coming off the property ladder

august16

Hello, I have never used a forum before but want people's opinions. We had been planning to move last year but circumstances stopped us, we still very much want to move but cannot get a decent mortgage offer. I want to sell and rent but husband is anxious about coming off the ladder and struggling to buy again. what should we do??

domcastro

If you can afford the house - I'd stay put
It might take you ages to sell and you might have to take a low offer
Renting is horrible - you could get evicted every 6 months. You have loads of fees to pay etc etc

Cannon_Fodder

Why can you not get a decent mortgage offer?

- Poor credit history?
- Low deposit?
- something else?

Best to tackle that aspect, assuming the property is one you can afford to stay in. When you say "struggle to buy again", reading between the lines are you struggling to stay on the ladder?

If you cannot afford to stay, then if you still have some equity in the property you should act before you drop into negative equity - IF your situation is borderline and you risk falling into arrears, then I don't see much sense throwing good money after bad.

If you can afford to stay, get yourself into the best possible position financially, then review the market.

You may have missed the boat on the best time to sell and rent.

However, if you decided to test the market and a buyer came along it might be foolish to pass up that sale if you did not have the mortgage offer/right house ready to go to...only you can make the call on whether you are ready to do that, and whether you could keep the buyer happy by getting into rented quickly enough.

Its also about the local cost of renting, shop around - will you pay more in rent than mortgage or vice versa? Do the maths.

Renting can also be on a long-term basis, with a landlord like one of those kind ones we have on this site, who have demonstrated they treat their tenants well, so renting is not all doom and gloom.

If you can sell, signup to rent for a year, watch the market - if it falls the expected 10% or so, then you have more than made the "loads of fees" back. Even if your local market does not fall, sometimes you have to take a step back, go sideways, to then move forward. Depends on the "circumstances", "struggle", etc.

Of course, there are also removal costs and the "hassle" of switching utilities etc between properties etc, so yes its not perfect, but neither does it have to be "horrible".

However difficult it may be to sell, is also true for wherever you might want to buy - THEY may also be WILLING accept a low offer, so allowing you to bring a chain together - if you can get the mortgage offer sorted.

There is no "one size fits all" answer to this sort of question. It may all come back to the first question I put.