Advice on when to sell after buying a year ago

[Indecisiveandconfused]

Long story short. Moved to home town a year ago for family reasons a long way across country. We know it well but have not lived here for a long time. Bought in a hurry after years of looking because the rental we were in decided to sell so we didn't have much time and jumped. We paid well over asking price and the stamp duty was horrendous.
From day one, I realised it was the wrong move. I cannot settle, don't like the house and every day I wonder how soon we can sell.
The problem is recouping the costs of the move which we won't even cover for several years if that. I thought of renting, but worry the house won't sell for a good price if it is rented or empty when it goes not he market. Also I think we would have to pay Capital Gains Tax after a year and a half on the sale.
Jobs are not a factor as now retired, and I don't want to waste years of my life being miserable.

Half of me feels we just have to stick it out for at least 5 years. The other half just thinks sod it just move and lose a lot of money. I just don't know what to do. I am struggling with living in a city, the pollution, the weather etc. It just hasn't turned out how I expected it to.

The housing market is very strong here and prices are very buoyant, but given the stamp duty and what we paid for the house, we will be in deficit if we don't wait. it's normal to pay well over asking price here by the way.

[Alexalee]

Lifes too short
If you can afford to take the hit then sell up
You could always put it on the market at your break even price and see what happens
What part of the country?

[Cyberworrier]

Could you try putting it up for sale, maybe in the Spring, and if you don’t get enough interest/high enough offers, bite the bullet and rent it out? I don’t know about the CGT etc, I’d research implications of renting it out thoroughly. If you really don’t like living there, you may have to accept having lost out, either on the stamp duty if you sell soon, or CGT if you rent it out. Only you know if that’d be worth it to move/if you could hack staying put. I would definitely wait till Spring to put it on market as everything so all over the place with Brexit.

[lovelyupnorth]

Life’s to short.

I’d suck up the losses for happiness

[Indecisiveandconfused]

I think we might put it on the market and see what offers we get next year, I agree now is not a good time! I have just seen a great house in the area I want to move to at the right price too! I am so gutted.

[lovelyupnorth]

I think I agree about timing but round here far more. Buyers then sellers so anything half decent is going well a few clowns have massively over priced and they are sticking.

So though we have a big cluster fuck coming currently not effected the housing market here.

[Doje]

Put it in the market, see what happens.

Stamp duty is a lost cost, so I'd say for the sake of your happiness, if you can get the cost of the house back, just do it.

[Lightsabre]

There are some stamp duty changes apparently coming in for sub 500K properties. Would it be worth waiting to see how that pans out? It might mitigate some of the loss.

[LIZS]

Cgt only applies if it stops being your principle private residence , even then you have a buffer of time should you rent it out. Whether in the current climate you would get the price you paid by selling so soon is debatable.

[Appletreehouse]

Forget the house you've seen, it's a dream at the minute, if you went to view it would probably not be as you imagined. Don't rush into buying your next house just because you want to be away from your current home or you'll be in the same place next year. Keep an eye on the market where you want to go but remind yourself it's not to find a home yet, just to keep on top of market values etc to distance yourself from the dream

[JoanLewis]

I think CGT is only applicable to the difference in cost from when you started renting it to when you sold it. I may be wrong, but if I'm right that would be a negligible amount (depending on when you sold it).

But, I agree - just stick it on the market and see what happens. So long as you can afford to buy the house you want to buy, it doesn't really matter if you make a loss on this one. Think of the bigger picture. We sold a flat back in 2009 at a loss, then sold the subsequent place two years later at a significant profit, so we made up our initial loss (iyswim).

[WBWIFE]

We moved in June 2018 and put the house on market in Feb 2019 and sold within 24 hours.

We made 15k as we did the driveway, so that paid for our move basically.

If I was that unhappy and even if we didn't make the 15k I would have still moved.

We got our renovation home in May 2019 and it was the best decision ever. We are nearly moved in now 😊 much happier.

[Squirreltamer]

This info may be out of date...

You only play CGT if it’s not your main property. You also get an allowance of 12k if your partner is on the deeds this will be 2 lots of 12k. So the house would have had to go up by 24k or more and even then you only pay a percentage of the “profit”

Life’s too short. If you think it will be an easy sell. Get it on, get it sold.

[Indecisveandconfused]

@WBWIFE
May I ask why you moved?
Thanks for the helpful replies, I just feel such a failure for having made this mistake.
Today I just feel so desperate to move away.
I think the right thing is to wait till Spring, get the house valued and maybe test the waters then.

[DaphneduM]

We've just completed a move. Similar to you, we moved for family reasons and are retired so wanted it to be our final move. So very nervous of making a mistake as there's definitely a certain amount of luck involved, no matter how much research you do. Because of our age bracket I know three other couples who have done similar - two moving from beautiful but large period properties with big gardens to much smaller properties. None of them are happy, one misses her beautiful Cornish house, one has been shafted by a cowboy builder and another is living in a busy city with a Sainsbury's virtually on top of the house. We are happy so far, a lovely village near a large City - plenty of amenities in the village and now near our beloved family and grandchildren. Lovely neighbours. A beautiful house, modern rather than our period one, but still a good size which was important to me, albeit with a much more manageable garden. If we weren't happy, after giving it some time and a chance, I would move again in a heartbeat, no matter how much it costs to move. Life is short - too short to be unhappy, especially after a lifetimes work - you are entitled to a happy retirement.

[Indecisveandconfused]

That's interesting Daphne.
I think it's a time of life when there are so many unknown factors it is hard to know what to do. Family reasons can crumble too. I think we've worked out we need to be close to a city or town with lots going on but in the countryside, with good transport links. I miss hearing owls at night, hate the pollution and the traffic drives me mad. However, we are close to everything we need and there is lots to do culturally. I would like to feel part of a community though rather than washing about amongst so many anonymous people.

