Should I sell my house? Please advise me!

KarenWilliams_2

Hello

I am a complete noob to these forums - so please be gentle with me! In the face of interest rate changes and warnings about house prices I am torn as to what I should do and would be extremely grateful for any and all points of view. Thank you all in advance!

My situation is as follows:

I own a house near Peterborough. I have a mortgage of c. £65,000 and the house is currently valued in the region of £120,000.

At the end of May my family and I are returning to New Zealand for 18 months.

After this time we will return to the UK and decide whether to move to NZ permanently, or to stay in the UK and move to Cornwall. Either way, this would mean selling the house in 18-24 months time.

So, do I sell the house now with the advantages of:
- no hassle of renting house out for next 18 months & no risk of having a gap in tenancy and loss of rental income. (Rent for property *just* covers mortgage payments after agency fees).
- not losing money should house prices fall

Or do I keep it and sell it in 18-24 months with the advantages of:
- Not having to rent a place ourselves when we return

.. but run the risk of losing a significant sum of money should the house prices fall in this time.

I am utterly torn as to what I should do for the best and would very much appreciate your suggestions and advice.

I know that no-one can be certain as to what will happen with house prices - but this is really what is concerning me.

Thank you all so much in advance!!

Karen x x x

dottyotty

Hi Karen,:hello:

I don't think anyone will be able to advise you really, because no-one is able to predict what will happen. If you sell now it will probably take longer than you think, even if you house is "lovely", it's a buyers market and you may find you don't get what you think it's worth. Unfortunately it's only worth what someone wants to offer iyswim.

Probably not much help, sorry, but good luck with what you decide to do, and in your plans for the future.

Dottyotty x

fc123

We facing a slightly similar 'When/if to sell ????? at the moment too.

To put on the market now, maybe a bit tight if it does sell, to complete by end May....but you could put it on and see.

The hassle of renting out when you are in NZ would say to me Sell now....

but a relative of my BIL went to NZ and he finalised the sale whilst they were out there. This was in 2003 / 4. She would like to return but they cannot afford to buy back the house they had due to HPI, so are sort of stuck.
They are reasonably happy out there but she didn't realise how much she would miss family, hence her wanting to come home now.

These things have all that other stuff attached to the decision too...good luck with whatever you decide.

KarenWilliams_2

Thankyou dottyotty.

That's kind of the annoying thing - that no-one can predict what will happen... but I suppose I am interested in everyone else's speculation anyway!

I suppose it's 'What would you do if you were me?' kind of question.

I appreciate your reply - thankyou!

KarenWilliams_2

fc123 - thankyou for your reply.

I probably should have mentioned we spent 14 months in NZ previously and rented the house out during this time. We did have a period of 2-3 months without a tenant, which was quite painful financially.

I completely understand the difficulty of missing family etc - fortunately mine are also considering the move, which would help enormously!

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Doozergirl

If you're selling up anyway then I can't see the benefit of waiting. It's fair to say that the house is unlikely to be worth any more in 18 months time so get the admin over with now.

JimmyTheWig

Given that you are selling anyway I'd say sell now.
House prices aren't going to go up that much in 18 months.

All you are gaining is not having to rent somewhere when you return. But if you are thinking of moving to Cornwall, then would you not want to rent somewhere in Cornwall, anyway?

I can see your point that the rent covers the mortgage. You've pointed out the problem with if you don't have a tennant.
But what you haven't thought about is that if you sell now you will have the equity of the house to put into a savings account. Equity of £55k would give you £3300 a year (pre-tax) at 6% interest.

brit1234

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Given that you are selling anyway I'd say sell now.
House prices aren't going to go up that much in 18 months.

Quite the opposite, they are going to fall a lot over the next couple of years back to normal values.

JimmyTheWig

brit1234 wrote: »

Quite the opposite, they are going to fall a lot over the next couple of years back to normal values.

And if that happens then it re-enforces my argument.
The only reason not to sell now in these circumstances is if prices go up by a lot. My point was that they won't do that.

SouthCoast

SELL.

Some real life experiences can be found here:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=474078&page=836

chappers

I think the only sensible option is to sell.
I think it is highley unlikely that house prices will have risen any by the time you have returned and in fact more likely the opposite. Add onto this the hassel of renting whilst in NZ and then the hassel of coming back and selling then.
I would do yourselves a favour sell your house now, before any tenants trash the place, stash your equity away somewhere earning interest. You will have enough when you return to afford to rent somewhere anyway and will then be in a position to buy somewhere else as a first time buyer.

Mind you having visited NZ I doubt you will even decide to come back