Moving area plan - Advice or forseeable problems please!

Jam1981

Hi all and thanks for the feedback.

We have been holidaying in Torbay ,which is where we want to move to, for 20 years at all different times of the year so think we would like living there.  We know it will be different from a holiday once working and everyday life becomes the norm but feel it's worth the risk, especially if we can rent for 12 months first to get a feel for the place.

In regards to the renting, I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that a landlord with 6/12 months rent in hand would be happy with that given that even an employed person could either lose their job or simply decide not to pay?  Also, I have seen that some LL will consider pets by taking a higher deposit or a slightly increased rent?  If this is incorrect, please let me know as we are new to this!

Job wise, my wife is a sole trader as a domestic cleaner as well as selling our own handmade cleaning and household items online.  We have researched the current competition and market down there and are confident we can set up with enough jobs within a good timeslot.  I work in admin/retail roles (PT only due to illness) and they seem to be readily available as have been keeping an eye on this for 12 months.

We by no means will be living in the lap of luxury which we are fine with and we have seen 2/3 bed houses that would suit us currently at between 165k and 185k.  We aren't planning on putiing our house on the market until Spring 2022 and live in a sought after area so hopefully the value would've risen by then.  I'm estimating we would need a mortgage for 80-100k (with approx 50% deposit) when we are ready to buy in around Summer 2023 which, according to the online calculators, would be doable.

Again, if there are any glaring issues with our 'plan' please comment so we can look at ways to rectify!

newsgroupmonkey_

Please don't see this as a downer on your plans - we're in a similar situation (except forced by job move, so we don't have that particular issue)

But things we are considering (as we put this idea on the table - we don't actually know the area we're moving to and also on the coast)

1. It took us years to get back on the ladder. We took a 12 month rent back in 2007. We had a decent chunk of money from house sales when we got together. Those were the days when you could get 100% mortgages and we never worried about it. Of course, by the time we went to buy, we'd spent some of the money on going abroad for a family wedding and the financial crash happened along with 20%+ deposits now required. We didn't have that kind of money.

2. The housing market crashed and the picked up. In a really bad way. We were offered a small terraced house for £90k which was a good deal (we were friends with the owner who didn't really need the money as she was moving in with someone and she wanted to help us out). But we thought we'd hold out for something bigger. So we rented somewhere bigger for 12 months.

Except that the housing market continued to grow, before we knew it, we were priced out. Robatwork above mentions this.

Then our landlord decided to sell up and offered us the property at a decent discount - it was on the market for £163k, but we could have had it for £150k. But we couldn't really afford the deposit. And so the cycle continued. Until we eventually saved up for a few years and bought a similar property. Except by that point, it cost £260k (honest!)

My children have also now left home (20 and 24 respectively, although they didn't go to University, both very successful and the youngest is about to buy his first place). We're in our late 40s and really don't want to have to start the whole cycle again. Not to mention our mortgage (portable) has a hefty early repayment fee!

Are there any other options? Like one of you continues in their job whilst the other spends their time house hunting and getting to know areas? Or one of you gets a job in the new area and either commutes or finds a flatshare? Many admin/office jobs don't need people permanently in the office. We're attacking it this way.

I'm only needed in the office 2 days a week. So I'll get a hotel for 1 night a week, then the wife and I will probably spend most weekends in the new area too in a cheap TravelHovel or something.