I know this can't work but hear me out

[CrazyBatIknow]

My sister and I will inherit a 4 bed detached house on the edge of a village. Will go on the market for approx £400k.
The close that the house is in is occupied by 8 other houses. All lived there for 30 plus years.
This is a hypothetical situation currently but I want to sell it for £200k (approx) with caveats about not reselling in a certain amount of time, allowing a young family to move in to a house they couldn't thus afford. I may sound a complete twat- my sister and I would love the money but £100k each would change our lives immensely plus another family's life. What haven't I thought of? Am I a complete knobhead?

I know - how dare I get screwed over by a man and not have the knowledge to have protected myself because my mum killed herself when I was 16 and I was fucked up! What I do know is that I wish to god there had been somewhere affordable for me and my mum to move to back then. Maybe this house could be that for someone?
Thankfully i am teaching my kids to always be independent and to count on nobody - and I am also finally learning myself.

@CrazyBatIknow If you don't own a house yourself I think your suggestion is mad.

You are lucky enough to inherit from your mum and you are going to give that value to strangers - who can pass it to their children - instead of using it to help your children buy a home of their own in time?

I think that is actually rather selfish and very unhelpful towards your children.

But even with this inheritance I still can't afford to own a house!

I didn't inherit anything from my mum.

You can't fix the system or the past.

The only sane option is to invest that money sensibly to make yourself and your children safer in future.

Sorry that was a misunderstanding (can only blame my brain!) but my point stands - you are giving away your children's inheritance to other people's children.

I think your life story is messing up your thinking.

Sell the house for the maximum amount and then with your inheritance money pay a monthly sum to a women's refuge or buy for a food bank etc so that if anything goes wrong in your life you can stop the monthly charitable amounts and have money to draw on.

Selling the house at half its value is stupid in my opinion.

You can invest the money and use it sensibly to help your own self and your children.

Your desire to give it away is really not healthy.

What a strange thought process that you’d rather help a random unknown family than your own children.

The neighbours will love that…..

It’s a nice thought OP, but I would sell it for what you can, put it in a trust fund for your children.

My sisters and I have often talked about a similar situation with our family's house by the beach, and wanting to stipulate that it would not be converted into holiday apartments, but used by a family as a main home, so I totally get where you're coming from.
On a slightly simpler note, we recently sold our own house, and gave our buyers a slight preference over others because they were a young family, and that gave us pleasure to pass our house on like that. You'll get to hear from the estate agent who the buyers are, they won't be totally mysterious.
And I would definitely just put it at market price, even if it seems expensive to you, there will be plenty of families that will be able to afford it without losing out on your inheritance.

When you come to inherit, do a deed of variation so you and your children get an equal share of what you inherit. That stands them in good stead for their future, and you can spend your inheritance on a worthwhile cause. A four bed detached in a quiet close will end up with a family living there, and if all the neighbours are also elderly, in a few years the whole close will have been regenerated and become a happy child-centred place to live.

I’m sorry but for a single mum with 4 kids, £100K is not life changing (you yourself agree you couldn’t even buy a house with it). Yes, it’ll make you more comfortable (loads of extra activities, holidays), but it will eventually run out.

please keep all of the money and if you find it overwhelming to have so much, put it on premium bonds or a high interest account and forget about it.

your kids will be so grateful in the Future.

very nice idea if you won millions on the lottery, but not with the amounts you’re talking about.

Don't be silly.

In your OP you say that it is going on the market for 400k and presumably 50% of that is yours.

With £200 000 there are places you can buy outright.

Even with a £100, 000 downpayment you can definitely get a mortgage for a place you live in yourself or rent out.

"I don't want to be a landlord!"

You pay an agent. They take 10% of your profit. It's their job, like being a mechanic or a doctor. You never have to go there or do anything. You just see the money in your bank account and buy things for your children.

You're being hard of thinking.

And yes, it was all 30 years ago, but your chaotic thinking shows you're not over it. Speak with a professional.

"I can't afford to buy" Yet you want to be lady bountiful to this random family so THEY can buy.

We had to move out when our landlord died and the person who inherited sold the house. Your children are not in a stable living situation. You have a chance to give them that. But you want to give that chance to random people instead of your own actual children.

