glass not being held in the right place
Replace letterbox

Now, my lettings agent will deal with all this, though obviously it's worth me checking the prices of things.

If you are handy, and live near the house you are letting, then yes being a landlord is fine. I just want to say to anyone considering it - even though I live *thousands* of miles away and I do have a good agent (and am lucky with good tenants too, currently!), it is not entirely hands-off - unlike investing in, say, a FTSE 100 index tracker or S&P/TSX Composite tracker.

It's fine. I'm a landlord by accident rather than choice, and it has caused me to save harder than I might otherwise (in an attempt to minimise the interest paid to the nastiest of banks, Santander - upping their SVR by 0.5% for no good reason...).

Many people (who are not landlords) say to me: Yes but the value of property is unlikely to go to zero, I feel comfortable owning a thing such as a house, etc. And I understand that.

But the thing is, you could instead own part of something like Sainsbury's - where the share price is approximately the value of the business, so you are getting a whole load of real estate for "free"; or vice versa.

Chances of Sainsbury's going out of business? Far from impossible, but not hugely likely. Chance of all 102 companies in the FTSE 100 going bankrupt? Well...

Who knows.

Ah money. How much fun you are ;)