TheKellys5

Bear in mind this could mean a wait of indeterminable length - you need to be prepared for that, particularly as it is predicted that the Eurozone (if not the world) is heading into a 2nd recession in 2012.

We put our house up for sale once we received the request for our passports to have the visa inserted. We had already been watching the local market for some time. After 4 weeks into the marketing, we had an acceptable offer (which is currently progressing), fingers x, we should be moving by Xmas and ready to go for March next year. Getting an offer for the house is almost as much about being realistic with your price/expectations as it is about the estate agent doing their job imo. Yes we have lost some of the equity due to the current recession, but we are still better off than not selling, as we really do need the money with us in Canada. It's as stated, a risk game - hold out for more money if the market improves, but if theres another dip you could lose even more. Your personal choice - no-one can or should influence that, as you need to live with the decision. For us we have still made a profit on the equity of the house - all we have lost is the additional money that was there if we had been able to sell before the recession hit.
I rented my house some time back when I went off to Oz/Far East for a year, something that was not smooth by any stretch of the imagination, and something that I do not wish to repeat again if at all possible. Again, each to their own in that respect.
Good luck with your decision, I really hope you find the resolution that works for you.

snowshoveller

some good points here.

You need to be realistic about asking price if you are selling , most of the stuff on the market round here(north east england) is overpriced by a good margin I suspect that this is due to greedy sellers appointing agents who come in with the highest market value, irrespective of what is achievable.

I think it will take 5-10 years for the market to properly recover, if you are renting this is the timescale you are going to be tying capital up for.

Renting out is fine so long as you have none or very small mortgage. Also you need to make sure you have a good agent to manage the rental in your absence, there are some horror stories out there.

mrsr0binson

Totally agree with this. We rented ours out with a much respected property management company... They failed to tell us that their background checks had uncovered 2 CCJ's against our prospective tenants; because it was not their policy to disclose this information to landlords at that time (They have since changed their policies!!). Our tenants paid for 4 months and then stopped! It took us 9 months to get them removed by the courts... It has cost us over £10k in lost income and court\solicitors fees. The property management company had a dreadful tenancy agreement without a break clause, which favoured the tenants every step of the way (this has also now been changed). We also later discovered that the lady renting our house was actually on police remand for fraud at the time of signing the agreement - which again they never caught with their background checks...

Thankfully we have now sold the house and actually exchanged contracts today... It still feels unreal!

The estate agents were fabulous and once we regained possession of our house; it sold within 4 weeks and has only taken 7 and a half weeks from start to exchange (completion on 25th November).

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We had no idea how big a tie it would be, still owning a property in the UK. We never appreciated how much grief renting could be (even with a supposedly good management company). We actually knew within 3 months of living here, that we wanted to stay - but even if things had gone smoothly with our rental; we would have had to have waited until the year lease on our UK home was over before moving forward here.

If I could go back and do it again, I would have sold up once we had received our completed medicals. Even if things had not worked out here, we would have had a lump sum to start back in the UK with. As it was, our first year was made very much harder, because we were constantly being pulled back to deal with problems in the UK.. And trust me; you will have enough to deal with, without heaping more potential problems on your shoulders.

Everything is a risk… but if I had a choice; I would rather be in control of my choices then have someone else make choices and decisions on my behalf.

Good Luck with whatever you decide

LucyLovelock

Sorry to hear you guys had such a nightmare, but glad its all over now.
x

GandH

As we are considering renting out our place in the UK, would you mind letting us know who it the mamagement company that let you dow was? If you don't want to say on here, could you PM us?

Cheers