Stuck between a rock and a hard place

katelovesthailand

Is anyone else in the same situation?
I bought a terrace house in 2004 on a 100% mortgage with my now ex partner. It was worth £116k.
Neither of us live there now. We have it rented out. We can't get another mortgage as it's dropped to about £120k in value (was £135k a couple years ago) and will probably continue to drop into neg equity.
He wanted to buy me out but Northern Rock have declined him as they say he doesn't earn enough. No one else will give him a mortgage either as we don't have enough equity in it either. We are currently on svr and interest only with NR as our fixed rate came to an end last year. Our tenants rent just covers the mortgage.(we pay about £100 together on top)
We've had the house on the market and had one viewing in 1 year. We're now changing the estate agent. They say they are confident to sell it at £120k.
I'm at my wits end. Is selling now the best plan of action? Will it sell? Is there anything we can do to get it to sell? Should we hold on? House prices just seem set to continue to drop? Is there anything else he can do to take the house on solely - he does want it, and I don't.
I feel stupid for not having any foresight in 2004 - I'm sure there are people in a worse situation than this though. I think it would help me to talk to them as I feel very alone and worried and I don't know what to do for the best. Luckily we are on speaking terms (just) but the other side of the coin is emotional. I and he want to get on with our lives and we still saddled together in this.

lethal0r

can you extend the term with NR so you can at least break even or make a small monthly profit?

what is the absolute minimum you would take? it might be a good idea to put it on for that right now.

pretty much everyone thinks prices are going to drop for the whole of next year. it would be better to sell now than this time next year.

silvercar

Sell and move on.

beecher

lethal0r wrote: »

can you extend the term with NR so you can at least break even or make a small monthly profit?
.

as the mortgage is interest only, extending the term will make no difference.

You need to sell, and so make sure it is priced realistically. How much is your outstanding mortgage? Try to price it as close to that as you can - £115k?

lethal0r

katelovesthailand wrote: »

We are currently on svr and interest only

does this just mean interest only? I had taken it to mean a combination of repayment & interest only.

katelovesthailand

Its interest only as before the interest drop we couldn't afford the repayments on svr.

We'd lose money on £115k but I'm past caring.

Do you think we should put it on with more than one estate agent? Or price it in a band e.g 115-120k? To try and encourage people to buy?

I did consider trying to keep it myself but realistically I don't think i'd get a mortgage either. I earn £25.5k a year.

PINGLEIST

Sell, the sooner the better.
A bit of research will give you a selling price of all houses in your area then take time-out to compare them to yours, take a deep breath and pitch your asking as low as you can, this is your only option IMO.

Make sure your AE advertises on Rightmove and hopefully buyers will come knocking, one viewing in a year is a joke if you are serious about selling and has probably cost you a few thousand.

mlz1413

Agree with your ex how you can cover any loss and then ask NR if they will let you sell it for less than the mortgage if you can prove you can pay any shortfall.

Taking a shortfall now is your best bet as prices are not going to rise for years so the situation can't get better. And if one of you can't buy the other out you don't really have many choices apart from long term rental.

With the current drop in base rates at least your svr payments will reduce so you should be able to stop the monthly top up payments.