Kenfrapin Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Firstly, I could not find the right forum to start this thread but given this has a direct impact to those of us making the move, I decided to post it on here Moderators, please move it as required Right, so we were all gung ho and happy on June 2nd when our PR came, and we put our house on the market by Jun 8th. We know we were a month later than our original plan and the market was slowing down in the run up to summer holidays but then came Brexit and it's blown things out completely.... We are now towards the end of July and we've had 4 viewings in a month when houses in our area sell get offers in 2 weeks (I know some may say its depends on how good the home is but I am taking that into consideration). The agent has even said there is no point reducing the price as the market has gone quite due to all the uncertainty. They hope it picks up again late Aug and Sept as we then countdown to people buying ahead of XMas. Our move, thus, has now had to shift from an early Sept date to November end. Our first landing is on Dec 25th and we really hope we can pack up and ship out for good by then, instead of having to make two trips in a very short space of time Any one else facing a similar problem so we can mourn our fate together :frown: KnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I have moved your thread to realestate. We are in a similar situation although we are in Australia. Property prices here are dropping which is good for people buying I suppose but not when you are trying to sell. We will probably lose $50,000 in a 12 month period the way it's going. Although that's our fault as we did a fair bit of work to the house when we moved in. I was speaking to our builder yesterday he said his friend purchased a house for $285 last year and the one on the next street over which is identical just sold for $175 and the one next door but one which as had a full make over went for $195. Now I don't think this will be Australia wide, but in the rural areas up North it seems to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisher1 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Hi kenfrapin we aren't in exactly the same position as we havent put our house on the market yet, but we are facing similar challenges. Our PR parents visa was granted in April, and having validated it, we had no intention of making any sudden moves. We have loads to sort out, so had planned to put our house on the market next spring and make the move - all being well - in late summer next year. We do have the comfort of living in an area of slow house sales and a market that has never recovered from the 2008 crisis, so the prices have historically been low and sales ... Well let's just say we were already planning to put a low price on our house and expect to make a significant loss on what we paid for it seven years ago. Supposing we we can find a buyer, for us the big problem is the exchange rate. We really can't afford to sell low and then lose even more money sending our money to Australia ... So even if we are able to sell we will be looking at renting for a few years. Not what we planned at all. Sympathies to you, fingers crossed it will get better, though I'm not convinced. Sigh .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Priscilla101 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Hey. You're time line is similar to mine. 189 granted in March. Had to wait to get a job to put house on market. A few issues meant it didn't get listed until 12 June. Then brexit hit. I've had 1 viewing (they left an hour ago!) the house isn't on for much. But I was at least expecting to get people through the door I accepted a job and start at end August so I'm going regardless. Plan on shipping stuff 15 August ish and fly between 18-24. (Having an issue with a cat- I'm not bothering with company as I did visa alone. The process isn't hard, just time consuming. But she hasn't been granted her "visa" yet) but houses. For so many people voting to leave, they are all looking shifty about their choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newjez Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 South east is totally dead. Nothing selling prices are dropping. Thinking of moving up the ladder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srh82 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 A couple of options: - rent your house out instead of selling: rent it for a year and then see how things are - delay your move and validate your visa with a trip to Australia - then you have more time to make your move Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I have moved your thread to realestate.We are in a similar situation although we are in Australia. Property prices here are dropping which is good for people buying I suppose but not when you are trying to sell. We will probably lose $50,000 in a 12 month period the way it's going. Although that's our fault as we did a fair bit of work to the house when we moved in. I was speaking to our builder yesterday he said his friend purchased a house for $285 last year and the one on the next street over which is identical just sold for $175 and the one next door but one which as had a full make over went for $195. Now I don't think this will be Australia wide, but in the rural areas up North it seems to be. If you are relocating and buying in the same market it probably all evens out as you pay less for your new home as well and less stamp duty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) Your real estate agent will tell you not to drop the price as it affects his income. When we emigrated we had a small terrace to sell that we had spent the previous 2 years doing up. The estate agent told us to put it on for a price we thought expensive. We had 2 couples we knew want it on the