Anyone let out their home cos it won't sell?

[hateestateagents]

Our house has been on the market since the beginning of the year and the market where we are house is, is stagnant. We have two couples interested in our house, but they can't go ahead as they have houses to sell themselves :(

We need to sell as we have moved away from the area, and are basically stuck in a small rented flat until we can release the equity from our house.

However we can't wait for a buyer forever and the house has been empty for a couple of months now - so we have looked into letting. The rent on our house would we less than the rent we are paying on the flat we are living in (prices in the south are mental!) and we would have to factor in tax, management fees and repairs, but it would be an additional income and we still have our mortgage repayments.

We have totally refurbished our house and just worried that it won't be as presentable to potential buyers if we put it back on the market in 6-12 months time. Plus friends and family keep saying that it will get trashed if we let it out. Has anyone had any experience of doing something similar?

[omletta]

Yes I've got one which is let. We had it on the market for about a year but it just wasn?t shifting and the prices in its location are still reducing. We rent it for about half of our monthly mortgage cost and of course we don?t have to pay the bills and the council tax. Its also better to have a property lived in although I would say that I will need to redecorate throughout and do new carpets when we look to sell.

We now live elsewhere and rented for a couple of years but have just bought a other house to live in. Its very scary having two (big) mortgages but we really couldn?t see a point at which the first house was going to sell for a reasonable amount so we decide that we needed to knuckle down for a few years and just accept the situation. The plan is to sell both houses in a few years once the market has picked up and buy our forever house.

[nocake]

There's no reason a tenant would trash your house. We let a flat to a professional couple who look after it very well.

[LemonDifficult]

I agree with nocake about the tenant not necessarily trashing it - why would they? You have a deposit. And if there's wear and tear, repainting and carpeting my be cheaper than even a few months of it standing empty.

[myron]

We did this is autumn 2008 after a job relocation and the house went on the market for 5 mths after 2 good offers came in but fell through because both couples couldn't get a mortgage to everyone's surprise. We barely broke even even with a relatively small mortgage (SW - large family house). We rented it out for 2 yrs and had 2 sets of tenants. We did have the house repainted before we put it back on the market last summer (at the same valuation set in 2008) and achieved 97% of asking price within a few weeks. (We did have multiple offers). A similar house priced theirs 10% more - it didn't sell and they took it off the market 2 months later. Having been in the same scenario, I would advise you to drop your price and sell sooner rather than later - it's definitely better than it was in autumn 2008 when credit lines froze and people just weren't getting any mortgages approved. Renting your house out and living in a squashed rental hundreds of miles away is like living in limbo - we've lived it for 3 yrs. Especially if you need the equity from it in order to buy in your new location. We finally completed a rather tortuous sale earlier this year so we're feeling significantly happier since we know that we can now move on. Haven't found the right property yet but mentally, it's a great relief being chain free and not being under pressure to find a suitable house within a certain time period.

[midnightexpress]

I think it depends where the house is, and whether you have a decent agent to manage the property. I rented out my flat in London when I relocated (ages ago) through an agent. It was fine - the agent collected the rent, arranged repairs etc and were very good about chasing up any late payments.

I have heard some absolute horror stories. And I mean really bad, but my flat was in a slightly dodgy area of London and was absolutely fine.

[myron]

Unless you are in London, personally, I don't think that the market is going to pick up anytime soon - it'll be worse in 6-12 mths. In 2008, it was 'only' banks that were going bankrupt. In 2011, it's countries going bankrupt so imo, the window to sell is asap. Stock prices are falling at an unpredented rate so house prices can only follow.

[myron]

Sorry, obviously meant unprecedented

[Thepoweroforangeknickers]

I agree with Myron. House prices won't rise for many years to come IMO. I reckong they'll be flat for at least the next 10 years. Cut your losses and reduce the house to sell. Far less stressful.

[chessy80]

I've posted my own experience of buying (or not!) in the 'going mad waiting to buy' topic but with regards to renting as opposed to selling I would suggest anyone thinking of doing this takes into account:

Bad tenants - I've always had good relationships with landlords and as a result have had some good deals (e.g. rent freezes for four years). But it sounds like problem tenants are pretty common. As one landlord said to me "good, solvent tenants are like hen's teeth". Also, if you manage to find a buyer, you don't want an unpaying tenant who refuses to move without a court order.

Selling whilst renting - I've seen lots of houses for sale which are also for rent. Personally I would never go for a house like this - who wants potential buyers wandering around your home willy nilly! With this in mind, your choice of tenants will be far more limited (and see above).

Finally, the biggest problem with this in my opinion is that you are basically gambling on the housing market recovering with double the stakes. If prices continue falling, then you are loosing equity in two houses, not just one. And with just one house, negative equity isn't so much of a problem as long as you don't think you'll need to move but with two, its more like a cash loss. I suppose it depends on where you think the housing market is going but unless banks start lending at pre-crdit crunch levels, a recovery in prices really doesn't seem likely to me.