Moving House - Advise Please

Magic_Dragon

Hi Everyone

My partner and I currently own our own home in warwickshire. We both start a new job at the end of May in Dorset, so will have to move

The house prices in Dorset are very high to say the least! We have the option to live in rented accomodation provided by our employer but it is very poor accomodation in not such a nice area :-(

We are trying to figure out if we could realistically afford to buy in the local area. I think it will cost £225,000 - £250,000 to get the type of house we want - apporx 2.5 - 3 times our joint salary (taking away a deposit of approx £40,000 depending on what price our current house sells for)

Our worry is that our current home wont sell at a very good price, leaving us short on buying a new home ....

Our house isnt on the market yet, but I am getting an estate agent round next week. How long does it generally take to sell a house and what fees are involved?

Do you think now is the right time to buying and selling houses? We dont have much choice about selling, but should we buy again, or live in the horrible rented accomodation?

I would prefer to live in one of the lovely local villages but my parter is worried about house prices falling and us getting left in a financial mess .. ..

Any help or advice would be much appriated

Claire

Mozette

You might - regardless of whatever your opinion of the housing market - be better renting for a while so you can get used to your new area and get a better idea of where you may want to live and can afford to live. Then general opinion on this board seems to be that prices are more likely to fall, so it could be to your advantage.
If I were you, I think I'd rent for perhaps 6 months, save like mad, then reconsider my options.

Tassotti

Agree with Mozette in you should rent for 6 months and then find the ideal house/location for you.

Check out selling prices for your area, from the various websites, and see if prices have fallen over the past couple of years...(I doubt it)

Too much negative talk really...Prices still increasing round my way (most ways)

Be Lucky

Tass

Magic_Dragon

Thanks for the input!

We have lived in the area before so know it quite well and have singled out a few areas we would like to live already

Overall the house prices where we live and around where we would like to move to have risen and not fallen at all. Can you recommend a good site to look at for house price trends - I looked at upmystreet?

TBH I dont fancy moving once now then again in 6 months or so time ..... forgot to say we have a 7 month old baby!

Mozette

Magic_Dragon wrote: »

Thanks for the input!

We have lived in the area before so know it quite well and have singled out a few areas we would like to live already

Overall the house prices where we live and around where we would like to move to have risen and not fallen at all. Can you recommend a good site to look at for house price trends - I looked at upmystreet?

TBH I dont fancy moving once now then again in 6 months or so time ..... forgot to say we have a 7 month old baby!

Similar thing, there is a site called - I think - property snake, which shows houses for sale that have had the price reduced. That may be useful to you.

Tassotti

There are plenty of sites to check sold house prices.....If you are looking to buy, I would have expected you to check out ...rightmove.co.uk...If you register on that site, you can see house selling prices.....Oh my...haven't been in the property game for a while....erm...someone help me out here....

Tass

Sparkle_Sparksy

I sold my house in September and am still waiting for the sale to complete! People will be cheeky and offer silly money for the house. It happened to me but I found were I live (Liverpool) homes just are not selling and people are letting them go for a lot less. I put mine on the market just a few grand over the recomendation from the estate agent which helped me with the price when an offer was put in.

My advice would be to get the house on market as soon as. I woundnt want to move twice either... its stressful enough doing it once.

As for the fees not inc stamp duty, for everything from the estate agent to the survey and deed transfer it has cost about £3,000.

Once you have sold I do suggest you make regular phone calls on were about things are up to, that will help to move it along and with a bit of luck it could all fall in to the time in when you relocate.

Good Luck

Magic_Dragon

Thanks for the insight

Right this is the bit I dont get.

If we dont sell our house before we move, we cant get a new one - can we? I mean we wont have paid off the old mortgage or have any of the equity from our current property

We were first time buyers when we bought this house so didnt have a chain. We will prob be buying a new property when we move so there shouldnt be an upward chain

Is it really cutting it a bit fine to expect our current house to be sold before the end of May?

Maybe we will be staying in rented accomodation after all ...

PasturesNew

As you don't even have your house on the market yet and as things are well-known to have slowed down across the board, I think it would be very optimistic to have sold before the end of May (where sold=complete).

However, we have no idea what your house is like, where, what its unique selling point is, how good your estate agent will be, how many buyers are actively looking for a house just like yours in your area. So it's all crystal ball stuff!

Tassotti

Magic_Dragon wrote: »

If we dont sell our house before we move, we cant get a new one - can we? I mean we wont have paid off the old mortgage or have any of the equity from our current property


/quote]

You can do this by way of a bridging loan. However, they are charged monthly and are expensive, so if your house doesn't sell for a few months, could be very costly.

Magic_Dragon

I better get my finger out really and get the house up for sale!

Its in a nice area of town where not very many propertis come up for sale, off road parking, near good schools, train station , motorways .......

So hopefully it will sell fairly quickly!

My partner is now more inclined to source our own rented accomodation in Dorset

Decisions Decisions!