Sell flat, Move in with parents & then buy house

cse4921

Hi all and thank you for your feedback. Its greatly appreciated.

I will need to look into the building insurance to make sure I am still covered or need additional cover.

A lot of people asking why not stay in the flat and wait it out until the flat sells then move in with parents, I completely understand the logic of doing this however our young daughter and work commitments take up 99% of our time and the flat does need some minor work done before being put on the market (painting of rooms, deep clean etc..) which we think will be easier to achieve when we have effectively childcare on tap in the form of parents. There is an argument to say we don't "need" to go about it this way as we could just ask our parents to look after our daughter for a couple of days to give us time to do the bits we need. 

I've never sold a house/flat before but I'm also assuming that the property will need to be kept immaculate for future flat views, which will prove difficult with a tornado toddler in there! 

Herzlos

On mortgages and fees - it sounds like you're on a fixed rate currently so be prepared for the rate to go up significantly.

The way to avoid that is to port the existing mortgage - it'd keep the same balance at the same rate with any extra at the new rate and avoid any early repayments. BUT it means you'd need to move into new house on the same day you move out of old flat.

Why not just stay where you are until January? Living on a farm in the middle of nowhere is fine until you need to get your kid to nursery.

cse4921

Herzlos said:

On mortgages and fees - it sounds like you're on a fixed rate currently so be prepared for the rate to go up significantly.

The way to avoid that is to port the existing mortgage - it'd keep the same balance at the same rate with any extra at the new rate and avoid any early repayments. BUT it means you'd need to move into new house on the same day you move out of old flat.

Why not just stay where you are until January? Living on a farm in the middle of nowhere is fine until you need to get your kid to nursery.

Hi Herzlos, Yes our fixed rate is currently 4.6% until April 2026. I'm hoping the rate will still be there about or less if we are lucky when it comes to getting a new mortgage, albeit we will be paying more as we will be borrowing more. 

We both would prefer taking our time finding a house rather than being forced to find one due to having to move out of the flat on a given day.

A lot of people are saying why not just stay there in the meantime. I explained in my post above my reasoning behind this but it may or may not make sense to a lot of people.

In terms of nursery, we pass the nursery on our way to both our jobs anyway.   

Phoenix72

I'm with the 'I don't see the point' camp. You raised the fact of the Scottish winters and being in the middle of nowhere - so how will you get to nursery/work if you are snowed in. Also relationships can soon become strained when living 24/7 with the parents/in-laws. It would be my last option tbh.

Btw, often people don't want to see an 'immaculate' home but a lived in family home.

Albermarle

cse4921 said:

Hi all and thank you for your feedback. Its greatly appreciated.

I will need to look into the building insurance to make sure I am still covered or need additional cover.

A lot of people asking why not stay in the flat and wait it out until the flat sells then move in with parents, I completely understand the logic of doing this however our young daughter and work commitments take up 99% of our time and the flat does need some minor work done before being put on the market (painting of rooms, deep clean etc..) which we think will be easier to achieve when we have effectively childcare on tap in the form of parents. There is an argument to say we don't "need" to go about it this way as we could just ask our parents to look after our daughter for a couple of days to give us time to do the bits we need. 

I've never sold a house/flat before but I'm also assuming that the property will need to be kept immaculate for future flat views, which will prove difficult with a tornado toddler in there! 

Clean it and maybe splash a bit of paint, but do not spend any significant money on it, as normally you never really see a return, unless it is to repair a major fault.
The usual advice is also to take out clutter but leave some furniture, otherwise looks too bare.

cse4921

Hi All,

Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment on this. 

It seems the overall response is don't move out until you have sold. I think what we will do potentially is sort out temporary storage, De-clutter and put things we wont need into storage until move in date into new house. Get painting sorted etc.. and then put onto market while still living there.

Once sold we will then move into parents for a period of time.  

Herzlos

The problem with selling empty properties is you've no idea how long it's been empty or how well it's been serviced. Has it spent all winter with the water off and you risk pipe damage when you turn it on? Is it getting damp?

So if you moved out first, then sold it, you'd probably need to spend a lot of time and money making it look lived in.

Plus the work you want to do to it sounds like you could potentially just go and stay with the in-laws for a week whilst the decorating was done, but in all honesty I wouldn't bother unless it looks awful, because the new buyer is likely to paint a different colour anyway.

By all means move in with your in laws if your flat sells before you find a house to buy, but you're potentially wasting a lot of money and effort doing it in the mean time.

Edit: Pretty much exactly as you said