cindyabs

27 years ago we were trying to sell our first house in Ohio because the ex was going on active duty with the army. At that time, mortgage rates were up as high as 18 percent!!! We were being posted to Germany and were not going to be coming back to Ohio. The month before we were due to go we were able to sell it on a land contract basis- sort of a rent with buy deal-buyers had to plunk down a deposit, make payments for 3 years and at the end of the 3 years take over the mortgage.

jumping doris

St Jude has really worked for me in the past.

simongb

St Jude has really worked for me too! Keep your chin up and keep us all posted on how it's going for you.

trottytrue

Move over St Joseph here comes St. Jude...... Will wrap them both up for the winter just to make sure they dont get cold. Will keep quiet to my OH about St Jude joining St Joseph. I will polish St Joseph's head.

I'm like that bouncing ball keep coming back up. But as you all know there are days when you just cant seem to see the end of the road.

AudsfromSA it , we never got as far as you with the sale, that must have been awful. We never even got one bite.

I was going to say "I'm going back home even if its the last thing I do. Not the best of sayings.

Losing friends is hard especially when you've known them for over 60years. We were born two months apart on the same street.

quoll

Well you might as well go for the trifecta - have you thought about invoking St Anthony too? - he finds all sorts of things for me. You may want to appeal to him to find your lost mojo!!! (or find the lost house buyers). He found my British driving licence for me last night along with L50 which was a good find!!!!

Oh yes, and the other great Australian tradition - take out a lottery ticket, that helps because you know you have got to be in it to win it!!!!!

JoolsB

Hi Trotty-just to say I feel for you losing 3 such important people in such a short space of time. Take heart-your house WILL sell even if it takes its time and it's never too late if you want something enough. x

manc1

Hmmmmm I smell a business opportunity here. Roll up roll up, get your statues here. St Joseph, St Jude, and St Anthony. Roll up, everyone's a winner.

Black Sheep

TrottyTrue...

Don't even think about the exchange rate right now - if you do sell the house, could you not hold the profits in US$ until the exchange rate improves? Unless the entire US economy goes into freefall, how likely is it to stay this low against the Euro/pound? The NZ$ just rose again against the US$ as well yesterday, right when it looked as though it was at the start of the long journey back downwards. But no doubt it will eventually (likely soon) start falling again against the greenback as it's only being held high at the moment by NZ interest rates that just cannot remain so high without destroying the NZ economy... As soon as the NZ interest rate falls (or Fed rate is raised) the NZ$ will fall. No question.

Put plans A, B, C , D and so on together (e.g.. A) sell the house, take deep breath and change the money, then close that chapter of your life and move on, B) Sell the house and hold onto the money in US$, at least for a short while, hoping for more favourable exchange rate, C) House doesn't sell, so rent it out and move back to UK - sell house when property market picks up again, D) Stay in house to ride out property market crisis. Use your trip to UK not only as a fresh-me-up, but also as a fact /ideas finding mission - you know, treat it like a reconaissance mission!. E) Try selling the house 'by owner' - can knock agent's commission off the price that way, F) etc etc etc

And keep posting back here for more support! As others have said, you're not alone - so we all need it! Would you have an income if you move back to UK? Can you afford to rent there if your house in USA doesn't sell right away? What exactly is it that's holding you back from returning for good, and is there any way to 'fix it' even under these circumstances?

Cheetah7

Your post had me in tears.

I am not in your situation as I don't own my own house and things have been very different for us.

However, I remember some of the darkest moments in my life when even with my husband in the next room, I have never felt so alone - losing my Mum was the worst thing ever to happen to me.

When you are in those dark moments and feel like there is no point or like giving up, it is so hard to envisage any light at the end of the tunnel when life just throws crap your way.

Things have a habit of changing when you least expect them and your life takes on an entirely different path from what you had planned for yourself and yes, it might be different but different can be just as good.

Please don't give up, just take one day at a time and try not to worry about the future because although we think we can predict it, we can't.

In the days after my Mum's death, I was out of work, we were living off a credit card and we had some real financial worries. Never did I imagine we would get out of it.

But slowly we did and when I look back to three years ago, my god how our life has changed in a way I never thought possible.

Just have faith that life is unpredictable and by stepping off the old 'worry train', you can be open to change.

My friend once said to me 'If worrying about stuff could make it all better than fine, you go for it'.

I still worry about stuff but not half as much.

Only worry about what you can change personally in your life and do not give up because you don't know what is around the corner.

Love Sam

brits1

Hi TT I have just read you thread this morning (9.00am West Aus time) and that was just how I was feeling until I read your thread and all the replies...I am usually "upbeat" about things but not being able to sell our home and move back to the U.K is really getting to me/us..as you mentioned I have meat a lot of Expats here in Perth who just could not return home for whatever their reasons at the time and now so wished after many more years of living in Perth that they had returned home no matter what, I have a dread that could be us..but we do have to stay positive and we are thinking now of plan's b/c/d and to Manc 1 can I buy all please?.......
Good luck and lots of hope to all of us who want to return home for whatever reason but are finding it hard at the moment

nicola411

HI there

I think there is a small part of all of us that wants to give up at some point or another during life. Even today I sit here and wish and wish my house would sell or someone would like it even. I am cold miserable and really unhappy and to top it off trying to balance my payg statement summarys and bas returns and I am 1000's out. I do feel for you but maybe as someone else suggested renting. I know I dont want to have to do that here (aus) but I have waited to go home now for 2 years and sometimes I do feel like giving up. But we all have our health, the kids are happy, so I just hope my turn will come.

