£14310 off mortgage 2010 lets make 2011 better

CathT

I'm sure someone else would offer more financially minded expert advice than me re: the BTL but i guess it depends on whether you see it as a long term investment or pension provider etc. How long till the garden work is finished?

spandles

Hi

We sold our rental last year. We took out the equity in our house and bought it outright. That was 5 years ago. Fortunately we had good (not brilliant!) tennents but friends of ours had their place 'destroyed' and now the property is unoccupied whilst it is being repaired. That frightened us and we didn't want to be in that situation, especially as our tennents decided to move and we had to take on someone else.

It was supposed to be a long term investment but then our circumstances changed (I was ill for some time), the bottom fell out the market etc, etc........

After 5 yrs the value of our rental was almost same as our outstanding mortgage. So we decided to sell the rental, and with most of our savings, pay off the mortgage. This leaves us with an 'emergency funds' worth of savings.

The only down side is we are on a fixed rate with Nationwide at the moment so we would incur ERC's to pay off early. We have therefore reduced the term of the mortgage to end at the same time as the fixed. We pay £5500 a month to do this:eek:. It was the only option as the savings rates are awful.

I want move (and thats a whole new story!!) but where we are now is so handy for the schools, shops etc so whilst the DD's are young we are staying put (3-5years). We have decided to save for/pay off our future mortgage, hence my addiction to this site/forum. (And Rightmove.)

Hope I haven't bored you to tears , but selling our rental was the best thing we did!!

sarahevie

Spandles - thank you so much for taking the time to post. Not boring at all, very interesting in fact. I'm really pleased that it has worked out well for you. It can be very stressful worrying about whether rent is going to be received/what state the property is in etc. When we had two incomes it was fine as we could afford both mortgages now I'm a SAHM we couldn't for any length of time.

CathT - Waiting to hear when landscaper can start he has jobs outstanding before he can start ours though. Really hoping for July for DD2s 1st birthday, planning on a big party as it has been quite a year with all the health complications etc (if not October for DD1s 3rd):rotfl:Although suspect the weather will be changing then.

sarahevie

Lincoln potter - no idea about start times etc for ebay. I now try to do 10 days starting on a thursday to get two weekends, but doesn't always work. On the ebay forums different sellers say different things, but all agree that different people's lifestyles mean people are online at different times.

Baby stuff sellers tend to avoid things finishing at 7 as most parents will be putting kids to bed etc. What I have noticed is that there seems to be less last minute bidding going on with my auctions and people bid early and set their price and then if they get outbid late on then fine.

I know around the world cup times, business sellers reckoned that ladies clothes/shoes/impulse buys did really well as though the blokes were watching the footies whilst the women were sat on the laptop - generalisation I know but you get what I mean.

sarahevie

Eek about £40 now to last six days. Very tight month again.

Think I may have something from surveys/DY as I had a Fedex yesterday from abroad - getting re delivered today can't think of anything else it could be

CathT

Good tips about ebay there, i haven't sold anything on there for a while but i need to start selling really! Will be easier when baby comes along and if it's a girl we can keep everything and if it's a boy i'd best get listing pink items!

I hope the garden work gets done in time.

cha97michelle

Just thought i would let you know i got my DY cheque today, which i requested 2 weeks ago. It should just be in an envelope as all mine have been. The fedex package sounds intrigueing.

sarahevie

Fedex wasn't exciting just a product to test.

I'm giving up dooyoo as I worked out I'm earning about £1.30 an hour to do it. I

'm considering giving up all surveys. It's causing rows at home so it's just not worth it. I'm spending hours a day at them for peanuts.

cha97michelle

I hadn't worked out an hourly rate, but i bet you would be right. I keep at it as i like it, and DH isn't bothered. If it were causing rows i wouldn't bother either. You will still be able to do ebay i guess and balancing the books.

Did your cheque come?

sarahevie

Yeah eventually - I may go back - just had enough for now