sanj2010

I'm going to take up a job in the US and am wondering what to do with my house!

Should I sell and take the profits with me or rent it out to cover the mortgage?

sanj2010

Lesley1020

I'm sure opinions will vary on this one depending on the experiences that individuals have had when renting but generally they seem to be on the negative side :-(

I only left around 3 months ago and decided to rent my house out, as I did, and still do, feel that it is nice to have your house sitting there as an investment and something to go back to - should you want to.

However - I have not had one penny in rent since the day she moved in and she no longer takes my phone calls - my neighbour called me to tell me that my cream leather sofa and an old antique chest table I had were out in the back garden in the rain until they took them away and stored them for me. She was a friend of a friend and on Housing Benefit and I did feel at the time I could trust her - another very hard lesson learned.

If you do decide to rent - I think no matter how careful you are, how much you vet the person, there is always the possibility that it can go badly wrong and if you are prepared to take that risk and not be wholly reliant on the income to pay your mortgage then go for it - but be prepared for possible problems - or, you could be one of the lucky ones - it's a risk no matter what way you look at it.

rincewind

It all depends.

Are you planning on staying in the US permanently or just for a year or two?

If it's permanent, I would sell your current house and use those funds to purchase something here.

If it's a temporary thing, then I would rent so that you have something to go back to.

If you are worried about your home being destroyed, use an agency so at least you'll have someone conducting inspections, etc. and have a contact in the UK regarding your home.

That's what I would do and maybe others would suggest something different.

sibsie

I've kept a flat in London. I haven't lived in it for years but I did rent it out through an agency. The first agency was a nightmare. I had what looked like the dream tenant. He was a single corporate pilot with a good income and seemed ideal. He trashed the flat., changed his motorbike oil in the lounge on the cream carpets (how the hell he got it to the 1st floor I don't know) and did a runner leaving four months of rent unpaid.

I changed agency and had another tenant from hell. The agency weren't doing the inspections they should have and they didn't forward me the rent. They were a big and reputable agency too.

Now I have a friend who manages it for me. She's ruthless and I've no complaints now at all.

snorkmaiden

If you decide to rent and are going to use an agent, research them as much as possible before hand. Ask them questions about what they are prepared to do in the event of any problems. Bearing in mind that if anything goes wrong you are a really long way away.

When my husband and I first moved to Bristol we had only just bought a house in Scotland, which we decided to rent out. Unfortunately for us, we had three bad tenants in a row, the last one in particular was an expert in ripping off landlords.

She moved into our property, her references having checked out, -she had paid her deposit and the months rent up front - and that was the last money we ever got from her. She just knew her rights really well. The contract she signs isn't worth the paper it is written on when you get a career squatter in.

Generally speaking the process is so difficult to get them out that a solicitor will advise there is nothing they can do until the end of the contract. So in our case this was six months- even though she was not fulfilling her side of the contract by refusing to pay rent. Then we had to apply for an eviction notice. This took months to come through.

Apparently people who do this all the time, wait until just before the court date and then move on, costing themselves nothing and costing you, or if you are wise with your agent, the agent money in legal fees. Nevertheless, when the woman moved out of our house she had wrecked it, we had to redecorate everywhere, it had been a beautiful home before she moved in and it took cleaners three days to get the place looking passable.

Anyway, I am sorry to put you off. I think we were just unusually unlucky. What I learned from that experience though was this. Some agents offer you a guaranteed rent income. It is an insurance policy which costs relatively little in the scheme of things - I am not sure but it may be tax deductable - and in the event you get a bad tenant, you are still covering your mortgage. Paying out our mortgage and our own rent was a real struggle for us. If your agent does not offer this service, see if you can get the insurance independantly. I have heard that Royal Sun Alliance offer this. It would have saved me a lot of worry had I had this.

Also, make sure your agent really does check out your tenants references. Our tenant told our agent she would move out if they gave her a reference, they gave her one just to get her out, with this she got herself on a council housing list and didn't budge from our house until she had decorated her council house, whilst continuing to destroy mine.

My point being, she had obviously done this to her last landlord. If you can speak to the previous landlord do so. Questions to ask would be, did they pay their rent, was it on time, did they receive their full damage deposit back? A little effort at the beginning could save you a whole world of aggro.

If you find a really good agent, preferably one that is a little frightening in their manner I am sure your experience will be better. Also if you have a friend or relative who can act as a handy person while you are away it could save you a fortune in maintenance costs - which are also tax deductable, just keep all your receipts, wear and tear on your carpets etc is also deductable I believe.

I know whilst our experience of renting our property was bad, thousands of people rent out their properties without a hitch, so good luck and if you do go ahead get yourself a good agent.

Lizzi

Rent it out but don't skimp, use an agency. Make sure the rental income will more than cover your mortgage. We have rented ours in the UK, and we have had periods of up to a month when the property has been empty.

