anyone gone 'let to buy' on a house they can't sell?

Thrugelmir

23rdspiral wrote: »

our neighbours house is for sale via probate so is on at 15k less, making it the cheapest house in our town, but still no-ones biting. so we've no chance of selling!

This should be a big hint that making a decision now could one way or the other cost you the equity in your property.

As purchasing another property will give an exposure of £220k in the property market.

Why not enjoy the comfort of your 1.5% mortgage and overpay while you can ?

23rdspiral

thanks everyone for your comments. i'm going to think hard about what you've all said - espeically about the EA having other motives! They genuinely havent had many sales, especially at our end of the market, at all over the last few months, so unless everyone from top to bottom prices, drops the prices by a lot, no one will move, but i'm not going to be the first to 'topple' the local market - i'm happily not that desperate to sell!

Thrugelmir (great name btw!) - we've been on the market for a year and have done just that, quite happily.

UPDATE: my other half read all these replies and phoned our mortgage lender just to test the water - who said "do you earn 100K, and do you have 50K in savings? if not both then we can't give you a Buy to Let" - then she practically hung up the phone! without even hearing about the sums involved OR letting us ask why she was speaking about a 'buy to let' when we rang up about a 'let to by'. well, that doesnt exactly want me to stay with them!?!

g_attrill

GMS wrote: »

Are you thinking of Buy to Let? No seller in a Let to Buy

The OP is talking about let-to-buy, where you let the property to somebody who is hoping to buy it after a specified period.

GMS

g_attrill wrote: »

The OP is talking about let-to-buy, where you let the property to somebody who is hoping to buy it after a specified period.

Let to Buy is letting your current property and buying another, turning the first into a Buy to Let.

23rdspiral

GMS wrote: »

Let to Buy is letting your current property and buying another, turning the first into a Buy to Let.

yep, that's the one. thanks for confirming that for everyone GMS - before i was starting to get confused!

InMyDreams

23rdspiral wrote: »

the idea of retaining an asset like this and not loosing any of the equity we've earnt through overpayments would be quite nice.

Whatever happens, you have not 'lost' any of your overpayments. They are reflected in your lower mortgage balance. That's what your overpayments 'earnt' you and that won't be lost.

Your house is worth what it is worth, and if you think it won't even sell at £70K then you can't claim that your property has a value of £90K. If you remortgage your current property, the bank will think the same so your equity is already less than you think.

Thank goodness you had the good sense to be making those overpayments otherwise you could potentially now have been in a negative equity situation with your current mortgage.

I don't know much about the buy-to-let business, but it does strike me that if your house was an asset worth keeping for rental purposes then a professional buy-to-letter would be interested if the price was right. The fact that you can't even tempt a professional to buy your house to let it, implies to me that it is riskier and/or less profitable than your estate agent is letting on. If a professional won't touch it, what makes you confident you could pull this off?

You say you don't want to be the first to topple the local market, but isn't that preferable to being the one left after it's been toppled by someone who is more desperate than you? What if your neighbour decides that they accept £65 or less, just to get the property shifted and probate sorted out? How much does that make your house worth then? Even if you decide to stay, this could start to make remortgaging difficult.

RenovationMan

Just to take a different tack, why are you looking to move house?

g_attrill

GMS wrote: »

Let to Buy is letting your current property and buying another, turning the first into a Buy to Let.

Oh! Yes, sorry I was thinking of "rent to buy", carry on ignore me!

Trollfever

You say you don't want to be the first to topple the local market,

Chasing the market down.

From Property-Bee

History

dateevent16 September 2010

• Price changed: from '£119,950' to '£112,500'

13 September 2010

• Price changed: from '£122,500' to '£119,950'

08 September 2010

• Status changed: from 'Under offer' to 'Available'

05 September 2010

• Price changed: from '£124,950' to '£122,500'
• Status changed: from 'Available' to 'Under offer'

15 July 2010

• Price changed: from '£129,950' to '£124,950'

09 June 2010

• Price changed: from '£134,950' to '£129,950'

01 June 2010

• Initial entry found.

madeupname1

23rdspiral wrote: »

UPDATE: my other half read all these replies and phoned our mortgage lender just to test the water - who said "do you earn 100K, and do you have 50K in savings? if not both then we can't give you a Buy to Let" - then she practically hung up the phone! without even hearing about the sums involved OR letting us ask why she was speaking about a 'buy to let' when we rang up about a 'let to by'. well, that doesnt exactly want me to stay with them!?!

You may not need a new mortgage. Your existing lender may be willing to grant you consent to let the property for a period of time, e.g. 3 years. Some lenders charge a fee or increased interest for this. Some don't. That would be my first port of call.