What would you do?
 

Just wanting a few opinions about what you would do in our situation.....

Basically, we've been in Auz now for 8 months and love it. We are renting our house still in the UK and we are seriously considering selling up and bringing the funds over here to get the house of our dreams.

We have seen some ideal bits of land (which are being sold fast) and some great houses we could have built. But we wouldn't be able to do much unless we sold our house in the UK.

We would really love to sell our house to afford something over here but we are not sure if this is the best thing to do.

We are both sitting on the fence but realise that we need to make a decision at some point.

Has anyone else been in this situation and what did they do?

Jo :)

Re: What would you do?
 

Hi Jo,

We've been in a very similar position so happy to explain what we did and hope it helps.

We've been in Melbourne for almost 2 years and have rented 2 different places in that time. We recently signed a lease for 18 months as we liked the house and location. However we soon realised that by the end of the lease we would have been renting for almost 3 years and it could be longer than that before we bought. Very frustrating - we cannot decorate, change the look of the place and buying furniture is a waste of time as it may not me appropriate for a new house. We therefore decided to buy. We quickly found a place, the purchase was easy and we move in next Friday.

It's great knowing that we now have a home of our own. We are all very settled here and have no qualms about making long term plans. My wife is already making plans for new curtains, kitchen changes, tiles, bi-fold doors etc and we can finally hang our pictures and photos, and personalise it. As my wife says - we've been living in a house for 2 years but finally we'll have a home.

In the meantime we were renting our UK house. It was mostly occupied for the 18 months that we rented and the income was certainly excellent. However we were getting tired of fussy tenants, incompetent landlords and expenses to fix the tiniest thing. We were increasingly reliant on friends and family to help out and that became a burden for all. Longer term we knew we would need to redecorate, replace certain appliances etc and the costs and hassle (e.g. UK Tax Returns) made us consider whether it was worth it.

In the end we decided to sell and got the asking price. I have to say that now it's sold it's a lot less stressful and one less thing to worry about. Who knows what the rental or house market in the UK will do. Perhaps I should have kept it, brought in some regular income and then sold in 5 years at a higher price. Then again the Melbourne market is not cheap and seems to keep climbing.

Maybe the FX rate will also change and I'll regret bringing the cash over at 2.37 ! Who knows. All I can say is that we're delighted that we sold in the UK and delighted that we own a fabulous home in Australia. That's all that counts.

Funnily enough we made the decision to sell in the UK and buy over here in a matter of minutes and instead of deliberating and discussing for weeks (as I think we both thought we would) we made the decision and have not regretted it - so far !

Good luck with whatever you do.

Cheers,
Col

Re: What would you do?
 

If you know that your future lies in Australia, then sell it and buy here. I agree with the above poster, it really does make a big difference being in your own home :)

Re: What would you do?
 

Hi,

Thanks Haggis Supper & Wendy for your replies.

You are right about the renting - its nice here but its just not ours! We had some real hassle with the agents just putting up a few pictures! They said that we would have to repaint the whole wall if our pictures discoloured the paintwork over time. :blink:

We love it here so selling up in the UK is very tempting. I think we will buy some land first then sell the house at some point. We are already looking at the Metricon brochures.............. :D

Re: What would you do?
 

Jo,

if you are settled here and dont plan on leaving in the next year or so, then sell up in the uk and build here, like you said, the land is selling fast here, and the more land they sell, the higher price the next lot will be..

p.s metricon homes are stunning, but beware of all the add ons they charge, we looked at the showhome on walnut, and they took us on a walkthrough to show us whats not included!!!! basically if i want the house built to the same spec as the showhome, it would have added another $70k onto the price :eek:

good luck, and we'll probably see you on the weekend :thumbsup:

Re: What would you do?
 

It's nice to know you have a place to go to help make the big decisions in life isn't it?

I don't know you, I don't know anything about you, I don't know what you do for money, I don't know if you have family and friends back in the U.K., but I will say this: Sell the house in the U.K., buy and the most expensive underpriced fixer upper you can afford, fix it up, and spend the rest of your life is Australia.