N1cky

The tenants who have been in our UK house, for the last 5 years, have just given notice that they're going to move out.

We've recently been informed by our mortgage company that we'll have to move our mortgage to a new company on a buy to let, as they no longer do them. And we'd like to buy here (although we've just signed a 2 year lease on our house here). So taking all that into account, we've decided to try and sell the house now.

The company who handles our rental, don't do buying and selling, so we'll need to find an agency first of all. But with an 8 hour time difference, even
that's a hassle.

Just wondering if people have come across any particular hassles with selling long distance? Anything I should look out for, or things I should do...?

SarahG

We will be selling our house this year too. It has also been let for just over 5 years. We've spoken to a tax person here about CGT etc and we don't think we'll take too much of a hit. Our current tenants are in situ until August and the letting agent we use will sell the house. (It was part of the contract we signed). We are going to empty the attic etc when we are over in a couple weeks. From what we have been told it should be fairly straightforward. We will have stuff emailed/faxed to us to sign and us fax/email it back. My in-laws live in the a couple streets away from our house so they can deal with any questions that arise if the time zone gets in the way. Do you have any family/friends in the town that you would trust to help you with the sale? If your house was in the same town as ours I would recommend the agents we are using as they have been fairly decent. They also will only take 1% on the sale, unlike some others in town that take 3%, or more.

sir_eccles

As it has been rented for the last 5 years, there will be tax issues.

The sale of my house completed after I left (only just found a buyer before I had to go and I think I was lucky to find a buyer at that time in late 2006). That said, most of the paperwork was done by my solicitor and as I recall there was the final closing they had to call me up to confirm the final details. I was visiting the inlaws for Thanksgiving I think and they didn't appreciate the 4am phone call.

Funniest thing was I had forgotten to clear out some furniture and the buyers wanted to take off the cost of removal. "oh god, how much do they want?" thinking they were about to bend me over, "100 gbp". Oh ok it's a deal!!!

N1cky

No, we have no-one close by, we only lived in the area for 1 year before we moved.

Is your house in Northampton? Ours is in Milton Keynes, so the agency might cover that area too?

SarahG

Yeah it is in Northampton. Their website says they cover "Northampton and the surrounding villages", so I guess that rules out MK. I can always ask them if you like.

N1cky

We're probably better off with someone who has a large presence in MK. Thanks though.

Do you want to go empty our attic out while you're over there? Finders/keepers rule will apply

Jambodj

Did you agree the % for sale upfront? I will be renting my UK property when i move in August but sounds like it could be a good carrot to dangle

SarahG

Nah you're alright. I wasn't planning on visiting MK this time around. All those roundabouts would give me a headache after 5 years in the US!

Jerseygirl

I've bought and sold houses in the UK while living in the U.S. Almost everything can be done electronically. I've managed to sell the houses complete with furniture...saves trying to get rid of it.

SarahG

It was in the contract we signed that we have to use them to sell our house. My OH looked it out recently and mentioned the 1% being a really good deal, compared to what we paid when we bought the house in 2007 using a different estate agent. I think then it was 3.5%.

N1cky, I have a friend who works for Connells in Leighton Buzzard, I can ask him if he'd recommend anyone in the MK branch.

N1cky

That would be great Sarah, Connells are one of the agencies I was going to approach.

SarahG

I drop my friend a message on FB and let you know what he says.

N1cky

I contacted a few agents, around 50% of them got back to me, and we had 3 valuations done yesterday. One came in right around what we were expecting, the other 2 came in 60k higher.

How on earth do they get such vastly different numbers

Rather excited to think we could get nearer the higher price, that will give us our 20% deposit to buy out here