My house and what to do with it

[Gazza77]

After 9 years of living alone, I am moving in with my gf, and we completed on our new house together yesterday. We began the process of buying the new place in January, and mine was put on the market at the same time. Sadly, it has yet to sell, and after averaging around one viewing every couple of weeks to start with, it has now been 6 weeks since the last one. Against other comparable houses in the area I live in the house seems fairly priced (I regularly check out the competition!) so that would not appear to be a factor.

Before we can move into our new place, we need to carry out a fair bit of work to it, so it will be a good couple of months before it is in a fit state to live their. After that though, I really need to do something with mine as we can't afford to do up the new place, pay the mortgage on it and keep paying my mortgage whilst leaving it empty. I could rent it out, this is affordable, even though the rent would not cover my existing mortgage. I'm not really sure that I want the potential for stress as a landlord however.

Do the great .org members have any other bright ideas?

burn it to the ground and claim the insurance??

if its viable to rent it out, by which your not struggling with your new mortgage and its liable to rented out the majority of the time, then surely keeping hold of an asset like property has to be worth while.

also for renting it out, maybe worth looking at letting agencies, ok they will take a cut of rent etc... but then they will deal with things for you, setting up the contract for the rent and any emergency stuff, no calls in the middle of the night to you saying you have a leak and you need to get a plumber out straight away!

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by malks

burn it to the ground and claim the insurance??

if its viable to rent it out, by which your not struggling with your new mortgage and its liable to rented out the majority of the time, then surely keeping hold of an asset like property has to be worth while.

also for renting it out, maybe worth looking at letting agencies, ok they will take a cut of rent etc... but then they will deal with things for you, setting up the contract for the rent and any emergency stuff, no calls in the middle of the night to you saying you have a leak and you need to get a plumber out straight away!

Yeah, that's what I've looked into, with the Estate agent that is currently trying to sell it. I'd want them to do a "managed" service, even if it costs.

Long term, renting is probably the best option. Short term however it is likely to be more expensive, and will leave us from being in a position of having one relatively small mortgage and some savings, to having rather less equity and little in the bank for a rainy day. Both of us are in relatively secure jobs however, and given that we are both progressing careerwards (I'm a pq accountant, hope to qualify in the nexy couple of years) and my gf has just qualified, fingers crossed our joint earnings potential should rise too.

I've never been in the position to seel a house, not having bought one yet! Though maybe get it with more estate agents, you see some places around these parts with 3 or 4 different estate agent signs up. Also the obvious but not-very-good thing to do would be to lower the price a bit, though I think the marked seems to be slowing everywhere at the moment, especially up north (generalisation, i go from London to Cheshire every week and it seems more 'business-as-usual' down there.)

Ooh sorry also on the letting it out front, you could then convert your mortgage on that place to interest only, which would possibly mean you'd then break even or even make a little each month. That way you've got a magical investment that in 5-10 years will be worth more with any luck.

[Biker Biggles]

What made you buy the new place just as house prices were about to collapse?Can you not pull out of that and live in your existing house?

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Gazza77

After 9 years of living alone, I am moving in with my gf, and we completed on our new house together yesterday. We began the process of buying the new place in January, and mine was put on the market at the same time. Sadly, it has yet to sell, and after averaging around one viewing every couple of weeks to start with, it has now been 6 weeks since the last one. Against other comparable houses in the area I live in the house seems fairly priced (I regularly check out the competition!) so that would not appear to be a factor.

Before we can move into our new place, we need to carry out a fair bit of work to it, so it will be a good couple of months before it is in a fit state to live their. After that though, I really need to do something with mine as we can't afford to do up the new place, pay the mortgage on it and keep paying my mortgage whilst leaving it empty. I could rent it out, this is affordable, even though the rent would not cover my existing mortgage. I'm not really sure that I want the potential for stress as a landlord however.

Do the great .org members have any other bright ideas?

Just sign it over to me?

I'll make sure that you dont have any issues over it ever again.

I wont even charge you a penny for this service

How generous am I ????

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

What made you buy the new place just as house prices were about to collapse?Can you not pull out of that and live in your existing house?

No, we can't. Location wise, we have to live near enough her parents to be able to walk in order for her to look after her horse on a daily basis. She cannot drive and at present I live 35 miles away, which is 45 mins by car or nearly 2 hours on public transport.

The house we are buying needs a fair amount of work doing to it, and as such has a reasonable amount of scope for increasing the value relative to what we spend. We also will have a mortgage on it of around 40% of its value once renovated, so a fall in prices doesn't really worry me. Even if I rent mine out, that will also still have around 25% equity in it, so again, fair scope for reorganising finances if needed. We also intend to stay in the new place for a good few years (it meets all our needs location wise and size wise), so long term values are more of an issue than prices over the next 12/24 months.

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Just sign it over to me?

I'll make sure that you dont have any issues over it ever again.

I wont even charge you a penny for this service

How generous am I ????

No issues over it ever again? No bills? No demands for payment when I stop paying the mortgage? Deal.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Gazza77

No issues over it ever again? No bills? No demands for payment when I stop paying the mortgage? Deal.

Only just realised where it is - so may have to pull out of the deal, would get into too many fights with people who refer to themselves as "Northerners", more Midlanders from where I'm from ..........

I rent in London - I doubt your mortgage is more than my rent............

[Gazza77]

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

Only just realised where it is - so may have to pull out of the deal, would get into too many fights with people who refer to themselves as "Northerners", more Midlanders from where I'm from ..........

I rent in London - I doubt your mortgage is more than my rent............

Well I am a Brummy by birth (shhh, don't tell anyone), not that you can tell from my accent as I only spent 6 months or so there.

I bet you're right about the mortgage v rent, it's about ?1100 in total between the two of us for both houses; one 3 bed semi with a garage and a 2 bed terrace with a garage and half an acre of land.