snowshoveller

I think dexdaw was trying to say that its value is what someone will pay for it - what the estate agent says is informed guesswork-

skyturner

I stated that renting was not an option for us... there is nothing wrong with renting in Canada or anywhere else for that matter, each to their own. My view is that by renting our UK house is not going to give us any gain as there is still the possibility that house prices may fall even further still! I would like to release my shackle and have my cash just in case.
Also, the housing in the UK has not been declining for 3 years...it was rising until it peaked in August 2007, any areas no matter what the economic climate are capable of declining though. I hope this clarifies.

dexdaw

A valuation is an arbitrary figure produced by an estate agent, Its not the houses value!!!!

skyturner

I agree, estate agents values can be way off the mark, that is why it is adviseable to have at least three reports and take the mean everage.

stepnek

When we sold our first house that we bought here in Canada we told the Real Estate guy that we wanted it priced to sell because we were in a hurry. The very first people to view offered the full asking price and we thought ooops! had it gone to cheap? But we had asked advice to sell it quickly and we still made a decent enough profit on what we paid for it originally.

I totally sympathize with the plight of the OP but it's interesting to read how people view the true value of their house. I look at Rightmove to the area that we moved from in 2004 and house prices are still higher than they were then and obviously people need to get as much money as they can but, you know, are these places really being priced to sell?

snowshoveller

have you seen how many houses are on rightmove these days - properties are sitting on the market for ages.

snowshoveller

fair enough and as you say each to their own.

I know that if we had bought as soon as we landed we would have bought a house that as it turns out may not have worked so well for us.

we have a property in uk that we tried to sell 2 years ago, it didnt go and so we managed to rent it out, it's not mortgaged so it doesnt cost much. I suspect with the state of things at the moment we will need to keep it for at least 3-5 years, currently similar properties are advertised at 30-40% less than they were going for 5 years ago. We sold our primary house in 2006 - which from what I saw was the peak of the market in my area. within months similar properties were fetching up to 5% less

We have been in canada for nearly 2 years and we are still looking as houses, more for research than to buy - the exchange rate is ugly at the mo, and moving large amounts of cash would be painful.