Is now the time to move?

[TheFantasticFixit]

I feel like we are going round and round in circles so need your help!

Our mortgage is up for renewal. We've tossed and turned as husband is self employed and so restrictions around Covid-19 are restrictive for remortgages, but not as much for new mortgages, so we started looking at houses. Put ours on the market but barely had a sniff, bar two viewings. Lockdown and Christmas combined to a bit of a nightmare and we ended up pulling it off the market (perhaps rashly) and perusing the remortgage deal which got worse and worse as time went on. (We have an excellent broker, it really is just the current situation affecting it). We also couldn't find anything that we wanted to move to.

We then had a viewer come back to us while the house was off the market and beg to view again as he was really keen to offer. This meant we went and viewed a property and fell in love. It ticks many of our boxes. Viewer turned out to be a waste of time and offered elsewhere but now we have fallen for this other house and are in this bloody flux of working out what to do.

On one hand, it's cheaper and quicker to remortgage. We love where we live, happy with primary school etc, have lovely friends. We also didn't get a big bite on the house selling before although this was put down to lockdown and Christmas slowing the market down. We've missed the stamp duty holiday too.

On the other, we are outgrowing the space here (3 bed, family of 5). The children obviously haven't been in school a lot over the past year. I can't shake the feeling that now is the time to move financially with a crash on the horizon and we could be stuck here if we remortgage now and have REALLY outgrown the house. The house has gained a fair amount of equity since we moved here and I suspect we might be at the peak (or even just past the peak already) of that. We really love the house we have found and I can't stop thinking about how great it would be for our family - and finally, secondary school is a big thing as the one we are in catchment for isn't great (requires improvement) but where the new house is there are two Good and one Outstanding to choose from.

What would you do? I'm struggling to separate the sensible from the emotional here so advice is very welcome.

Sounds like you have to move at some point so why not get on with it?

I would put my house on the market with the best agent in the area as far as photography is concerned.

I believe that in this lockdown market it is the photography that determines demand with price securing the sale.

You could spend years thinking of the ‘house that got away’ so why let a sluggish market prevent you from trying to sell and make it happen.

That’s funny you should say that @inmylifeIlovedthemall because the photos before weren’t great and we had really noticed the difference when on the market before against other properties that were shifting quickly.

What’s your advice on offers at the moment? Are you feelings it’s still a sellers market for 2021?

I don't know whether it will be a sellers market. My gut feel is no, but I have been wrong in the past.

It will depend to a degree on how high unemployment figures become, whether the Chancellor extends the Stamp Duty holiday. Probably most important is how the banks view the market outlook.

What I do know is there is still demand there for the right properties sensibly priced.

I sold two years ago to someone who demanded a very fast completion. The offer was too good to refuse, but there was no time for me to find my next home. So I bought a tiny bolthole and have spent the intervening time house hunting.

In that time the photography has been very important. I am not just looking locally but will not travel hundreds of miles on a wild goose chase. I need to see clear photographs, warts and all, before deciding to view.

Hence I would choose an agent on the quality of their photography even if it cost me slightly more. I also wouldn’t stint on legal costs. I achieved a very fast completion on both my sale and purchase (only three of us in the chain) because I agreed to pay for my conveyancing to be dealt with by a Senior Partner.

Lender criteria is beginning to loosener up, once mid feb comes along, vaccine etc I think there will be a bit of a bounce. Many people are wondering about the market and awaiting a drop that may never happen, as people are stuck at home craving space again.

If time is if the essence and you'll need to move at some point, take a product with no tie ins now. Coventry use last yrs trading figures only for the self employed and have a product that is fixed with no ties.

Then you can secure a remortgage but live when you're ready

Same situation (not as many kids!!!) But we've gone through with it and are just waiting for the paperwork etc to go through. Figured it's peak what we will get for ours now, if we leave it another few years things will need doing to our current house/money spending etc, schools a big factor and to be honest if you've found the house you love then go for it as there's not that many of those around!! As the pp has said, your going to move eventually so why not now?