Do we sell or rent our family home?

[ChefsKisser]

Relocating abroad indefinitely. Home is worth about £650k with £300k equity. If we rent we make a small amount each month after insurance/estate agents fees/tax etc but we are talking £300 odd pcm which I worry isn’t a big buffer in case anything goes wrong. It’s a lovely old Edwardian house but as such things can go wrong! And I’m worried tenants paying rent will not put up with little things we do as owners (not unreasonably!).

Or do we sell up and either buy a smaller property outright with our equity so any rental is all profits to give us a much bigger buffer? We could buy a much newer flat with much lower potential costs for small fixes.

Or do we invest the equity in stocks and shares and see how we go for a bit? We may well come back to the UK but realistically we may not want to be where we are now if we do.

what would you do? Thanks!
and yes I know we will probably need some actual financial advice haha!

If you are not bothered about keeping it as a family home as you love the house / the location etc incase things overseas don't work out - I recommend selling it. I say that as someone who rents. With an older house there is more chance things will go wrong and you'll be in for ££. I've not rented an older house yet which hasn't had significant leaks at some point.

@thanks2 thanks yeah that’s a big worry for us! It’s hard as obviously a bigger house has more potential to go up in value so it’s whether it’s worth keeping a higher value asset but I worry it’ll just be a cause of stress for us!

Not worth it for £300 a month.

A ~1.2% return on your capital.

Neighbours of ours did what you are doing and rented their property to the Army. I'm not sure if that is possible for you.

We were in South London and for a year we had a Guards Sergeant and his family, newly back from Germany, using it as married quarters.