Can't make our minds up on what to do

[lampshadelily]

Is this a stupid idea? Dh been offered a job far away from where we live. We currently live in a small clicky town where everyone knows everyone and tbh are both feeling suffocated. We would love to move.
So we decided this job sounds amazing let’s sell our house and move with our 5 yo dd.
We have a school place secured. The problem now is, our house hasn’t sold.

We’ve figured out if we let it out it will get a lot less than renting a house in the new area. We’d be down by £300 pm. We could afford that but really feels like we’ll be throwing money away.

We are worried about becoming landlords and have no idea what it entails.
We’ve spoken to our bank and they’ve said we can go in for an interest only mortgage making us letting the property affordable for us.

I’ve said it might be better to cut our losses and sell the house much lower than what’s expected and just go buy a cheaper house than planned in new area. Or maybe a renovation project that we can live in and do up over the years. Dh adamant it’s better to let house out and try sell again in a year when Brexit is over its never over though is it
I’m just so confused!

What sort of figures are you talking?

When we moved we sold up because we didn’t want to be landlords but there is a wealth of advice available if that’s the best option for you.

@Flower777 where do you get advice? We have no family and feel a bit naive tbh.
Our house was up for sale for £675. We’ve dropped it down to £610 and still no interest.
We think it’s the market but obviously don’t know for sure. Ideally we don’t want to drop it further but the area were moving in has a lot of renovation projects in as is more typically oap place and (unfortunately) therefore more probates.

Rent wise we’re looking at £1.7k on our house before costs and £2.1 on new area house. But with the drop on the repayment mortgage to interest only it equates to about a £400 over max which we can afford short term but I do worry we will be rubbish landlords and also don’t want to rent for too long so again thinking drop price further and sell up.

Sorry meant to say re probates may still be able to afford the house we would like even if we drop price as long as we are happy with all shades of the rainbow bathroom suites for a while

Wow you have dropped it a lot already. Have you had no interest at all?

You can get a letting agent to do it all for you. You pay for it though obviously. Sometimes they have a partial option too where they do some of it.

If you are moving to a new area a long way away, wouldn't it be helpful to live there a while before deciding which part to buy in ? I wouldn't want to buy blind until I'd got a 'feel' for the area. So is that a compromise? Let out for a year with a plan to sell after that ?

@BackforGood yes we don’t know the area very well. You’re right it’s better to check it out properly.

Even if we rent though are we better off selling our current house cheaply and looking while we rent so we are at least on a position to buy and then just buy something that is lower in price than we were initially planning to buy then do it up over the years we live there.

@Flower777 we’re very surprised it hasn’t sold o we’ve had almost no interest at all. I assumed was price but then dropped it. We’re thinking to accept it will have to drop further

The market is quite stale at the moment. We are selling a flat and it's almost dead no viewing for a month. We have dropped it but we'll wait and see.
We are lucky because we have a tenant that has allowed us to show it while she pays rent.
I'll definitely rent the house out and drop to interest only.
We've been landlords for 18 years. Get an agent to manage the property and get rent guaranteed insurance either from the agent or you can get it independently.

Thanks @BlueJag have spoken to an agent today about letting it out. Think that’s our best option tbh. Even though worried about letting it because we know we want to try to sell again next year as want to own our home (after many years renting it’s just not for us!)

If you know you'll want to sell within a year, it's out really worth going through the process of getting your house ready to rent, finding a tenant, then either trying to sell with a tenant in situ, or waiting for the tenant to leave before getting the house ready to sell? I think it'd be worth putting some figures together.

is it really worth...

@OnTheEdgeOfTheNight we can’t afford to rent ourselves without a rental income.
The agency said our house will go quite quickly due to the transport links but most likely hasn’t sold because there’s a lot less buyers in the area.
Our house doesn’t need anything doing to it. We will just move out and get our cleaner to clean and it’s ready to go. But in an ideal world I’d leave it on the market with no tenants. We can’t afford that though. Especially as I will have to look for work once I’m in the new area

Put a link to your house sale. Us MN are good at pointing out things to help you sell.
If you do let your house I'd seriously downsize and rent a cheaper place in New area rather than paying extra rent.

I would put a link but I haven’t told my job I’m moving yet so it’s too identifying.
We need accepting we will probably have to make a different move to the one we originally planned.

Our house is less than 1000 sq ft so I really don’t think we can go much smaller. Our living room is 11x12!

Oh! OK then. Yes wouldn't be a great idea for your boss to see. Could you rent a static caravan or stay further out to drop the costs.

In a similar situation we rented our house out with an agency with guaranteed income, so they sorted everything and we got paid whether there was a tenant in or not or whether they paid. We had no interaction with the tenants at all so it was very easy. The rental income (after agency fees) just about paid for the interest-only mortgage repayments with a bit left over for any extra maintenance costs. We tried to sell it again a few years later when we were settled in the new area and had no problems.

If nothing is selling then I’d take it off the market rather than sell it for a ridiculous price, take the Interest Only option from the bank & minimise the difference.

I’d also rent something much cheaper. As long as it’s clean & in a reasonable area, I really wouldn’t care what it was like I’d take a year to see where, exactly, I wanted to live in the new area then reassess the situation.

Thanks this is helpful. I think I agree that best thing to do is let our house out.

Unfortunately the new area is more expensive rent wise as mostly large houses unlike where we live which has lots of rental properties. So making up the difference is proving more difficult having live in such a small house we were hoping not to have a flat but that is an option and we just try to minimise the costs until we’re in a better position.

Yes, I’d just rent a small flat, as cheaply as possibly. Tell yourself it’s only for s year and a year goes quickly. You’ll have a much better idea what you can/want/need to do in a years time.

When I did that I had a major sort out & got rid of loads of stuff. I then packed up a lot of sentimental stuff I wanted to keep in good strong boxes & put it in the loft (parents/friends loft if you don’t have one). Then I put the minimum of kitchen stuff, linen etc I thought we’d need in the flat and the rest in well labelled boxes in the loft that I could easily access IF we needed anything. We brought down surprisingly little. Then I was VERY careful not to buy ‘stuff’. It’s surprising how much a very small amount added or removed can make a big difference.

Remind yourself it’s only for a year.

I’m a landlord. I’ve got good tenants so it’s no problem.
Mine actually improve the property.
I used a tenant finder and then see to everything else myself.
But then I only live 5 mins away
They’ve been there 5 years now
If you get nightmare ones then it’s a lot of rotten luck

My daughter couldn’t sell her house so has rented it out for 5 years..it’s brought in £30;000 in rent which is helping to pay her own mortgage
She’s got good tenants.
Live practically next door to me..they even cut the communal grass
Her rental income is practically a quarter of the house value

I would definitely rent it out

You don't need to rent as big or as nice a house as you would buy? Rent the bare minimum that you need in your new place.