Here is the situation.

We bought a house in 2007 at the height of the property market for £129000

We have a mortgage for 124000 and have around 118 left to pay.

last year I got a posting with work to another part of the country and decided to sell the house.

the EA advised to put it on the market at 139000 with a view to taking 135000. we had one viewing over the 3 months it was on the market and they did not even offer!!!

due to time constraints we decided to take the property of the market and rent it out which we have done since august last year.

The two lots of tenants have give us nothing but trouble and we are now serioulsy considering selling the house again and banking/saving what we pay in a mortgage each month for the next 8 years until I come out of the military.

However Im not sue about it due to house values.

Should I ….

a, keep the house and rent it out for the next 8 years and put it with tenants messing around in the hope that the proerty will raise in value quite a lot, we would then look at moving house when I come out of the military.

or

b, sell the house now (not sure what to market it at) and perhaps make a little bit of profit out of it, save my mortgage payments for the next 8 years and then buy the property we want when I come out of the military.

I have concerns that in 8 years time when Im 43 i will struggle to get a mortgage.

The house we have isnt the one we want to stay in forever so we would be moving either way.

help and advice appreciated !!

cheers

Steve

If you don’t have negative equity then I’d sell, save the mortgage payments and keep an eye on the market.

If things ‘take off’ again within the next 8 years then look to buy otherwise wait.

I’m 46 only restriction I have is I can’t get a cheap mortage that I’d still be paying off after I’m 65 so you may have to get a 22 year term mortgage when the time comes.

and perhaps make a little bit of profit out of it,

look at the peak in 2007. ❗

When I say profit i actually mean sell it for more than we owe, not what we bought it for!!

Sell it for a price that will pay off the mortgage, I don’t think you’re cut out for the rental game.

yes thanks for that don simon, hence why Im asking !! 🙄

market it at just above what you NEED to cover the mortgage with a little room for negotiation.

at 135k your EA was dreaming if you bought at 129.

judging by the rental clientel you attracting im assuming its not in a “great” area ?

Apologies for trying to help, I’ll just get back to taking the piss because you can’t manage your problems. It has provided me with minutes of fun though. 😆

…in 8 years time when I’m 43 i will struggle to get a mortgage

Why?

Why?

Because STW will have moved on by then and he’ll have no-one to tell him what to do or complain to when it goes boobies up…

From the graph it looks like prices took from 1989 until 2002 to recover just what they’d lost in value in the last crash, so its far from likely the property will rise in value quite a lot in 8 years.

I’d take a look at sold prices in the area and see what you’d likely get for it?

I’m looking at houses at the moment, seems to be a lot for sale and not much is selling, but people aren’t dropping prices either. Stalemate!

And it sounds like way more grief that it is worth ! And maintenance costs will mount up.

Buy some kind of bond/annuity with the money instead, timed to mature in when you leave the RAF.

I keep an eye on houses that sell around my way, and the only ones that shift are the ahem realistically priced ones. Do your research, not what people put houses on the market for, but what they sell for in your local area. What you paid for it is irrelevant in this situation.

My only reservation would be that you could sell on the downside of the curve, and be forced to buy back in on an upside of the curve (ie above where you are now),its all speculation, however.

Don Simon is right tho, you appear to be struggling with the rental side of things 🙁

Tough call to make 🙁

yep, not so much struggling but cant be arsed with the hassles of late payments and tenants that just take the piss.

The rent dosnet cover the mortgage payment as it is anyway.

thekingisdead, you have hit the nail on the head in your last post !!

donsimon, I dont mind people taking the piss to be honest, i was never 100% about renting it out in the 1st place and this has gone a long way to prove my concerns were right !!

I just felt at the time that as we had put a lot of time and effort into the house to make it ours and then for it to not sell at what we thought it was worth was a bit of a kick in the nuts!! so renting was the only option

no hard feelings eh !!

I can see you haven’t taken my advice to beat up your tenant so……
If you are moving away and cannot do the work on the house it will cost you even more to run and therefore less profit. Go onto Rightmove etc. and see what houses nearby are really selling for not what you would like to get.
I’d say rent still as after years of working overseas myself I quite like the idea of having a home even if I don’t live in it and you will get a decent tenant eventually.
However if you are on a forum looking for advice it may be time to sell, cover your loses and look for a high interest account with any profit you may walk away with….. or burn it down, claim the insurance and fix that pesky tenant.

As someone has previously asked, what’s the area like? Is the area always likely to attract “less than desirable” tenants? This is key for me, good tenants are out there, you or your letting agent may just need to find them!

The area is not a rough area but also not a nice area if you know what i mean !!

if the house had a garage and a bigger garden i would hold onto it as that is all it lacks.

in fact I would say it is too good as a first home as everything else we have looked at since which fits our requirements is alot smaller inside!!

I say renton

How much is your time worth? Seriously – how much hassle are you prepared to put up with, and how much time are you prepared to put into it? If the answer is a lot, none and not much, sell it.

You can try to do it through a management agency, but the balance of probability is against you in it being smoothly run with no involvement from you. You’re better off selling now, saving yourself the stress, time and hassle, than messing around with tenants, on the whole

not so much struggling but cant be arsed with the hassles of late payments and tenants that just take the piss

Renton…you have your answer then…why are you asking us to confirm it for you.

Sell up and enjoy the next 8 years of your life (or at least moan about something else instead of your house for the next 8 years)

thanks man !!