Your opinions please...! **SEE OUR REPLIES & DECISION ON POSTS 39 & 41 **

nzmegs

Your flat is bigger than our house! I would personally stay put, but being in a similar position right now and basically having "itchy feet" I totally understand that you just feel like you want to move.
But you can't do both. You must sell and get what you can for your apartment. Have you thought of part exchanging it for a new build house? it will take the hassle out of the process and builders are getting desperate at the moment and selling at good discounts.
Think of it this way - you needed a roof over your head and if you were renting it would have been dead money anyway. Yes you lost money but somewhere along the way you would have had to pay for your accomodation. It just so happens this time your accomodation didin't pay you back.

teabelly

Do the terms of your lease allow you to move or add walls? The bedroom next to the bathroom could be split and provide a smaller room for the new arrival. You would then be able to stay put for a few years and a 3 bedroom duplex might even be worth lots more. It's worth checking with a builder and the freeholder on what you can do as jiggling the rooms around might actually be a way out of both the issue of where you put a second child and solve your equity issue to some extent.

The rooms are all good sizes and you may find a lot of houses will have much smaller rooms!

minimoocow

Hi Cheddar!

It's a no from me too!! We have a house we currently rent out and for 18 months we had great tenants and everything was fine however . . .

for the past 7 months it has been a nightmare. The current tenants are due to move out today and we are going around tomorrow to see what state they have left things in. We are already £1,700 short on the rent which I doubt we will see, plus I know there is damage to the property, bills probably won't be paid etc so more hassle to sort out.

We have decided to redocorate, repair any damage and put it on the market. Friends are telling me its the wrong time to sell but I don't care - I don't want the hassle anymore!

When we bought it we had more time and less demanding jobs and can make the repayments on both without any worries but if we were relying on the mortgage to pay the rent we would have missed 3 payments by now - ultimately I think we want to sell because we don't want our finances tied into people we don't know, have no influence over and have to go to court to get what is due!

So what I'm trying to say is DON'T DO IT!! Aside from the property price issue - you may lose far more than the £30,000 if you can't make the mortgage if the tenants don't pay and if the flat if worth less than the mortgage outstanding this could put your home in danger.

kunekune

If you can manage the bedrooms, the flat could be fine. OK, once baby 1 is mobile, the balcony might be a problem, but that depends on their personality, some are escape artists, others aren't. What struck me is that it is really easy to gate off the stairs. I suspect that you don't yet know how significant that is (mind the photos are old, so maybe you do!) ... please don't take the risk you are contemplating taking. What if ...

You have baby 2 and there is a problem which means your wife can't work before or after the birth? We were lucky: I had 3-4 months of sick leave, twice, but it was paid. Most employers aren't that generous. Our first then had disabilities ... it is really hard to carry on working then.

You have to relocate for work. One house has to be sold.

We sailed close to the wind, it was scary and the scars still haven't quite gone. Please don't do it.

barnaby-bear

barnaby-bear wrote: »

I swear I've seen a discussion on that flat before. Something like the wallpaper was unfeasibly expensive. Rightmoving on the postcode there are loads of 2 bed flats in the same block - there are duplexes at £155k http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-18589598.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy.

Sounds like the similar duplex at £155k is desperate to sell - they are throwing in 5% deposit making the asking £147k so 15k less than yours... if I was looking for a new build flat I'd probably not bother viewing yours AND theirs is still for sale at the lower price.

lynzpower

Im from greater manchester and I just dont believe whats happening in some parts of the city. Its mad how many flats there are up there, but the salaries just dont seem to have followed suit. 3x income on 165 is a whopping 55k joint salary. Do people really make those salaries up in Oldham? Even in manchester 25k is still a fairly unusual salary for say "an administrator" type job. A quick google seems to suggest fairly lowish salaries (16-20)

So what Im wondering is, if the banks arnt lending the multiples any more, and the FTB is further contricted, over and above a lowish salary...where does that put you?

