Relocated - house for sale - no viewers

anitap

Any advise welcomed - We put our house on the market 3 months ago in anticipation of moving south (husband in forces) we hoped the house would sell whilst I was securing a job down here but like all well laid out plans I got a job and our accomodation here was available so we decided to move and hopefully sell shortly after.

The credit crunch kicked in, house prices fell, we dropped ours from £104,950 (valued at £106,000) to £103,950 to £100,500 last week (have had 2 viewers and 1 who didn't turn up).

We defered our hips (£400) until the sale of the house or October 2008. We came out of our mortgage deal last August so are paying 7.34% and didn't get a new deal as we always intended to move in the new year and as we were getting married at the same time didn't have time to look at it. We also have a loan attached so need to have min £99,000 sale to cover mortgage, fees and loan.

The catch 22 is: 1) we would need to take it off the market to get a new deal and make mortgage cheap enough to rent it out (we would make approx £450 per month if we rented it out)
2) If we rent it out and take it off the market we will have to make up the £300 shortfall each month for a property we don't really want anymore (Mortgage and loan come to £750 per month)
3) due to my new job we had to take a drop in my salary and commission to get down here and am working 14 hour days so very little time to research options at length !

Any ideas on what might be a good soloution ???? I confess to knowing very little about buy to let mortgages or fees for renting a property out and seeing as we are 200 miles away from the property I feel we would need an agent close to the house ??? Its all a minefield but I feel sure I must be missing something there must be an soloution to this !!!

poppysarah

You can either auction it (but lots of auctions struggling) or cut it's price at the EA and take a loss.

Has the EA got anyone on their books who is looking for a house?

https://lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=PostCode
That'll tell you the rents you could expect

You might be best selling it rather than dealing with potential rental problems - but that might mean taking a loss. Difficult decisions.

kunekune

Idea 1: How tied are you to your new location? Could you move back?

Idea 2: We were in a similar position some years ago (we ended up borrowing money to pay the EA). One thing we worked out was that it was not such a massive problem that the rent didn't pay the mortgage ... so long as it paid OUR rent. Thinking of it like that was quite helpful.

dopester

I don't understand the rush of people wanting to rent out their property they can't sell.

Do they somehow think that in 12 months time "the blip" will be over and their house will be restored to the value it was at the 2007 peak?

If so, that is quite a position to take.Were it me, just for peace of mind I'd take the hit on the first house, lower the price until it got interest, and sell it, incurring a loss if necessary.

There is going to be a lot of pain if/when house prices really crash as a lot of people expect - can't imagine that pain for people who've got a big mortgage on not just one property, but two properties.

Anyhow - good luck with it.

lostinrates

dopester wrote: »

I don't understand the rush of people wanting to rent out their property they can't sell.

Do they somehow think that in 12 months time "the blip" will be over and their house will be restored to the value it was at the 2007 peak? .

If they don't have viewers, they don't have viewers!

Everyday people are 'shouting' on this forum: 'don't view' -so , here we have a house not being viewed! lol.

I understand not putting it on the market TOO far below market price -I'm not in a position to judge whether it is here or not, and I imagine the agents won't encourage it, unwilling to see other houses in the area forced down in price. Of course, it may well come to it eventually but actally imagining I were the seller I see the quandry. (and its nice to pretend not to be a buyer for a moment, lol)

I can see the validity of renting short term. We are told in the short term rents are going up while people hold off, the market IS very unstable, it might make sense to take a loss in a more stable market or, if we do go into freefall at least when buyers can be lured out to put in offers.

I really understand what you are saying about minimimising loss, and I agree with you in general, but if they are already below market price and getting no viewings,well....what do they do? I would be wary as a buyer going to see something 20% below market price now, and if I did I'd STILL try the cheeky offer thing, which, in all likelyhood, would take them below the mean predicted falls.

moneysavinmonkey

some friendly advice for lostinrates, perhaps if you read through your posts before submitting them you may get your point across more easily. I'm not sure I followed that last message at all.

poppysarah

In the old days (pre-2004 maybe) landlords would expect at least 10% return on their investment -

so to get 450 a month rent would want to buy a house for no more than 50k.

Your original valuation and rent forecast would give a yield of about 5%.

You can get that much for sticking your money in the bank and doing nothing. So it's unlikely a sane landlord would want to touch the place.

To sell it needs people who can afford a mortgage - what's average wage? 20k? 25k? That'd give a sensible 3X salary mortgage of 75k.

This is why the housing market is so messed up. Gordon's allowed it to boom and it'll have to bust now.



5.09434

phil_b_2

Sorry I dont have time to go through the replies, so aren't sure if you;ve mentioned what amount of equity you have in the property? How much off the current valuation would it take before you make a loss?

I would be tempted to undercut all the competition by a big'ish margin and lure the few buyers that are still out there. Just take a hit and get out of it and start fresh?

Even that may not result in a sale but worth a shot.

lostinrates

moneysavinmonkey wrote: »

some friendly advice for lostinrates, perhaps if you read through your posts before submitting them you may get your point across more easily. I'm not sure I followed that last message at all.

You are right, sorry...I'll go back and edit. My keys stick on this key board and so I often accidently miss out letters....i.e. I've pressed them but they don't appear on screen. Apologies.:o

I should also add I have a neurological condition which effects linguistic ability to some degree, different at diferent times. I understand its really annoying, especially as I tend to forget its impact and neglect to edit. Again, sincere apologies for annoying posts.

bryanb

Anitap. You are in the lucky position that you can live in the house, your husband can live on base (Forces) I realise it's not ideal to be separated this early in your marriage, but you have better options than many. You could also get a 25% council tax reduction if you were alone.

geoffky

This is normal in todays market...buyers like me have dropped out of the market until prices reach sensible levels again....ps good luck and i mean that and just hope you can get on enjoying life and not worrying about ..the problem you will have is how do you get the repairs done on your rented out house with being so far away..will it be a problem ?