Sandersons

We recently were talking to a neighbour of ours who is an estate agent and she gave us a rough valuation of our home. I was shocked. I don't know a huge amount about the current financial state of the UK except that it's pretty dire BUT I did think we'd get the same amount for our house that we bought for in May 2009. We've done it all up, put in a new bathroom and new kitchen doors, worktop, flooring etc so thought that we could expect what we bought it for. According to said neighbour we can expect around £10-12k less which, for us, is a HUGE hit.

So, I've been crunching numbers. I made a list of worst case senario and best case using the low selling figure and the figure we bought it for. I then made a list of all of our outgoings including debts, dog over to oz, our flights, shipping, bloody early mortgage repayment fee, etc etc. Best case we'd have around £16k left, worst case we'd have £4.5k. THAT was an eyeopener.

ANYWAY, my question is can we do this? Has anyone gone with less? We're going to Melbourne. We won't have jobs before we go. Are we nuts to take ourselves back to having absolutely nothing but each other, our dog and some house possessions? I'm not a hugely money orientated person but to potentially have nothing is making me nervous.

I hope there's been others in this position who've made it work regardless and are now back on their feet!!

Thanks Sandersons

Bermudashorts

The trouble with questions like this is that there is no right answer, some will say it can't be done and others that they moved with much less.

So my thoughts; well I would be very worried about moving over with only £4.5k although I know that thousands of people on WHV do just that and most seem to manage ok so I also know it must be possible.

I guess the WHV holders stay in hostels and shared accommodation, whereas at age 40 this wasn't for me and I am sure we spent £5k in the first few weeks on serviced apartment, rental car and house rental bond.

When do you need to make the move by? Do you have time to see if the house market picks up, or just to save up a little more to fund the move? Have you made enquiries about jobs here and what is your sense in terms of how easy it will be to find something?

What it comes down to though, is you have two options.

1) Go, stay in hostels, get around on public transport, scrimp and save until you have jobs and money coming in. Get someone to look after the dog back in UK and don't book his flight before you are sorted.

2) Don't go.

Which is the worst option for you.

DrWho

What's your line of work...?

Sandersons

Hi,

thanks for replying. I know, it's one of those questions that doesn't have a definite answer.

Bermudashorts - Our visas run out in May 2013 but we have to give our house time to sell and start getting the dog organised in around April/May 2012. I'm not sure which option is the worst tbh!

DrWho - my OH is a self-employed painter & decorator and I'm a secretary and a beauty therapist. Also, we're 43 and 32 respectively so not great ages to be starting off again!

Thanks guys.

GoldCoastMag

how much will you regret not giving it a go?

can you lease out the house with a trusted agent until the market picks up?

difficult decisions, but good luck any way

DrWho

Have you investigated licencing requirements...? Not sure, but think you might need them for your OH...

Alfresco

Agree with this.

Lots of us are renting out our houses in the UK. Change to interest only mortgage so rent more than covers the mortgage if possible.

Sandersons

GCM - that's one of the questions we're finding it hard to answer - how much will we regret it? Can we live with that? Can we live with paying out almost all our worldy cash?!

Alfresco - There's no way we could lease the house out - we need all the cash we have in it to pay for everything else!

DrWho - he'd only need a licence if he was to work SE again - initially he'd work for someone for the first few years.

Thanks.

Alfresco

Yep, not always possible. You will need quite a bit of cash here.

Good luck! I hope you find a way to make it work.

Turban Explorer

Neither of you have professions in huge demand here i'm afraid so finding work may take a while. It's a tough one - 4.5k will scarcely pay for an old car here. Why not stick the house on the market and see what happens. You don't need to accept low offers or make a decision at all

chris and farideh

Seriously coming over with £4,500 you will struggle & your cash could disappear in the blink of an eye & that's before you even managed to secure a rental which accept pets.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do, if you really decide to come over buy return ticket if things doesn't work out here than you have one less thing to worry about should you decide to fly back to UK.

roaringmouse

Reading a previous thread of yours, you didn't seem happy last time you moved to Australia, and returned months later. Do you think it would be any different this time?

quoll

TBH I think you would be struggling even with the better of your financial predictions as well. £12k isnt going to get you very far in establishing yourself in a foreign country on your own - chances are you are going to be looking at spending half that on a car or two before you start and then factor in rental bonds (and as others have said, having a pet disadvantages you in the rental market) and other sundry set up costs that really mount up in short order.

People do bang on about the regrets of not doing something - the regrets of doing something and having it all go pear shaped can be just as painful. You dont say if you are planning a family at some stage - that's another thing to consider - you dont have jobs to go to but IF you both get jobs, can you manage then with only one of you working while you try and rebuild some sort of financial security again.

If you cant afford to do it without burning any bridges then you do need to consider whether it is worth doing at all - nothing magical about Melbourne (unless, perhaps, you are escaping from Central Bradford in which case almost anything would be a better option LOL).

Good luck with your decision

Sandersons

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

This has turned into a nightmare for us. One minute we were going, the next we're not. Needless to say our heads are totally mixed up. I've lost count of how many times over the past few years that I've wished someone would just take the bloody visa off us. It's been a total rollercoaster of emotions for us. Perhaps the house not being worth what we hope means our decision will be made for us.

Weirdly, I'm not as down about staying in Scotland as I thought I might be.

Thanks again for your thoughts and opinions. Sandersons x

skinnygeorge

My trade was/is in demand. Admittedly we(2 kids) arrived Dec `08. Dec/Jan is not a good time to arrive looking for work. Things were bordering reccession or fears of. It took 6 months to find a job with atleast $A3500 a month food & rent, Plus expenses of schools/car/other stuff you just don`t think about,Things were getting abit scary. Though Centrelink will give you about $900 a month to help out. Its all good now but we would not have made it with less than $30,000