KJM

My house has been valued today by 3 different estate agents as part of the information required on my update letter.

I currently live in the country near 3 towns so I obtained a valuation from each town to see who was most competitive. Boy was I shocked when all three came in at the same price and 15k less than it was valued 6 months ago.

What is the most heart breaking is....if I was lucky enough to get a visa I was going to have myself a nice little sum and now I'm going to be getting peanuts and if it continues at this pace I will be in negative equity.

What do you do in this situation? Have you loss on your house recently?

sim2point4

Why wait till you are in negative equity, if you do that then your Canadian dream will never happen due to no settlement funds. We had negative equity back in the early 1990's during the last property market crisis, so I know how you feel. Why don't you try to sell now, and rent for the time you have left in the U.K. We took a risk at the beginning of our skilled worker process in 2006 and sold up then, have been renting ever since, for once we made the right decision, but as I said earlier have been caught out in the housing market before. I guess it depends on how much of a risk taker you are, are you prepared to sell up before you get your visa?
Sim

clairemarie70

hi, im living in canada, my house has been on the market since nov07, i have dropped my house by over 30k...still no interest...the whole thing is a nightmare...still im living my new life here

annabella

Sorry, but more than a little off thread here but bear with me. Read your post with interest. As you talk of a 'visa' I understand you are probably still in UK. This is the only clue as your posting could be a reference to Canadian property or UK property. This brings up the question of BE posters' locations. Would be so useful if one could just glance to left of posting and know where that poster is located. Does anybody else share my opinion? Nobody needs to give more than their current country location. No more is needed. Would often be useful given the content of the post. Couldn't this be obligatory for us all? Have to hastily check my profile. Not sure if I have given my own location!

KJM

I'm lucky to have the settlement funds already? its 6.5k for a couple is that right?

Yes i'm a risk taker and yes the property is going on the market at a higher price than the estate agents said to allow for any fees etc.

KJM

Its a crazy world.

Good luck with selling the house.

KJM

Hi

Good point

Location updated.

Simply Red

Hi

I agree with Sim - we decided to test the market in February and sold within 2 weeks for the full asking price. Heart wrenching decision to make but by investing the profit we made, and renting means we are more than ready to go when (if it ever happens!) we get our visa through. Since Feb when we sold a house on the same road has dropped by £30k, so it was obviously the right decision to make!

Good luck

nikki dreaming

Hi

This is exactly the thought process we had re the house, but I fear we may already be too late

One thing in our favour we still have quite a bit of time to try and get a sale but absolutely nothing is happening in the market in our area.

Good luck with your plans

annabella

Thank you. Appreciated. I wish you the best of luck with your plans to get to Canada.

Gary and Suzie

Hi,
The dangers of selling your house before getting a visa is what happens if you are refused? As long as house prices are coming down and you still have plenty of cash left for a deposit you can hopefully get back on the housing market were you left.
We tried it last year with the same intension of renting, but after a year on the market we decided to forget it for a while.
Now half the houses on the street are for sale.
We have enough equity to sell a bit cheaper and hope to poach any buyers.
Its a cut throat world and you do what you have to.
I'd live in a tent if I new our visa was near!
My wife and kids may not agree though!
Fingers crossed for everyone.
Gary.

Alberta_Rose

If the house sells, and property prices keep on falling and you don't get your visa ...... you could buy another house, no?

Surely it'd be more worrying if house prices were shooting up?

I only wish we'd sold earlier, personally. We could have used the interest off the equity to pay rent, quite apart from what we continued to earn while we might have waited.

There's nothing worse (IMHO) to have those long-awaited visas and unable to move cos you can't sell the rotten house! THAT's when you end up taking a loss, cos in the end you'll accept anything you can get, and buyers tend to pick up on that! :curse:

Rhodeys

Totally agree with Morwenna

We are in Canada have 2 houses on the Market in the UK. Paying rent here and one mortgage in the UK. Our house has been on the market since last October and we have it on the market for 28K lower than market value but it sits empty and for sale, the second house we have is shared (a family investment) and we have no takers...I wish we had put them on the market six months earlier and rented in the UK.

We chose to move to canada and take our chances and not lose our dream...I guess we all have to make our own evaluation of our situation and this was the best for us. we have been lucky enough to be able to leave our houses on the market and rent for now, but in honesty we cannot do it long term.


Good luck with your plans, I hope they all work out for you!!

Julie

Paul_Shepherd

Hello Clairemarie,

How are you finding living in Canada but trying to sell as house the other sie of the Atlantic? I may well have to do the same thing when it comes to it.

So are you renting in Canada now?

Not trying to be nosey...is just I will soon be in a similar position

Paul

KJM

Wow your feedback was very useful and the Estate Agent got the instruction today.