Sell to be Mortgage free?

southantrim3

Hi, I was just wondering as anyone actually sold their house to be mortgage free? I was also wondering if people have downsized or moved to a more affordable property in order to clear their mortgage?

Just curious more than anything else as I am thinking of doing the same myself. I would love to be able to give up full time work and just work part time instead, here's me saying this at only 31! But sure.

WillowFae

I can understand downsizing, but if you just sell then whilst you are mortgage free you still need to rent somewhere so surely you are still tied to working to pay for that. Unless you can pay the rent from a part time job of course, but if all you want to do is to be able to afford to work part-time then downsizing seems a better option.

southantrim3

Sorry, I didn't explain myself clearly. Yea, I was thinking of going for the downsizing option. But I was just wondering what other people have done with the prices of houses currently.

benood

A few years ago we sold in advance of buying and it was a great feeling watching all that cash earning interest for a few months (despite paying rent), however, in the end we wanted to have a house of our own so went back into the market with a bigger house and mortgage!

If we thought the mortgage was too big though I guess we want to sell pretty sharply.

Louisa2007

i've thought about it, just utilty bills to pay each month would be so nice.

I think really thoughts its like anything else - if you want it badly enough you'll pay for it.

David_B_2

We too have thought about selling up and renting. But we bought our house in 1998 and like most it has trebled. I'm paying next to nothing in today's world for the monthly mortgage payment and to rent would be at least double this. We'll have a couple of tight years of overpaying and then owning the house outright before deciding.

I remember when I used to complain about paying just £100 a month board to my mum, how nice that would be now. I wonder if she'll have me back for a couple of years!

MoKa_2

We're currently looking at property in another part of the city, which is just an up-and-coming area, so we're hoping we'll be downsizing financially, but not physically. If we get the property we're hoping for, I'll post again and let you know how it works out.

southantrim3

That's a very good idea which I hadn't thought of. I must keep an eye out for up and coming areas in Belfast and see what I can get for the money, good thinking. It would be nice to see how you get on.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Good topic.

I have a 3 bed semi in the south (in a ok part of town) and if I sold up every thing I might have about 100K cash (after paying of the mortgage) had a look on Right Move and in places such as Chesterfield and I could buy a two bed terraced or semi house in that town for about 100k and be mortgage free.

whether those 2 beds are in a good area or not I don't know.

It's food for thought I could be mortgage free and 34, but would be in smaller property (i.e 2 beds rather than 3 beds) than I am at the moment but still sufficent for wife and baby and would need to "start again" in a new town i.e new jobs, friends etc.

Best,

moanin'minnie

last year our youngest left home and we downsized to a much smaller house enabling us to pay a lump sum off our mortgage and leaving us with a very small mortgage, have thought of doing the same in a few years and paying off the rest but will wait and see how the housing market goes before we make any rash decisions, must say its great having a small mortgage and less outgoings now !!:j

jollyanna

I'm another one pondering downsizing. I'd like the same ammount of bedrooms but less downstairs and half the garden (plus a lower council tax and water rates). I've got 2 kids hoping to go to university next autumn and I know it's going to cost us dear. I've got the willies about the new home buyer stuff due in June so if we don't take a decision in the next few weeks I'll be wary of entering the market for ages or until the dust settles!
I was wondering if it makes better economic sense to wait for prices to take a dip before trying to sell so that you pay less in fees to the agent, land registry etc. My reasoning being that it is all relative.
Can anyone point me in the direction of up to date information on the HIP's please ? Maybe Martin will be doing a prog. on it soon.