Maybe you get off on being praised. "CrazyBatIknow is so amazing! She gave away a whole house! She's mother Theresa, Princess Di and Batman all rolled on one!"

This is a terrible idea. It’s absolute fraught with problems. What if more than one family want it (likely). How will you decide who to sell it to? What if the price you sell it at means that all the other houses on the close are undervalued by their future purchaser’s mortgage companies (they won’t be able to sell at all)? What if the family and or kids turn out to be antisocial or difficult to your neighbours- not because they can’t pay full price but just because some people are? What if they let the place go to rack and ruin? Or demolish/ flip it (it’s unlikely that any covenant you put on the place will be incapable of challenge).

Your comment about everyone else having to sell at a lower price being a good thing because more young families can move in is staggeringly naive- what if the person selling needs the money for care home fees? Or to pay the mortgage company back?

And why in principle are young families more deserving than say an older person with people living with them who they care for (like an adult with no kids but elderly parents). Or many other examples.

Sell the house for its proper value and give some of the money to a local housing association who can run a fair process to determine who gets the house.

Why not sell to a family at market value? You can choose which buyer to accept. Why do you need to gift them £200k as well?

It will naturally happen that when houses occupied by the elderly couples are sold, they will most likely be bought by families.

Completely silly plan! Firstly what does your sister think about this. Secondly you can't tell someone what they will do with the house once it is sold. You might well find they sell it on for the full profit in a short time. You would be better off selling the house for normal value and then helping a family or two buy another house by providing a deposit.

Aw OP, not a knobhead.

It’s natural to be nostalgic, and I am so sorry that alongside your dream to create (re-create) a happy little community you also have sad memories of the house.

But it’s not realistic. The new owners could turn out to be actual knobheads. Or buy and be trapped by your covenant in the face of desperate need to move house for work or family emergency. You can’t buy people into your dreams.

Also OP, you have 4 children!!! You would give away £100k before helping them with deposits? Or buying your own place for you all to live in and hopefully pass on to them?

OP, has your Dad already passed or are you thinking of the future?

Do you need practical help about how to deal with the inheritance ?

Are you needing to claim UC atm? Sorry, not meaning to be nosey but just look at realities rather than dreams.

It's lovely to think of, but it doesn't seem like it will work. How will you know that a couple couldn't afford £400k, will you do background checks? Also what if the young couple need to change jobs after a few years, or they split up?. It doesn't make sense to tie someone there with a covenant.

Can't you do something on between - put it on slightly below (but not £100k below!) market price, so you get several offers, then choose the buyer you like best.

You could also consider using some of your inheritance for ethical investment or a donation to a good charity, that seems a more reliable way to target people who need help.

Don’t do this. You will regret it in years to come when you’ question your altruism. Use it to help your own family rather than strangers. Sell for market value and put 25k each into a trust fund for your children. Or better still, use the full 200k to get on the property ladder.

Sell it, then give a proportion of the money to a suitable charity if that will make you feel better

You’re a single mother, renting. You have the opportunity to inherit £200k. So you’d like to do your own children out of £100k, to make sure that some imaginary children that you don’t know can live in a nice house?

Theres something very warped about your thinking.

If you don’t need the money (although who doesn’t need an extra £100k) put it into trust for your child/children to help towards buying in the future.

I'm finding it difficult to understand why you wouldn't be able to afford to buy a house, OP. A deposit of £200k would surely secure a mortgage with repayments of less than you're paying monthly for rent?

Whilst your plan to benefit a young family is kind, I can think of many, many reasons why you might live to regret it. PPs have made suggestions of other philanthropic ways to use part of your inheritance, but IMHO your first obligation is to your four children.

Just read about you renting with 4 kids? Why wouldn't you use the money to buy your own home and then give some money to your own children rather than random strangers? This is such an odd post. You need to sort yourself out before others. Can't understand why you would want to do this. The houses will eventually be owned by families with kids again with or without your help.

Also where an earth do you live that £200k doesn’t get you a house? Maybe not a 4 bedder but it would buy you a place of some sort in most areas unless you live in Belgravia. Ideally get something with 2/3 beds and improve it but even if you can’t live there now, at least buy somewhere small you can retire to and either rent it out or just store stuff there- otherwise what do you intend to do when you retire? Private rentals are crippling once your income decreases.