Selling House Woes

kangolroo

Hi all, in need of a bit of friendly advice if possible! I've moved out of my first home into rented accommodation, its a long story but in a nutshell my wife had the opportunity to rent a really nice home in a good area through her family at a good rate. I now need to sell my old place whilst we save up to buy it, my house needs a bit of work doing including double glazing at the front of the house and a general tidy/repaint. I really wanted to avoid getting the glazing done but we are the only house in the street without it and the wooden frames are just about gone.

I purchased it around 6 years ago for £54k, in the 6 years the prices in the area peaked at £80-85k then when the recession hit they dropped to around 70k and now they are being listed for anywhere between 50-60k depending on condition. I've made enquires with my local estate agent and they believe I should expect to sell for £50k - now to say I was devastated would be an understatement. Yes the area is run down but it is improving, the house is well built, close to town centre and has a decent school nearby. Yet despite the improvements made I've watched the prices continue to drop and drop, I suppose deep down I knew this would happen but having it written down made it hit hard. Don't get me wrong I'm not a greedy person all I wanted was to sell my home so I would have enough to pay off our dept and have a clean slate, now it looks like this won't be possible. I really don't know what to do, if I sell I'll be lucky to break even and if I rent I'll be luckily to get the mortgage covered and of course I'll also have to repair any wear and tear to the property.

As for the new place its great and my wife just loves it to bits. We've been working on it with her family getting it ready to move into for the last year and once we can afford it we hope to buy, unfortunately this has put a bit of a downer on things - just when you think things are getting better. I know nothing can be done, think I just needed to vent. Least its Friday.

Mallotum_X

Sounds like you have a great new place to get on with life. Nothing much you can do about prices, personally I would do the bare minimum to make it look tidy - lick of paint and patch up the windows.

Good luck.

dopester

Lots of ways to think about it. Sell it for £50K... well you've had 6 years living there by the sounds of it, instead of £4K+ a year spent in rent. So take that as the advantage you've had out of it, instead of getting on the violin.

You have to take responsibility for your own decisions. We can all love the 40" LCD TVs at £700, the holidays to New Zealand, and complain about our finances later.

As a would-be FTB I want prices to crash. Many FTBs are becoming monsters in demanding the same... wanting much better value for money.

Maybe you can do so in your new area, and instead of paying (borrowing) what her family want for the house you now rent.... wait until values return to some sanity before buying. Your own area has seen price correction and it may well be coming to many other areas.

kangolroo

dopester wrote: »

Lots of ways to think about it. Sell it for £50K... well you've had 6 years living there by the sounds of it, instead of £4K+ a year spent in rent. So take that as the advantage you've had out of it, instead of getting on the violin.

You have to take responsibility for your own decisions. We can all love the 40" LCD TVs at £700, the holidays to New Zealand, and complain about our finances later.

:T

Yeah gonna smash up that violin and get rid I think, just needed to vent I guess.

Just for info I never went to New Zealand or got the TV, well I did the latter but it was £300. Thanks for doing your research, please don't be so critical when you don't know the full facts.

geoffky

why should someone buy your debt ? So many people expect a first time buyer to buy the sellers debt..