Would you sell your house to pay off your debt

chevalier · 8 May 2009 at 6:26AM

if the thought of selling gives you the tingles, then it is the right decision.
but when you do move, make sure that once you have settled into your new place, that you do a proper budget that includes putting money away for yearly expenses like insurance, birthdays, xmas etc.That way you shouldn't have to fall back on credit cards cos the money will be there.

good luck
chev

Broken_hearted · 8 May 2009 at 7:38AM

No the likelyhood of you ever buying again is slim

stapeley · 8 May 2009 at 9:05AM

Broken_hearted wrote: »

No the likelyhood of you ever buying again is slim

There speaks the words of wisdom ! not !

Toto · 8 May 2009 at 9:39AM

Broken_hearted wrote: »

No the likelyhood of you ever buying again is slim

With respect BH I think that's nonsense. Before we sold we were on an interest only mortgage, and with the debts we were paying over £2000 a month in interest alone. That money now goes into savings each month.

We are far more secure now than we have been in years. We will buy again, but we have the choice of when, we can buy quickly, we have nothing to sell so if the right house came along we are in a good position. With property prices still falling and our savings growing we will have a smaller mortgage than we had before, and that will be for a larger house in a nicer area.

Obviously selling isn't right for everyone and personal circumstances need to be taken into consideration.

sandalwood_2 · 8 May 2009 at 11:37AM

Reading the posts on this I would definetly sell and clear debts.Being on the housing market isnt the b all and end all anyway-it used to be "gotta get on the market now otherwise I never will" and there was a certain stigma against people renting,but now the way things are it is common place to rent,it is in some cases cheaper and also a lot less stress-If I could sell my place and pay all my debts I would do it like a shot,but unfortunatly I am sitting in negative equity,just about to start a DMP and have a baby due in august which will mean that I have to move(I an only have a 1 bed) maybe 6-12 months after that,which would mean renting my place out and renting a bigger house to accomadate the baby,but,I am trying to be posative and I know in a 2,3 or maybe 4 years,the housing market will pick up and then I will be able to get rid of the old place and maybe buy another or just keep on renting
as it gives you the freedom to do what you want,may even move abroad......

debtdesperado · 8 May 2009 at 12:07PM

I would sell too. Plus in this market you'll probably be able to get a really lovely rental property and get on with your life, rather than spending - realistically - 4 or 5 years living very frugally to pay the debt off.

But before you do, have a long hard think about WHY you built up this debt... if there are one or two crazy things that made up the debt (eg you paid for a wedding, bought a flash car and had an amazing holiday, or perhaps you tried to start up a business which failed) then you know you made a mistake and overstretched yourself. Lesson learnt.

But if you can't pin the debt to anything in particular, and it has just built up gradually because each month you overspent a little bit, I would go through the process of working out a budget and living frugally starting right now until the sale. Unless you get your spending sorted and can stick to living in your means, you will run the debt up again, and that would be a real waste.

stapeley · 8 May 2009 at 12:44PM

Out numbered again BH !

Scarlett1212 · 8 May 2009 at 12:53PM

Thanks chev, I'm actually thinking about getting rid of all credit cards, I'm lucky that my mum is always on hand for a small loan if we are ever short (which we shouldn't be - I am really getting into this budgeting lark and will be piggybanking for car insurance, birthdays/christmas/mot etc), Credit cards are the devil's work!

Hi Toto, once again thanks and I hope things work out half as good for me as they have done for you.

Broken-hearted, whether we get back on the ladder or not is purely up to us, I am a little underwhelmed by the whole owning experience at the moment and as I am only 31 with good earning potential and OH is on a fast track management course in his work I think that we could easily buy in the future.

Hi Jaybag, I do feel fortunate that we have enough equity to clear our debts, I know there are many people who are in the same position as you and it must be hard, however you are right to feel positive about the future, when my son was born I was the happiest I ever have been in my life and he was born into a (really) dingy council flat where I could only afford to carpet the 2 rooms he would be in the most and we had mismatched furniture that had been donated by family/friends. Good luck! - I'm a little bit jealous truth be told.

Hi debt desperado, the debt was amassed by 3 years of not caring about tomorrow, we had a close and sudden family bereavement and we just stopped thinking about the consequences of overspending (11 holidays - I know it's disgusting). We had no debt before this time, always saved for everything, I remember reading about people in 15-20k debts and wondering how they could have done that - now I know, it's pretty easy when you are in that frame of mind. We have been living really frugally since Christmas and have cleared about 6k of debt already, I do keep thinking that we should suffer as much as possible in order for this to never happen again, but I will take control of the finances and make sure it doesn't. Whats that saying "a mistake is only truly a mistake if you don't learn from it". Well that's the attitude I am trying to have about this.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment - I do appreciate it.

sandalwood_2 · 8 May 2009 at 1:29PM

Hi scarlett1212

Thanks for the post,I am so looking forward to the baby coming,it will be hard and I am sure that we will struggle a bit,but if life was easy it would be boring,as I keep telling my misses,I am sure things will work out and we will be able to look back on this stage of our lives as a very tough(but happy) time and be over the worst of the debt problems and be back on track-I am looking at around 4 years of graft,then things will be good.
Good luck with whatever choice you make

savingholmes · 8 May 2009 at 3:58PM

Hi Scarlett - I would like to sound a little word of caution....

We got into debt on about 3 separate occasions - despite once selling a house, cashing in endowments etc to clear the debt. The "quick fix" doesn't always work - and definitely won't work unless you have successfully changed your mindset about debt and spending.

If however you have successfully changed that mindset and are confident you won't get into as much debt again - if you hate your place so much by all means sell up and start again somewhere else.

Would you sell your house to pay off your debt

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