ellenarosemary

Do I or dont I, thats the question. Our house is on the market, my husband is in new zealand with me and our three children here. We have an offer of a whopping £35K below asking price (which incidentally I have already dropped £12K).

Do I accept the offer and have less money in NZ, or do I stay in the hope of finding a different buyer and making more???

Your thoughts would be appreciated, (think I know what we will do, but want to see what you all think and your experiences if the same happened to you).

Pushkinias

I guess only you will know what is 'enough' to make your sums work. Painful though it may be, it might be better to draw a line and disentangle yourself from all the hassle of selling from abroad and concentrate on your new future. I may well be in the same position myself soon as our house has no offers, we've already reduced it by £15k and the clock ticks on. Good luck, whatever you decide.

HeatherGirl

Hi there,

It certainly is a hard decision for you. I think it would depend on a few things like:

How long has it been on the market?
What percentage below valuation is the offer?
How much equity do you have/need?
Is the market likely to pick up anytime soon????

Of course I'm not expecting you to post answers to these questions but if it were me, which it was a few weeks ago before we managed to sell our house, these would be considerations.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I'm sure you want to be out there with your loved one asap. If you will have enough to be comfortable with, with that offer - I would say go for it, just my opinion.

HeatherGirl

simonsi

We would and did. But your life is your call. At the end of the day, your house is worth, today, the offer on the table, nothing more.

Jan n Neil

We lost more than that I dont think they will ever get back to the inflated prices they once where over there, I would take the money un less you can get by with out it ? But how long do you want it to sit over there for

Neil

ellenl

Hi
I'd take the offer, my parents neighbours have been trying to sell their place for years, they already have visa's and want to emigrate but need to sell and can't!
Surely you miss your husband too!

Margaret Parkinson

I take it you still have a mortgage so the sooner it sells the better in my opinion. Weigh up how much you will pay out for that plus insurance, rates etc and see how much that adds up to.

All the best.

MrsFychan

go back with a counter offer, if they have offered they are interested.
we had an offer 25K under asking price, we rejected and they upped it by 7k which we again rejected and asked for 10K under asking price which they accepted. People are going to try it on as they know people want to sell. what you need to do is try and negotiate and see where it gets you. Don't listen to the estate agent either they advised us to take the first offer. but also you need to think about how long it has taken you to get an offer and how much mortgage (if you have one) you would have to pay before you get another offer. we were lucky we got offer within 2-3 weeks of going on the market in both cases (first sale fell down on exchange day), so knew we could sell it.

Ex Aucklander

It must be costing you financially & emotionally living in 2 places globally.

If I could I think I would try & get them to up the offer but at the end of the day I would sell & move forward.

You can start afresh & as a family you will all be happier.

CRBGLH

hello there
i still have a house in the UK which i now rent as i was unable to sell it before i moved to NZ. I'm in the fortunate position that i do not have a mortgage. I would have preferred to have sold, but then again, i will hold out for a decent offer. Once people get 'wind' that you are no longer in the Country, i firmly believe they will try it on even more! All said, there can be issues if renting out whilst living in another Country e.g. getting the right tenants, different buildings insurance etc. Do you not have a family member who could keep an eye on things? It's a difficult position to be in......hope all goes well for you. - x

Izzy

simonmarkellis

Are you able to soften the blow by either getting them to pay your fees or get the agent to reduce there costs as an incentive for them. If you don't sell they don't get paid, so they may take a hit...

TommyLuck

Absolutely, probably by the estate agent telling them you're leaving the country. Call me cynic ...

ellenarosemary -

I have no idea what position you are in with regards to your move to NZ, so I'm not sure if it's a necessity to sell to move.

If not, and you may have already considered it, renting the place out, as per CRBGLH might not be the worst idea.

In the mid to long term, you could still sell but without people getting wind of you being abroad and apparently needing to sell.

Alternatively, you have somewhere to go back to in the unlikely event that you come back to the UK.


Of course this will all be academic if you need to sell.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

Bev MK

At the end of the day, market value is only what people are actually willing to offer on your house at the time, not what the estate agent says, or the property papers, or the balance of your mortgage. But there's no harm in negotiating with the potential buyer - if this is the first offer they've made on your house then they probably expect to have to increase it a bit. Most people offer a bit less than they're willing to pay.

And don't forget that you are currently running 2 homes in 2 countries and that's expensive. There's also an emotional cost in being separated, especially for the kids.

I'd go with your gut instinct on this. If the offer would leave you with a big deficit on a mortgage then you may have to rent the house out. Otherwise do what feels right to you and your husband.

julesnye

In my experience, we lost £135000(on paper) on the value of the house and I lost 2 years of the life I could have spent with my wife and to young daughters. If I could do it again I'd sell at any price just to get that time back.
However, at the end of the day it's your life and your choice.
Good luck.

MrsFychan

So ellenarosemary what you done?