Should we sell our house and rent??

Stewart_78

I agree with Prophet to be honest. We live on less than 25k at the moment as we have been raising the kids and working from home. It's not huge fun but possible. I would seriously look at where your money goes. If you could put aside £1500 a month into a savings account you would very soon have a large pot of cash to start offering full and final offers. Sorry if this is presumptuous as you may have other fixed expenses.

Living tight for a couple years has to be better than losing that 100k equity doesn't it? You can probably settle your debts for 30-40k with offers.

thecassman86

If i were in the position of OP then i'd sell up. You're both on great salaries so can live a very comfortable debt-free life with that - even with the uncertainty of rented accomodation. The debt you have is vast and people can suggest all sorts of ways you can shorten the timespan but it's never going to be shorter than 10 years at best and that's not good enough to solve your space issues.

If it was just the debt then i'd say, as you're relatively young, you should stick at it and stay where you are - but - add to that the space issues and the inability to remortgage then i'd say selling up was a no brainer. Provided, of course, you get enough from the sale to clear the debt.

almamatters1985

fastnet wrote: »

Timescale of the DMP is about 18 years at the current payments (approx £330 a month) but we are in position to increase these now, but certainly not to apoint wheer we could clear our debts in 2 years.

Maybe this is being too nosy but why, when you earn over 5k a month between you (you on 36k, partner on 49k), are you only paying £330 a month towards a 100k debt?

That's what I pay on 21k towards my debt of just over 5k...

Are you saving up thousands for final settlements?

abby1234519

I agree, I think we need to see a SOA!

At the end of the day I know some people don't want to show us where their money goes, can be for a myriad of reasons. You might think thats far too private to divulge. But unless you are telling us who the account is with, what your account number is and also the password on the account I can't see how its too private :P

It is perfectly possible for you to keep your house and pay off your debts in only a few short years. There have been people on here who've paid off 100k in 3 years on a similar income.

So if you are only paying £330 on debt then there must be some expenses there that you don't want to let go of that maybe you should. Perhaps you have a certain lifestyle, things you spend money on that you feel you should be allowed to have. But with 100k debt, maybe you should forgoe those? I am only making assumptions here obviously as you haven't detailed your expenditure so forgive me if I am wrong! I know I could have been out of debt by now if I had cut back earlier. I regret not doing so. I'd have rather lived 3 years of being very thrifty without being a mother than having to do it now when I am a mother.

Stewart_78

abby1234519 wrote: »

. I'd have rather lived 3 years of being very thrifty without being a mother than having to do it now when I am a mother.

So very true. It seems it would have been easy then.

fastnet

Thanks for your replies and I appreciate the various viewpoints in terms of our salaries and paying off our debt options. Our current income is only recent,I have been out of work for a while and working part time prior to that and my husbands salary has only recently increased. I have recently give full tinge and got a promotion. So I take on board that there is a lot more we can do with our income now and one of them would be substantially increasing our debt repayments.

We don't have any extravagant expenditure (and have been on dmp for a number of years) but we have been getting back on our feet after my unemployment (paying off arrears). Our increased salaries are a factor in the decision we need to make, as we haven't been in the position we are in now, with such a substantial amount of income left after essentials. Apologies as I should have explained that fact.

Your views on paying off the debt and the possibility of reduced F and F settlement is not something we had considered.I just kept seeing £100k and feeling utterly overwhelmed.

The debt and the space issue combined has made us consider the option of selling more seriously.

However I am going to see if I can find out what sort of f and f we would be looking at and look at our budget with our salaries to see what sort of timescale we would be looking at.

Then I will feel that we have covered all options before we make a decision.

Thanks once again.

hettiecarro

Hi Fastnet
Just wanted you to know we are all still here. Hope your mind is not spinning too much from all of our varying opinions.


Hettie
xx

abby1234519

fastnet wrote: »

Thanks for your replies and I appreciate the various viewpoints in terms of our salaries and paying off our debt options. Our current income is only recent,I have been out of work for a while and working part time prior to that and my husbands salary has only recently increased. I have recently give full tinge and got a promotion. So I take on board that there is a lot more we can do with our income now and one of them would be substantially increasing our debt repayments.

We don't have any extravagant expenditure (and have been on dmp for a number of years) but we have been getting back on our feet after my unemployment (paying off arrears). Our increased salaries are a factor in the decision we need to make, as we haven't been in the position we are in now, with such a substantial amount of income left after essentials. Apologies as I should have explained that fact.

Your views on paying off the debt and the possibility of reduced F and F settlement is not something we had considered.I just kept seeing £100k and feeling utterly overwhelmed.

The debt and the space issue combined has made us consider the option of selling more seriously.

However I am going to see if I can find out what sort of f and f we would be looking at and look at our budget with our salaries to see what sort of timescale we would be looking at.

Then I will feel that we have covered all options before we make a decision.

Thanks once again.

Hypothetically could you stick the current house out for a couple more years? You could pay off the debt (if you have any that haven't defaulted get them clear first) over 3 years. By that point you would be able to move house and hopefully have enough equity to upgrade comfortabley. In those 3 years you would need to live relatively frugally, for instance my food budget for the 3 of us is £25 a week which does include nappies etc. You might think I must live on lentils but actually we don't. We had lamb chops last night!

At the end of the day, what do you WANT to do. If renting appeals to you then go down that route but if ultimately you do want to keep your house, well I bet you can do it.

fastnet

hettiecarro wrote: »

Hi Fastnet
Just wanted you to know we are all still here. Hope your mind is not spinning too much from all of our varying opinions.


Hettie
xx

Thank you so much – my head was spinning a bit so had to take a bit of time out from the board. The response was incredibly helpful and supportive but also quite overwhelming.

I have had a few more agents round and they have confirmed the valuation and I have looked online at a few rentals so I am getting my head around the fact that it we can get somewhere nice to live.

I just want to be a happier family, the debt is a like an anchor round our necks, it affects my relationship with my husband and the kids hear us arguing etc. I am in a place where I have made my decision in my head, I just need my husband to catch up with me now.

Thanks for your support.

Fastnet

Stewart_78

Good luck with it, whichever you choose. You can't put a price on happiness and happiness often brings good health which is equally priceless. I often wonder how many years all the stress of debt and being skint has knocked of my time.