Planet Sillicon

I sold, they bought, they sold, they rent

By blog on May. 20, 2009.

Some time ago, I posted about selling my mother’s house after she had moved into a retirement community. Yesterday when I went out to the supermarket I ran into the estate agent that brokered the deal. He told me something that I found very surprising and interesting.

The couple that bought my mother’s house, re-soled it within a few weeks, and are now renting it! Apparently this sell and rent back thing is a trend taking on in an attempt to end up paying less on their mortgages. I have to say, I am less surprised now that I got such a good price on the house considering this is the plan they had.

It seems that, whilst prices stopped falling so rapidly for the last few months, there is still a great degree of uncertainty in the market. People are looking to find extra money where they can, and being inventive about it too!

I saw this article the other day, and now it makes more sense. From my nice, secure position of being a home owner, with a small portion of my mortgage left over, it is very interesting to watch what is going on with the housing market. But for those currently within it, it is a very trying time.

I wonder at the choice of that couple who bought my mother’s house. I can see the logic in it, they will end up paying a smaller mortgage in the end, which leads me to ponder how many other home owners will do the same thing. I know there will be those who will miss the boat and sell too late, missing out on when the market hits rock bottom, and begins it’s slow climb back up. With the world financial situation being the way it is, I am all for everybody making it any way they can – as they aren’t negatively impacting others; that’s what got us here in the first place.

I suppose I should be impressed at the ingenuity of humans. We have all found ourselves hurting in some fashion from this financial crisis, but many are finding new ways to use the system to beat the system. Got to appreciate that!

The house sold!

By blog on Apr. 25, 2009.

I mentioned a while back that my mother had moved to a retirement community – which she is still loving immensely – and that she offered her house to my SO and I, and as we didn’t need it, we put it on the market. With all the turmoil of the housing market, I wasn’t sure if it was the right decision to try and sell it now, or wait for the market to bounce back somewhat.

I had concerns, to begin with, that the house wouldn’t sell, regardless of it being in a good location for long term investment. But to my astonishment, there was actually a great amount of interest in the house, right from the get go. It wasn’t long before we had an offer that was actually a little better than our ‘highest hopes within reason’ figure. A nice middle aged couple were buying it for their daughter to live in whilst she attended university, apparently this is an emerging trend.

I can’t say how enjoyable it was to call my mother and tell her the house had sold for more than she’d asked for for it, now I know she will be able to afford to live in that retirement community, in the better rooms, for the rest of her life. With the constant economic issues effecting everyone, my perceived ‘world mood’ has been somewhat dour of late, so it was especially nice to have this turn out well. I had half been dreading that this would turn into a saga of having people look through the house but never buy it, I am still amazed that it has sold, been finalized, and my mother in possession of a substantial amount of extra savings.

Whether it is the right time to sell your house depends on so many different factors right now, it was for us, but there are houses in my general area that have been waiting to be bought for quite some time. We all know the slump in both sales and prices that has hit the UK housing market is going to take a long time to bounce back, but I am noticing that the market is evening out somewhat. Sure the market isn’t as good as it was the year before last, but they sure as heck aren’t as bad as this time last year.

To sell or not to sell?

By blog on Apr. 4, 2009.

Some weeks back, my mother moved into a retirement community. She is very happy about the move, and my SO and I are too, as we know she is safe and well cared for there. Since she moved, her house has been awaiting my choice as to what to do with it. My SO and I already have a home, so we don’t need hers. Now the question is,is it the right time to sell property in the UK?

In spite of the numerous articles saying that the housing market is coming back up or that its looking looking more hopeful, I am not sold. Pun intended. I can’t help but see reason in so many other articles online, ones that mock the first one I linked there.

I am actually a shocked to see news headlines like the ones linked above, I mean the entire world economy just went down the toilet, and already newspapers are suggesting we are on our way back up!? We have to get out of the sewer first, then have a good shower, and then maybe we will be something like our former state. ) But that residual smell of global economy failure is going to be around for some time to come, I would think.

I don’t think it is all doom and gloom though; I think it is a great time to buy if you have the right finances. Quite a few sources are now giving a more moderate response to the recent rise in prices, suggesting that whilst it doesn’t signify a complete turn around, it does signify a greatly reduced chance of further price fallouts.

I am lucky, in that my mother’s house is located in a good spot for long term investment, so if the right buyer were to come along, they would both do well out of this. I suppose my thought here is that, it is the right time to sell if you are in the right situation. That’s wonderfully vague, I know. But I am actually serious, if you know how to go about it, now isn’t a terrible time to sell. Not to mention, it most likely wont be a seller’s market in the UK for quite a few years. I’m okay with that, I am just happy we are making our way out of the sewer.