Have you sold to rent?

ABOJ

Sold to rent due to relocation from Fife to Midlands. Bought in Nov 2002 for £97000 and sold Nov 2006 for £157000. £70000 equity now sitting in the bank @ 6.10% interest (tax free a I am currently at home with small children)until we feel its the right time to buy . Should add that current rent is subsidised by husbands work and totals £290 pcm including council tax. This allows us to save an extra £500 per month. Only downside is that I am impatiant and love DIY, so would love my own house now. Hoping that waiting out will pay off for us:rolleyes:

lynzpower

keeperbear wrote: »

This forum is full of believers in a HPC and selling to rent. Rather than provide hot air about the looming HPC, has anyone acted on their convictions and sold to rent durng the last two years? If so, do you care to name when you did it, how much you pay in rent and how much you expect to make from a house price crash? Do you regret the decision? Taking into account transaction costs, have you made money yet? Let's have some empiricial evidence of why selling to rent is such a good idea, rather than mere "hot air" rhetoric about its virtues.

Hi there keeper

Yes I sold to rent, moved out of the flat I sold in January. It was a shared ownership flat on an Interest only mortgage for the mortgage share ( pre MSE)

I was paying out 1100 once I came off my fixed rate, and that was interest only. I reckon it would have been more like 1200 on repayment if not more again. We now rent a house at 758 ( unfiurnished, london zone 3) therefore, we are saving 442 a month. PLus this doesnt take into account the buildings insurance I paid, plus my life insurance etc and maintainence thus costing up around about the 500 mark month less. Additionally, my own personal regualr savings is 425 a month.

the main reason I sold the falt was becuase it was ridiculously hot and also we couldnt have my partners dog there.

After transaction costs ( 500 to housenetwork, 450 to my sols, 50 for m credit check with my letting agent) I came out with 38k, some of which i paid off debt with ( 4k) some of which I spent on a holiday (1200) and the rest is in savings and looking to risk more of it in more aggressive investments as soon as I have time to work on what should go where.

The main reason I did this was so we could have OHs dog, and be more of a family together. It was always more than the money, and every morning when I wake up with a jack rusell snuggling into my feet in the bed- I know selling up was always worth it

mystic_trev

I STR'd end of 2005. Got a great cash offer and had to move out quickly. I haven't found anything I'd like to buy since, and I own two BTL's (mortgage free) and an Interest in another property, so if I lose out a bit, I'm not bovered !

I actually like renting, I find it quite liberating!

Guy_Montag

I've never yet been in the position to buy, I have to say, I'd have to be a lot more sure than I currently am before I str'd

phlash

Guy_Montag wrote: »

I've never yet been in the position to buy, I have to say, I'd have to be a lot more sure than I currently am before I str'd

I'm also Sold To the idea to Rent. So yes, I've STR'd.

So far I've gained thousands, by not losing thousands in HPD*, whilst making monthly gains of £100's through not paying £100's extra for the privilege of a mortgage in my name where I'm made responsible for the debt.:j

*HPD - House Price Deflation (An acronym that will be used more often in time to come)

Dithering_Dad

Hi KB, I'm confused as to where you stand.

On the forum discussions, you always promote house buying as an investment vehicle. You have mentioned above that you were living in the 1 bed flat during the last crash (in the 90's?) and you have also mentioned in posts that you no longer have a mortgage and that this means you will have a comfortable retirement (mainly due to not having to pay rent any longer). Finally, you have also mentioned that you are about 35 yrs old.

If all of the above is true, then how can you have any credibility when on the one hand, you encourage people to take on large mortgages so they can share the delights of home ownership and to invest in properties because they're such a good investment, yet on the other hand you yourself refuse to move up the property ladder and are happy to stay on the "FTB" rung with a 1 bed flat??

If property is such a good investment then why are you not investing?

If owning a property allows you to realise a pension by downsizing, then why are you not "upsizing" now during your working life so that you can "downsize"??

I'm sorry if this post comes across a little harsh, but in my book, if you "talk the talk" then you must "walk the walk"...


(This is a copy of a post I made on a different thread. I just saw that you started this one, so thought it was more likely for you to see a post on here, and so I copied my original post).

budget_counsellor_shaz

A couple I know bought a house 2 years ago as they wanted to get onto the property ladder. They were unable to buy locally as local houses were too expensive (we have subsidised rent for our house with work). Since buying their house they have to travel about 20 miles each day to work, petrol costs money plus extra time spent in the car driving to work.

They had a mortgage on which they pay interest only as they can't afford to pay any of the capital back.

Their mortgage is 190 000 and they pay about £1 000 a month. They now need to sell as they are needing to move with work. So far it has been on the market for over 3 months and they have just dropped the price by another £10 000 so now it is on the market for £20 000 less than the estate agent told them he could sell it for them for.

They will have to drop the price again if they do not get any offers, they need to move.

Having asked them whether they regret buying 2 years ago ..... I think the answer is obvious.

Are the prices dropping??

look on property snake........

I'm glad our money is in the bank earning lots of interest and hopefully earing even more when the interest rates go up next week:rolleyes:

Shaz

wecanhelpu

the ultimate STR

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/07/02/cntower102.xml

scooter100_2

budget_counsellor_shaz wrote: »

A couple I know bought a house 2 years ago as they wanted to get onto the property ladder. They were unable to buy locally as local houses were too expensive (we have subsidised rent for our house with work). Since buying their house they have to travel about 20 miles each day to work, petrol costs money plus extra time spent in the car driving to work.

They had a mortgage on which they pay interest only as they can't afford to pay any of the capital back.

Their mortgage is 190 000 and they pay about £1 000 a month. They now need to sell as they are needing to move with work. So far it has been on the market for over 3 months and they have just dropped the price by another £10 000 so now it is on the market for £20 000 less than the estate agent told them he could sell it for them for.

They will have to drop the price again if they do not get any offers, they need to move.

Having asked them whether they regret buying 2 years ago ..... I think the answer is obvious.

Are the prices dropping??

look on property snake........

I'm glad our money is in the bank earning lots of interest and hopefully earing even more when the interest rates go up next week:rolleyes:

Shaz

how much are they selling the house for? a profit or a loss?

Dithering_Dad

Hi wecanhelpu,

I noticed from a couple of your posts here and on other threads that you have a certain viewpoint on our KB friend here. I first came across him/her when I joined MSE and was reading the Don't Pay Your Mortgage Off thread on the MFW board. KB was very antagonistic towards the OP and I think was intrumental in having him kicked off the MSE site (which was unfortunate because I thought that the OPs posts were pretty entertaining).

I have since seen a few of Keeper Bear's posts here and there on MSE and almost all have been attacking anyone who don't agree with being mortgage free, being a home owner or investing everything in property. This stance just didn't gell with KB's own circumstances, as I've detailed in my question to KB above.

It's just such a shame that Trolls like KB come on here, pretend to be helping people and actually advise them to follow a totally different direction than what they do themselves.

Maybe this is par for the course, but from what I have seen, most people who are branded as "trolls" tend to be people who are a bit argumentative and sometimes downright rude, but at least they are arguing for a principle or a financial strategy that they believe in and are actually following (such as STL or BTL). In my book this is far more acceptable than pushing financial theories that you don't follow yourself.

wecanhelpu

DD - what I dislike about kb and other posters like him is they have followed one particular path and then assume that is the only way to do things even if other people have got different situations.

I personally wouldn't STR because I am in my 40s and settled in a house which I never want to move from. I intend to be motgage free within 5 years and retired in 12.

As I said in earlier posts kb is a prat and is best ignored.