ALLAN JAMES EDGAR

TODO add link to BTTB site & article

Description: Student accommodation rentals, by students.

Mission Statement: BTTB stands for "Better than the Bank". Should we let our savings languish in a low interest account, or should we do some good in the world? From an (ex-) student's perspective, we designed this rental from the ground up for student inhabitants. Did you get locked out of your room? We've got you covered with internal backup key safes. Is messiness causing house tension? All of our rentals all include dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers. Are you concerned about the environment? Well shit, me too. We've spared no expense on efficient appliances and insulation for your/our conscience.

I was approaching my second year of university and, like many others, I was tired of paying endless rent. Myself, and a couple other "co-conspirators", decided to try and buy our own student house. It was a good size and in the middle of Nottingham student area (Lenton). Despite having been bought for a song, this house WAS a fixer-upper. It had plenty of potential but with substantial work.

The next portion of the project was the renovation. During that summer my co-conspirators and I lived in that husk of a house. We slowly, floor by floor, brought it to life.

There were several notable tasks involved in this process. First was the removal of the chimney. On every floor we demolished and removed hundreds of Kilos of bricks. Not only did this allow us more space but it also eased some council requirements for renting to "multiple occupants". The other renovations included but were not limited to; replastering, rewiring, renovating the basement and improving insulation.

Seeing as I didn't have a car, it was a challenge getting the huge buckets of paint back from the hardware store. I would imagine it made for an amusing sight at that. After few weeks, with the majority of the painting done we begain work on the plumbing. Next we then measured out, ordered and fitted the kitchen. The last step was to insulate the basement under the floorboards because a lot of heat is lost down there, particularly in victorian builds.

With most of the back breaking work over and done with, I settled into the somewhat cushier task of sourcing furnishings and making it look nice. For the carpeting we decided on a dark, slightly patterned material to hide spills and stains. A commonly ommited detail is the underlay. It makes a huge difference to the "comfiness" of a house. We put a good amount everywhere but used the thicker, more durable stuff for the higher traffic areas. Along the same vane at a local furniture store we found a bargain of a 3 piece leather couch set that would actually be nice to collapse into after a long day on campus, or night on the town. Not to mention, with an eye to maintenance, the leather has proven to be very resistant to wear and will long outlast the cheap-out option.

We attempted to give ourselves several unique selling points too. With the surplus of bricks from the chimney demolition I built a barbecue. The "garden" shaped patch of weeds in the back was also a contentious issue. We converted it into a rock garden with a membrane underneath to prevent any further growth. We also added vertical bike hooks and locks in the rear.

It must be said that all these conscious decisions have paid off in the end too, 7+ years down the line and nothing major has needed to be replaced. This is shown in the fact that the property goes for £10per-person-per-week above the local average and has been rising steadily year on year. Looking forward though there is still work to be done, maintaining the HMO license and all the safety certification. We also spend the odd long weekend every year to clean and tighten screws here and there. The biggest pain in the ass is the accounting. Tracking which of that years purchases into tax deductible or capital expenditures, maximising constantly changing rules, yikes. No one should have to spend that long on the HMRC website. Despite these challenges, the property has always been cash flow positive and has created it's own cash buffer for if times get lean.

Never fully content with the status quo, a recent effort of mine has been to investigate the possibility of kitting the property out with solar panels. The first reason being, I beleive Its the right thing to do, with a large, high south facing roof its almost too perfect not too. Secondly there is a strong case to be made for the financial incentives of doing so. Not only is there the government incentive schemes that pay for every unit generated, but the ability to increase rent with the appeal of lower bills to tenants. Thirdly and I think most excitingly, is that It is a step towards making the house less grid reliant by installing an energy storage system when their prices inevitably fall. This would give us as landlords the ability to offer a low risk, bills included option at a significant price advantage and little to no on-going costs.