steph82

Any UK house sellers have any suggestions.

We have a 3 bed house in a popular area up for sale but no interest. Its even in a first time buyers price bracket.

Becuase our mortgage interest rate is high, the rental figure we could acheive does not cover the mortgage.

We have had our visas granted quicker than expected and now they want us to be in Perth within 3 months (otherwise they cant guarantee they will hold the job).

Does anyone have any suggestions? We are even considering raffling the house off!!!!

Help!

CaptainMerton

If i were you i'd definitely wait until you sold the house. Otherwise you could be in a real sticky situation if the Australian Dollar fell heavily against the pound or something like that and you were trying to service a mortgage against a worsening exchange rate. It will sell eventually even if you dont get what you want at least you will know where you stand. Cant you go over and validate the visas in the meantime.

steph82

Unfortunately it doesnt mke a difference if we validate the visa or not as we are on a 457 visa which is a sponsored visa. Therefore if we cannot get over in the next 3 months there may not be a job for my husband to go to in which case our visas will be cancelled.

This is why it is so important for us to get there so soon.

We basically have 3 months to do something with the house here and get to Australia otherwise the dream has gone.

Mr Anderson

what about renting it out and using some of the wages from your new job to top up the mortgage

see a tax advisor about it. in australia its called negative gearing and you may have tax relief

be careful to check though as this may only be on investment properties in oz

Al

DEEDEE01

Hi Steph

Me and my husband are in the same boat.

We are leaving for Australia on 7th February and have been unable to sell our house, what was once a healthy profit (£35,000) has now turned into bearly £5k if we are lucky :curse:

We are planning to work to pay the mortgage back home until our house sells, we will HAVE to make it work !!

All the best.

Donna.
x

Mr Anderson

Good on you, a nice positive attitude always helps. How else would we get through life.

TiddlyPom

You can raffle your house, but you would have to get advice from an accountant to make sure you word it properly. I can't recall precisely but you have to be careful you don't get hit by tax...

Have a look at the BBC news site and search in the top box for 'house raffle' if the link below doesn't work. There are lottery regulations to be followed but I know it's been done sucessfully by some. The advertising is easy to get on local news etc. But there have been pit falls by doing it so be careful if you take that route.

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/sear...q=house+raffle

Nu-Shooz

Can't you just drop the price even more, making it more desirable to buy. Desperate times takes desperate measures. Unless you get in negative equity.
Holding out for a high price or average price may never happen, not in the market as it is.
We were in negative equity 15 years ago. We bought a house for 36,000pounds and sold it 10 years later for 34,000pounds. But it was the only way to sell.
People just sit and wait, but you can't do that or your dream may never happen. Or what about an Auction?

stevemich

I really hope it all works out for you, but would suggest you are extremely careful what sacrifices you make for an employer engaging you on a 457 visa.
There is virtually no job security, and you have to leave the country within 28 days if you cannot find another sponsor.

This is not such a risk if you are careful about what bridges you burn, but sacrificing significant amounts of money on a property just to go on a temporary visa (in a potentially worsening economy) is a lot to ask.

Good luck
Steve

jazzys

Do what i did, leave the other half in it and come to oz yourself.
Its been just over a year now, happy days are here again.



Jazzys

georginabutcher

what about going interest only on your mortgage.Thats what we've done, it has almost halved our repayments.It might be a good short term solution, that way you can rent it out and hopefully cover the mortgage until you sell.Tread carefully with the bank though, we didn't tell ours we are renting it or going overseas, most banks don't like that.

Dougie

Quality may have to try that myself!

Dougie

sooperlids

I think you will find raffling your house may well be illegal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_ne...00/6968569.stm

http://www.propertywire.com/news/eur...809091608.html

http://www.out-law.com/page-9382

I wouldn't want to risk it. Besides you are almost certainly not going to be able to sell enough tickets. Then it may be very tricky to give people their money back.

TiddlyPom

It's not illegal as long as you satisfy the rules of the Lotteries commission, which are stringent. But like you say, it's the ticket thing and at the end of the day you might as well just put the house on the market for the hassle it's going to give you.

Elaine & Nigel

Hi Steph

We swapped our house for a cheaper one, meant we had a bit of cash to get us out here and then rented the cheaper one out until such times as the market in northern ireland starts to improve. It was the only way to get enough cash to get us to Oz, we're in Bundaberg 6weeks now and loving it. If you need any more info feel free to pm me.

Elaine