Hippygran2

Hi, all, haven't been on the site recently (except to read messages) as I hadn't much news to share (good or bad). House has been up for sale since the end of October, have had three lots of viewers and another one to come this Saturday at 1.30pm. I just feel a bit down about the people that are coming to see the house. It appears to me that they don't seem to read the info regarding the house - garden size, bedroom space etc. etc - it is a 100 year old cottage after all and they seem to think that it will a slightly smaller version of their own three/four bedroom detached house then wonder why it is not suitable for them.

I realise we shall have to go through this until the right person/s comes along and that's life!!!

Sorry about this, that's my whinge over for today. I am just so keen to get to NZ (Auckland) with my husband and join family over there, it is only the house that is holding us back.

Good luck to everyone who is in a similar position, hope the housing market gets moving very soon. Great site, by the way, some really useful & helpful info available.

Cheers

Joan x

weejie

Yep,in the same boat. But we are now in a position to leave at the end of June even if we don't sell thanks to my inlaws who will loan us money to be paid back once the house does sell. Keep your chin up,someone will come along.....we have been on market since September and had one viewer

Phyl x

Hippygran2

Hi Phyl,

Thanks for your support. Good luck with your move in June, hope all goes well for you.

Cheers

Joan
x

MOSO

Yes - us too! Been on the market a year now due to have gone to Wellington in April - five offers/interested people later we're still here unsold. We've also only had a couple of viewings in the last few weeks including one who went into the back garden (which backs onto woodland) only to say 'oh so there isn't a garage then, we really need a garage' - er there wasn't a garage on the description so no!

My post today only consisted of 3 flyers from other estate agents and one call from our estate agent who left a message wanting to discuss marketing! they're all desperate - but so are we!

Good luck to everyone!

CarolineSwan

have you thought of renting until the market picks up, we have done this and got news yesterday that a couple have signed a years contract and move in next monday we came here at beggining of dec so only sat empty for 6 weeks. we were told when we put it up for rent it probably wouldnt get let until jan as nov/dec a quiet time in the rental market in the uk so we wernt worried.

anyway its just an option to get you over here sooner

caz

Hippygran2

Hi Caz,

We have considered renting but have decided not to go that route. Of course if things don't improve before too long we may have to revise our plans. We are being sponsored (Family visa) by my son in NZ and will live with them when we arrive until we find our own house there. So the urgency of our house being sold is not the same as someone with job offers etc. to consider.

Its just me really, wanting things to happen quickly in the present very difficult financial climate. I will just have to be patient and keep everything crossed

Cheers

Joan

x

CarolineSwan

hi joan

we looked into selling at first so we could buy a house out right here.We had an estated agent come round and changed our mind.We have 5 other properties that we rent out in britain so not scared about going this route and we thought why not just rent our house too. And in 2 or 3 years we will sell it and maybe all our properties , we will see how we feel then . We were same as we didnt have to sell it to get over here so less worrying i guess that some have. We will buy here the now with a large deposit then in 2 years pay it off and be mortgage free over here.

anyway im sure it will all come together in the end , it usually does. If you can move in with family why not move over anyway and keep house up for sale at other end through agent and that way you are here with no mortgage this end ??

MOSO

Hi

We too have thought about renting but we have a lot of equity sitting in the house and with the rental only just covering the mortgage it's a huge risk when we could potentially buy mortgage free in NZ.

Unfortunately it doesn't make financial sense to have the risk of potentially paying 2 mortgages if we don't have tenants for any period of time (now or in the future) when we could move and not have any mortgage. So we are also just having to sit it out. My visa runs out in November so let's hope things pick up before then - it's just SOOOOOO frustrating.

CarolineSwan

We have been very lucky as all our mortgages were on trackers so our mortgages are very low now in the uk, infact they almost paying them selves.. but then we had a hard couple of years b4 the depression where the rent was just covering the mortages , swings and round abouts i guess. beacause of this we have been able to take out some equity from our house that we lived in to allow us to put down a decent deposit over here, and our mortage still half what it was last year even with the money out of it.. we dont intend to have the properties for when intrest rates go back up in the uk

iwannagonow

Hi all,

We had our house up for sale for almost 18 months! Only 4 viewings, no offers!

Just before Xmas, we put it on the rental market & last week a couple came round & said they were very interested in renting it long term!! Woo hoo!! They went straight back to the agent & picked up an application form!

We too need to release funds from the equity, so we are now in the process of changing the mortgage to a buy to let, releasing about £30k & still paying £200 less per month than we do now!

This means if it doesn't work out in NZ, we have a house to come back to & if it does work out, then we can sell the property when the market picks up! In the meantime, we will look at long term renting in NZ

In theory, this is all working out perfectly, we are just hoping it all comes together as great as it sounds!

Good luck everyone

nick333

Hi Cheryl,

We looking to do the sames as you and convert to a buy to let mortgage. Can i ask, did your building society charge you much for changing your mortgage.
Also are you adding the £30 to the mortgage? I spoke with the Abbey about adding £10k to our mortgage and they wanted to charge nearly 6% interest rate plus £600 arrangement fee FFS.
Told the bloke thanks but no thanks.

Have you got a date in mind for flying out yet?

CarolineSwan

thats great news, you were probably up for lwt same time as us, we added the money we lifed to our mortgage and less than b4, in aug we were 1012 for our mortgage now we like 500 and we took money out, mad huh , im sure it will work out fine it has for us

best of luck

iwannagonow

:
Hi Nick,

Yes, our current mortgage provider is charging us about £2000 to be released from their mortgage ...this is only because it was a fixed mortgage for 5 years! We didn't realise at the time we did it that we would be moving to the other side of the world!

We did ask them first if they could sort it for us & they said our repayments would go up from £450 to £850! Obviously we said no!

I got in touch with a broker that we had used before & he was very helpful & said to change our mortgage from £58k to £88k he could get us an interest only buy to let mortgage with repayments of only £265 pcm! 3.49% (If you want his number PM me)

We haven't booked our flights as yet, but if everything goes to plan, we'll be over there mid Feb

How are things progressing with the visas? Has Nicky had a job offer yet?

Cheryl x

MOSO

We were told by our mortgage lenders (Standard Life) that we didn't need to change our mortgage in order to rent the house out so the payments would stay the same, we just had to inform them and fill out some forms. Unfortunately by the time we added on £20K which we'd need to get to NZ it would bring the mortgage and rental to the same price and then added on the Agents' fees onto (12.5%) be would be at a loss each month even if we did manage to have long-term tenants.

It may work out cheaper to switch mortgages but I suppose it depends on set-up costs/redemption fees etc.

NermaltheCute

We've just changed our mortgage to interest only on a tracker which in the current climate is affordable enough to meet and also pay rent in NZ when we get there. As soon as the final paperwork comes through for this I'll ask for consent to let the property and by then the letting agent should have found us someone to rent to. They were quite hopeful when they came to look round last week. It will all be very tight before we go but it seems to be working ok so far. We have just taken our house off the market, although the estate agent wasn't chuffed and tried to tell me it be marketed by them for the next 28 days. Can't see what another 28 days will do when 5 months hasn't worked.