Ray Barber

Fifty Years as a Property Landlord Ray Barber

Ray Barber, with his wife Jean, bought their first rental house for the purchase price of £500.00 in 1964. They went on to add two more to their portfolio. Ray converted each into two flats becoming a builder which he learned to do 'on the hoof'. They then decided to rent out also the home in which they lived after their family moved away, and they themselves moved to Spain. The book describes the comings and goings of tenants both good and bad, as well as some agents also of the same ilk. Over the 50 years plus of being landlords, they have dealt with a drug addict, a man wanted on firearms charges, and of course, the housing benefit system. Needless to say, the tenants who either left without paying, the con artist, and the agent who creamed the best tenants for their own properties. They have encountered the non professional agents, as well as at last finding professionalism in two more.