Sell or rent out...?

[renton608]

Hi all we are in a bit of a dilemma.......
I am in the Royal air force and have just been posted to a camp which is 100 miles from our house which means it is too far to commute each day.
I have been living on the camp in single accommodation since January whilst my wife and children are living in our house , Im only getting to see them for a short period over the weekend and its starting to take its toll on family life.
So we have decided to and have put our house on the market and move into RAF married quarters together were i work.
Its a nice house and we have spent a fair bit doing it up and due to this we cant afford to let it go much below the asking price otherwise we will come away with no profit.
Since moving onto this camp i have got talking to a few people in my situation that have ended up renting their own homes out and i have to agree with them it makes sense to stay on the ladder and have someone else pay the mortgage.
Our aim as a family is to save as much as possible and use it as a deposit towards the next house we buy.
Speaking to few of the local estate agents in the area of our house and they seem to be crying out for houses like mine to rent to people and they seem to think I could easily rent my house out for between £600 and £650 pcm.
our aim was to sell our house and walk away with 10k(which i dont honestly think we would !) profit and save on top of this whereas if we keep the house and rent it out , tenants will pay my mortgage, we can stay on the property ladder and still save.
We aren't really sure what to do for the best really, sell or rent
I know there are pitfalls if i go either way but what would you do in our position ??
thanks
Steve

[Hideous]

not a great time to sell -- if you can afford to keep it, renting out is what i'd do.
maybe try to sell at a high price, and if you don't get your asking price - so what. Just keep renting.

[chewy71]

rent out... cash coming in and retain your collatoral

[Aidi]

I know where your coming from mate. Been with my Girlfriend for 8 years, only ever lived in close proximity for the first 6 months, since then the closest we have lived is 125 miles apart!

Currently 150 miles apart, and getting married in 2 weeks time.. and still wont be living together for another 3 years!!

Being in the same profession as you, rent it out and you can claim once a month to visit your property to ensure that everything is ok.

Rgds
Aidi

[Big-Pete]

I watched a money related programme a couple of weeks ago and they said that there's a shortage of rentable property nowadays as a lot of people want to rent for now until the economy sorts itself out, and then look at buying once it does. Might be worth renting it out and have your mortgage paid for you

[BigLad]

How safe is your job? 1 round of redundancies so far another 2 to go ? Having a house is better than living in a MQ then getting made redundant and the house goes too.

If your job is safe, did you use LSAP last time? Forces are now eligible for key workers housing scheme? Both of these could help you IF you decide to sell up and move closer.

I have a friend that has just moved back into MQ's his reasoning was;

House is static.

He was paying £1200 a month mortgage without seeing any house price rise, decided to move into MQ's take little profit out the house and stick the mortgage payment into stocks/shares at the moment ! He is doing rather well at mo and will buy again once house prices start to rise again.

Its a good option to have moving into a MQ.

[george1987]

Stay in MQ and rent your house out. Living in MQ can save you a lot of money and it wouldn't matter too much (depending on how much disposable income you have) if you couldn't rent your house out for a couple of months.

[wingz123]

Hi mate, I would say rent....hands down do it! I'm not sure how much of a mortgage you have to pay off but I would suggest renting. Rent it out...cover the mortgage....the house is still becoming yours in the long run....

Save whilst your living on campus and when you decide to buy a larger house sell your current one and put your savings to get something bigger or of the eqivalent size.

I definately believe that is the way to go mate...I am kind of in the same situation myself. I am about to buy a property but not sure whether to rent it out or modernise it and sell it off.

Hopefully that's been of some help but that is what I would do. If you can stay on the property ladder then its definately worth doing. If your in no rush and the living quarters on the campus are adequate then hold onto the house, rent it out and house prices will gradually rise again

Thanks,


James

[renton608]

thanks for the replies!!

Renting seems to be the way to go !!

[MalcGSI]

Definitely rent it out though just remember you need to tell your mortgage lender and also the buildings insurance company.