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Original poster

Anyone sold and moved into rented for a while?

22 replies

MrsGannicus · 23/08/2015 21:37

We pulled out of our house purchase after getting our survey but are now considering moving into rented as we can't seem to find anything else to buy at the moment.

Has anyone else done this and how did it work out? Would you do it again? I worry we'd lose out from any increase in house prices (we're in the SE so things seem to go up by the month) but it would put us in a good position to move quickly when something we like comes up. Any thoughts?

OP posts:

lavendersun · 23/08/2015 21:44

We considered this last year and in the end decided to stay put for a year or two.

I would do it in an instant, but, our circumstances are probably slightly different as we will be relocating to an unknown place and think that renting for 6-12 months is probably wise anyway.

We have done it before, again to a new area to us, didn't feel that we lost out at all and ime renting can be cheaper but then we always go for old piles of bricks type places and sink every penny we have into them!

Slowlybutsurely · 23/08/2015 22:22

We are literally just about to do this...hopefully this week! We have sold ours and coudn't find anything we liked so are going into rented. I am anxious about this as it is stepping off the property ladder but hopefully we will be in a good positron when we do see something!

nolongerwaitingfornumber2 · 23/08/2015 22:27

We did it. Took a 6 month contract and when we bought our current house we were attractive buyers as nowhere to sell. Got a good mortgage deal and rent was cheaper by several hundred per month than mortgage so felt that mitigated other costs.

Thelushinthepub · 23/08/2015 22:29

Yes, but had to rush into a purchase after 9 months as house prices had risen so rapidly we were getting priced out- something to watch out for!

TremoloGreen · 24/08/2015 00:10

We're doing it now - strongly don't recommend it! fingers crossed our latest attempt to buy a house goes through because I'm seriously going to have a breakdown if it doesn't.

We had a choice of pay 50% more to rent a place (glad we didn't do this as about to go on maternity leave) or put half our stuff in storage and rent an absolute shit heap in the hope we'd only be here a few months. Guess how that's worked out. And prices have gone up in the nine months we've been trying to buy, so we're now extending our mortgage and borrowing money off my parents to get a place further out than we wanted, otherwise we'd be relocating again.

Toomuchtea · 24/08/2015 12:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Onlyconnect · 24/08/2015 12:03

We did it and although it worked fine on a practical level, I wouldn't do it through choice. You have to pay to move twice and for me it just felt like extra work, unpacking and packing twice (even though we unpacked the minimum, it's still quite a lot). I never really felt at home in the rented place even though it was OK and very conveniently located.

NoMoreRenting · 24/08/2015 12:54

We did it and I hated it. One thing that only occurred to me later was that if either of us had died during that time, we wouldn't have had our house paid off so our kids would be at a major disadvantage. If dh had been the one to die there is no way they could have stayed at their Sch or anything as I couldn't have afforded to live there on my salary.

bilbodog · 24/08/2015 13:20

It'll put you in a very good position when you find something - make sure you have a mortgage agreed in principal as well and a solicitor already on board so that you are 'ready to go'.

mandy214 · 25/08/2015 12:13

We did.

Just one point first - the point that nomorerenting makes wasn't the case for us (and I think isn't true for most policies - but you need to check your own policy). Although our life insurance policies were aligned to the mortgage (i.e. the amount we're insured for and the term), paying off the mortgage did not negate the policies as long as we maintained the payments. So if anything had happened to us whilst we were in rented, then we've still have had a payout under the policies.

It worked really well for us, we signed a 12 month contract but ended up renting for about 2 years. Slightly different in that we were re-locating too. Got a decent interest rate on the equity in the bank, it cost less to rent than it would have in mortgage repayments - so put the difference in the bank too, didn't have to spend anything on maintenance, had more family time what with no DIY or decorating, and we only got the house we are in now (in a very competitive market at the time) because we were chain free and in a position to move immediately. So financially, even though prices were rising, we didn't lose out financially overall.

Also the house we bought needed some work doing, we kept the rental house on for a couple of weeks after we completed the purchase so there was no mad rush to be out of one house and into another on the same day, and we could do the urgent work before we moved in. Was fab .

TremoloGreen · 25/08/2015 15:36

Hugely surprised by the people who say it cost them less to rent than to pay their mortgage! I suppose it depends how much equity you have etc...

On our old flat in London, we were paying £850 per month mortgage (45% mortgage), it was valued for rental at £1400 per month, so even with a bigger mortgage, I reckon you could go up to about 80% before you were paying more than the rent.

Same where we are now in Hertfordshire - paying £850 per month in rent gets us a really grotty, 2-bed, first-floor flat with a shared garden, but we're now buying a huge extended three-bed semi with 150ft private garden and our mortgage payment will be £900 per month.

