jaxslad

yep..thought the taxes was bad in the uk.....
At least Dick turpin wore a mask before he robbed you..

live and work here then you would truely know...

dboy

My understanding that rent is considered income and makes up part of your tax returns for the year. There are a number of tax write offs though. As for selling, you only pay if you have not resided in the property for 12 months. It less than 25 percent though.

lilybilly101

WOW, I know in the UK it was three years that you had to reside in your home before being exempt so 12 months would be fantastic. I'll look into that for sure. It sounds promising.

We thought renting would also help us out in the initial months when looking for work too. This would bring me real peace of mind if the house doesn't sell. I could then commit to the potential job offer through a friend which would be a dreamy job (for a teacher anyway...hellish normal people).

I'll post what I discover. I've started a thread on capital gains to see if anyone knows more.

lilybilly101

We're constantly surprised by the high prices in BC in general. It appeared so cheap when I brought all my lovely pounds over and received over 2 dollars to every pound.....of course it was as cheap as chips. But now, yikes. We have an incredibly small mortgage, my husband has a good job in IT (under paid but hey ho), and I work part time and earn fairly good money for the amount of hours I do. Can we live comfortably? Hell no! It's a nightmare. I haven't been home this year as there just wasn't the money in the bank and we're trying to pay off the credit card, not add to it.

It is a myth and a fantasy that it's cheap to live here.....and the taxes....good lord. We need to pay high taxes to keep everyone in BC living on EI for half the year. Lucky buggers!

johnh009

If you move back now, you will make a tidy profit with the exchange rate.

lilybilly101

I know, hence the urge to go soon although it looks like it might stay like this for a while. House prices are cheap too. In fact a house I sold in 2004 is on sale for a little less than I sold it for back then. Madness. Too good an opportunity to miss I think.

bizzymum

My neighbourhood is having a lot of construction around it and that is either going to bring the price down, or they are going to just level the homes because my house is a ranch style home from 1971 and not on the expensive side at all and most of the homes are rentals, or pensioners. There are a few younger families like mine that are there because the location is great and the price was right, but Texas is known for just buying out people and leveling the place for a strip mall, or hotel; like they did in Arlington for the Cowboy's Football Stadium. I am really hoping that they do a buy out, but I don't really know when, or if they are going to do that. They are tearing up the park in front of my house so I think something is about to happen.
I think if anything an investor will buy my home and just use it as a rental since I also live in a college town.
I won't make much of a profit, if any, but I just need to cut my losses and go where I know I will be more comfortable. I am loving the cold weather right now and dreading the summer of 100+ days of 100+ degrees of heat.

johnh009

It was the exchange rate that did it for me. If you are selling a house, even the slighest variation makes a big difference. I am exchanging Canadian Dollars which are currently quite high and the housing market is up here also.

lilybilly101

Exactly. When I came to Canada it was anywhere between $2.25 and for a brief moment $2.50 to the pound and now it's around $1.60. Fantastic......if you're selling a house (and manage to do that and make a good profit) then you truly are laughing al the way to Heathrow. I know this is the big chance to redeem some lost money and purchase somewhere that is in a good area and big enough to house our growing family.

So happy.....it's all meant to be......now I just need to find that buyer!

jaxslad

yep and if you do.. ask he/she has a mate to buy my house also..

Cherylbe

I was just home over Xmas, for two weeks and in those two weeks, I found a house and a job and have my kids ready to get into school ( l'm leaving in the morning)
Depending on what you do or looking to do and how much you are willing to take, I can tell you that you can get work!
House....now that was a mess. I have been gone 18 years so no credit back home and so because of this and at the time of looking for a house to rent I didn't have the job, I had to pay six months of rent up-front on top off all the fee's.

If its what you want do it. I can't wait for tomorrow, ( if I even get into the country, see my post here)

Good luck

meph

I’m posting to wrap this thread up pretty much 12 months after my original post.

We will be leaving the USA for good in the next 5 to 6 weeks, but we don’t get to return to the UK, instead we are moving to Italy. I have a job there and my company is looking after the transfer so I really can’t complain, actually I am acutely aware of just how lucky we are to have this happening.

I did try to find a job back in the UK and spent several frustrating months contacting well known recruitment agencies, mostly it was a monumental waste of time. The recruitment agencies were lukewarm at best, outright lazy and disinterested at worst. One agency kept telling me that I needed to speak to so and so “who isn’t in right now but I’ll have her call you back tomorrow’ of course the return call would never happen……… I guess that the next time said recruiting agencies call me looking for business from my company then I’ll be in an ideal position to explain to them why they won’t be getting any.

I am $86k underwater with my US house, the realtor (estate agent) tells me that there hasn’t been a normal sale in my area for the last 18 months every sale has been a short sale or a foreclosure.

However, the reality is that I just don’t care; we get to be way closer to home and the UK family, and far away from the things in the USA which we don’t care for.

To everyone who contributed advice and encouragement in this thread, THANK YOU, it is / was much appreciated. Reading the posts here made me feel slightly less insane.

If I have learnt one thing from this five year adventure then it is this;
The grass in not always greener on the other side of the fence, it is for some folk but certainly not for everyone. One thing is for sure, you don’t realize what you have and what you take for granted until you no longer have it.

See you in the Italy section.

Ciao

lilybilly101

Congratulations to you! It sounds like a wonderful opportunity and a welcome change. As you say, you'll be closer to home for visits and the excitement of somewhere new. You can look forward to learning a language too.

Best wishes for the future.