sell my rented flat to invest the money ?

[prettywhiteguitar]

I'm now on the third month with no tenant and its seriously stretching the family finances, I'm not actually sure what will will do if we go another month without renting it out. unfortunately the city is flooded with cheap rents so it is very competitive. I wont be going back to work full time for another 3 years as I have a young dd so I have another 3 years of worry ahead of me !

Really, the question is should I sell ?

dp doesnt want me to because he is very cautious, however due to the maintence fees i am making only £40 a month on the rent .

I think if I sell I could make £19,000, if I pay off my debt I would be left with 15,000 to reinvest, would this be better than holding onto the property till i'm 50 and the mortgage then is paid off and I will benefit from either an income from the rent or selling it ?

I reallly dont know what to do and I would appreciate any help ?

Read Monkey with a pin by Pete Comley for insight into investments.

thanks Alad, i'll look it up

If your market is flooded with cheap rentals and you are not getting tenants at the price you want to charge, you're probably too expensive. If a cheaper rent would not cover the cost of being a landlord then realise the asset, pay off your debts and find a safer home for your cash.

thank you cogito

On the other hand if you sell you're looking at at least 3 months, probably, after finding a buyer. That's if things go well. Which won't help you to pay the mortgage next month. And if it's up for sale you're highly unlikely to be able to rent it out in the interim.

we rent through thelocal council, have you considered this option, we get current market value plus they pay the deposit and also a months rent in advance and a thank you amount of money for renting through them..win win if you ask me..been doing through them for years

That sounds very promising supermum will ring them tomorrow thank you

Ecuse I thought no one would want to rent it either but I had it on a couple of years ago and got a tenant, I think I'll take it off at the end of the month, no point over December !

I used to rent my flat through a council in London and thought it was a good way to get guaranteed payment. Council then reduced tenants rent allowance so we were out of pocket every month. When we asked the tenants to leave we had to go to court at huge cost as the council would not re-house people if they left their accommodation voluntarily. It took us over a year and cost a fortune so please be careful and check it all out before going ahead. There is also a company called Interhome who do short term holiday lets so it might be worth contacting them. Finally we tried to sell my flat though auction as this is a legally binding agreement on the day so that might be worth looking at too? It didn't work for us because the tenants were still in there and that put off any buyers. Also you can always put a reserve price on it....
Good luck!

Sell if you can...depending on what the market is doing in your area. We have been trying to sell my mums house (she died last year) with only six viewings in six months. It is a gorgeous house in a very sort after location but nothing is moving in the area. Very frustrating.... We are now letting it out and hope to try again in the spring.

I'd sell, if you're only making £40/month, split the £15k left over 3-5 high yield stocks (or into a low-risk, high yield fund if you dont want the hassle of stock picking), and reinvest the dividends every year. So long as you keep just a basic eye on your holdings and pick big blue chip shares with yields around the 6% mark, you'll be better off in terms of income than now, or if you reinvest the dividend income rather than spend it, you could end up with your £15k floating just under the £50k mark in 20 years..

Obviously only if you don't mind the relatively minor time and energy needed to keep an eye on the market, but as a landlord presumably you're used to spending time and energy on being a landlord, so it's swapping one for the other..

only my two penn'orth though!