stu:0

Hi guys,

just wondering if any of you guys rented your houses out when you left or did you sell. Those that did sell do you wish you had rented it out for a while?
Is it general feeling that its best to sell to cut all financial ties with the uk?

Stu

tinkerbell

we have rented our house out, and so far so good.
we have good tenants in who have requested to rent for a further 12 months.

for us, its worked, i still cant see myself staying in australia for life, (only been here 6 months) but its good to know that our house is there if we decide to go home.

MANDS14

This is exactly the dilemma we are having!
I think we are going to try and rent our house for a year or two and then if we decide to stay permanently in Aus then sell.

The only problem with that is how do we raise the money to get over there and keep going with until we get jobs! With 3 kiddies under 5 we have to be sensible so not really sure how its going to work out!

What are you thinking of doing?

HiddenPaw

Didn't sell first time round as fully expected to move back to UK after a few years (and had benefit of capital that wasn't tied up in house to fund our adventure), but will have to sell this time round as intend to buy, and to stay.....

Keeping the house was of great benefit as obviously it meant we had a house to go back to, but also had increased in value. That said, we had a nightmare with the rental agency, unpaid rent, maintenance charges, and general ineptitude of the agency. Very stressful trying to deal with it from 10k miles away (great fun taking them to court and winning tho!).

As you might expect, you will find a lot of people on the MBTTUK forum who wish they hadn't sold their house, and a lot of people on the Oz forum who have no regrets in selling their house.

Good luck

stu:0

Do you not think that if you had sold it it would make you want to make more of an effort to stay in oz?

stu:0

Im renting mine, at least for 12 months. I guess im a little lucky in that iv only me girlfriend and the house is mine. It is a big step and my personel opinion is rent it if you can. A friend of mine went to perth last year and only lasted 6 months, sold everything and lost a fortune, shipped all his goods only to ship them back again. He was married with 2 kids.

thpinkpussycat

We sold ours, the main reason were:
Needed the money
Didn’t want the hassle of tenants
Didn’t want the hassle of having to come back to sell.

Also it gives you a get out clause, and we really wanted to give Australia our best shot and we felt keeping the house would mean that we wouldn’t settle, that we weren’t making a proper commitment.

It worked for us, but it doesn’t for everyone and if you have any doubts about the move and can afford it then it could be a good idea to keep the house.

Sam

Plug

Sold the house before we got the visa granted, bit risky but we rented for 6 months and by the time we left, the house prices had fallen away a bit so we were quids in......

Pootle

We rented ours out for 18 months. We initially came on a temporary visa and had never been before so didn't want to sell before we came. It's all worked out well though - we've now been here 2 years and sold our house 6 months ago. There was no problems with selling it from this end either. We've just bought a property here which we're going to demolish and rebuild.

Pootle

tinkerbell

regardless of whether or not we sold, we have every intention of making this work. people assume that if you have a house in the uk, you are not committed to making a go of a new life.

my house is now an investment. we are looking at buying a smaller property here in oz, somewhere that is mine, but again, if we do go home, i can go back to my house, and rent out the oz house.

i think the shall we rent / sell debate will go on forever, different people have different ideas, but for us, this works well.

also, i don't have the added pressure of knowing i may be stuck in a country i eventually may come to hate, and regret selling up. this way, if i want to go back i can.................likewise, if i want to stay, i can.
hope this makes sense.

stu:0

Ye makes a lot of sense, Wouldnt mind doing the same myself, keeping the one in the uk which i have made a very good proffit on and hopefully me and katy settling down and buy another in oz. Only problem is she keeps looking at bloody massive houses out there so i'll probably end up selling it! You women always get your own way

tinkerbell

LOL, if i had my way, i would love the big house,and the pool, but sometimes having those things does'nt compensate for happiness, (and future security)

i think i will trade the huge house, for happiness and contentment for the time being.

carmele

We are selling up in the UK, house goes on the market on monday, if we did return we would want to buy in a different place. Initially we thought about moving to a different area in the Uk then come up with the idea of moving a few extra miles!.............We're heading for Melbourne

C

stu:0

Couldnt agree more, Katy's enjoying dreaming at the mo!

tinkerbell

ah, been there, done that (dream that is), but until youve lived here, i don't think you'll ever understand the huge emotions you go through.

luckily, we are all settled and happy at the moment. but who knows what we may feel like in 12 months!!!

(and i still look on realestate at all the huge houses, knowing i will never buy one!!)