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  • Inheriting a property – what to do with it?
  • bamboo
    Free Member

    Also, don’t forget that if you decide to rent, you will be responsible for costs such as buildings insurance, annual gas checks, cost of heating and council tax when you don’t have tenants….

    Del
    Full Member

    also, were the valuations you got true market valuations or for the purposes of probate? those numbers will likely be significantly different and may strengthen the ‘sell’ case.
    if it needs tidying up to sell, just clean and decorate would be my advice. if the property is right people will buy it anyway, at only a few quid off top dollar, and fit kitchens and bathrooms etc. they actually want, rather than what you think people want.
    magnolia walls, white woodwork and ceilings, remove anything not bolted down. make it a clean, crisp, light, blank canvas.
    FWIW we had one estate agent under-value by a considerable margin WRT other valuations we had, and i’m pretty convinced that this was because one of the agents wanted to buy it themselves. there are some real cheeky feckers out there!

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    If you owned the house outright I think the best thing to do is renovate it and rent it out. There is no need to pay an agent a monthly fee. We paid an agent an upfront finders fee for the tenant and then just managed the property ourselves, it’s very straightforward.

    As it’s shared with family perhaps they want/need the money. Your mum might want to enjoy a few luxuries. What you should do as a minimum is understand what the property is really worth, agents are desperate for business and if they can get a quick sale (at a low price) they will favour that over a higher price that may take many months.

    As for all the doom and gloom about property not going up the fact is over the last 50 years property has been an outstanding investment, today there is very little you can earn a return of 5% on without taking a lot of risk. Indeed you will be subject to CGT on a sale but your allowance is 10k a year, so if you own 40% of the house it can go up 25% a year in value in a year before you hit that.

    EDIT: in response to bamboo if the property is empty you can probably get a council tax holiday, our local authority allows 6 months with property empty and you pay no council tax. Given your uncles death you should do that immediately anyway.

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    bamboo
    Free Member

    Not really doom and gloom, just giving the OP a balanced view to all of those saying he should rent it out.

    Property has gone up, on average, over the past 50 years, but I bet if you spoke to somebody who bought in 2007 and sold in 2011, or somebody who bought in 89 and sold in 95, they wouldn’t consider property such a great ‘investment’. Remember that your 50 years of past performance isn’t an indication of future performance. You only need to look at Japan after their property bubble to see an alternative view of what can happen.

    Good luck with your decision.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    I bet if you spoke to somebody who bought in 2007 and sold in 2011, or somebody who bought in 89 and sold in 95, they wouldn’t consider property such a great ‘investment’.

    Quite true but at the risk of putting words into jambalaya’s mouth, I think what s/he is saying is that it may be worth considering as a long term investment but if on the other hand you need the money now, sell it now.

    Edukator
    Free Member

    I sold in 89 and bought in 95.

    Now might be a good time to buy but there’s little evidence to support that view. Like any financial product if you wait till prices rise above the long term moving averages you won’t pay much over market bottom but there’s more chance the rise is the start of a trend than just a short term blip.

Viewing 6 posts - 41 through 46 (of 46 total)

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