The house just does nothing for me. It is in a good area which I know well, but it's a characterless box . I have no feeling for it. That might develop over time I suppose...
It's just galling as we took years to make a decision and I now feel it's been the wrong one.
Glad you are happy Daphne. Sounds like you have a really good balance.

[WBWIFE]

@16:47Indecisveandconfused was supposed to be a better area and right on the road of a great school. We moved and there were lots of break ins and issues with youth! We had wet paper threw at our windows and cars numerous time. Didn't like it.

Also garden was courtyard garden and we had a baby and realised we wanted a proper garden. And it was a very overlooked courtyard garden too! It also had an open driveway.

We bought a bungalow which has an enclosed very large driveway and a lovely mature private back garden. Needed hsit laods of work but we are nearly there and love it

[TheBrockmans]

I would look less at the amount of money gained or lost and more at the sort of house you can buy in your desired area for the current value of your house. If this is a forever move then the financial loss is only relevant if it means you can no longer afford the house you want in the new area.

[Flyingsouthwiththeswallows]

I could have written your post Indecisive and have no idea how to resolve the situation.

It is made worse by the fact that the market here is not buoyant. I will definitely lose money and the only things coming to market that I like are overpriced in relation to the property I sold.

I chose life in a bustling village but hate the noise of being on a through road and miss my previous idyllic rural environment.

I guess I will just have to wait for the right thing to come up and swallow the loss associated with my ‘mad choice’

[Robs20]

If you can afford to move now, I would put it on the market now and see what happens. As others have said, life is too short. Good luck!

[DaphneduM]

Indecisiveandconfused - thank you. I absolutely agree with you that family reasons can crumble too. So definitely we have to create our own life here rather than rely just on our family for company. My husband is great at that, as he started volunteering after he retired, so he's already got two days voluntary work lined up. At the moment it's the honeymoon period with my daughter and her baby, as it's total luxury for us both to be spending so much time together as she's on maternity leave. It was just not practical to get together so much before we moved. We were rural before, hearing owls like you - and I did wonder if I'd miss it - we're still in a village but so different and we are on the road. But so far the advantages of our village in terms of services and amenities outweigh that. Also our previous rural home had huge tractors thundering past all hours, and the slurry spreading out on our back fields seemed to be increasingly frequent, so we don't miss that. I find having all my 'stuff' around me as well as my husband and the cats means I feel I have just ported our home here anyway. It's been fun buying different bits and pieces that fit in our modern home, so got ladder type bookshelves as well as some of those Ikea box type ones. My interior design efforts seem to be inspiring my daughter to change her modern house, so I think it can't look too bad! Seriously though, I totally empathise with your dilemma as that could have been us. I would say, give it a fair chance over the winter, maybe buy a few bits to cheer up the house that you could take with you if you do decide to move in the Spring. By the Spring the political situation should have stabilised too. I would image there's a lot of pent up demand in the housing market. Having said all that, I notice that houses in our area (south west) that are sensibly priced are selling, in some cases within a week, so it can be done.

[Indecisiveandconfused]

@Flyingsouthwiththeswallows
I'm so sorry to hear that your situation is much the same as mine, but also reassured to hear that I am not the only one!
It's interesting what you say @DaphneduM that you know several people in a similar situation too.
If we move again we will have a depleted fund for a purchase so would have to compromise on what we buy. I am relieved to hear i may have got the tax situation wrong.
I am really nervous about buying again after this debacle. Maybe after another Winter we may feel more settled, but at the moment I am thinking literally every day about moving.

[Flyingsouthwiththeswallows]

I am the same Indecisive. I check Rightmove first thing every morning and think about it constantly.

I am furnishing the house, buying curtains and fitting a new Fireplace but all with the aim of making the house as saleable as possible.

I share your nervousness and have begun to seriously doubt my own ability to know what it is I want from a house. I had good reasons for moving from the last place but it was beautiful and I still miss it.

[Indecisiveandconfused]

@Flyingsouthwiththeswallows

Do you think you just need to give it a bit more time? The trouble with spending on the house is you wonder if you can recoup the cost. We have put in a fireplace too and spent money on fixing various things, now thinking about new carpets. I just don't have any enthusiasm for it though. I have lived in a lot of houses, and never felt like this.
We went out of town yesterday and just being in the countryside made me feel so different. I dreaded coming home.
We're doing lots of things to keep busy but it all feels a bit hollow. I realise the most important thing is to really love your home . Otherwise it really doesn't matter how many activities you do or where the supermarket is. Home is where the heart is, and mine isn't here.

[doginthemanger]

OP, I think I remember you posting when you first moved. Apologies if I've got that wrong.
It's a pity you didn't rent when making such a big move, but what's done is done, and I would hate to be as unhappy as you in your own home. I don't think it's a case of giving it time because you clearly don't want to be in the city, quite apart from not liking the house.
Bit surprised you mentioned the weather though. Surely you knew what that would be like!
You're in a place with a buoyant market so maybe you won't lose as much as you fear. If you can afford to take a bit of a loss I would put it on the market.

[Flyingsouthwiththeswallows]

I think from my perspective Indecisive I have no choice but to give it time.

The local property market is seriously affected by Brexit with very little moving. I am not prepared to end up in rental so will have to wait for a property to come along that interests me. I won’t sell till that happens.

I will move again though. I have no doubts about that. Even if I lose money and have to downsize again.

In your shoes, if there was something on the market that I was interested in, I would move even if I made a loss on the house I left behind.