Rockgurl

I worked really hard on my house before I left the UK, with the intention of renting it out. I completely redecorated, spent 600 quid on a new fireplace, spent 200 quid getting all the gas and electricity serviced, redid the floors etc. I was not able to find a tenant at all, despite living in a really desirable part of North London. According to the agency, who were reputable but crap, the tenancy market is dead as everyone is buying right now. For 7 months I have been paying a mortgage in London and a rent in the US despite earning less than I did in London. I've had to work 60+ hours a week just to get by. I'm in the process of selling my house now, although I didn't really want to, but I've been waiting for months for this to go through. It's been one big pain in the ass since the day I left. Due to the exchange rate, I've had to earn $2000 a month just for the bills in England before I even think about my bills in the US. Thank God I have the ablity to work extra shifts whenever I want. I don't think I could have coped selling my house before I left as it would have seemd too final, but now I've been here long enough to know I want to stay, then I am happy to sell. I am aware that I got away easy, after reading some of these horror stories.

Ben

We sold before we moved. We knew that even if we didn't stay we were going to be moving to a bigger house in a year or two anyway. I know the UK market is growing rapidly but we have the same market where we live now so buying again in the UK wasn't going to be an issue. I had also heard the horror stories of people renting their properties out and while I know I could have asked parents to keep an eye on it for us (even though they lived a couple of hours away but my dad is very handy with repairs etc.), I couldn't cope with the heartache of someone destroying our home.

So, I would say it depends on where you are moving from and where you are moving too. If you are moving to an area in the UK that has a good property market where prices are continuing to increase, then there is no reason for you not to sell, even if you intend to move back in a few years (unless you have no mortgage of course)/ But if you are moving to a state where the prices stay pretty much the same for a few years and you intend to move back to the UK then renting does seem the way to go because I know a few people have been caught here and can't afford to move back.

sanj2010

Ben

We are going to be moving over to upstate NY, where I understand that the property market is far more stable.

I am veering towards selling, would not want the hassle that renting may generate!

sanj2010

Ben

That's right. I remember you asking about upstate NY now too


I wouldn't blame you wanting to sell. We had a few mention that we were mad selling up, just incase things didn't work out. But we were happy not to have the hassle and worry, even if we had managed to get a tenant that was reliable. We could enjoy living our life over here and enjoy the experience. We kept our endowment policies going so that when we bought a house over here we not only had our profits from our old house but also some extra if we needed it. Our policies were worth quite a bit because we only had a few years left on them. We could either cash them in if we needed the extra deposit or they were a nice nest egg. Long Island is quite a bit more expensive to buy in than Nottingham so we ended up cashing them in.

BrigieDarling

Ben the ferry is hopefully going to come out of New Haven soon.
Much safer than driving into Bridgeport.

Not all companies over here have pension plans so friends of mine in CT have rented out their house in the UK to keep it as an investment for the future. -- That sounds like a really good idea to me!

sueanne

Sanj..

As lesley says:.. be very careful if you rent your home out, we too are moving to usa in october with work and there is NO WAY im gonna rent our house out.. I have rented before to a so called Nice Girl... yep nice alright...she trashed my lovely home, had numerous men in all night, upset all the neighbours..Vomitted all over my lovely cream new carpets, wee and no.2 all around toilet from cats and dog, and owed me so much back rent (she told housing benefit she wasnt living there anymore so they stopped sending me their portion of payment money) and of course she didnt pay me her contribution of £60 per month.. anyway took her to court and after months and months it cost me over £3grand.. so please listen to Lesley and me.. BE CAREFUL WITH RENTING OUT..

Good Luck...

Ben

You don't drive round? (this would be better in another thread rather than hijacking this one!)

Lizzi

Well as I said before, get a rental agency to handle it, they will draw up a proper tenancy agreement, take references plus a hefty deposit so that if someone does ruin your lovely carpets the
cost of replacement will be covered.
People are forgetting that the value of the house also goes up. We did things abit differently with our letting, but still have made around 80,000 pounds in 2 years. To me it's a no-brainer.

snorkmaiden

Lizzi, in all seriousness, there is sod all even a great agency can do when you get a squatter. Once someone who knows their rights get's into your house, even the law can't shift them until you have met all kinds of requirements.

I was an Estate Agent in the UK, I did everything I could to ensure my house was in safe hands with our agent and even they missed the serial squatter. There are websites devoted to telling you how to squat in the UK. Our tenant had references - serial squatters know exactly how to blackmail landlords to get them.

Also, there is no guarantee the house price will go up. We actually bought our house during a boom, the property market in that area of Scotland then settled and didn't grow again like many parts of the country leaving us with negative equity.

Our squatter did thousands upon thousands of pounds worth of damage, her deposit did nothing towards relacing carpets, re-decorating, and cleaning out the filth she left behind.

The cost of paying the mortgage for the year she was living in it and some of the legal fees used up all of our savings. When we did eventually sell the house, we made I think around four grand, which didn't even compensate us for the damage let alone the rent. No amount of money could make up for the emotional turmoil we went through.

You have been lucky but should you get a dodgy occupant there is very little you can do to get them out quickly.

It does work out wonderfully well for some people but by no means all people and people should be aware of the risks.