Would you settle or go into rented?

[KitKat1985]

Hi all.

Very brief summary: Currently in a 2 bed shared-ownership. Been on the market since August (but started process with housing association in June). We now have two couples who wish to purchase the house and the housing association (who own the other half of the house) will select the 'winning' applicant hopefully next week. So we are pretty much at the point of being proceed-able.

Here's the issue though, since we started this process there's always been something on the market we've wanted, and we've seen and watched several houses we wanted go in the time we've been on the market. Recently there were 2 houses we wanted that both have gone off the market in the past week or so (we're gutted). Realistically now that those 2 houses have gone there's nothing currently on the market we really want in the same way, (although we've booked some viewings for Sat and are trying to keep an open mind about the houses until we've viewed them in person). There's hardly any new housing stock coming on in the location we like (it's a small town anyway, and I think there's probably an element now of people waiting until the New Year now to go onto the market).

So although our buyers I'm sure would give us a bit of time, if nothing comes on the market in the couple of weeks that we really like, we're going to either have to settle for the best house currently on the market (even if we don't love it), or go into rented. In many ways going into rented would be a right pain as it would essentially involve moving twice in a short period, with all associated hassle and expense; but I'm really struggling to get my head around buying something that we don't really love. What would you do?

What are your reasons for selling?

I was about to ask the same question - why are you moving? The answer would make a difference to how I saw the dilemma!

Oh we need a bigger house now really. We're in a 2 bed which we moved into when it was just me and DH, but now nearly 7 years and two DD's later it's too small for us. Also we're not in the best area currently and the schools here aren't great, so we want to move into a 3 bed house in the neighbouring town which has a really nice primary school before we have to DD1's school application next year. The neighbouring town also has better transport links.

I would go in to rented. Although there are more costs involved it gave us breathing space and time to find the house we really wanted.

Can you not do both - house hunt like crazy now, and look for a place you really love. If you don't find one, renting becomes your back-up plan? It seems to me that, lacking a future-predicting crystal ball, you need both a plan A and a plan B here.

Yeah I think you're probably right whiskyowl. Finding a house to move straight into would be much more preferable, (and we have several viewings lined up for the weekend on various places), but I don't want to mess our buyers around so we may have to make moving into rented a 'back up' option if nothing we really like comes up soon.

I don't even know how moving into rented would work as we wouldn't have any references to give a landlord (since we haven't previously rented), and I don't know how many landlords would be enthused about a short-term let.

Of course. I think the question is probably "How much should I lower my standards for the convenience of not moving twice?". Only you can really answer that, it depends on the extent of the compromises. Something that is just a bit cosmetically shabby is very different as a prospect from something that is actually inconvenient for the way you live. Equally, some people are very particular when it comes to houses, while others are more flexible. I'm a weird combination of both - I'm very fussy when choosing, but have ended up living in a house bought by my partner that I didn't choose at all. In fact, I'd never have chosen a property like it (and I still think he paid far too much for it) but I have actually enjoyed living here in spite of that because while the house is as bog standard as they come, the location is really convenient and pleasant, the neighbours are lovely, and I'm in the process of turning the house into a much better kind of space for our lives.

I am sure there will be some short-term lets available in your area - many LLS will be perfectly happy to have tidy, clean, reliably-paying tenants for 6 months.

We did this and took an extra 9/10 months. We got less house as house prices rose during that time but since nothing had been on the market we did t have much choice

Yeah we would be happy to consider buying a house that needs a bit of work (in fact one of the houses we originally wanted needed quite a bit of updating). It's more a balance of finding a house in the location we like that's big enough for us to grow into (or that we could extend n future) so we can stay in it for the long-term.

Oh we did check house prices in the area we want to buy in. They've actually slightly dipped this year, so I'm not massively worried about being able to afford less than we could now if we went into rented.

" It's more a balance of finding a house in the location we like that's big enough for us to grow into (or that we could extend n future) so we can stay in it for the long-term."

Again, think carefully about this. How important is the building to you, compared to moving again? Extensions are brilliant if you have a yen to create your own space or you want a non-standard space that isn't widely available on the market, but they are a lot of work and hassle to go through, particularly with a young family. (Witness the consumption of gin on the house extension thread in this very forum!!). Moving up to a larger place is also stressful and expensive, but in a more concentrated way, with a very different set of uncertainties. It sounds as though it would be sensible to have a bit of wiggle-room on the space so that the issue of more space is kicked quite a long way down the road!!

if England all lets will be six month minimum. That is the side effect of the law which prohibits eviction before six months, so tenants need to be tied into a contract.

Rented, particularly as you're moving towns. Don't rush to buy in an area you're not 100% familiar with. The expense of moving twice is peanuts compared to buying and selling twice because you made a mistake.

FWIW, we did this in 2008/9. Financially it worked for us as house prices were dropping. We had identified a primary school in New Area, streets close by that I wanted to live in. Nothing came up, decided we'd go into rented as we didn't want to lose the sale. No problems renting (once they know you've maintained a mortgage for years, they'll be fine about you renting and most agencies do a sort of credit check now anyway). Financially the rent was less than the mortgage, didn't incur any costs doing DIY / maintenance that we'd ordinarily have done, saved on moving expenses as we got the rental house before we had to completed on old house, and kept it for a couple of weeks after we completed on new house, so moved ourselves over weekends. Also meant we could do urgent decoration on new house whilst not having to live there which was great with the children.

Turned out the streets I'd previously liked in new area weren't actually where I wanted to live and although we rented for longer than we expected (combination of lack of houses and happy to stay in rented because of the market) we had a great relationship with estate agents, were chain free etc etc so were able to make a strong offer when something came up and got this house (even when it went to sealed bids).

Been here 7 years now, extended last year and its been perfect. So glad we took the time to get the right house - and renting was the best thing we did.

Rent for now, otherwise if you settle for a property you don’t love, you’ll probably want to move anyway within a few years.

Have the two houses you were interested in actually been sold?
If not, it might be worth knocking on their doors to see if they would still be interested in selling.

Yeah I know there would be a 6 month minimum rental period. I'm guessing if we did rent we would need to be there for at least a few months anyway.

Thank you for sharing your experience namechangedtoday. That's actually made me feel better about the whole process if we do need to go into rented.

HellsBells - one of the houses we wanted has been sold STC, the other one was taken off the market as the vendors couldn't find anywhere in their budget they wanted to move to at this time, so didn't see any value in staying on the market at this time.