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Selling and wanting the cash

srcandas
Posts: 1,241 Forumite

Hi all. No definate answers/guarantees here but I would appreciate any recent experiences and guidelines.
I'm selling our house in the UK for hopefully £235000. There is no mortgage and no chain my end; we will be moving into a flat we already own in Spain. From there we will buy a house for cash at our leisure.
The massive unknown factor in the plan is the exchange rate. When I agree the sale to the point of exchanging the money I will be exposed. A sudden drop in the pound would leave me with no UK home but wanting to delay/reconsider Spain.
1/ What is the sort of timescale I should allow for from say accepting an offer (the point of no return) to getting the money in the bank?
2/ Clearly finding a cash/no chain buyer would help but other things can go wrong. Is there anything I can do to give me a pull out option if things get delayed after accepting an offer?
Obviously I can buy a guaranteed exchange rate for this period of time but it is not cheap. So any input would help. :beer:
I'm selling our house in the UK for hopefully £235000. There is no mortgage and no chain my end; we will be moving into a flat we already own in Spain. From there we will buy a house for cash at our leisure.
The massive unknown factor in the plan is the exchange rate. When I agree the sale to the point of exchanging the money I will be exposed. A sudden drop in the pound would leave me with no UK home but wanting to delay/reconsider Spain.
1/ What is the sort of timescale I should allow for from say accepting an offer (the point of no return) to getting the money in the bank?
2/ Clearly finding a cash/no chain buyer would help but other things can go wrong. Is there anything I can do to give me a pull out option if things get delayed after accepting an offer?
Obviously I can buy a guaranteed exchange rate for this period of time but it is not cheap. So any input would help. :beer:
I believe past performance is a good guide to future performance :beer:
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Comments
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It is possible to do exchange and completion same day. It may put off some potential buyers but it is none-the-less possible.0
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It is possible to do exchange and completion same day. It may put off some potential buyers but it is none-the-less possible.
Tx anselid for replying. So are you saying up to exchange I could pull out and just have the solicitor to pay? And thus my exposure would be time for money transfers?
I think it is unlikely the pound will collapse especially as I can go at 1.18 to the pound and it hasn't been at that level for a year. But the general election worries meI believe past performance is a good guide to future performance :beer:0 -
Tx anselid for replying. So are you saying up to exchange I could pull out and just have the solicitor to pay? And thus my exposure would be time for money transfers?
That is correct. It would not be popular with the buyers if you pulled out but it is perfectly legal to do so.
A currency fix would be the better option and may still work out cheaper than the potential loss of fees etc. Can you not just factor it in to the price you are willing to accept?0 -
If you are planning on keeping the money in the UK, make sure the account you want to use is opened before the house is sold. If you leave it until afterwards, you will have no UK address and will struggle to open a UK account.
We made this mistake when we sold up and moved to Ireland - although to be honest by the time we'd paid off the mortgage and paid off the car loans there wasn't much left anyway!! We found the banks were happy to change the address on existing accounts to a foreign one, but we couldn't open a new one.No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...0 -
That is correct. It would not be popular with the buyers if you pulled out but it is perfectly legal to do so.
A currency fix would be the better option and may still work out cheaper than the potential loss of fees etc. Can you not just factor it in to the price you are willing to accept?
Well with the valuable info you've given me I see the level and timespan of risk is much lower than I had thought.
But waiting beyond the GE may scupper my plans for years so hopefully I can get it on the market "priced to sell" 2nd week of January and be away very early April at the latest. Again many tx :beer:I believe past performance is a good guide to future performance :beer:0 -
there are of course other expenses you need to consider if you delay selling which could out way the possible slight drop in the exchange rate.
While you have a property here you will have to pay
Full council tax even if the property is empty
Gas, electric bill, the property may need some form of heating through a winter.
Insurance, both property and contents, difficult to get if empty for a long period
Travel back and forth to manage your property
General repairs and deterioration of an empty unused house.
There may be others these are just the first I thought of.
Factor these in and see how things work out!0 -
trailingspouse wrote: »If you are planning on keeping the money in the UK, make sure the account you want to use is opened before the house is sold.
Excellent trailingspouse - I had missed that off of my TODO list. I currently us two Lloyds accounts for my salary and pensions but I haven't yet checked if being resident in spain will lead them to want to change my accounts in someway.
For sure my economy, in terms of business and pensions, will remain UK side. Although I'll have to pay tax in Spain. :beer:I believe past performance is a good guide to future performance :beer:0 -
there are of course other expenses you need to consider if you delay selling which could out way the possible slight drop in the exchange rate.
While you have a property here you will have to pay
Full council tax even if the property is empty
Gas, electric bill, the property may need some form of heating through a winter.
Insurance, both property and contents, difficult to get if empty for a long period
Travel back and forth to manage your property
General repairs and deterioration of an empty unused house.
There may be others these are just the first I thought of.
Factor these in and see how things work out!
Ognum tx, good points but my concern is a major fall of the pound, agreed not likely, which outweighs these. And I already maintain both properties. But sounds like you've done this as you have a good grip on the two home costs
The scenario I fear is a rise in UKIP and deterioration of Labour leading to an almost certain referendum backed by a growing anti EU sentiment. Having said that Greece is doing its very best to counter that at the momentI believe past performance is a good guide to future performance :beer:0 -
On an unrelated note, it's good to see the benefits of free movement within the EC.
We constantly hear/read of the dreadful consequences of allowing other EC citizens coming over here and taking our NHS jobs etc, but it's a 2-way street.0 -
Ah, but of course, "it's different"...
British citizens going to live elsewhere in the EU, then not integrating and not speaking the language (I'm not accusing the OP of being one of them, btw) is, somehow a different and better thing than Johnny Foreigner coming here and doing exactly the same...
It's also worth remembering that there are more British citizens elsewhere in the EU than there are "them" here...0
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