What area are you in if cheaper to rent than buy? I thought it would be the same everywhere - due to BTL needing to pay mortgages and make a profit.

Pickedmypoison · 25/08/2015 15:40

I am considering doing this if I buy a new property and it's not finished.

Mind you I know someone who had to rent for so long they were priced out of the market.

MargaretSchlegel · 25/08/2015 15:46

yes, we did, for a couple of reasons

firstly we were relocating over 200miles away, and wanted the opportunity to get a bit more knowledge of the local area before we committed. secondly, said relocation opportunity came at a really tough point in the markets in 2008, and the chance of sustaining even the smallest chain was slim.

specialsubject · 25/08/2015 16:32

also did it due to a distant relocation and having to keep a long chain together - we were at the top. Worked out well as we were then cash buyers for a desirable property in an area where prices weren't rising, and also back in 2011 you could get decent interest on the cash.

now you can't.

BTW it used to be cheaper to rent than to buy even in the SE, and may well be again when interest rates go up.

car0line123 · 25/08/2015 18:16

We did it in London during the property crash, as it would have been silly to buy something whilst the prices were going down.

I really would not do the same thing now (currently in the South East) because the prices are going up steadily, and just a 6 months break would have priced us completely out of the market.
There is also a shortage of properties available, nothing is coming on the market at all this year which means that finding a buyer is easy, but finding a house is a struggle.

Finally, as Tremologreen said, a rent here is twice as much as a mortgage, so it would be too expensive too (not even taking removal costs etc.. into account)

It really depends where you live!

Original poster

MrsGannicus · 25/08/2015 18:38

Thanks, we're really torn. The rental property we've seen is about 50% more than our mortgage payment so definitely not cheaper to rent here. We do have another driving factor though and that is that we are hoping to sneak in to a local school if there is any movement during the first term (the rental house is just outside the school gates that we wanted our son to go to). We're currently 9th on the waiting list and 600m away and we're allocated a school 4 miles away. We want to move into a larger house anyway but I think without the cr*ppy school allocation we would have stayed put and waited for another house to come on the market. Renting does gives us a better chance of buying another house and getting in the school we want but no guarantees either way.

OP posts:

NoMoreRenting · 25/08/2015 18:42

Mandy, we still had life assurance but just not the life assurance attached to the house. So had dh died then yes, I would have got his life assurance as usual but I would not have had a paid up house as well as that. It was always important to us that if one of us were to die then the other wouldn't need to worry about a mortgage.

We have always had 4x salary life assurance separate from the policy that pays off the mortgage. This is especially important to us as if dh died, my full salary wouldn't even cover our monthly payment let alone pay for anything else so having life assurance that pays off the mortgage is very important to us.
Sorry, I should have made clear that I meant life assurance specific to paying off the mortgage. But I'm surprised this isn't standard.

yearofthehorse · 25/08/2015 18:45

We did it whilst waiting for the chain of the house we intended to buy. One year later we were still waiting and bought another house. During that time house prices increased massively and we lost a lot of money. Never again.

teacherwith2kids · 25/08/2015 18:52

We did - in fact rented 1 house while selling ours (so we could leave pretty much all our furniture in the house we were selling), and then another when we hadn't found a house to buy when our house sold.

Pros:

We were very attractive buyers.
We got DS and DD into the primary that we wanted, because we could choose the location of the first house primarily for school, while the location of the second and our 'always' house for other reasons.
We moved quickly, and all together, rather than DH long distance working for a year.

Cons

Expensive (but we had to move due to a job relocation)
Moving 3 times was a pretty much full-time hassle for the entire year

mandy214 · 25/08/2015 19:57

I don't think many policies (at least not that I'm aware of) are actually tied to the house or to a particular mortgage.

littlem133 · 25/08/2015 20:04

We've just handed out notice in after renting for 9 months. We sold our house last year. Couldn't find anywhere else so chose to rent. It's given us the time and less pressure to find ourselves the perfect home which we now have and we were able to win the bidding war coz of our position renting. And it's a doer upper so we've stayed in the rental for a couple of months whilst the house is being renovated-so much cheaper and quicker than living in it!

NoMoreRenting · 25/08/2015 20:56

I think it was a condition of our stupidly high mortgage which we definitely would not be given post 2008. But portable is probably better. We've always had a tied, decreasing policy which mirrors the mortgage almost exactly and a separate one designed to give the living partner a lump sum to live off.

Sorry, off track with the thread. Glad to know most policies aren't tied to the mortgage. Makes much more sense these days. So for most people my issue would be a non issue but best to check your policies with that.

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