I just honestly dont think you can afford to buy something else. You can
a) stay put
b) sell it at the best price you can get for it and rent

There are loads of terraces to rent in OL4 for 350 a month! you could haggle them down a bit as well.

benood

I agree with the consensus I'm afraid - sell before buying, you don't need the stress or risk associated with owing two properties. Take the hit on the flat now and move on, if you can possibly afford to, don't double up - that's what people like Nick Leeson get trapped into.

At the risk of stirring it - who was keenest on the flat in the first place??

Cheddar_2

Thank you all for your advice - here are our replies (sorry for anyone we missed!):

Doozergirl & Rick62 – thanks for your replies. Yes, it’s very true what you say – the huge drop on our apartment is due to the fact that we paid well over the odds for it in the first place. We bought off plan and the property developer didn’t deliver on his promises.

Wisbech lad said, “I would sell the flat, chalk up the loss to experience, and buy the house you really want” – Having given it some thought, we agree with you totally (and yes, my wife does tell me that she’s always right! Don’t all wives?????!)

PasturesNew – thanks so much for that fantastic breakdown. It really helps to put it all in perspective...! Our apartment is not in negative equity quite yet – the mortgage is for £140,000 and the apartment is on sale for £162,500.

Seven-day-weekend & Woby_Tide – as you can hopefully see from the link to Rightmove, our apartment is actually well-priced in line with the others duplex apartments on there (some are on lower floors and without balconies). My wife had the pick of the site plans when she bought, and of all the duplex apartments, ours was the best (corner plot, so it has dual aspect and a window in the bathroom, 2 large double bedrooms, etc). We also have TWO secure parking spaces, compared to all the others which only have one.

Barnaby-bear, Littlesos & HugoSP – Yes, I had posted for comments on our apartment before (probably about a year ago!). Well remembered!! Thanks so much for your pieces of advice – we will stick it out for a while and sell for what we can.

Coupon-mad – Thanks for your wonderful reply and for sharing your experience with us. I think you definitely helped swing our decision (or should I say, my WIFE’S decision!!! LOL)

Pinkshoes – You’ve got us really thinking now... we have saved up £10,000 over the last few months, so we’re now thinking of paying that off our current mortgage instead!

Catblue – 3 people on our floor are renting for £600 p.m. unfurnished, so that’s how we came to that figure. We’re sited on the outskirts of Oldham in quite a desirable village location, so prices here are generally higher than other places in Oldham.

Nzmegs – We had considered part-exchange, and indeed asked a few new build developers. Sadly, the ones we liked wouldn’t do part-exchange deals on apartments, so that was that L Very useful advice there, and thanks for turning our situation into a positive.

Teabelly – Great idea! But we can’t change the rooms at all. But we could put the new arrival in the cupboard under the stairs perhaps?!

Minimoocow – Thank you for sharing your traumatic experience. I really hope you get everything sorted and we really appreciate your advice. You have given us good reason for not renting out!

Kunekune – Yes, we’ve gated off the stairs at the top. Our daughter is 2 in April, so she’s well mobile! Thanks for your advice and for sharing the wealth of your experience.

Lynzpower – Our joint salary is £53k, we own and run two businesses, so we are quite fortunate in that respect! Also, my wife had a lot of equity on her last house, so our mortgage is for £140,000. We think we’ll stay put until we sell – thanks for your advice.

Benood - My wife bought it with her friend... We ended up buying her friend out. So it's all HER fault! LOLOL

PasturesNew

Bet that targetted response took you 1/2 an hour to type

Cheddar_2

Ok, the impact of all your replies has been massive... so thank you all so much :T :beer:

Here's what we're thinking now...

We have £10,000 saved, which was going to form the deposit for the new house. However, we're now thinking of paying that off our current mortgage (we can make up to 10% overpayments per year in our tie-in period).

We are going to stay in the apartment until such time that it sells. I think we've finally come to terms with the fact that the £30,000+ is now gone, and we learned a very valuable (but expensive!) lesson.

We still love the house we've spotted, and could afford it, but we're not prepared to take the risk. In fact, if we sell the apartment, we'd be prepared to go for a bigger mortgage on the next house, so this could turn out to be the best decision we've ever made!

:money::money::money:THANK YOU! :money::money::money: