To want 2 homes. Our current home and 2nd for dh's new job. Expats ? Possible ?

[Oblomov]

Dh has been offered a job in Dorset.
Very excited. Job sounds good and would like to live near Bournemouth. It is early days yet, so no rash decisions - probably rent to start with, ds and I move down there in time. Buy a house.

But I still like our old home. Outskirts of SW london. Good location. Ds has name down for good school.

And job may be for life. But also, particulalry these days, 2 or 3 years later, you might have to move again. And we might be glad to have our old base, to return to.

Can you have 2 houses ? Rent out old. Buy new in Dorset.
Expats sometimes keep their UK home, right ? How do they do it ?

Dh says We can't. Says to change our old mortgage to buy-to-let, the rent has to be 130% of mortgagae - ie if mortgage is £1000, rent must be £1300. Plus you have to have 12% deposit .

Now, I'm not suggesting that this whole thing would be financiallly easy, but surely with a struggle, it is just about possible ? No ? Am I unrealistic ?

we did when we went abroad (slightly different situation as we knew we were coming back, and new employer paid for accommodation abroad). We didn't switch to a buy-to-let, just got agreement from lender that we could rent it out.
When we returned home we continued to rent it out and brought a new home.
As far as I remember at the point we came home rent was £400pm and mortgage about £270pm, so we probably had the percentages you are talking about. But for the mortgage on our new house the (different) lender didn't seem to bothered about the other mortgage, but then we did have a histroy of renting it for 2.5y with no gaps so that helped.
I think it is probably easier to get agreement from your current lender just to let out the house rather than change the mortgage to buy-to let.
Problem then comes with the new place - if it's rented then no problem (as long as you can meet the rent) as you won't to provide the same financial information. If you buy then you need to convince the new lender that the mortgage is managable, can't see why you would need a 12% deposit on this.

or... is dorset cheaper than London? Will you get a much nicer property by selling up? Are you just a little bit frightened and feeling insecure about the move?

We made a similar move 5 years ago, stayed in Dorset for 3 years then moved back to Surrey/West London borders. House price-wise we were lucky - sold at a good price in London, bought in Poole in a risisng market and were able to buy a bigger house when we came back. DH was always concerned that we would be priced out of London if we ever decided to move back, but I'm not so sure now, as prices are very high in parts of Dorset.

Thank you for your quick response chasingrabbits - I suppose I must talk to different mortgage advisers and see what is possible for us.

Pansy. It is a bit cheaper but not that much. I suppose I am a tiny bit freaked out. We talked endlessly and abou jobs and relocating. but once the job offer is on the table, it all becomes a possibility rather than a speculation.

Mintchoc - that is very similar to us. I am not really sure what I am frightened of. Taking ds , moving him ( I , myslef could go anywhere, anytime), to a new nursery, then school, and then in a few years having to move him again ? And aswell find ourselves priced out of Surrey.

Have you had a look around the Bournemouth area yet? We lived in Poole, in Lower Parkstone/Lilliput area which is lovely, if pricey. Good schools but you do pay to get in the catchment, several private options too. Prices are fairly steep so I wouldn't worry too much about being priced out of surrey now (depends on your budget - you can still get good value for money, but in the 'nicer' areas or close to the sea you do pay a premium.

I think you have to ask yourself whether you really want the financial struggle on top of all the hassle and worry of moving to a new area. I personally wouldn't, because moving would be enough of a struggle for me without the knowledge that if we fancied a trip to London to visit friends or a bottle of wine and a takeaway, we couldn't because we couldn't afford it. (IYSWIM)

I would also recommend Ringwod ,schools are excellent and the house prices reflect that I'm afraid.Probably still cheaper than sw london though.
4 bed family homes are around £350-450

Ringwood

Cheers ggirl, I will have a look at Ringwood.
I haven't really checked out the area yet. I do know it , because my mum lived near Wimborne and I visited often and worked in the uni summers.
Please understand that I am really looking forward to relocating. I am just not quite sure why it is so important to me to keep our old house.

Why don't you let your current house for the moment and rent down here to see how you get one ? Then if you completely settle and love it you can sell up and buy exactly where you want to. If you miss London too much then you still have your old house.

Having said that I have done what you are talking about before, kept one house and buy another. I can't remember though how it worked with the figures. Might be worth your while speaking to a financial advisor to see what your options are.

I live just by Wimborne so am probably very close to where your Mum used to live.

Thank you Teapot. I bet you are very happy where you live.
Please understand, that we plan to take things very slowly. One week at a time.

Dh has booked into a B&B for first week. I will be at home with ds initially. Maybe we will then rent. But we were told by agencies that there is a minimum of 6 months contract, often 9 months, after references, for say a small family home.
6-9 months seems a bit too long of a committment to rent really, especially as dh will be paying for a B&B or rental and there is only so long that you can keep that up, as well as paying mortgage.

We will get our house valued for rental and sell soon.
An I will talk to my p/t job about working from home more - I'm more than hopeful that they would agree.

Then maybe move down into rented. Then maybe sell.

We have discussed the many possibilities of how to do each stage, and when to do what.

I will phone some mortgage advisers ( not ours!!!) and just get their quotes, this week.
If they say that we couldn't afford two homes, i.e to keep this one and rent it, whilst And trying to buy a new home and totally relocate - and I do mean mentally aswell, then I will let the subject drop( of having 2 homes).

Pending dh being happy in job, off we go - once house sold.

It has nothing to do with missing London. I was concerned that we might have to return, as I said in my op, because jobs often change, within say 3 years, these days, as opposed to a job for life. That was why I wanted to keep this house.

I wasn't naieve enough to think that it would be financially easy, but i didn't think was imossible either. Maybe I was wrong and naieve?
If I am please someone tell me now.

another good thing about renting old place out and renting new place down there is that it gives you time to check it all out and decide where you would like to live, and then when you are a bit more settled, know the area etc you can look for somewhere and see london place.

sell london place, not see it

chasing rabbit , are you being a cheeky monkey, or is it just me being a doughnut - are you posting one saying -rent, then next post sell, just to confuse me further -like I need confusing

ahhhh, yes it is truly difficult. I can throw another in the pot,, buy a cheaper house/flat for purely rental purposes to keep you in the london pricing belt...

good luck i am sure after spending some time there you will know exactly what to do.

Of course it's possible. You need to keep the London place in case things go wrong and it's a better place to keep in the property market than Dorset. Can't you buy a fairly smallish flat then in Dorset and put up with that for a 2 years or so and then if you really love Dorset and the job is working out consider selling the London place only then?

sorry - i was just correcting a typo at the end of the post just before that one, did think it looked a bit contradictory after I posted it.

Thank you all. We will see how dh's job goes. I will ring mortgage advisers. Take it from there. One week at a time.

It all sounds very exciting Oblomov, I hope it goes well. We've just had a lovely day having a picnic in the New Forest. There are a few of us down here so you will have to give us a shout when you get here. Bunny3 & Jodee both moved down from London a few years ago I think. And I know a few people round here who have recently done the same. 2 of them now have had their parents moving down to be closer to them and look like they will never go back.

I'm not local either but from a smaller city than you. We moved down for DH's job as well. He works from home now so we could go anywhere and have toyed with the idea of going back to Somerset where we were living before here. I think we will stay though.

Thank you Teapot.
Dh left a little while ago. The drive is 1 1/2 - 2 hours, from the M25, so we decided he should book into hotel tonight and be all fresh for his first day tomorrow. I took ds to the park, to ward off tears. We have never been apart, apart from a one night, here and there, where we have visited friends , on our own.
So it is just ds and I, for the moment.

oblomov i didn't realise your DH was starting so soon. Hope his first day goes well, and your first night alone too.
Get onto rightmove and do some house hunting?

you could of course sell the house in london, buy a smaller flat there (to stay in the market) then buy a family house in Dorset. Would reduce the financial burden a bit (although youd have to pay two lots of stamp which is always painful)

Haven't read the whole thread but we rent out one of our houses and we didn't have to change our mortgage. Fortunately the company we were with, Nationwide, were happy for us to rent without changing the mortgage.

The reason the buy to let mortgage rates are high is because they have to cover the odds of you having a period where the property is not let and you fail to keep up the repayments. We kept my old flat to let but didn't change the mortgage on it. Could get away with it because our current house is in DH's name only so there is no way of checking if someone has two mortgages

Oh Oblomov, I am sorry. I remember when DH started down here and I was on my own with DD in Somerset for a few months, trying to sell up and buy this one and I was miserable and stressed. I love house hunting so if there is anything I can do to help when you are looking please shout, I would love an excuse to pour over property details , as if I look now DH gets twitchy, gets a certain look !. I don't know what ages your child/children are but I have a DD who is 8 & a DS who is 3.6 if that is any help.

Thinking back I'm pretty sure what we did was remortgage taking out some equity, told our mortgage company that we were letting it out and they left it for 2 years on the same rate. The rent we received covered the mortgage with a little to spare, not very much. Then we bought another house somewhere else in my name. Stayed there for two years then moved to Dorset. We still have the other house, it was split into 2 flats when we bought it and has been let for the last 6 years to two families, one moved out last month so we're in the middle of applying for planning to see if we can convert the roof and I am really glad we've kept it now, even though there have been years when we've subsidised it a bit.

I will keep my fingers crossed that your DH's first day goes well.