Advice or direction on where to get advice needed please.

timehastoldme

Advice or direction on where to get advice needed please.

My husband and I really want to move. My brain health isn't great and part of that is situational so moving would be a big help.

Our fixed term ends Dec 2023 but ideally we want to move before that. We owe about 93k on the house and the Zoopla estimate (that we are not pinning massive value to but it's all we've got) is 200-220k.

We both intentionally earn below our earning potential. He works three days at a job he loves and earns £18k a year for those three days. In his 'free' time he takes on freelance projects that interest him. They pay OK but that's not the main motivator, and he doesn't do any that aren't interesting.

I'm a tutor, pre COVID i had up to 16 students a week at £25 an hour plus exam work in the summer. It was a new thing and that was where my self employed salary peaked. (~12k) I stepped out of salaried work because money great, sanity awful. When COVID cancelled all the exams, that was zero work for six months. No exam marking, no students. It picked up a little the next autumn but that years salary for tax purposes was a little over 2.5k.

Things are better financially now, I've pushed into some new freelance territory, taken on international marking and I'm back up to 10 (£30) tuition sessions a week. We've got some savings and my income should be at lease up to pre-covid levels of not higher.

We're not looking to increase our mortgage size much if at all ideally, no interest in scaling up, just moving away.

What we don't know, is if financially we can move or if it makes sense. We're either at the point where we try to make the best of where we are and throw the savings at improvements or get the house ready to sell in the Autumn. If mortgage providers are going to need a longer period of salary evidence from me, then we might as well stick it out to Dec 2023 because the mortgage payment is comfortable.

I filled in some forms on independent advisors matching sites but didn't get anywhere, so I thought I'd ask here.

Thanks in advance.

dimbo61

So for now improve your current home.
What needs doing ?
New kitchen or bathroom is alot of money but doing all the little jobs that will improve curb appeal !
Outside and interior painting.
Cleaning the gutters and tidying the garden/s front and rear.
Maybe some new garden furniture if you have a garden ?
Have a day out at IKEA and replace one or two items with better storage units.
New sofas or chairs 
Consider what you can do to your existing home to create more space if Needed ? 
Loft conversion, side/rear extension or reconfigure of existing layout !

timehastoldme

Before covid we had booked to replace the bathroom and fit an ensuite upstairs. We were ghosted by our builder, then the pandemic hit so we scaled back and ditched the ensuite, and had a different builder gut and replace the bathroom. Was a good job too, the way SEISS was worked out, we didn't get much at all, and didn't qualify for any other government help. En suite money kept us afloat.

For sale, a lick of paint, replace a couple of blown windows and a carpet stair are all that's really needed. 

If we were to stay we'd revisit the ensuite and have the room it's going into fully replasteterd and built in storage added. Because I work from home we also thought about a (small) garden office.  But first preference is moving still.

Loft extension is beyond means currently, and I don't think we'd cope tbh.

timehastoldme

*stair carpet. Freelancing overload today 🥴