Mallory

Yes, NJ is so expensive, it would make renting hard. BTW the mortgage interest is also deductible if you did decide to do that.

We went to England for 2 weeks once, when our son was in HS, and our house did turn into party central! You may need hidden cameras, LOL.

BritishGuy36

Oh, don't worry, I am!

I'll fly with it for 2 or 3 weekends and see how many viewers we get, if nothing doing I'll knock the 5k off again.

oldskool

I recently put my UK house back on the rental market after trying to sell it. We now have tenants in it so it is paying for itself again. Prior to trying to sell it we had good tenants in for several years. We decided to sell it after they moved out, mostly because the two sets of tenants we had in prior were enough to put anyone off of being a landlord. One stole just about everything from the house and took off, the other took off when they could no longer pay the rent.

However, tenant problems fall into insignificance when considered against the stress involved with working with property management. Most of these leeches aren't very good, don't manage the property and make things more difficult. Unfortunately many mortgages require you use them.

So, I've taken the risk and gone back to the hell of being a landlord. I don't want to, but for me, I'm not willing to sell the house at a discount. Actually, it was already at a discount and the only reason I was willing to sell it at that price was the exchange rate. I guess I will lose out on that now, but I'll hold onto the house for another few years and hopefully catch an upturn in prices at some point.

The reason I mention all of this is some friendly advice...selling a house is hard right now and you should be prepared to evaluate the price you are willing to offload at. You might not get what you want and you might not be in a position to wait. On the other hand...good tenants are extremely hard to find and being a landlord, even with management in place is miserable.

Another thing to bear in mind is the tax implication of selling a house in the UK. For us we would have had to pay US tax gains due to having not lived in the house in recent years.

Very interesting that someone mentioned the idea of getting equity out of a UK house for cash to use over in the US. I might look into that.

skydivingisfun

my current mortgage is about 650 by changing to interest only it drops to less than 500 it means i can rent it out and sell in a couple of years when the market picks up

Mallory

In those couple of years the market is going to fall to the bottom. Then you will be putting your house on the market at rock bottom. In the meantime you will have paid all those years of interest for nought. It will take many more years for the prices to go back up. It's a bit like people who won't sell stock when it's falling, they are emotionally tied to it.

Better to sell the house and move on IMO.

Giantaxe

I do think you're likely to be correct that prices will continue to fall. Houses are just too expensive relative to income as compared to historic norms. Only when that ratio returns to something like what it was before the current bubble will the market recover, imo. Plus, there will almost certainly be a large "overhang" of properties, like the one of the poster you were responding to, that have deferred selling and will come on the market at some point. That will also tend to depress prices for a while.

As to selling and moving on, in general I agree. Trouble is, aside from the emotional ties, it may noit be that easy. What if you have limited equity in the house? Leverage from putting a small percentage down works well for homeowners when prices are on the way up, but kills your equity on the way down. And then there is the nonsense of a house selling system that exists in England, with its chains and lack of any needed commitment by buyer or seller until far too late in the process. That kills the market in situations like the present, often making selling a painful experience.

MsElui

we have put ours on interest only and are renting it out. It means we can get some tax benefit now in the us and also - should the USA not work out for us at for some reason - (ie we cant get green cards or decide we dont want to stay or whatever) we still have a property in the uk and a foothold in the market to return to. Once we are sure we will be here for the long run and the market is at least selling stuff (regardless of if its up or down in price from now) then thats the time we might sell. To have it unrented now and trying to sell in a market where nothing is moving at all would be suicide .

So its not just about making a buck or cashing in equity - its about maintaining a foothold in a market we might otherwise have difficult returning to as fresh buyers at some possible point in the future.

BritishGuy36

Ok so it all got changed over yesterday, old ad disappeared from tinterweb overnight Wed/Thu and the new one came on yesterday afternoon (although there is no pic yet - maybe today) and the old board came down and new one went up yesterday too.

Glad we are on again ready for weekend surfers.

Mallory

Exactly right - everyone's situation is different! The fact that you want to hold on to your house long-term because you may go back to the UK is a great choice. I wasn't commenting on that. I was commenting on a situation where a person wanted to sell, but did not sell, because they were against lowering the price. If you WANT/NEED to sell "within a few years," you will eventually have to lower the price.

The housing market is like a pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid is made up of the 1st time home buyer. First time buyers can move up the ladder to more expensive housing, if someone buys their house. Then on up the ladder. If you destroy the foundation of a pyramid (do away with the 1st time home buyer for the majority of housing), the pyramid will "crash." The UK had closed off young people from buying their first house, and the BTL market moved in. In the end, you just had older people selling houses to each other, but few younger people coming in to keep the foundation secure. The pyramid is now on a shaky foundation.

skydivingisfun

I find myself in quite a good position as far as renting out goes,

My sister and brother in law got ino a bit of financial trouble last year and ended up being made bankrupt, now they did not take there house as there was no equity in it so they have been advised to walk away rent somewhere and wait 5 years before trying to buy again

I will rent my house to them on the understanding they can buy it after 5 years, it works for them and for me

Mallory

You should have an agreement of how much they will pay you for it. Will they pay you in today's prices, or in the price it might be worth in 5 years from now? What if in 5 years it is worth 20% less than it is now? Are you prepared to take a 20% cut so that yr relatives can buy yr house? After a bankruptcy they will have to have a good down payment, and will pay a higher interest rate on a mortgage.

A lot of people think in terms of the last 12 years when prices doubled and tripled, in a bubble. We don't know if that will happen again. Prices might rise very slowly for quite a few years.

Good luck though. Time are changing, and everyone's situation is different. What works for one, might not work for the other!

hobbes79

I'm always seeing those shows in HGTV about staging the home. Have to say, when we looked around, the properly staged houses did look far more appealing.

We eventually bought one that was far from staged, but I needed 3-viewings for my wife to look past the shag carpet (with original hardwoods underneath) and dreadful net curtains (covering victorian window mouldings) to see that it was a diamond in the rough.

I saw one owner so commited, that her and her husband had moved COMPLETELY into one small room in the house. Jammed in a microwave, bed, little desk... the lot. The rest of house was done like a show house.

Plenty of tips on-line about staging. Definitely worth a look, or maybe even conisder a professional, though most of it just seems like common sense i.e. paint walls beige, remove all the clutter and put it in boxes in the garage, completely de-personalise the place, like removed all photos or you and missus in Jamaica, etc.

chartreuse

First off - mortgage rates. The Telegraph reports:
Next - exchange rates. Seems good old Sterling has had a bit of a rally, closing up 3.47 cents at $1.7931, according to the BBC.

Now, there's a nice start to a Saturday

BritishGuy36

Woohoo! Break out the flags!

I hate that the pound isn't at $2 anymore, but I suppose I am grateful it's not £1.60 either.

Elvira

Food for thought...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...home-back.html