Pooing My Pant....What to do about my house etc..HELP

[Guest WAITINGAME]

Hi All

 

Anyway first of all this is my first thread on here been on the general Poms in Oz but not this one...! was first going to QLD but now changed our mind hoping theres more for your money house wise in Adelaide and more work too. My husband is a joiner and going in on ther 175 visa, we have our medicals on the 1st April in Manchester and have applied for the police checks 2 weeks ago so they should be here any time soon. So hopefully we will have our visa in the next 2 months.

 

Basically i am writing because am Crap*ing my self now. Not got a clue what to do with our house in the UK. ...Do we rent or do we sell?

 

We have probably 70k in our house do to the house prices being rubbish at the moment and 25k saved in the bank.

 

Renting we will get £600 per month which will pay our morgage with £100 left over but will have to pay the estate agent £50 for looking after the house etc.

 

Or do we sell.....ARHHHH really stressing me out at the moment.

 

Either way in the next 12 months we have to go on holiday or to live......if we live its only one way flights making things cheaper,......if we go on holiday we have 4 return flights to pay for plus accom etc taking a bit chunk out of our saved money....if we go on holiday so we come home and save for another 4 yrs and see what we can get saved then sell house.

 

Renting in Oz is expensive too....

 

Have we actually enough money.....think i need to win the lottery.

 

What are you people doing...really getting to me at the moment....

 

Thanks all for looking x and listening x

[snifter]

Hi and welcome. Dilemma indeed.

 

Are you really set on Adelaide as your destination? As in done your homework, feel happy its a place you will probably like? Hard to know till you get there but do you have a good idea in your head about it all and have you done your homework on living there. Because if you decide to come out without the reccie first you may feel let down once you get here. I personally love Adelaide and feel its a great small city for bringing up a family in. It doesn't feel like a city in many respects. I also like the surrounding area, the wine regions, coast and more. I guess what I am asking is has it ticked your boxes so far? If so, perhaps take that leap and just head out there. I usually always say its better to visit a place before going to live there but realise that its not always possible for whatever reason.

 

 

I'd think you've enough in savings. But then like you said, if you come over to activate visas and a holiday then you will take a chunk out of that.

 

Is the housing market moving much where you are? As in people buying? If so it might be worth getting it on the market and seeing if someone comes along with a decent offer.

 

If you choose to rent you could you keep it on the market anyway? Tennants on a rolling 6 month lease with a 2 month notice period if it was sold. I'm sure something like that could be done. However, keep in mind it may stand empty and then you would have to cover the mortgage on it.

 

Personally, I'd sell when ready. If it is sold before you are planning to go then you could always rent somewhere short term and ship your stuff out a bit sooner (so it would arrive soon after you).

 

If you sell your house you'll have more capital (obviously you want to keep as much of it as you can) and it would give you more to make a start with and have some savings to put toward buying a house when you were in a position to, should you wish.

[Guest teamV]

Hi ,I feel if and when we get are visa ,were moving so not going on holiday ,so we will be selling are house ,also I think you have to declare the rent as income as well,not sure how they will know about it ,just something I read.

Also seen some horror storys about renting you house through an agent ,I think one guy on here had his house stripped by the tenant ,including selling his heating boiler:eek:

[Guest The Dimmocks]

Hi, welcome, good to see you joined.

 

Michelle xxxx

[Guest MADTOM]

Hi

 

It is a hard decision. The housing market in the UK is still mighty slow.

 

We put ours on the market around a year ago and still no serious takers. After paying out for the mortgage, bills (plus flipping full council tax!!?)etc there we had decided to set it up as a rental even though the rent won't cover the mortgage! Just as we arranged the Landlords insurance ready to look for tenants we had a leak and then the ceiling collapsed, and we need a new boiler!

 

Personally I would like to be shot of the thing before something else happens but OH insists its not worth selling and bringing the money over here yet as it won't be worth much here. He also thinks it's a good investment for our pensionable years or if we move back to the UK. Saying that I would definitely try to keep it on the market and have 6 monthly tenants and wait for the right offer!

[Guest WAITINGAME]

Hi and welcome. Dilemma indeed.

