terryg

Dear all

I am trying to decide whether to put the house up for sale right now.

The facts are: -

a) Skills approved as an accountant on 23.09.02
b) Applied for Skilled PR 5.10.02
c) Also applied for STNI with Victoria on 8.10.02
d) Been STNI approved for Victoria 5.2.03
e) DIMIA confirmed notification of STNI approval on 5.3.03
f) A manager at DIMIA confirmed by email "a case office will be assigned to us within the next few days" on 5.3.03 although this has STILL not happened.
g) Medicals Sent 11.03.03
h) Police Checks Sent 2.4.03

I am told that a PR decision takes 1 to 6 months after STNI approval.

The big question is should we put our house on the market now, bearing in mind that we want to emigrate ASAP.

I know that it will take circa 4 weeks to get an offer, another 1 month to exchange and another 2 months to complete, i.e. 4 months in total. My BIG problem is that I will not exchange contracts without having a visa

Your thoughts/ideas/help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

Terry

sandradee

My own thoughts.....We are putting our house up for sale in August having put in our visa application in October, hopefully if we get in we will be looking at going over next April. But we feel that if we sell the house quickly then we can have the money in the bank and rent with the interest. There are no thoughts in our mind that we won't get in.....but if we don't we will just have to look for another house. I think I would find it frustrating to find that we had got in and then couldn't sell our house.

mashiraz

How do you calculate 2 months between exchange and complete, most do it within 1-2 weeks?

In our very real experience, there is nothing more frustrating than having your visa and waiting for the damn house to sell.....

Mash....

terryg

Mash

Are you saying I should sell then ?

Terry

bored_bean

But what do you do if you sell the house before you've gone? Hotels too expensive, and most leases here want to tie you in for a year.

mashiraz

terryg

No way am I going to tell you what you should do....

With the benefit of hindsight, if we had known WHEN the visa would be granted and with 100% certainty that it WOULD be granted and no other issues arose to make us change our mind, yes we would have put the house on the market BEFORE getting the visa. However, that's not the real world.........

Yes it's very frustrating waiting to sell the house not being able to plan to dates etc.

Entirely your decision, based on how much stress and risk you can endure

Mash...

terryg

thats part of the problem ...........

Roger

Last time we sold a house in UK the exchange and completion were the same day. Very anxious afternoon as we had moved into storage (and mothers) that morning on strength of sale.

UK market quite sluggish so may be a while before you sell - is your house very saleable in comparison with the competition?

Hopefully off to NZ in August thus putting house on market now that spring is here and the war appears to be over (didn't mention the peace).

Rental market very competitive as rental prices falling. Too many mugs bought into the letting market. Houses seem to be empty for weeks around here. You could negotiate a six month let I should imagine.

Good luck.

Don

Don't forget to put into your equation the loss in value of your residence the longer you delay the sale. You could probably afford to stay in a good hotel with the cash equivalent of the daily increased loss on most average family houses' achievable selling price over the next year or so.

Cheers - Don

scoobydooathome

Hi Don,

I think you have hit the nail right on the head, thats what we thought,

Survey done, contracts a week on Friday ... I hope shhhhh,

Rossi

Hi Terry,
for my input all I can say is what we are doing.
we are now week 49 out of the wait, no request for meds/police checks as of yet, but have put the house on the market as of Friday.
If it sells quickly then we'll ship the furniture to the inlaws in Oz and go on a 3 month ETA, big gamble but not getting in is not an option in our minds.
You cannot play safe all the time or life would become too boring!

Rosy

[QUOTE]Originally posted by terryg
Dear all

I am trying to decide whether to put the house up for sale right now.

For what it`s worth, we are soooo glad we sold when we did. We came over here 2 months ago, having sold the house a few weeks before we came, and apparently some friends of ours who live very close to where we did in the UK have already had to drop the price of theirs by £25,000 (original price £250,000) - Estate Agent told them "we`ll try and get as much as we can, but things are really, really slowing down here".

terryg

Thanks for all your responses guys

I suppose if I get an offer I can ask for a 60 day exchange period

Yes _ i can see that exchange will not be 2 months like I first stated but maybe 2 or 3 weeks.

As I say my problem is I will not exchange without a visa in tow - NOTHING in life is certain - DIMIA may take another 6 months as far as I'm concerned and you cant chase them - Its the uncertainity thats killing me .

Yes I know house prices may drop but so far in my area they have gone up and look likely to either stabilise or increase slightly but then who can tell ?

Any more thoughts please ?, I'm struggling here..........

Terry :scared:

shelljen

Terryg,

We're slightly behind you in the visa process but we have no qualms in selling now. What's the worst that could happen?

Most houses in this area will rent for 6 months. The buy to let mortgages at the moment tend to stipulate AST agreements anyway so the landlords that are mortgaged or have recently bought property will be looking for 6 / 12 months and you can negotiate with them if they are keen to have you (knowing that you have equity in the bank from the sale of your house will help!)

We'll keep on working so as to not use any of our migration capital if we can help it when we rent, and, if the very worst happens and we get turned down we have a nice amount of money to use as a deposit for another house or we decide to rent forever and live like kings with someone else paying for the repairs to the roof and leaking plumbing!

If you lived almost anywhere else in Europe this wouldn't be an issue as you probobly wouldn't own your own home anyway!!

It's hard to jump but sometimes you just need to close your eyes, hold your nose and go!!

Michelle & Lee

Gra.B

Hi,
If you're adamant that you won't exchange until you have you're visa then it seems a waste of time to go on the market. Say visa does take 6mths or more, it could mean losing sales 'coz you won't exchange quickly. House would be on the market for too long. You'll then start getting silly offers because people think you can't sell.

Personally I think it's worth the money spent in rent to sell asap. Like others said, imagine having you're visa then not being able to sell, people backing out etc.

Sell it now! Chances are the timing will all fall into place, but if not don't lose a sale for the sake of a few months.

Good luck....Gra