sell & buy or sell, rent & wait?

D

detty

Guest
Would love some opinions from you please...

My husband & I live about 30 mins away from my elderly mother and we want to move closer to her permanently, our children are in school in her neighbourhood & we drive back and forth at least twice daily.

We have just enough equity in our current home (as valued by several local estate agents last week) to use for a deposit, stamp duty, legal etc fees on a home in my mothers area. We have mortgage approval. We need to sell up soon to release this equity.

We have viewed several properties so far but are not crazy about any yet, one is almost suitable but the garden is very small for our children, however it is good value & well located.

Two of the estate agents advised us to bank the equity & rent for a year or so, they are of the opinion that there will be a lot more choice within our budget in the next 12 months than is currently available.

Some friends & family seem very concerned at the fact that we would step off the property ladder to rent at all and are encouraging us to just buy the one with the small garden as it ticks a lot of our boxes even though we are not 100% happy with it.

I'd welcome your thoughts and views, thanks in advance.
 
We are still quite obsessed with the property ladder in this country, aren't we. "Stepping off" the ladder and renting for a year will mean the hassle of moving twice but it will give you the luxury of finding a property you are happy with. There is no rule which says you have you buy or that buying is always the best option. Do what is best for you and your family. That should be the first consideration, not whether or not you own the place you live in. Don't feel pressured to buy a place you aren't happy with because you will be there for quite some time!
 
hi detty
i have an almost exactly the same post as you on the go at the moment and we are now actually going to rent for a while. We just can't find a house we really love and the rental value is really excellent at the moment we have a lovely family home to rent for the next while for less than a mortgage would cost us at the moment. We are going to just keep looking till we find the right one
Our solicitor was the worst about this "stepping off the property ladder" when we were selling our current house - she said it every time i spoke to her for about 3 weeks
good luck with the decision making!!
 
Based on the OP''s post and with my crystal ball my advice is to sell rent and buy. Renting will give you the time to check out the neighbourhood and find the house that suits you.
 
Hi Detty,
The biggest issue you have facing you at the moment is selling your own house. We have been living this nightmare for the past few months. We finally accepted an offer (shockingly low might I add) two weeks ago and the buyers just withdrew it a couple of days ago. Our EA went sale agreed on 4 other houses last month and they all have fallen through since. We have two children and its not easy getting the house ready for viewings with little ones running around! I would consider our house very 'saleable' - very good shape, great location etc. We are having an open viewing this weekend as a final crack of the whip before we withdraw it from the market. Just warning you its a road full of disappointment and frustration - hope you have better luck selling yours than we had! We also planned to rent (although not ideal being pregnant with baby no.3 at the moment!) rather than buy a house that didn't tick ALL the boxes. Wait and you'll get your bigger garden is my advice. Good Luck
 
Thanks a million for the replies folks, I agree we're fixated with owning our homes in Ireland. I suppose traditionally there hasn't been a great history of tenants rights here, Irish tenants certainly don't seem to have the same rights as the likes of French or Germany tenants & there's always the worry of being asked to move on when it doesn't suit. I think we'll run the gauntlet of family who think we're mental & take the leap, everyone here's making a lot of sense about not having to panic buy at the moment but waiting for the right opportunity. Congrats on taking the plunge jmsm & Yvonne I hear what you're saying about the selling process, our children are young too & we've all the associated clutter, good luck with baby no 3! Thanks again everyone.
 
We are totally fixated with owning property, must be something to do our history. Equity release, ladders , ticking boxes, the whole thing is nuts plus the fact prices are still way out of kilter. Average price in NI is 147k sterling, here 330k euro.
 
We are renting too, gives you the same advantage of first time buyers of having nothing to sell when you bid.
 
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