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Advice on selling home before emigrating
ChrisWaller
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hi,
I'm new here so please no flaming if this is a common question that's been asked and answered elsewhere.
My wife and I have been in financial difficulties for a while now. We've been on a debt management plan and with a lot of hard work we're sticking to our budget and the wolves are not yet at the door.
Our biggest problem is that we have an expensive house (around £300,000) and a correspondingly expensive mortgage (around £260,000). This means that our mortgage repayments outweigh our debt repayments by about 3+ to 1. The only way that we can see to properly get on top of things is to sell the house, pay off the mortgage and hopefully a bit more besides.
On top of this, the stress of all of this has put a lot of strain on the two of us (I'm on anti-depressants for example) and our young family (we've got two year old toddlers). So we're at the stage where we just want to ditch the endless struggle and move overseas. I have some good prospects in the Netherlands and my wife is South African and fluent in the language. We can hopefully turn this immensely negative time into something positive and create a new life for ourselves.
The biggest stumbling block remains the house. While our area has bucked the trend slightly (we're in quite a prosperous area of North Wales) we're going to struggle to sell it quickly and we're feeling fairly desperate.
Does anyone have any advice to offer, for example:
1) Does anyone have a quicksale/buyback company that they could recommend? The ones we've spoken to so far wouldn't be able to cover the mortgage.
2) Are there any companies that specialise in selling houses for
people wishing to relocate or that will buy houses off people wanting
to relocate (at better terms than the companies I have spoken to
already)?
3) Is your credit rating carried across when you emigrate within Europe?
4) If you have a poor credit rating, how adversely would this affect
your ability to find a job and accomodation while in Europe?
5) Is there any other advice that you could offer?
Many thanks in advance. We're miserable and trying really hard to find a silver lining to the particular cloud that we're under.
Chris
I'm new here so please no flaming if this is a common question that's been asked and answered elsewhere.
My wife and I have been in financial difficulties for a while now. We've been on a debt management plan and with a lot of hard work we're sticking to our budget and the wolves are not yet at the door.
Our biggest problem is that we have an expensive house (around £300,000) and a correspondingly expensive mortgage (around £260,000). This means that our mortgage repayments outweigh our debt repayments by about 3+ to 1. The only way that we can see to properly get on top of things is to sell the house, pay off the mortgage and hopefully a bit more besides.
On top of this, the stress of all of this has put a lot of strain on the two of us (I'm on anti-depressants for example) and our young family (we've got two year old toddlers). So we're at the stage where we just want to ditch the endless struggle and move overseas. I have some good prospects in the Netherlands and my wife is South African and fluent in the language. We can hopefully turn this immensely negative time into something positive and create a new life for ourselves.
The biggest stumbling block remains the house. While our area has bucked the trend slightly (we're in quite a prosperous area of North Wales) we're going to struggle to sell it quickly and we're feeling fairly desperate.
Does anyone have any advice to offer, for example:
1) Does anyone have a quicksale/buyback company that they could recommend? The ones we've spoken to so far wouldn't be able to cover the mortgage.
2) Are there any companies that specialise in selling houses for
people wishing to relocate or that will buy houses off people wanting
to relocate (at better terms than the companies I have spoken to
already)?
3) Is your credit rating carried across when you emigrate within Europe?
4) If you have a poor credit rating, how adversely would this affect
your ability to find a job and accomodation while in Europe?
5) Is there any other advice that you could offer?
Many thanks in advance. We're miserable and trying really hard to find a silver lining to the particular cloud that we're under.
Chris
0
Comments
-
Not a criticism .. But are you running away from your problems.? . and if so, how do you know they wont arrive before you do..
Why not rent here for awhile till things settle down.. then worry about the immensely stressful idea of moving to a foreign country with no job and no savings and a young family??
Selling your house yourself will get you the best price, and the sale is in your hands to speed along as you see fit (eg disounts or very deep discounts)tribuo veneratio ut alius quod they mos veneratio vos0 -
I'm afraid I have to agree with Rabiddog.
It seems like you have got into a sticky mess here and are just trying to run away. These "buy your house instantly" companies WILL rip you off. They will give you the least possible amount of money. They are out to make a big profit out of you, remember? They are not chairites.
Sell you house privately - if its a £300k house in North Wales it must be quite a palace! - Rent for a while, perhaps even a slightly more modest place, until your finances stabilise, you can get off the anti-depressants and your kids get a few more years under their belts.
Remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side. If your wife is from SA, she should be able to tell you this.
Best of luck with whatever you decide.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.[/FONT]0 -
Can't help much with your questions, but this site might be useful to you if you don't already know of it:
http://britishexpats.com/
The only other thing I can add is that, to my knowledge, nobody on this forum has reported any good experiences with the quick sale companies you mention.0 -
1) No quick sale company will be able to help you at your LTV. They'll use you as an "options lead" which basically means you'll still have the big mortgage.
2) There are no specialist "help you out to emigrate" companies. They may front up so, but in reality they are still the SARB brigade.
3) No
4) No effect
5) Get it on the market with the agent with the most Sold boards in town. Price it to break even. If it doesn't sell within a month it'll sit there for a year.0 -
That is the plan. The order would be (1) sell house (2) rent in the UK (3) emmigrate. We're not entering this lightly and we're not running away - at least in the sense of hoping that things will disappear. But I see no problem moving out of a poor situation if you have the opportunity.Not a criticism .. But are you running away from your problems.? . and if so, how do you know they wont arrive before you do..
Why not rent here for awhile till things settle down.. then worry about the immensely stressful idea of moving to a foreign country with no job and no savings and a young family??
Selling your house yourself will get you the best price, and the sale is in your hands to speed along as you see fit (eg disounts or very deep discounts)0 -
I can see some of your points, but I'm asking for practical advice not analysis of my motivationI'm afraid I have to agree with Rabiddog.
It seems like you have got into a sticky mess here and are just trying to run away. These "buy your house instantly" companies WILL rip you off. They will give you the least possible amount of money. They are out to make a big profit out of you, remember? They are not chairites.
Sell you house privately - if its a £300k house in North Wales it must be quite a palace! - Rent for a while, perhaps even a slightly more modest place, until your finances stabilise, you can get off the anti-depressants and your kids get a few more years under their belts.
Remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side. If your wife is from SA, she should be able to tell you this.
Best of luck with whatever you decide.
As I replied to rabbidog, we do intend to rent in the UK before we travel overseas.
My wife is as positive about wanting to move as I am, if not more-so.
As for waiting until the kids get some more years under their belts the reason that we want to start planning now is so that we can move before they get settled in school.0
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