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Original poster

Anyone sold their home and moved into rented for a while?

19 replies

Polgara2 · 13/04/2006 13:45

That's it really. We've sold our house a total of 3 times now but last 2 fell through. Last one was because we couldn't find anything Sad. Sooooo don't want this to happen again and am wondering if moving to rented would be as bad as I think it will be? The thought of moving twice is VERY unappealing but....

OP posts:
Lio · 13/04/2006 13:48

Yes we did just that: sold, found somewhere to rent really quickly and easily, brilliant decision as we could check whether we actually liked the new area, now we have bought again in the new area. Both times low stress (i.e. not buying/selling at same time).

joelalie · 13/04/2006 13:51

We've considered that in the past when a sale fell through due to us taking to long to find somewhere (less than a week!!!). Didn't in the end - just stayed put. But I can see it would ease the pressure. However isn't renting really expensive? Do you know what you'd be expected to pay in your area?

jampots · 13/04/2006 13:52

we are planning to do this just as soon as we get our house on the market.

NewLP · 13/04/2006 13:55

I have – sold house in December 05 – moved 200 miles north into rented – still here – spent ages looking for the right house – now waiting for everything to go through. Will probably still live here for a month or so whilst sorting out the decorating and new kitchen in new house – great not to have to live in it whilst all the upheaval is going on.
I too worried about moving twice and the unsettling effect on DS (rising 4), but it’s not been that bad really. I decided not to unpack most of the stuff – only essentials, so when I do get to move into the new house at least half the packing has already been done.

Good luck.

Pollyanna · 13/04/2006 13:57

yes, we did that. It was fine. Remember to get a break clause in your lease and then you can give notice anytime after 6 months. It definitely puts you in a better position. We might be doing it again too - have an offer on our house, but can't find anywhere to buy (deperately looking though).

cece · 13/04/2006 13:59

Yes, we are currently in rented after selling last Autumn. We did have problems finding somewhere locally so are renting in new area (about 4 miles away) which we really like. Unfortunately we can't afford the sort of house we want here so are hoping to exchange next week on a house in another new area!

I would do it again. It put us in an excellent position for making an offer. In fact there were three offers on this house, ours was the lowest but we were the only ones who were chain free! The down side of course is moving twice in 7 months.

Renting - the minimum is 6 months, and we have to give 2 months notice. So far are LL has been fine but I am dreading the hassle over the deposit - although they are now held by a third party. So will see how this new system works. Last time I rented was 15 years ago....

Overall for us the pros outweighed the cons...

twocatsonthebed · 13/04/2006 14:00

Yes, we're in rented right now. We did it because we were moving to a new bit of the country, and wanted to suss it out before we decided exactly where to settle.

Haven't regretted it at all, but mostly because we're in a really nice house (which to be honest we'd buy if we could) which isn't any more expensive than having a mortgage.

FrayedKnot · 13/04/2006 14:03

Yes, we did, it was fine. Lived for 9 months in rented house.

Well, OK moving twice wasn't a picnic, but we kept a lot of non-essential stuff packed up.

Great not to have the stress of being in a chain, and having an overlap between leaving one house and moving into the next, which you don;t get when you are completing on both a sale and a purchase on the same day.

Also, moving the second time was really straightforward as I was still in the moving mindset and remembered things that had gone wrong the first time and was able to avoid the same problems happening again.

I would recommend actually unless you are selling in a falling market.

Prufrock · 13/04/2006 14:13

Yes I did, 3 weeks before ds was born.

Pros
Move's were actually easier, as we were able to start renting the house a few days before we sold and leave a few days after we bought our new house, so didn't hae to do everything in one day. And we paid for proffesional movers and packers so didn't have to do much ourselves.

Realised we actually hated the area of the house we were originally going to buy (we rented just round the corner) so saved makig a very expensive mistake.

Were able to be really flexible with our vendors when we eventually bought - agreed to a 4 month completion period which meant tehy sold to us rather than the buyer in achain who wanted to move quickly and was prepared to offer more

Felt no pressure to buy a new house so could wait until something that we really loved came up

Cons
After a few months I did feel in a sort of limbo - I knew we were moving so couldn't do anything to teh house (but did have a huge file of ideas by the time I got here) and didn't make many friends as didn't want to put in the effort when I knew I was going.

That's it really. Kids coped perfectly well. Renting was actually cheaper than a mortgage would be on the same property (this only tends to be true at the top end of the market I think). Moves were fine - lots of stuff just stayed in boxes for a year

hulababy · 13/04/2006 17:22

Yes, we did this 4 years ago. LOL prufrock - I was 37 weeks pregnant when we did it :)

We had bought, or rather exchanged, on a new apartment which was being built. it was due for completion in the July and we moved in the March. We did this as we knew we wouldn't have much notice before completion and didn't awant to risk having two mortgages on the go.

We actually ended up there 16 months as the apartment was delayed by a year!!!

The renting was fine. Not ideal andit felt like watsed money, but it gave us the risk-free part of the deal we needed at the time.

Tinker · 13/04/2006 19:33

Can you get the benefits of a first time buyer mortgage if you do this?

essbee · 13/04/2006 19:36

Yes but make sure ou stick most of your stuff in storage over the rental period to minimise the actual moving.

I had 2 months between selling nad buying and I found it nothing short of a nightmare, sorry but it's true. The kids were really unsettled and I found it eally stressful. I do know people that it's worked for though. I think Beetroot did this too actually??

drosophila · 13/04/2006 19:42

Yep I did it and cos like you had lost a couple of sales. Best thing I ever did. I think I might do it next time cos it puts you in an unbelievably good position. We felt so confident that we relaxed a lot more and knocked 7k off the asking price.

It costs a bit more and it is more a pain moving twice but I would do it again.

bubblerock · 13/04/2006 19:43

We moved into rented whilst we waited for my mums house to sell. It was a really good move for us. Just make sure you put any equity from your house sale into an account with a good interest rate as you can earn quite a bit while it's sitting there!

essbee · 13/04/2006 19:50

I agree though that it puts you in a good position. I got £25k off my house Grin just as well though as I couldn't have gone any higher anyway!!

dinny · 13/04/2006 19:55

we've sold to rent indefinitely. bit weird being in rented after being homeowners but the interest on our equity pays the rent on a much bigger house than we could afford to buy, whilst we wait for the arse to fall out of the market, lol.

Mog · 14/04/2006 10:36

We're thinking of doing this as we are moving from the south to the north-east. I'm a bit worried about the children changing schools too many times though. does anyone have any experience of this?
Also did you all seriously declutter before the move as the thought of moving all our things twice is daunting.

eidsvold · 15/04/2006 14:00

we sold our flat and moved to a lovely area and rented a fab huge family home just after dd1 was born. As we were emigrating to Aus we did not want to buy again and did not want to be trying to sell a flat from Australia. It was fine.

It was more than we were originally paying on a mortgage but we had gone from a two bed upstairs flat on a horrid crowded street to a 4 bed detached home with garden and off street parking.

We did a declutter - again it was fab did not need to declutter again much when we emigrated to Aus.

Best bit was when things went wrong - phoned landlord and it was dealt with - no headaches there.

Original poster
Polgara2 · 15/04/2006 22:33

Thank you everyone you are being very reassuring. Still terrifies me but good to hear of positive experiences. As DH and I cannot agree on a house to move to it might be the only short term option Sad.

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