Stuck between a rock and a hard place

sofrajean

Please be patient this is rather long winded,
Thanks in anticipation for your advice.

I have inherrited half a house with my sister inherriting the other half. I am wanting to do work on the property to increase the likelihood of a sale (expecially considering the current climate). I'm finding this increasingly frustrating :mad:

I am considering two options really the first was the initial plan:

• put the house on the market as soon as we are able regardless of the state of the property but preferably half decent.
• Buy my sister out of her share of the house, do it up either rent, sell or live there depending on how my fanancial situation and living needs develop.

The thing is in order to buy her out I will need almost a 50% mortgage which although is possible is not ideal, if I sold and bought something smaller I could potentially be mortgage free.

Thoughts anyone?
Please help cos I'm totally baffled

poppysarah

Have you had it valued recently?

sofrajean

had it valued in July at 160 said before decline would have been about 180 guessing it will have dropped further.

There is a house in the street that has been on the market for a year despite being in a good area with lots of schools locally 2 gardens 2 bathrooms etc

poppysarah

You should prob get it revalued with an eye to selling ...if it's dropped in value then you'd need a smaller mortgage...

sofrajean

yeah... the other thing i considered was to wait it out.... do nothing, stop pushing for work to be done and live in it until it sells or doesn't. When my sister sees that it's going to be difficult to shift she may drop the price for me...

kazwookie

What does your sister want to do with the house?

sofrajean

she lives miles away and has no interest in renting it out for an income so it leaves selling i've mentioned other solutions but she really isn't listening to me about anything, she seems to think i'm just trying to be controlling rather than the fact that I'm trying to look after 'our' investment and futures

geoffky

CASH IN THE ASSET QUICKLY..ITS FALLLING IN VALUE BY 2K EVERY MONTH..the longer you wait the harder it will be to get what you want out of the asset..

bandraoi

Why not move in and rent your sisters half from her?

sofrajean

Cant actually even think about selling till July due to clauses in the will but I'm a firm believer in the benefit of owning property and not paying rent, regardless of anything else a person will always need a roof over their head regardless of market value. Also I truely believe that the market will steady out and will eventually begin climbing again.

My sister is not interested in renting, I'm currently living in the property which needs work which she is uninterested in doing or paying her share for. A big part in wanting to buy it is so that i can get on with the work and regain some control. Allowing me to rent sell etc whenever.

Either way property will be purchased its just a question of whether its my house or another smaller property.

mlz1413

If you can't sell until July does that mean you can put it on the market and see what interest you get and at what price, just make it clear that completion cannot be until after X date in July if someone is interested?

If you can do this then whilst you are living there you can have 2 months of feedback from potential buyers. If this feedback is negative then you can discuss this with your sister in May or June to decide on a way forward.

Personally if I want to buy a run down house and do it up I want to buy it before someone messes about putting in a cheap kitchen and bathroom with the hope that spending £2000 will get them £5-10k extra. Mainly because I don't want to pay £5k for a bathroom and kitchen I don't want or like. I would add that putting in new fittings will not necessarily get you a sale, my friend made her fella put in a new kitchen 'to sell' his house (they had moved in together into her house) and it stills remains on the market today, no interest and no offers.

But if you intend to stay there or you want to rent it out it sounds very much like you need to buy your sister out to be able to get on with it.

Have you asked your sister about buying you out? that way she can deal with the sale herself and therefore cannot feel you are controlling the outcome.