to sell, or not to sell
In the middle of the stress-inducing nightmare that is the Invitation To Apply, we also have to try and decide what to do with our house in the UK.
Initially we were planning to keep the house as a fail-safe in case things didn't go according to plan, but we soon rejected this as it made the prospect of coming back far too easy. We have confidence in ourselves that integrating into the NZ culture won't be too much of a shock (we've spent a lot of time there over the last few years), and we want to make the whole move feel like it's 'for good'.
So selling it is! Except we didn't count on the pesky credit-crunch making this more difficult than expected. It's all very well everyone telling us that the house will "sell easily", but then they're not the ones wanting to buy it. Without going into specifics, the current market value of the house is twice that of the price we bought it for. If we manage to get this price we would have enough to put down a 50% deposit on a house in NZ.
However (a) we're not greedy, and (b) we realise that the house is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. Oh, and (c) we don't actually need the equity just yet as we're planning to rent for 12 months while we search for the house/area that we're happy to spend a good few years in.
If someone comes in with a reasonable offer (and we have a lower limit in mind) and we can complete before mid-december then that's great - we'll take the money and run. I know that this is a lot to ask, and I don't have any great faith in this happening.
But if - as the negligable interest shown so far indicates - we don't have an offer by the end of October, then we'll put on our "landlord" hats and rent the place out. And this means switching mortgages, getting an agent, and hoping that we can cover costs all costs.
Breaking even is something to aim for in this instance, but the truth is that I really can't be bothered with having something left behind that requires our attention and may spring some nasty surprises on us. It's not the clean break I envisaged...
Initially we were planning to keep the house as a fail-safe in case things didn't go according to plan, but we soon rejected this as it made the prospect of coming back far too easy. We have confidence in ourselves that integrating into the NZ culture won't be too much of a shock (we've spent a lot of time there over the last few years), and we want to make the whole move feel like it's 'for good'.
So selling it is! Except we didn't count on the pesky credit-crunch making this more difficult than expected. It's all very well everyone telling us that the house will "sell easily", but then they're not the ones wanting to buy it. Without going into specifics, the current market value of the house is twice that of the price we bought it for. If we manage to get this price we would have enough to put down a 50% deposit on a house in NZ.
However (a) we're not greedy, and (b) we realise that the house is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. Oh, and (c) we don't actually need the equity just yet as we're planning to rent for 12 months while we search for the house/area that we're happy to spend a good few years in.
If someone comes in with a reasonable offer (and we have a lower limit in mind) and we can complete before mid-december then that's great - we'll take the money and run. I know that this is a lot to ask, and I don't have any great faith in this happening.
But if - as the negligable interest shown so far indicates - we don't have an offer by the end of October, then we'll put on our "landlord" hats and rent the place out. And this means switching mortgages, getting an agent, and hoping that we can cover costs all costs.
Breaking even is something to aim for in this instance, but the truth is that I really can't be bothered with having something left behind that requires our attention and may spring some nasty surprises on us. It's not the clean break I envisaged...
Labels: house, new zealand, rent, sell
posted by Paul Allan White at
04:07
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