first day. They couldn't get a mortgage for the amount. We decided to sell it privately, dropped the price a few grand and it was gone in a week. We made the same as we didn't have to pay commission. A good buy is still a good buy. There are always people looking. Edited July 20, 2016 by Paul1Perth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenfrapin Posted July 20, 2016 Author Share Posted July 20, 2016 Nice to see so many replies and agree with most The lower £££ value affects us by approx £15k as we were planning to move all our money over in one go. So getting our home to sell for asking price or higher is really critical now but the slowdown isnt helping one bit Our estate agent is a small family run business and have been great since day 1. We were all in agreement of the price to advertise it for and our agent has always been open and direct with us. About our timelines, they said if you want to try getting a quick sale to wind things up sooner then lowering the price is an option to consider. It's only when I said we are happy to wait another 3 months did they say let's keep the price as is for some more time. We bought our home as part of the HTB scheme and need permission to let it out, we also then have to pay off the balance (this is what the HTB management push for) otherwise sell the house. Even if we pay off 20%, our next mortgage must be for a buy to let, which means a 25% deposit so it's going to eat up most of our savings. If the rental yield was stratospheric then we would have been tempted but with so much going on it's easier for us to sell and move out...... And we dont want to delay because we feel like our lives are in limbo. We want to move, get a job, buy a nice place and settle in......prolonging for another 6 months is something we really dont want to do if we can help it. We will if we dont sell for at least the asking price and come Feb we havent been able to sell, we should have extra cash to probably buy out the HTB loan and get a mortgage to let it out.... KnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenfrapin Posted July 22, 2016 Author Share Posted July 22, 2016 And from nowhere we've had 2 viewings with both parties interested.....so fingers crossed things can now progress! KnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Priscilla101 Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Show off :wink: congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenfrapin Posted July 25, 2016 Author Share Posted July 25, 2016 Show off :wink:congrats Nothing is final and confirmed till the day we exchange, all we have is some interest now so the wait goes on....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenfrapin Posted September 15, 2016 Author Share Posted September 15, 2016 Well, mid Sept and no luck yet. Our neighbor 2 doors down have put theirs up for £15k less so we had to drop our price by £10k to be close to market rates. I have a terrible feeling we are going to be here this XMas and have to wait until Mar/Apr 2017 for the market to be active again......this is terrible! KnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Priscilla101 Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Yup. I've been here a month now and mine is still on the market in the uk. Luckily my Mam is looking after the property for me but it has made finances extremely tight as I need to factor in sending money back to the uk to pay the mortgage. It's annoying but there just isn't anything I can do. Be happy in the knowledge that uk has a heatwave and Melbourne is having flash floods! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenfrapin Posted September 17, 2016 Author Share Posted September 17, 2016 Yup. I've been here a month now and mine is still on the market in the uk. Luckily my Mam is looking after the property for me but it has made finances extremely tight as I need to factor in sending money back to the uk to pay the mortgage. It's annoying but there just isn't anything I can do. Be happy in the knowledge that uk has a heatwave and Melbourne is having flash floods! We are thinking of doing something similar if our home doesnt sell by Feb/Mar. Our fixed completes so we will remortgage, pay the govt off and see if we can rent it out. If not, we are also saving for about 8 to 10 months mortgage costs so we can atleast move out and start our lives in Melbourne than just sit around in a limbo here! KnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 (edited) Supposing we we can find a buyer, for us the big problem is the exchange rate. We really can't afford to sell low and then lose even more money sending our money to Australia ... So even if we are able to sell we will be looking at renting for a few years. Not what we planned at all. Sympathies to you, fingers crossed it will get better, though I'm not convinced. Sigh .... Yes, the exchange rate is also a big hurdle - especially if you're going to be reliant on money from abroad for your income. We were in a similar situation: when we were planning to move to England, the dollar was up around 65p and rising. We knew we wouldn't be able to get the Australian pension in the UK but at that exchange rate, living looked dirt cheap compared to Sydney - we thought that if we could buy a flat $200,000 cheaper than in Oz, that would bolster the superannuation and get us through. Just after we booked the flights, the exchange rate crashed. In the end, we found costs in the South of England were much the same as Sydney so we wouldn't survive in our old age without the Australian pension. Personally I'm glad we're back because I didn't really settle, but in hindsight that was partly because I was so worried about our financial security all the time. Edited September 17, 2016 by Marisawright Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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