Raising equity to buy next property to move to?

Kittenonthekeys

We've been wracking our brains to try and work out how we're going to approach our planned move.
We really don't like the town where we live now and things seem to be getting worse. We have our hearts set on another town that we've always loved, and want to move there next year. Problem is that although property there is only slightly more expensive than where we are now (our present town is closer to London and has a direct connection) very few houses come on the market at any one time within our price bracket.
We have no way of knowing if anything will even be available there to buy when we come to sell next year, and if not, we just couldn't afford to rent in the interim until a house came along, mainly because of the costs involved. Renting and all its attendant costs would seriously deplete our already tight budget and it would be lost money that we could never recoup. We would also risk prices going out of our reach whilst we waited. A few years ago, placing the capital sum raised from a sale in a savings account would have covered rent, but of course that's far from being the case today.
I also have my income to consider, as I am self employed, work from home, couldn't afford to stop working for however many months while we rented - and because of what my work involves, it would be difficult or impossible to bring it all with me to do from a rented property.

I know it sounds like I'm pre-empting things a bit that may never actually happen; we may well be lucky enough to find somewhere suitable to buy at just the right moment, but the truth is it would be a big gamble and we simply wouldn't know until it was too late!
I feel it would be foolhardy not to consider all the possibilities before we even start - because if there isn't anywhere to buy when the time comes, we'd find ourselves in pretty hot water.
I'm sure there must be plenty of other people in a similar position, but I just don't know the answer. I only wish we could buy a place there NOW (there is one available which is priced much lower than our current house is worth) and just hang onto it until we are ready to sell our current house next year. We have almost 100% equity in our current house.
Sales can't be accurately predicted of course, but character property like ours does tend to sell quickly here.
We would ideally just want to keep the next house empty and get it straight while we sell this one. We would not be comfortable about renting out either house.

It's sounding a daft question even as I type this, but is this feasible and does anyone know of any way that we could possibly raise the £180K equity in our present house (current value approx £240K), buy the other house and then repay the amount borrowed - obviously plus whatever interest - once we sold? I should mention that we're both just past official retirement age but both still working as we have no private pensions. (We also enjoy our jobs!)
Much appreciated.

Kittenonthekeys

Whoops forgot - another question please - is it unheard of to negotiate, say, a 3-month rental period instead of the usual 6? (apart from a holiday let?)

booksurr

Kittenonthekeys wrote: »

It's sounding a daft question even as I type this, but is this feasible and does anyone know of any way that we could possibly raise the £180K equity in our present house (current value approx £240K), buy the other house and then repay the amount borrowed - obviously plus whatever interest - once we sold? I should mention that we're both just past official retirement age but both still working as we have no private pensions. (We also enjoy our jobs!)
Much appreciated.

so you are self employed, past retirement age and want to raise money without selling your current property

yes, it is called re-mortgage the current property. Obviously you will not be allowed to borrow more than 95% of the value of the property and of course you will need to be able to afford such a large debt so your income and age will be assessed, thus the only way you will find out is ask a mortgage broker

marksoton

You need to sell your current place. Rent if needed and then purchase again.

mildredalien

If houses in the area you like come up less often, and houses in your area sell quickly, can't you just wait until you find a property you like in your desired area and then put yours on the market? Why do you have to wait until a particular time next year to sell yours?

Kittenonthekeys

mildredalien wrote: »

If houses in the area you like come up less often, and houses in your area sell quickly, can't you just wait until you find a property you like in your desired area and then put yours on the market? Why do you have to wait until a particular time next year to sell yours?

Our house isn't ready for putting on the market yet as we still have some work to do on it which will take a few months to complete - we prefer to try and sell when it's looking its best. This will take us past the summer, so we thought better to wait until spring of next year rather than try to sell / move as we come up to the winter months when things can be slow.
There have also been some health issues this year that still need to be resolved.

Doozergirl

Kittenonthekeys wrote: »

Our house isn't ready for putting on the market yet as we still have some work to do on it which will take a few months to complete - we prefer to try and sell when it's looking its best. This will take us past the summer, so we thought better to wait until spring of next year rather than try to sell / move as we come up to the winter months when things can be slow.
There have also been some health issues this year that still need to be resolved.

So you're delaying yourself for no actual real reason?

You want to finish some work, you'd prefer to sell in the spring of next year because things might be slow? Houses sell all year round. You're telling us you want to move and are preventing yourself and putting obstacles in your own way.

Turn all those negative thoughts into positive ones. You create your own reality!

Go and look at the house you like, get yours on the market. Whatever it is that you need to do probably doesn't matter. You won't know unless you try!

If you try and fail, so what? Fix whatever it is and keep marketing. What's the point in faffing around with mortgages which will cost you more money and stress? And 'spring markets' - why?

If you get that house now and sell yours - how amazing is that!

Really, the things people prevent themselves from doing. What is the worst that can happen?