selling house and renting

[pinkkoala]

has anybody done this.

we have house on the market, but in todays market it could be a while before we sell.
we want to move to different area due to schools and smaller town with dd, rather than have her grow up in a city.

we have our hearts set on a house we like but haven't sold ours, if it isn't available when we have sold we are looking to rent in the area we want to move to until another property comes up, this will be a last move.

how do we go about renting, do we need character references etc, credit checks etc.

we are non smokers and have no pets, but a dd who is 5.

i feel scared a t the thought of this but if we don't sell now we will never do it and don't want to miss a sale on ours if we haven't found anywhere.

all advice appreciated.

are there any other mums/dads who have done this.

we did this when we I was pg with dd1 just because we had experienced a nightmare house selling chain so decided that we would take a breather and be in a good position to buy. It worked really well for us then.

Now we have 2 dc aged 5 and 3 and have just put our house on the market and are going to do the same thing again - we found last time if you are in rented, have your mortgage in place etc it means you are a dream buyer as there is no horrible chain of buyers and sellers. We are doing it this time so we can find a house that needs a bit of work so we can do up the bought house while keeping the kids safe and in a routine in the rented house - makes the whole thing a bit less stressed - I would definitely recommend it - the only problem is if the housing market moves on at a steep curve which could price you out of the market while renting - but it doesnt look likely at the moment.

You will need a credit check and references I think - we certainly did last time.

Good luck with the move!

thanks beagle, i am so worried about coming off the housing market and not being able to get back on.

i have always owned my own property and have never rented.

who is responsible for doing the credit checks and references etc.

do the landlords of the property come to see you or is it all done through an agent, are their any instances when you are unable to rent, i am a full time mum but dh works full time, we have no pets, no smokers, no ccj's etc.
what are the length of the lets you can do, i am worried if after 6months we haven't found somewhere we will have to then rent another place or can we stay in the same house, are landlords keen to get 6months out of you then move on to the next set of tenants.

so many questions.

The letting agency will do credit checks, they will charge you about £100 for this. I have rarely met a landlord when I have been renting, we have a name and address for ours but we do everything through the letting agency. Our credit checks came back fine but we were told if there were issues we were told they would ask for a guarentor. With a decent credit history you shouldn't have a problem. Some landlords say no children, but not many, we have been able to take our dd and our cat to our new rented house. The shortest let you will be able to get will be 6 months, landlords will want to renew contracts with existing tenents rather than get new ones. However if they want to sell the house after the inital 6 months of contract they can give you a months notice iirc.

Our experience was the same as wonderstuffs but we also found that at the end of the 6 month period our letting agents were happy for us to renew on a monthly basis for a few months as we were just finishing off our house - we didn't have to pay for credit checks but I suspect will probably have to this time. Given your situation I am sure it wont be a problem renting

We STR 4 years ago and damn glad we did because we haven't lost out at all! The same houses are now selling for less than we sold ours for at the time.

We've used some of our STR fund to help with me being off work for a while with the kids. Funnily enough we are quite happy in rental and don't see any need to rush into buying as prices aren't going anywhere fast - can sit back and wait(hopefully)for them to fall further!!

Go for it and good luck with your house sale

do any of you find renting a bonus or is it more difficult, say if something needs repairing do you do it or get the landlord to repair it.
do any of you find it more expensive to rent.
how long have you all been in your current let for, i am concerned about 6 months let then having to find somewhere else, we want to rent in the area we then want to buy and are desperate to get dd into school, i don't like the idea of having to move her every 6 months.

V. unlikely you would have to move after 6 months, most landlords are in it for the long term. I feel much more chilled renting, we plowed so much money into our last house and estate agents fees and stamp duty and lawyers all make buying and selling so expensive. I would like to buy again, don't like the idea of renting when retired, but atm is good to take a step back and know if the boiler breaks down someone else will pick up the bill. I wouldn't do any repairs myself.

thats good to know, we pay a monthly charge to have boiler serviced every year, so that would be one less thing to worry about.

my sis and boyfried rent a property, basically she lived with someone else who screwed her for everything, she then couldn't afford the mortage and missed three months payment of it, she has met someone else and rented to see how things went before buying, and also she couldn't get a mortage due to passed history with ex, she could still rent though.

she now wants to buy, as doesn't want to rent forever, for me it just seeems so scarey, what if we can't get back on the propety ladder again, i am 36 so am concerned about this.

I can understand your concerns, our last house we 'owned' for 5 years, we walked away with 8K equity, really not alot, but we were lucky that we weren't in negative equity really, if we had bought 3 years ago we would be stuffed. To afford our dream house at the moment with banks wanting 25% deposit we would need 50K. I don't know how people manage it.

I am pinning my hopes of getting back on the ladder on one of two things, the government reintroducing an open market equity scheme for key workers (how we were able to afford our last house) or at least the housing associations building some houses, all their property is flats round here, or inheriting some money - hopefully this won't happen for a long time. If neither of these things work out then we will have to think again, maybe a buy to let when I go back to work ft and have less childcare out goings to help us in retirement? We will sort something out and I would rather be where I want to be now and renting than compromising on where I live for years so I can pay off a mortgage.

I hope it all works out for you. Property ownership has fallen quite a bit over the last few years in this country and in Europe property ownership rates are much lower, you won't be alone