To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

Have been reading through your tales of excitement (and panic!) and it seems that many of you are selling up rather than renting out - we're trying to decide what to do - is it really that much of a pain to rent your UK place out?

Sister in Law did it, ended up sending money home each month!

Realy hurt them when they had no tennent for 4 months!

plus they got a bill for £1200 for work on the heating and had no idea if it actualy needed / had been done.

I think you would need someone you realy trust in control.

Re: To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

we are selling to make our life out there more permanent.

our house is no worth almost 3 times what we owe on it, so we can buy a nice house in oz and have no mortgage.

we have thought about renting, but that would mean we would have to take out a substantial mortgage in oz, i suppose it is down to how you want to play it.

We rent two small properties in UK and have no problems with tenants etc. My parents manage them so that gives good peace of mind.

We personally like having the security and the profit pays for our rent / mortgage here. We sold our main house so we have cash in the bank and had enough to buy small rental property for cash.

The way we view it is if we decide to buy here it will would probably be 6 - 12 months before we do, and the rent is better than interest plus we will have no problem selling if cash is required as both are first time buyer or investment property.

So I guess you need to weigh up the rental potential in your area, the type of people who are likly to rent, avoid students, DSS and familys with teenage kids. (just my experience) Also take into account how easy it is to sell your property if you wish to do so.

Dont trust property managment people they are mainly sharks, if you have a lot of equity it may be worth selling and buying a smaller property.

Like Welshboybilly says its how you want to play it. For us the rental route works well, plus we have a property in each name to maximise the tax benefits. Which is somthing else you have to weigh up. :)

Re: To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

We also thought about renting as we really love the house and if we were to come back it would be hard to find something similar in such a quiet location .

Although we have weighed up that with the profit that we will make on the house we too can buy something in Oz and have little or no mortgage.

We also thought that by selling up it becomes more of a permanent move.Having a property to return to would make it easier to just pack up and come home as soon as something wasn't going according to plan.

Diane

Thanks for that - food for thought.

I had heard that the Australian Government are all up for helping people to buy houses. Does that mean that even if you own a property in the UK you would be considered a 'first time buyer' Oz?

Did you mention tax breaks too? We're applying for permanent residency so I didn't think that would apply..

Nearly pub time!

Re: To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

This is what we're looking into - think we might get an offset mortgage, but we're still undecided what to do. We'd hate to come back and be stuck in somewhere smaller than we are now. Mind boggling...

and another thing is the longer you hold on to your house (U.K) it is gaining in value, here in south wales houses have seen a massive increase over the last 4 or 5 years, luckily i got in at the base price 5 years ago and i think the growth will platuea for a while.

hopefully by next summer when we are looking to sell things will be ok, and house prices in oz will stiull be affordable.

We are doing the whole committment thingy and selling up lock, stock and barrel. I would not be happy having to look back all the time and worrying what is happening with assets in the UK.

Billabong

Re: To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

Hi Bonus,
I'm firmly for renting the house I own out.
This should give me a small income and pay for accomodation when we first move out.
The wife likes the idea of having somewhere for our children to come back to when they are older.

In the end though it's up to you what you do and what makes you happy.

Bye
Markeh

We would love to just rent our house and up sticks but financially it just isnt possible, we need the money to finance setting up our new lives over there. Besides I cant imagine we.d have an easy time renting a 4 bed executive property, maybe if we had a smaller property....which we had thought of doing, selling this house then buying outright smaller house, going over to nz and using rental on it to finance our mort. over there
Gotta sell this one first ... which is proving v.difficult

Re: To Rent Out or Sell - that is the Question..
 

Thoght I'd add that - somebody I work with rented their house out and they had no end of trouble e.g. the person they rented the house to demanded a reduction on the rent because the couch did not match the curtains!!!! Having said that I think a lot of problems were down to the letting agent so I would look into that one carefully.

Personally we will be selling up as need capital for aussie dream house!

Whatever you do there are risks involved. My advice is take professional advice.

Bringing your money over here has exchange rate risks. Transaction costs on property around Sydney are ludicrous because of stamp duty. 20 to 30 thousand dollars in stamp duty on a 500,000 place.

Then if you cannot stand OZ and go back you have the pain of the reverse move.

I sincerely hope the move is the right thing for all of you but stats show 50 % of you will be returning to the UK.

Not me Bondipom, not me!!!

Whisky

Well that means even more of the others.

What have been your Australian experiences so far? You seem very balanced about the whole thing which is a good sign.