 

Are you really set on Adelaide as your destination? As in done your homework, feel happy its a place you will probably like? Hard to know till you get there but do you have a good idea in your head about it all and have you done your homework on living there. Because if you decide to come out without the reccie first you may feel let down once you get here. I personally love Adelaide and feel its a great small city for bringing up a family in. It doesn't feel like a city in many respects. I also like the surrounding area, the wine regions, coast and more. I guess what I am asking is has it ticked your boxes so far? If so, perhaps take that leap and just head out there. I usually always say its better to visit a place before going to live there but realise that its not always possible for whatever reason.

 

 

I'd think you've enough in savings. But then like you said, if you come over to activate visas and a holiday then you will take a chunk out of that.

 

Is the housing market moving much where you are? As in people buying? If so it might be worth getting it on the market and seeing if someone comes along with a decent offer.

 

If you choose to rent you could you keep it on the market anyway? Tennants on a rolling 6 month lease with a 2 month notice period if it was sold. I'm sure something like that could be done. However, keep in mind it may stand empty and then you would have to cover the mortgage on it.

 

Personally, I'd sell when ready. If it is sold before you are planning to go then you could always rent somewhere short term and ship your stuff out a bit sooner (so it would arrive soon after you).

 

If you sell your house you'll have more capital (obviously you want to keep as much of it as you can) and it would give you more to make a start with and have some savings to put toward buying a house when you were in a position to, should you wish.

 

Hi

 

Thanks for the reply.....

 

Like i say we applied for 175 visa then switched to 176 SS for QLD when things was ment to be moving quicker. Anyway to cut a long story short when they requested for our medicals they have us down for the 175 visa which is a great relief because we can live anyway. We was going of QLD because of lack of work and house prices, so the next option for us was Adelaide....hence the reason we have changed our mind.

 

All our research was done on QLD so now have to start all over again.

 

I travelled Oz for a yr 10 yrs ago so yeh have been to Adelaide before but a while ago.

 

Can you tell me about any nice areas, schools extra I have two boys age 2 and 6

 

I really dont know what to do about the house, one way am thinking renting because if theres no work or cant afford it out there i have my house to come back too. I love my little street and neighbours....just dont want to be in Rochdale anymore.

 

If i sell and things fall through in oz....i might have blown all our money from the house etc...

 

Its so hard work...and so many questions to ask.

 

So were are you?

 

Thanks again

Lindsey

[Guest WAITINGAME]

Hi ,I feel if and when we get are visa ,were moving so not going on holiday ,so we will be selling are house ,also I think you have to declare the rent as income as well,not sure how they will know about it ,just something I read.

Also seen some horror storys about renting you house through an agent ,I think one guy on here had his house stripped by the tenant ,including selling his heating boiler:eek:

 

Arhhh imagine having your house stripped...nightmare

 

I have only just done all my house up to because the visa was taking so long and didnt look like things was moving so i put things at the back of my mind for a while and moved on with my life then out of the blue they requested medicals.

 

We did all our living/ dining room in October which cost £3,500 with new setee. New kitchen a yr ago....decking etc....so all new...for it all to be wrecked.

 

Thanks

[Guest WAITINGAME]

Hi, welcome, good to see you joined.

 

Michelle xxxx

 

 

Hello There !!

 

x:)

[sueoc]

Hi,a difficult dilemma indeed.

First thing i would say is try not to panic too much,as you have time on your side.I personally would look at renting out your property in the UK,through a good Agent,until the the UK economy get's better.This is the approach we adopted 2 and a half years ago,and we are happy,but of course that depends on things like getting good tenants in ,covering costs and repairs etc.The validate and consolidate option may well suit many as well,it really is a matter only you can decide.Sorry ,not much help really,best luck whatever you decide.

[Diane]

Personally I've always thought if you rent your house out before coming over here, it's too easy to give up when the going gets tough and go back to the UK again, because you have that security blanket behind you! I'd say if you're determined to make it work, then burn your bridges behind you and go for it 100%. If you're just dipping your toes in the water and might leave as soon as the water gets a bit hot (which it does, trust me, it's never going to be totally sweetness and light when you move your family half way round the world to a foreign country), then rent out your place in the UK.

