Would you consider selling and going back to renting when moving to a new area? Same salary.

Adamc

We have a job offer in Wales (north coast). Same salary but hopefully a less chaotic hospital with a much smaller population. We have one year left on our 3.6% mortgage fix. We pay £790 per month. £135000 loan. Approx £150000 in equity according to the valuation. Valuer said it would have been more last year. 

The trouble is that there is the unsure of whether we will be happy so I thought we should rent for a year as we may end up back here. We plan to go for two years and come back to this area where parents could hopefully help with childcare. 

The other option is to tough it out here and hope things will get better.  

Wife despises the idea of renting. Financially it would be a set back but hopefully would lead to better prospects overall as there would be a little more scope to upskill. Though it is unlikely this would equate to higher wages. Just more options and hopefully more fulfilling work. 

lookstraightahead

Yes. I do it every time I move, especially if I move areas. No brainer for me, it means time to look properly and get a better deal as you're not in a chain, so I never lose out financially. It takes a bit of out of the box thinking, but that is all. 

Adamc

lookstraightahead said:

Yes. I do it every time I move, especially if I move areas. No brainer for me, it means time to look properly and get a better deal as you're not in a chain, so I never lose out financially. It takes a bit of out of the box thinking, but that is all. 

How do you avoid not losing out financially? What tips would you give. Truth is that since returning to my home town following uni I haven't moved. On the plus side. It's only 2.5 hours away by car. 

theoretica

To own a house short term and not lose out you basically need it to increase in value enough to cover stamp duty, purchase costs and sale costs/fees as well as any time you are paying on two properties if you own it while living somewhere else.  And also the interest you would otherwise earn on your equity.

Dustyevsky

We did it when changing areas, but we were looking for something fairly rare as a  retirement property, so a different set of circumstances, though a similar time in economic terms.

Personally I wouldn't commit to buy in an area I didn't know well, and certainly not in N Wales, which isn't just like England, but with some weird traditions and road signs! 

_Penny_Dreadful

Adamc said:

lookstraightahead said:

Yes. I do it every time I move, especially if I move areas. No brainer for me, it means time to look properly and get a better deal as you're not in a chain, so I never lose out financially. It takes a bit of out of the box thinking, but that is all. 

How do you avoid not losing out financially? What tips would you give. Truth is that since returning to my home town following uni I haven't moved. On the plus side. It's only 2.5 hours away by car. 

What is the alternative?  To buy somewhere you only end up living in for a couple of years?  Look at the amount you would need to pay out in SDLT or LTT since it is Wales you want to move to, solicitor's fees, surveys, mortgage broker fees, mortgage arrangement fees, mortgage interest and then compare that to rent for a couple of years.  I don't know if your wife's intention would be to keep your current home, let it out, and buy somewhere new in Wales which would mean having to pay the higher rate of LTT. 

At the end of two years it will much easier to leave a tenancy than to sell a property.

Adamc

Dustyevsky said:

We did it when changing areas, but we were looking for something fairly rare as a  retirement property, so a different set of circumstances, though a similar time in economic terms.

Personally I wouldn't commit to buy in an area I didn't know well, and certainly not in N Wales, which isn't just like England, but with some weird traditions and road signs! 

What sort of traditions are there? I wasn't aware and it could be a deal breaker. 

MultiFuelBurner

Adamc said:

Dustyevsky said:

We did it when changing areas, but we were looking for something fairly rare as a  retirement property, so a different set of circumstances, though a similar time in economic terms.

Personally I wouldn't commit to buy in an area I didn't know well, and certainly not in N Wales, which isn't just like England, but with some weird traditions and road signs! 

What sort of traditions are there? I wasn't aware and it could be a deal breaker. 

Sounded like a racial slur to me but hopefully made in jest.

Perhaps the poster @Dustyevsky can clarify their comments.

To add (edit)

I think the term is racial microagression. The Welsh are an ethnic group and slurs such as weird when commenting on an ethnic group's traditions is an example of this.

Most don't realise they are doing it or cover it as a "joke"

It's good to speak up against such things so we all check ourselves before stepping in it.

Martin_the_Unjust

MultiFuelBurner said:

Adamc said:

Dustyevsky said:

We did it when changing areas, but we were looking for something fairly rare as a  retirement property, so a different set of circumstances, though a similar time in economic terms.

Personally I wouldn't commit to buy in an area I didn't know well, and certainly not in N Wales, which isn't just like England, but with some weird traditions and road signs! 

What sort of traditions are there? I wasn't aware and it could be a deal breaker. 

Sounded like a racial slur to me but hopefully made in jest.

Perhaps the poster @Dustyevsky can clarify their comments.

A racial slur? Really? You are going to have to explain that one to me.

lookstraightahead

Adamc said:

lookstraightahead said:

Yes. I do it every time I move, especially if I move areas. No brainer for me, it means time to look properly and get a better deal as you're not in a chain, so I never lose out financially. It takes a bit of out of the box thinking, but that is all. 

How do you avoid not losing out financially? What tips would you give. Truth is that since returning to my home town following uni I haven't moved. On the plus side. It's only 2.5 hours away by car. 

Firstly, buying for the short term isn't a good idea because of all the fees mentioned above.

Then you could end up buying a place you don't like in an area you can't settle in.

if you rent you can spend time looking around and as you've nothing to sell, you are in a good position to negotiate.

Then, when and if you want to buy, you can move in more quickly or even overlap by a month to save the hassle of moving on one day (which I've always found cheaper as we DIY move a lot of our stuff).

You need to break this into chunks, why doesn't your OH want to rent? 

Oh also, personally I don't think house prices will increase for a while.

SandyShores

Is there any way you could rent out your own property short-term and then rent yourselves a property in Wales, especially if you are thinking of returning in a couple of years?  We sold and then rented while we made up our minds, we tried two rentals and preferred the location of the second one.  Next time I wouldn't sell though, I think knowing that if you needed to you could return home in time is priceless.  Also when you have a mortgage you seem much more attractive to finance companies (ticking the box 'home owner').