Not trolling, honest

Just say you sold your house today....."desirable" area...all the bells and whistles but its sat on the market for months and you have had to drop the percieved price to a real price, but its a done, 60 day unconditional deal....fair price really....

So? you gleefully hunt realestate.com.au and find ermmmm? nothing that grabs you or something that you know is OK, BUT probably gonna drop in price in a few months...

So? do you stick your lump sum in an account and rent for 12 months....THEN look at it again? Build? Bearing in mind is gonna be a $15K thrown into the wind type of scenario with renting...blah blah

What would you do and why?

Just wondering

Rent.....the money from your house should provide a fair amount of interest.

The housing market is going nowhere at present.

No brainer. You either rent or you buy something you really don't want.

So rent.

BUT...in the next 50 or so days if anything comes up, would you still rent knowing that by the end of the year you could have "saved"50K?

Take a short term rental? 6 months?

If 'something comes up' then you could always make a bid.

There is every chance that house prices will fall over the next year and you will have 'made' 50K.

They have certainly fallen here

That is, perhaps, the best course of action

Melbourne will give a strong indicator to it's housing market this weekend, with 777 properties up for Auction in a slowing market.

Could become a no brainer by Monday Hevs

Check out Sundays papers.

RENT - short term as a previous poster pointed out

Pros
- interest gained on house deposit in savings account
- money saved on not paying mortgage interest
- potential flexibility about being in a position to buy and negotiate settlement terms around lease
- fleibility to look around and pick a house you want

Cons
- rent money/but can be offset from points above
- may have a rental get out term but again could be offset with settlement terms
- possible storgage costs/opportunity to sort out and throw out!
- "if" market went up a possible loss - but really is it heading that high in the next six months?

Good post.

If you can - then I'd go for the "build" option. We built our own home and in our opinion we got a much better house that way than if we'd just gone out and bought a house.

Another vote for the rent option, especially if you can get a 6 months lease which will then become month-to-month.

6 months is not that long, even if you found a house to buy next week. You could negotiate a long settlement (90 days), and only start your repayments 28 days after settlement which would mean that you would have to pay rent for a minimum of 4 months anyway before starting mortgage repayments again. Breaking a lease 2 months before it ends is not overly expensive, especially if you rent in a desirable area, where the property is likely to be rented out again as soon as you leave.

Renting also gives you the option to build or to take your time to find the right house.

I'd rent and spend time to find the home for you, $15k in rent is nothing compared to the selling and buying costs if you compromise on the place because you feel you have to buy immediately then change your mind.

Rent. House prices are going to go south next year.

Buy, if you are happy to commit to staying here long term - even if prices would drop slightly, it doesn't matter over the long term. Renting is not a joyful experience.