Thoughts on you selling up and renting for a bit....regretted it?

newsgroupmonkey_

brianposter said:

Not me, and not in the UK.

About a month ago my sister sold her house for 20% above "market value". She spent four or five days looking for a replacement house, found no sign of anything suitable that was actually for sale, and had, very embarrassingly, to return to the buyers and tell them that she could not go through with the deal.

In current market conditions it is advisable to be very cautious.

4 or 5 days

We're not even on the market and we've been looking for 6 months. We're getting a feel of the market.

We know that it may be a number of weeks before we find anything suitable (we don't have too many needs - outdoor space, 3 bedrooms or 2 bedrooms and a study, garage or workshop - bungalow or semi - it's about location for us).

4 or 5 days

user1168934

Selling up and renting - definite NO for me. It was hard enough to get on the property ladder to begin with. With prices going crazy high and limited supply of houses I would not want to imagine doing it.

I would rent out the one you own and start renting close to work until you find the area you are happy with. Then sell yours and buy at the same time.

newsgroupmonkey_

user1168934 said:

Selling up and renting - definite NO for me. It was hard enough to get on the property ladder to begin with. With prices going crazy high and limited supply of houses I would not want to imagine doing it.

I would rent out the one you own and start renting close to work until you find the area you are happy with. Then sell yours and buy at the same time.

That's terrible advice.

Renting out a home is not something to be taken lightly. You could end up in a court dispute for 12 months plus if the tenant decides to play games.

Not to mention all the tax issues, EICR, Gas Certificates and all the other regulations around renting.

Search for "accidental landlord" on this forum and you'll see why.

user1168934

Ramouth said:

We rented for 6 months between selling and buying.  There are definite advantages.  It made both moves easier as there we had an overlap at each end.  We were able to decorate before moving into new house.  It made us chain free buyers which is more attractive.

There were also major disadvantages.  It was hard to find a rental - we ended up much further from work than we had planned.  Prices were rising at a rate of over 20% per annum in the area we wanted to buy which was scary.  This made us more inclined to offer over value.  There was also the rent (we had previously been mortgage free) and the hassle of moving twice.

In hindsight I’m glad we did it because we love our new house and won’t be moving anytime soon, but financially, I’m still not sure it was the right decision.

Given that you probably had to offer over value (or inclinition at least) and that financially it was not the right decision, why do you think chain free made you more attractive as a buyer?

I am genuinely curious because I have heard people say that so many times. But every time I have bought a property as a chain free buyer I have not noticed the difference. The supply is always limited, markets are crazy and I have always had to offer way over value to have an offer accepted. I have even lost £400,000 houses over a couple of thousand to someone with a chain. I simply don't get it. Please do tell.

user1168934

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

user1168934 said:

Selling up and renting - definite NO for me. It was hard enough to get on the property ladder to begin with. With prices going crazy high and limited supply of houses I would not want to imagine doing it.

I would rent out the one you own and start renting close to work until you find the area you are happy with. Then sell yours and buy at the same time.

That's terrible advice.

Renting out a home is not something to be taken lightly. You could end up in a court dispute for 12 months plus if the tenant decides to play games.

Not to mention all the tax issues, EICR, Gas Certificates and all the other regulations around renting.

Search for "accidental landlord" on this forum and you'll see why.

There are literally millions of properties privately rented in the UK. I am sure a small number will have issues with tenants but not every single one. In my opinion, jumping through these hoops and renting out your property is a much better solution than selling your own and finding that you have been priced out of the market.

I am talking from experience by the way. But I suppose it's horses for courses.

lookstraightahead

user1168934 said:

Selling up and renting - definite NO for me. It was hard enough to get on the property ladder to begin with. With prices going crazy high and limited supply of houses I would not want to imagine doing it.

I would rent out the one you own and start renting close to work until you find the area you are happy with. Then sell yours and buy at the same time.

Ah yes I did this years ago. Bought in zone 5, let the property, and rented in zone 2. Worked perfectly well (although it really was years ago).

but I have also always rented before buying to break chains.

Thrugelmir

lookstraightahead said:

user1168934 said:

Selling up and renting - definite NO for me. It was hard enough to get on the property ladder to begin with. With prices going crazy high and limited supply of houses I would not want to imagine doing it.

I would rent out the one you own and start renting close to work until you find the area you are happy with. Then sell yours and buy at the same time.

but I have also always rented before buying to break chains.

Being mortgage free. I'd have no problem offering £20k above my ceiling to secure the right property. Easily spend that amount  incurring all the costs of temporarily renting, storage etc. 

Ramouth

user1168934 said:

Ramouth said:

We rented for 6 months between selling and buying.  There are definite advantages.  It made both moves easier as there we had an overlap at each end.  We were able to decorate before moving into new house.  It made us chain free buyers which is more attractive.

There were also major disadvantages.  It was hard to find a rental - we ended up much further from work than we had planned.  Prices were rising at a rate of over 20% per annum in the area we wanted to buy which was scary.  This made us more inclined to offer over value.  There was also the rent (we had previously been mortgage free) and the hassle of moving twice.

In hindsight I’m glad we did it because we love our new house and won’t be moving anytime soon, but financially, I’m still not sure it was the right decision.

Given that you probably had to offer over value (or inclinition at least) and that financially it was not the right decision, why do you think chain free made you more attractive as a buyer?

I am genuinely curious because I have heard people say that so many times. But every time I have bought a property as a chain free buyer I have not noticed the difference. The supply is always limited, markets are crazy and I have always had to offer way over value to have an offer accepted. I have even lost £400,000 houses over a couple of thousand to someone with a chain. I simply don't get it. Please do tell.

You are quite right - there is no way we can know.  The market went crazy where we were buying so the property received multiple over guide price offers.  We imagine that if our offer had been close to another then being chain free might have made a difference but we will never know what the other offers were.  We just wanted to make ourselves as attractive as possible having lost out to cash buyers in the past.