to get off property ladder?

[nightowlmostly]

It's a bit of a long story, but the upshot is that we may be in a position where we have a buyer for our house but no house to purchase. The house we are supposed to be buying has a couple of issues that may or may not be sorted with an indemnity insurance, we will find out next week whether the purchase will go through.

In the meantime, we are trying to work out whether it would be wisest to stay where we are or to sell the house we are in at the moment and go into rented accomodation. We not have to make this choice, but for our buyers' sake we want to be prepared with a plan.

For background info, we have terrible neighbours at the moment and I have been kept sane by the idea that we are getting away from them! Also I am going on ML soon, at the end of the month, and am the main wage earner so we will not be able to get another mortgage until I come back to work next year. I am not sure whether renting for so long will be foolish, not knowing what will happen to the market in that time.

Another thing that worries me, although it may seem a bit paranoid, is what if something happens to one of us in that time? Like an accident or something, which will mean that we are unable to work as much or something, and therefore will be stuck in rented forever. I know that it might not be the end of the world to be renting, but the idea of getting off the ladder now then never being able to get back on scares me. I will kick myself if it ends up being a mistake.

Please be honest, I am very tempted to move into rented, you know when you have got your head around moving? I've got my heart set on leaving my house already. But my sensible head says maybe not, play it safe. Tell me what to do!

Yes get off.

You've got my sympathies, as I often wonder about this too.

what if you buy and the neighbours are awful? Or if you need to move but can't sell. Renting just seems so much easier, but people think you are crazy if you want to get off the property ladder. I've been on the market ages, if I was renting, I would have been moved and settled ages ago :(

Wonder if there's a middle route somewhere..

You will be off for what, a year or so? It does depend on where you are, some hotspots around say London or Surrey for eg still seem to have rising prices. But mostly I think the prices might be coming down and wouldn't that give you a great advantage in a year or two when you want to buy again?

I would (probably) sell and rent, and gamble that my rent money would be easily recuperated at a later date.

Don't know where in the country you are, but I'd suggest that if you are not in a desirable area of London, it'd be a good idea to get off the ladder. House prices only seem to be going one way ...

We have done this once OP. About 1994 or 5 we got an offer on a house and the property market was totally stagnant so we rented a house till we found another.

For us it was a win-win as we could take our time looking about and were in a position of strength to buy as we had no chain attached to us.

Word of caution. I have rented for most of my adult life. We have lived in white and magnolia for 10 years, not nice, and had to move 4 times, through no fault of our own. Renting seems loke a good idea but so many landlords are banking on the revenue to pay the mortgage plus that if the interest rates go up they put the price up. A friend had the rent increased by £150 per month and ended up homeless! Another friend paid her rent but the landlord didn't pay his mortgage and she had the house repossesed with 2 days notice! I am glad that, hopefully, those days are over for me. The kids love having colou on their walls and I no longer have a panic attack when the landlord callls!

I have rented for years. Six years in one house and then I chose to move to this house. Long term contract here.

If you choose carefully, good agent, not a house that is up for sale also, you wont necessarily get into a nightmare.

In your circumstances, I would do it.

Why not rent your house out and move into a rented house yourself. So long as the rental income you receive covers your mortgage then you get to keep your house and sell it when the property market is more buoyant?

Sell and rent - good buyers don't come very often and you may regret it. If you rent somewhere smaller and cheaper it means you can save more money for a new place and also mean that you won't get so comfortable you will stay in rented iyswim? Good luck!

Do your poor buyers know about the nightmare neighbours? It is illegal not to disclose this info . But yes in your situation I would rent.

Have you been posting for a while about truly awful neighbours and wanting to move (there was a MNer posting about her neighbours making her life hell and she was trying to persuade her DH to move but he wanted to stay on the property ladder at all costs)? If this is you then go!! Nothing is worse IMO than awful neighbours and living in an area that you don't like.

Renting becomes a lot less stressful once you have enough money in savings for moving costs/deposits etc because at least you can just move if you don't like it. Like lookbutdont says if you choose carefully (and ask loads of questions) you don't have to end up with a nightmare.

I think it's only illegal not to disclose the bad neighbours if the buyer asks isn't it?

not sure what the market is like near you, but here the market is very slow. in the past 3 years, the only people i know who have bought or sold (ourselves included) have ended up with a brief period in rented accommodation, as it's night on impossible to build even a short chain in the current climate.

Its shit that they buyers will be moving in next to the bad neighbours but what can you do? If it was me I'd be out of there.

The neighbours are a nightmare only in so far as they are a young family and the kids are really noisy. It affects me a lot because I work night shifts and they start screaming really early in the day. The mum shouts at them, I've heard her swearing and threatening them with violence, but I'm not sure if she ever does hit them, I've never seen any evidence.

They are quiet at night, so the way I see it is that they won't bother day shift types as much as they bother me, iyswim? I was worried that during viewings there would be some kind of yelling, but we got lucky. This is why I think maybe moving while we have the chance is the right thing to do.

You have to declare bad neighbours if there has been any kind of official action, as far as I am aware, if the police are involved or complaints to the HA, I think. The buyers asked us what they were like and we said they were a young family, three boys and we don't have much to do with them, which is all true. The buyers already have a family so they will understand that some noise is to be expected. I'm sure, as I said, if we were day shift workers, it wouldn't seem so bad.

I do feel a little bad about landing others with it, but we can't stay here forever because we have bad neighbours, can we?!

Oh, I am not that MNer, althouugh I have posted about the neighbours before.

Hi OP.
We did it.
Got asking price for our house which was about 15K more than we would have accepted. No where to move. Prices not moving but very little to buy and didn't want to lose our buyers.
One year later we have bought somewhere and are about to complete.
Pros:
We were in a great position to buy and were able to wait until the right house came up.
We got a good price on the new house.
We got some interest on the equity (about 3%)
It has been quite relaxing being in rented with no DIY to worry about and no repairs.
A huge benefit is giving ourselves a 3 week overlap when we have both properties so we can get the work done on the new house without the furniture and kids in the way! So much less stressful than moving in one and out of another in the same day.
Cons:
Rental prices are mad here (W London) and we are paying £2k pcm for a place that would cost us about £1K for a mortgage (although we are getting about £500 a month in interest on our equity)
It is a bit frustrating to not be able to do anything to the house. shelves, paint etc.
Had to pay two lots of removal costs (about £800 a time) and solicitors costs are higher too.
I was constantly worried about the banks failing and losing all our equity.

On balance I would do it if I were you. You can relax with the new baby in a nice (hopefully) neutral house and not have to do any work and can move again when baby is a bit older.

I don't think prices are going anywhere for a while and it is lovely to have your options open.

Unless you are in SW London I would sell and rent.

Thanks all, I think on balance we will sell up and rent. I feel ready to move, you know when you have got your head around it? I have booked NCT classes in the town we are moving to, to meet some people, amd that will be a waste if we don't move there now. It's just a bit scary! Hopefully this will be unnecessary stressing anyway, and the purchase will be going through fine in the end.