Sell it or Rent it???

gazfocus

A bit of a long one, sorry. 

Some of you might recall as I’ve posted on here a fair bit recently, we used to rent a house out to a family member and it didn’t go particularly well (not my first time as a landlord but definitely a mistake renting to family). 

Anyway, back in February we decided to put our house up for sale and found a buyer within a week. After lots of time wasted waiting for solicitors lower down in the chain, the sale fell through two weeks ago due to an issue with the house our buyers were selling. The estate agents put the house straight back up for sale, did block viewings last weekend (4 people were booked in to view but no idea how many actually viewed), and we’ve had zero feedback from EA. Rang EA on Tuesday and got feedback from one viewing but they’d not heard back from the others. 

So, Wednesday afternoon we decided we needed to do something as we simply cannot afford to have the house sat empty indefinitely, costing us money each month, so we listed the house on OpenRent. We’ve had quite a few enquiries and have offered viewings to 4 prospective tenants so far. 

Emailed EA today to let them know that in the absence of any further interest, we’ve put the house up for rent and should we find a tenant before the EA find a proceedable buyer, the house will be taken off the market. Within 10 minutes, the EA booked in two viewings for Saturday afternoon without checking with us first (they have a key but we’ve arranged our rental viewings for Saturday morning). 

My question is, should we end up with someone wanting to rent the house AND someone wanting to buy the house, what would you guys do? Sell it or rent it?

To give some context…
- The house is currently on a residential mortgage with consent to let in place. The lender originally said we couldn’t rent it any longer but their rules have now changed so we can retain the consent to let.
- The house is currently empty. 
- We have enough equity in the house that we will be in profit after paying the mortgage, tax, insurance, etc at the rent we’ve listed it for. 
- If we rent the house we will have to withdraw from a renovation project we were buying (the seller of which has kindly agreed to give us a bit of time to find a new buyer). 

- Financially, if we sell the house we will be very stretched for the next 3 months or so while a new sale goes through but we will end up with a house with no mortgage (renovation project) and enough in the bank to at least make a good start on breathing life back into the house. 

I know some of you will say it’s a terrible time to be a landlord but I’m really torn with what to do for the best. On one hand I feel like keeping a 4 bed family home on the rental market is a good thing but on the other hand, is it the best thing for us?

Answers on a postcard please 😁

Mstty

I think I'd be a little annoyed being selected as a renter to view when it's still up for sale tenant free. Considering how difficult it is to find a rental these days.

Just chose which way you want to go cancel the EA or cancel the rental viewings.

Without knowing your full financial status it's a how long is a piece of string question.

Bigphil1474

Personally, I'd look at it as which way will i be better off in the long term. If I could afford to own 2 houses, one which is being rented at a small profit while growing in value, I would do. The house you live in will also grow in value, but that value is locked in, whereas you can sell the second property any time in the future, and when the market picks up again, and probably for a lot more than you would currently. 

Also, selling 2 houses at the same time must be a strain in the short term. If the figures stack up, I'd rent property 2 out for now.

Stubod

..sell it...IMHO

TisMeBill

One thing to consider if you rent it, is that the rules on EPC are being tightened over the next few years, if the rating is below C you will have to pay to have improvements made, this would eat into your profits.

gazfocus

Mstty said:

I think I'd be a little annoyed being selected as a renter to view when it's still up for sale tenant free. Considering how difficult it is to find a rental these days.

Just chose which way you want to go cancel the EA or cancel the rental viewings.

Without knowing your full financial status it's a how long is a piece of string question.

In fairness, we have told the potential tenants that the house was initially up for sale. At the time the house was put up for rent, and the time the viewings were booked, there was no interest from any potential buyer. 

gazfocus

TisMeBill said:

One thing to consider if you rent it, is that the rules on EPC are being tightened over the next few years, if the rating is below C you will have to pay to have improvements made, this would eat into your profits.

We did have to have an EPC when putting the house up for sale and it’s already at C thankfully  

The house we were in the process of buying (the renovation project) is an F so a fair bit of work to do there haha.

BlueVeranda

gazfocus said:

At the time the house was put up for rent, and the time the viewings were booked, there was no interest from any potential buyer. 

Really? The sale fell through two weeks ago, you had viewings last weekend and by Wednesday you'd decided to rent it. I know it is frustrating waiting for feedback that never comes, and you have some time constraints as you are in a chain now, but a lot of houses are on the market for much longer than that before they sell.

gazfocus

BlueVeranda said:

gazfocus said:

At the time the house was put up for rent, and the time the viewings were booked, there was no interest from any potential buyer. 

Really? The sale fell through two weeks ago, you had viewings last weekend and by Wednesday you'd decided to rent it. I know it is frustrating waiting for feedback that never comes, and you have some time constraints as you are in a chain now, but a lot of houses are on the market for much longer than that before they sell.

The sale fell through after 6 months of being kept hanging on. We are having to pay for the house where we live, and also a mortgage/council tax/bills for a house that’s now sat empty for 4 months. 

It’s not like we’ve all of a sudden become impatient, we’ve been left hanging for months and so have had to make some tough decisions and we simply cannot afford to pay for two houses indefinitely. 

As I said in my OP, if we sell the house, it will be a financial struggle until a sale completes but if there’s a sale imminent and if that’s the best thing for us, then we will beg/borrow to cope but we cannot wait around for weeks with zero contact from an EA until we stick a rocket up them before anything proactive is done.  

Mstty

As per another similar thread on this recently you can't have your cake and eat it.

Either plan for you to 6 months to sell and the associated costs to have the house empty or rent it out. 

Sarah1Mitty2

Bigphil1474 said:

Personally, I'd look at it as which way will i be better off in the long term. If I could afford to own 2 houses, one which is being rented at a small profit while growing in value, I would do. The house you live in will also grow in value, but that value is locked in, whereas you can sell the second property any time in the future, and when the market picks up again, and probably for a lot more than you would currently. 

Also, selling 2 houses at the same time must be a strain in the short term. If the figures stack up, I'd rent property 2 out for now.

In this market it is falling in value, sell it.