 

Adelaide is really a big town as opposed to a city, but there is a huge choice of places to live, depending on what you are looking for as a family, where your main place or work might be, and what sort of people you are. Try not to make any firm decisions based solely on what someone on a forum says (me included, though it hurts to say so!) as you have no way of knowing really if what one person says is "nice" is what you'd consider the same! If you move over here permanently, then take at least the first month or so driving, and driving, and driving, checking as many places out as possible before making a final decision.

 

Good luck, and the people on here are always available to help out with advice, a shoulder to lean on, and as a sounding board, so use us as you will!!

 

Diane

[Guest Django]

Have we actually enough money.....think i need to win the lottery.

 

You don't need a lottery win. We came over with 4 children and around $4,500. We now have 5 children and are doing okay. You can find some nice 3 bed rentals at reasonable prices. We are in the process of looking for another rental. There seems to be very few decent 4 beds but loads of 3 beds whenever we search the web sites so having two children you should be fine.

 

Don't panic with the cash you've saved you will be just fine.

[Guest karyn1]

Hi! We are in about exactly the same position as you - I mean exactly:eek:

Hubby is a joiner, same about house situation, had our medicals and police checks done and all we are waiting on is my passport coming back!! I want to sell our house before we go, another thing less to worry about. Also, it's more of a clean break - not so tempting to jump on a plane back home at the first sign of trouble! We are putting house on the market as soon as visa is granted.....better get on with the DIY:arghh: Karyn x

[Guest Mitchell]

To the OP. If you clear £50 a month after paying the mortgage and agent, have you included letting insurance in that? Coz that will take most of the rest. It's insurance against tenants wreaking your home and staying but not paying rent. Then there's the yearly gas check and stuff you need to be able to rent next year and that's without allowing for any maintenance that will need doing over the year. What happens if you want to sell in a year? Much more difficult to arrange if you're the other side of the world unless you have family close by that can do it for you. Yes the exchange rate bringing money out isn't great but interest rates are better here so it's swings and roundabouts. £70k in your hand is better than the hope that things might get better. My sister waited to sell her house in the UK then a few years later needed the money and was a lot worse off than if she'd sold before she came. It's all a big gamble really so you need to ask yourself if you're prepared to risk it.

[Guest clairw75]

we have waited till now to sell our house and i've lost the job i had offered in Oz but now we are hoping to go down the state sponsored route and in hindsight this may be better as we have defo decided on adelaide but it gives me ( as a nurse) more job flexibility.

 

there is never a right or wrong way to do things just what works for you and your family the best

good luck you will make the right decision just have some faith in yourself

 

clair and tribe

[Guest littlem]

Hi we sold our house and have now been renting for 18 mths waiting for the visa , thanks to sept 09 changes.

 

We rent through an agency and they come and check on us every 3 months to make sure were not wrecking the house. Which were not in fact we look after it like our own, even so they have in the last 12 months had to pay for annual boiler check, insurance, a new fence (bad winds) broken guttering, slipped roof tile and a new glass pain which had blown. So bear that in mind as what ever profit you have you still have to keep the house up to date. Could be costly and an added stress unless you have a family member to oversee it for you.

 

Either way I am sure you will come to a natural decision.

Good luck

Michelle

[Guest WAITINGAME]

Arhhhhh still cant decide what to do .....God am stressed !! haaa !!

[Guest guest4504]

Hi All

 

Anyway first of all this is my first thread on here been on the general Poms in Oz but not this one...! was first going to QLD but now changed our mind hoping theres more for your money house wise in Adelaide and more work too. My husband is a joiner and going in on ther 175 visa, we have our medicals on the 1st April in Manchester and have applied for the police checks 2 weeks ago so they should be here any time soon. So hopefully we will have our visa in the next 2 months.

 

Basically i am writing because am Crap*ing my self now. Not got a clue what to do with our house in the UK. ...Do we rent or do we sell?

 

We have probably 70k in our house do to the house prices being rubbish at the moment and 25k saved in the bank.

 

Renting we will get £600 per month which will pay our morgage with £100 left over but will have to pay the estate agent £50 for looking after the house etc.

 

Or do we sell.....ARHHHH really stressing me out at the moment.

 

Either way in the next 12 months we have to go on holiday or to live......if we live its only one way flights making things cheaper,......if we go on holiday we have 4 return flights to pay for plus accom etc taking a bit chunk out of our saved money....if we go on holiday so we come home and save for another 4 yrs and see what we can get saved then sell house.