NIcola

Gettingtheflipout

Hi everyone,

First post, so please be kind/not outright awful

I find myself in a not disimilar situation- I actually stumbled over these forums while looking for advice on how to get out of the US and relocate back to dear old Blighty, land of Pies, mushy pea, knife attacks and late-night pavement pizzas.

Basically, we've had it. My wife and I came over here, lulled by the old idea of it being a land of opportunity- we'd both finished our MAs (we met doing them, actually), and thought the size of the place would enable us to be employed in our chosen fields faster than in the uk. What a lesson in how desire and greed corrupts...

Basically we ended up screwed over by Homeland Insecurity, who took a three month application process (we'd budgeted for 6...) and turned it into a 16 month process before they gave me my work permit. In that time, we'd run up some huge credit card debt. When I finally got my permit, I couldn't find anything in my field and neitehr could she, unless we moced to DC or CA, neither of which we could afford. She took a job in her home state, got laid off, I took a job that paid ok, but working in an environment that damn-near-killed me, and it all went a bit london DJ for both of us.

We've been here just over three years, and we've just decided, once and for all, that enough is enough. I've not been home in all that time, and I'm horribly homesick. On top of that, work sucks, I hate the weather (we're in Vermont- the winters are abominable, and summer is like being in a sauna- seriously, there's about two weeks either side of Winter and Summer wher I feel sane and comfortable...), the economy has me seriously worried that if we wait another year, we won't even be able to afford to relocate, let alone buy a blummin' plane ticket for me to get home to see my mum and dad, and the cost of living and healthcare just keeps spinning further and further out of our grasp

So we're getting out. we rent, thankfully (I feel awful for those of you trying to sell and relocate, I think I'd go spare and take the best offer, if it was me right now), so all we have to do is satisfy the lease, do the whole chip/shot/bloodtest on the cats, and hopefully, come February of next year, be the pair of us back in Blighty, listening to Classic Fm and reading some decent bloody journalism every day over toast soldiers and a soft-boiled egg in a cup..

Not that its all been awful here, but my god, we both love the uk, and I'm so glad we're going home. Its going to cost us every penny we have, but thats ok.

to the original poster- the goal is to sell the house. That should be what you pour your energy into, however you do it. fix it up, or sell it at a loss, but still enough of a profit to set you up in the UK, if that's what you're going for. the other thing is don't panic. Renting prices will increase with housing costs (those who can't buy must rent, so as the cost of buying increases, so does the cost of renting as landlords, forgive me for saying so, stick in the knife), so renting out is always an option. the other option is get thyself home for a break, stock up on the branston and canned mushies, revive that love of the Uk we all have (who couldn't love a nation who's national foodstuffs consist of lukewarm beer (at least you can taste the bloody stuff! don't get me started, sorry...), cheese and pickle sarnies, and Chicken Tikka Masala Balti, and who's sporting abilities rest on the time-honoured traditions of believing ourselves to be better than our far-superior opponents, despite the fact we are soundly thrashed at every turn... and then come back to the US with said branston and mushies, weather the Economic storm Kind Old King Bush Jr has unleashed upon the US, and wait for things to calm down.

The housing market will always settle down- supply and demand see to that, so fear not too much. Just be sure to take that trip home every year.

anyway, I think I've rambled enough, my apologies.

brits1

Thanks for the positives and good luck on your return home....Cold Beer.....? my OH says it could be boiling hot but still taste better that the water the call beer here in Aus

Good luck and have a Chicken Balti on me....that's if we sell our home soon then I can have a good old Lamb Jalfrezi with a Phswari Naan....on the "Curry" mile near Manchester.....bliss

Danny B

I don't want to be nosey and I'm not interested in numbers, but do you have any equity in your house?

If you don't have anything substantial why don't you just post the keys back to the bank and tell them to keep it and then fly back to the UK?

Black Sheep

TT, I thought of asking you the very same thing, and of asking if just giving up the house and walking away was an option? In your original post you mentioned thinking about 'just giving up' - perhaps I should ask what you meant by that as I'm now wondering if perhaps you meant 'giving up on bothering to even try to sell the house and just abandoning it'...?

BTW, when I said you're not alone... I too lost a parent, my dad, a year and a half ago. I could have just made it back in time to be with him and say goodbye before he died (I hadn't seen him since he visited 4 years ago) but I wasn't in a position financially to do so at the time, long story. That I didn't make it back has haunted me ever since, we were very close and losing him has changed everything. I must say I felt very very alone at the time and for a very long time afterwards. I'm almost staggered now to hear how many others of us also lost a parent recently, while we were living abroad. At least I think we all probably have a fair idea about what each of the others of us went through - it has to happen to you, especially under these circumstances, to be able to really understand I think. 'Welcome to the dead parent's club' (to paraphrase from 'Gray's Anatomy').