To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

Need advice, our house is on the market and we are not sure it is the right thing to do. These are our options,
1. Sell it and run like the wind to NZ
2. Extend our mortgage to 25 years(14 remaining) and take the equity(£34K) rent and run to NZ
3. Continue to have 14 years remaining, rent it out and cover the outstanding about of £300 per month($840). Go to NZ with nothing and get a $200 to $250k house mortgaged. Repaying average $2200 per month and $1100 bills

Help in need of real advice. i have no intentions of returning to the UK but my husband thinks it may be worth looking into and I agree with him.

Thank you for any advice we receive.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

What you pointed out is you are running away , hope being a refugee in NZ is more to your taste and theirs?

:D :cool: :beer:

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

You sound desperate to escape like the plague has arrived in your town and you are fleeing the grim reaper. You will be gutted to find problems with life in NZ if you expect something much better than the UK. There are pros and cons and many, many people return very disappointed or have to give Oz a go just to find some work (ask all the new zealanders that escape to Oz and UK every year - many tens of thousands - just to find decent jobs with pay they can live on.) We have friends and family in NZ and not all are doing even OK. Some are happy, some not - just like our friends and family in the Uk.

My advice is to keep the house so you have somewhere to return to. If you go thinking "thank god we have escaped", you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment once the novelty has gone.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

Im not sure what work you do, but chances are you may be hard pressed to pay the repayments form NZ, as well as repayments on a mortgage over here.....

Although i think it would be wise to keep your property over here both from a view to possibly one day returning, and also from a financial standpoint, you may be unable to do so on an NZ salary.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

oh dear! I am having the same prob! Except I have an offer of a one year let, but I am afraid t

PB and Wilf please note I am not escaping anything. I have lived in other countries before and know that everything is not nice and shiny. My husband is a graphic designer who has been offered a well paid job in Auckland and I am a accounting technician. We are not cleaners,fruit pickers or brainless. Not that have'nt done all of these jobs in past when my finanical situation was different. I wanted some sound good advice not the usual nonsence that you two love to dish out. You two should have your own tv show. THE DUMBEST AND THE EVEN MORE DUMBER.

stooly doesnt like you PB and Wilf, i think youve upset her!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Try not to be so harsh, she's only looking for a bit of advice...

cheers

Have had a smilar debate myself, I am hoping to go to NZ initially on a work visa as an Occupational Therapist but will stay if I really like it. I have decided in the end to sell my house as I feel the property market may stagnate for a while, renting also seemed to get very complicated. I plan to invest the profit on the house initially and then can use it as a deposit in either country depending on the situation. I guess maybe as a single guy my options are less complicated than those with a family. Sorry no pearls of wisdom but at least lets you know what others are doing.

Becketboy.

We've worked it out and decided to sell. We want to buy a house because we have a son of 2 and daughter of 6 who we feel needs somewhere to call home. Also we want to buy a secondhand car and we have an opportunity to also own a business which we are currently talking about. So all and all we want to take our money and RUN to try for a better life for ourselves and our children.

"RUN" - proves you are making a mistake. You will return older and wiser.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

We've kept our cottage in Sussex and are renting it out.

The money comes in very handy.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

You are far too smart for the members on this forum and wasted in a dead end goverment job here.

:D :cool: :beer:

we shall keep our house

1 it gives us security if we want to return
2 it gives us an additional income if we don't
3 if our daughter wants to live in the uk we can set her up
4 it's our retirement fund

with any different combination of those 4 keeping our house here seems to make sense..

cheers

richard

We are keeping our house too, we are just releasing some equity, and taking that as a deposit. We are renting our place in the UK, and rent coming in should cover the mortage over the year, providing on average the place is occupied 9 months of the year.

Re: To sell or not to sell that is the question
 

Your first 'option' is the only one worth considering in my opinion

If you keep the house (and the mortgage that goes with it) then you will have no equity to invest in your new home in NZ. The housing market in the UK (especially Surrey) has peaked. You may not get a better price for your home for many years. Why would you want to leave such a responsibility behind in the UK when you are trying to start a new life on the other side of the world? If you can find a buyer the sell asap before it is too late.

If you like the idea of renting out a property then buy yourself an investment property in NZ after you have bought your home there.

Options 2 and 3 will also cost you dear in taxation.