 

Renting in Oz is expensive too....

 

Have we actually enough money.....think i need to win the lottery.

 

What are you people doing...really getting to me at the moment....

 

Thanks all for looking x and listening x

 

"i am writing because am Crap*ing my self now"

 

........ Firstly ......... go and clean yourself ..:biglaugh:

 

Take your time to decide. I am sure all will work out.

[Guest WAITINGAME]

"i am writing because am Crap*ing my self now"

 

........ Firstly ......... go and clean yourself ..:biglaugh:

 

Take your time to decide. I am sure all will work out.

 

 

Thanks....!!! Am sure the time will come when i make the hopefully right decision.

 

All cleaned up for now

[Guest SA Great]

Personally I've always thought if you rent your house out before coming over here, it's too easy to give up when the going gets tough and go back to the UK again, because you have that security blanket behind you! I'd say if you're determined to make it work, then burn your bridges behind you and go for it 100%. If you're just dipping your toes in the water and might leave as soon as the water gets a bit hot (which it does, trust me, it's never going to be totally sweetness and light when you move your family half way round the world to a foreign country), then rent out your place in the UK.

 

Diane

 

I seem to spend most of my time agreeing with Diane these days but once again she is spot on. Sell up and go for it.

[Guest css]

omg you sound like me !!! we have 3 children katie8,harvey 6 and josh nearly 2. we originally went for queensland as i have quite a bit of family there but then they changed the smp and my oh trade was not on there any longer so we changed to adelaide..we submitted our application in sept 09 and waited for what felt like a million years,we finally were sent to get our medicals done which we had 3 weeks ago and just sent our police checks off to adelaide 2 days ago.We were told by our case officer we could get our visa within 2-4 weeks of all our documents being finalised.We hope to put our house up on the market next month and wed love to be gone by november.i really dont want to rent our house out here as ive heard such horror stories about the house getting wrecked,im really in the same boat as you right now.Im so excited and scared to death at the same time,keep in touch and let me know how youre getting on with the move,take care and try not to loose the plot.clare

[Guest WAITINGAME]

omg you sound like me !!! we have 3 children katie8,harvey 6 and josh nearly 2. we originally went for queensland as i have quite a bit of family there but then they changed the smp and my oh trade was not on there any longer so we changed to adelaide..we submitted our application in sept 09 and waited for what felt like a million years,we finally were sent to get our medicals done which we had 3 weeks ago and just sent our police checks off to adelaide 2 days ago.We were told by our case officer we could get our visa within 2-4 weeks of all our documents being finalised.We hope to put our house up on the market next month and wed love to be gone by november.i really dont want to rent our house out here as ive heard such horror stories about the house getting wrecked,im really in the same boat as you right now.Im so excited and scared to death at the same time,keep in touch and let me know how youre getting on with the move,take care and try not to loose the plot.clare

 

Hi thanks for the reply...losing the plot...think i have at times.

 

Great to meet some nice people on here like yourself.

 

Good luck with your visa not long now....fingers crossed let me know when you get it....so exciting x

 

Take care chick

Lindsey

[Guest shella_n]

To the OP. If you clear £50 a month after paying the mortgage and agent, have you included letting insurance in that? Coz that will take most of the rest. It's insurance against tenants wreaking your home and staying but not paying rent. Then there's the yearly gas check and stuff you need to be able to rent next year and that's without allowing for any maintenance that will need doing over the year. What happens if you want to sell in a year? Much more difficult to arrange if you're the other side of the world unless you have family close by that can do it for you.

 

I agree with all of this. My parents convinced us to rent out our house and it has been a nightmare - so stressfull. It cost way more than I expected to get it ready for tenants with all the insuraces, certificates etc etc. Then the first tenants were a NIGHTMARE and left after 6 months. SO I had to pay agents to find more tenants - more money! Then the original tenants triesd to take me to a tribunal for keeping some of their deposit as they never cleaned the house etc - more stress.

 

Now we want to buy here - we have not only the stress of try to organise sale from the other side of the world but also if we put the house on the maket current tenants are likely to move out into a new place before house is sold so it will be empty and I will have to find the money to pay the mortgage some how.

 

Its different for everybody but if I knew then what I know now I defiantely would have sold up!

 

Good luck to you.

 

Michelle