Selling up?

Hi all, I could do with a bit of objective feedback on this scenario. I bought 1 bed apartment in 2005 for €250K in the heady days of the Tiger madness . I'm one of those people who is not a natural landlord and after the last set of tenants left the place in a state and I had to spend a considerable sum to refurbish it, decided to put it on the market at a more 'realistic' price

Since putting it on the market 3 months ago for €190K, I've had 2 offers, one for €180K which fell through and one firm offer today for €175K. I've drawn up a list of pros and cons of selling at this time and price. On the cons list is the fact that that I will take even more of a hit than I thought. I borrowed €210K from the bank for the purchase, making up the €40K from savings. Add to that the Stamp Duty and other outlays the total invested from my savings came to €60K. The amount outstanding on the mortgage at this point is €190K so if I sell at €175K I will have to cough up a further €15K of savings to the bank bringing the total personal loss to at least €75K (it's probably more when solicitors fees etc are factored in). I'm so close to the action at the moment I cannot see things objectively. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. The apartment is in south Dublin near the LUAS.

If you want out .... cut your losses .... sell and move on.

At the moment you have an asset that's not an asset. It's costing you money, time, and agro.

If you can live with the loss .... sell and don't look back.

Thanks for the reply, that's my gut instinct.

you havent given us your PRO's list. but maybe, its a recently refurbished one bed apt, great location (sth dublin), on the Luas line. come on, if its let out and its paying for itself, well, why sell. if your fed up letting it out yourself, give it to an agent and let them take the hassle for you. or if the agent you have is'nt doing their job get rid of them. property will always over the long term come good, less than 5 years is short term in property. in the short term if you sell now its going to cost you at least 20k only you know if you can afford that. good luck!

Lia,

Property ownership is a long term return.
You are looking at an immediate loss of 80 grand.
You didn't say how much return you were getting in rent
Even if the apartment is losing you 2 grand a month - that's 40 months!

A lot can happen in the next three years - I would tend to hold out.

ONQ.

You should only hold it if your rental yield justifies it and if you can become a better landlord. You need both these reasons to hold.

You should also consider whether property will fall further.

If you do decide to sell think of it like this, that you've been offered a fair price in a market with no buyers, and that you're lucky to get out with a 'relatively' small loss that you can handle.

Well done you on not having borrowed to the hilt and in having savings so that you have the freedom to carry the loss. The experience while difficult will have taught you many things. Best of luck.

Folks

These discussions tend to head into property price speculation. One responder on this thread has already been banned.