Buying Grandmother's house/renting current house??

loubeelou_2

Well this may be long and drawn out so apologies up front :rotfl:

I have posted on the buying/selling section but getting no feedback so thought I would try this section - apologies to people that have already read my ramble!!!

Right here we go!

Unfortunately my husband's Grandmother has just died. My husband would love to buy her house. She has left it to her 3 children (one is my OH's mother). We think it is worth approx £180k.
Is there any way of avoiding the dreaded stamp duty??

We currently have a house which we can either sell or rent (if the finances are feasible...that is where I need advice).

Our current mortgage is £85k and the house is worth approx £115, it has 16 years left.

Our joint income is £45k.

Is there any way that we can rent out our current property and buy the new one? It seems like a lot but I have heard of people doing it. Is it interest only mortgages etc that make it poss??

Many thanks for all you help in advance :T

loubee

rdsmortgageman

You could remortgage your existing house on a Buy To Let basis and release more money. Depending on rental incomes, you could go up to about £97,750 which would give you £12,750 to put towards the deposit. I reckon that you should consider putting down at least 10% on the new property (which would mean you topping up the loan by £5,250).

Based on your incomes a 90% mortgage of £162,000 should be achievable.

It all depends on who your lender is at the moment etc.

loubeelou_2

Well things have changed slightly....my Grandmother's house has been valued between 195 and 205k. The family have offered it to us for 190k.

I was hoping to release all the equity out of the current house to put down as a deposit on the new one....is that not realistic??

Our current lender is the Abbey and we commited to them last June for a 5yr period at 5.69% for an 18yr mortgage. (sorry thought it was 17yrs in last post!!)

Is there any devious way of avoiding stamp duty?? I guess we can't say the fixtures and fittings are worth enough to bring it below threshold??!?!?

Many thanks!!