My Dilemma

TBeckett100

We have had our flat on the market now for 2 months and over the past 2 weeks someone got into negotiations over it. we rejected an offer and at the same time we found somewhere we liked. I told the vendor i am buying alone on the basis i dont need to sell and the property is off the market. we thinks it has good potential. The lady making the offer offered x and I wanted x plus 2k and she said no. I said ok, you can have it for x. Was she satisfied, no.

Anyway the beatch came last night for a umpteenth viewing basically conducted a homebuyers report on the house, every cupboard, socket, radiator, window lock, the inside of the fridge and deemed not to buy the flat in the end because it was on the ground floor - i mean that factor must have just dawned on her.

Anyway, we have appointed new agents at a lower price wef Monday so hope for some new interest and a different tactic, but this leaves me with a slight problem, 200k of a new house and 30k to find.

Finding the 30k shouldnt be a problem but it would mean that we would have to have 2 mortgages totalling £1800a month which i could just about afford on my basic, but in a dwindling market, I am wondering whether necking myself up until the flat is sold is such a good idea..... answers on a postcard please...

if it works, i could scrape 30k together, buy the house I want, sell the flat with no onward chain and use the 30k equity to extend the new house and then remortgage to release back the 30k and have a larger property, but i may have gone barmy with this idea!

KiKi

I had this exact same problem!

I had an offer on a new flat, and my sale on my old flat fell through. I didn't want to lose the new place, so I raised the deposit for the new place by adding it (interest only) to my old flat's mortgage.

I paid two mortgages and two sets of bills on my own for six months, which totalled something like £2200/month.

I took a risk but, at the end of the day, it was a calculated risk. I was sure my flat would sell eventually, and I knew that if the worst came to the worst, I'd have to sell the new place again and might possibly end up out of pocket. I could also rent the old place out for a while f required.

Happily, my old flat sold - albeit it took six months to all go through. I accepted less money for it than I would have liked, but my new flat was my dream home and I wasn't prepared to let it go.


I would say: if this is what you really want then do it - just make sure you have budgeted it ALL out, worst case scenario, likely scenario and best case scenario. And have a back-up plan (which might be that you end up with a loss and no new flat) if all else fails!

Only you can know whether or not it's doable for you!

(I would steer clear of this house extending, remortgaging thing for a moment - just get your old place sold first before you take the next step!!!!)

HTH - let us know what you decide.
KiKi

Running_Horse

Next time, is it worth the extra expense and delay for the sake of £2,000?

KiKi

Hi Running Horse (sure that's not your real name - unless you're a native American - but in the absence of that knowledge....!)

Forgive me if I've misunderstood you, but the OP said that she let the buyer have it for the 2K less, and the buyer then decided not to buy the house because it was on the ground floor.

So the situation isn't the OP's fault (nor was s/he asking about that) - the buyer pulled out after the OP made an offer on a new place.

What do you think about the OP taking on two mortgages?

Lomion

Just did exactly the same thing. If you can afford both mortgages and are sure your 1st house will sell, then go for it. Make sure the mortgage company agrees with your plan though. Mine took a bit of convincing

Just plan for the long term. What if your house doesnt sell for 6 months or more? Can you afford it? What if you have to accept less than the asking price? Have you added the costs for Solicitors/Estate Agents etc etc into the 30k?

I put the 1st mortgage on 3 months payment holiday with the plan of swapping both mortgages to interest only after the 3 months were up. In the end it sold before the 3 months were up anyways. I would say check your figures carefully. See what both mortgage payments would be in total for Interest only while you wait for the 1st to sell. If you have no trouble affording this then go ahead.

Running_Horse

TBeckett100 wrote: »

The lady making the offer offered x and I wanted x plus 2k and she said no. I said ok, you can have it for x. Was she satisfied, no.

I think I read this correctly Kiki, but correct me if I'm wrong:

Woman makes offer-Offer is rejected with a request for £2,000 more-Woman refuses and withdraws original offer despite being told it would be now accepted.

What do you think about the OP taking on two mortgages? I think OP should seriously consider any offer to avoid that situation (as I originally said).

KiKi

No - I think the buyer said she wouldn't offer the £2K more - so the seller let her have it for her original offer. She went ahead with the offer but wasn't satisfied because she then made x number of visits to the house and eventually withdrew the offer weeks later on the basis that the flat was a ground floor flat.

I think the "was she satisfied - no" wasn't relating to the cost, but what came after that.

You asked if it was worth the expense and delay, but I hadn't taken from that that you felt the OP should avoid having two mortgages - so that's why I asked, sorry.

TBeckett100

well had i accepted her 2k less offer anyway she would have pulled out the next day as she needed to think when we accepted it anyway.

We are confident the house long term should be worth more than it is. it will need some work doing to it when the survey comes back which hopefully could be renegotiated in the price.

geoffky

i would be oh so careful as where i live there are numerous house let alone flats that have been on sale for 8 months or more.could you cope with that...buyers market now