£2 million in equity but no money

Gorana

My house is on the market for the past 9 months and I had a few very low offers. I consulted five agents in the area and all agree that the price is attractive. I lost my job and I’m on UC, but I’ll run out of saving in three months. How can I raise money 9without a job) against my property to get me going till I sell the house? I have around 2 million in equity, and I am single mum. Thank you 

KeepOnKnitting

I would suggest you don't have 2 million in equity. You have had offers, it sounds like you are overpriced. You house is only worth what someone will pay for it.

Gorana

House is on the market at £3.1 million the highest offer was £2.7 million, if I take my mortgage out that leaves £2 million (from the highest offer). 

Grumpy_chap

Gorana said:

My house is on the market for the past 9 months and I had a few very low offers. I consulted five agents in the area and all agree that the price is attractive. I lost my job and I’m on UC, but I’ll run out of saving in three months. How can I raise money 9without a job) against my property to get me going till I sell the house? I have around 2 million in equity, and I am single mum. Thank you 

You may think (hope) that the house is worth >£3m.
The market thinks it is worth £2.7m max.
Sell at £2.7m.
Clear the mortgage £700k, leaving £2m.
Buy a nice house for £1m, which will be mortgage-free
Retire on the remaining £1m. 
Even if you kept the money "under the bed" and just pulled notes out as required, you'd have £50k (no tax) per year for 20 years.  With some sensible financial planning, you'll be able to live the £50k life-style for the remainder of your days.

MEM62

Gorana said:

My house is on the market for the past 9 months and I had a few very low offers.

Gorana said:

I consulted five agents in the area and all agree that the price is attractive.  

Those two statements do not go together.  If the price was attractive you would have sold.  I suggest that it may be over-priced and the information from the estate agents does not reflect the current market.  

emmajones1976

Gorana said:

House is on the market at £3.1 million the highest offer was £2.7 million, if I take my mortgage out that leaves £2 million (from the highest offer). 

Only two million? Poor love 😉

Keruge

Gorana said:

My house is on the market for the past 9 months and I had a few very low offers. I consulted five agents in the area and all agree that the price is attractive. I lost my job and I’m on UC, but I’ll run out of saving in three months. How can I raise money 9without a job) against my property to get me going till I sell the house? I have around 2 million in equity, and I am single mum. Thank you 

When an Agent says the price is attractive they mean they would love the commission if they can persuade you to stay with them for as long as it takes to sell it.

If you want a "price today" go ask Property Rescue and see what they will offer.

Of you are sure you want to sell remember that you are in a strong position to negotiate with the agents, say that you want them to bid for the contract to sell your house which will be reduced in offer price for a quick sale. 0.25% to 0.5% should be achievable.  I did this and have the agents a sliding scale where they got 10% of everything over the price I knew I could get easily.  Ironically the most upmarket agent came in lowest and sold the property in 3 weeks.  I actually regretted the sale because I should have rented it out, but I was in a sticky position.

It is right that you seek to help yourself out of your situation with your own assets rather than claim Universal Credit et al.

For most people it is a nice problem to have.

To answer your actual question, you can get equity release loans (which I would avoid but you asked), you can remortgage the property for say £1m, releasing £200k for you and you pre-pay the £100k to service payments.  See a good mortgage broker, make sure the lender is an established bank. John Charcol are an decent broker, you may find one locally but be very careful that whatever they propose is with an established bank.  Don't say I am a single mum on universal credit, say I am a mumpreneur looking to release some equity.

https://www.charcol.co.uk/

You could start a business and get a £300k loan, giving the lender a charge on your house and personal guarantees. You have skills and a career to date,  I am sure if you put your mind to it there is a business idea in there somewhere, even if it is just doing better than the competiion.

It could be just you just employing yourself in what your good at and you outsource as much of the tedious stuff a la 4 hour work week, so all your hours are high rate activity.  Single mothers do this all the time, it might be in Letting, Recruitment, Event Management, HR, Project Management, Accounting or wherever your skills lie.  You then go back to your previous employers and offer to do piecemeal work for them at 5 to 10 times the hourly rate, but point out you will only be working limited hours.  I know an HR manager who is "retained" by about 25 customers, she had been HR manager for 4 and was very strong on networking her old contacts. Then by structuring her workflow she employed 1 assistant and outsourced the mundane.  My sister did this, she sold her business for 7 figures and had £400k in the bank.

If you don't want to sell for emotional or investment reasons, the the obvious thing to do is to let the property, this will service your mortgage and you then rent.  I imagine the reason you do not want to do this might be that you have been able to delay the sale of the house as part of the divorce settlement because of your kids, so renting it out may impact that.

I hope that helps!