Let to Buy
You may not have heard of ‘Let to Buy’, but it’s been around as a way of letting your existing home, to buy another, since the 1990′s. As the property sales market continues at a slow rate, more and more people are approaching letting agents for valuations, based on continuous lets for a ‘let to buy’ move.
There are many reasons to take up the option of ‘Let to Buy’. You may have to move with your job, you may need to move to a larger home because of a growing family, you may have specific requirements like the need for a garage to house your car. Whatever the reason, ‘Let to Buy’ could be the answer. One big advantage of ‘letting to buy’ is the possibility of getting a bargain on your purchase while riding out the current slow market on your sale until the market strengthens again.
Before we create a rush to our door, there are some factors to consider.
- If your property is leasehold, you will need to ensure you are allowed to rent out your existing property.
- You will need to have permission from your existing lender to rent the property out.
- You will have to inform your insurers for buildings and contents insurance.
The first step should be to have a rental assessment done. If your property rental value doesn’t match the amount required to make the move, it’s not worth going to the next step. Additionally, take advice from the rental agent about the ‘rentability’ of your property. Will it rent out consistently? Will the property rent for more with modest changes like re-decoration?
Having got a rental assessment, your next step is to get some professional advice from a qualified mortgage broker. Eligibility is dependent upon the proposed rental income on your current property being sufficient to cover the cost of your existing mortgage. Lenders offering this type of loan will usually exclude the existing mortgage from their calculations and offer you a mortgage for a new property based on normal income multiples. This means you can have two mortgages at normal residential rates, thereby avoiding ‘buy to let’ deals which often involve slightly higher rates.
Apart from getting you the home that you want, there are ways of reducing your tax bill. Think about using an agent to find and manage tenants. The fee will be between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of your rent, but the cost will be tax-deductible. Also, ask an accountant how to minimise CGT if you let your property for three years or more.
Professional, free, rental assessments are available at Gatehouse Estates Property Management in Godmanchester for ‘Huntingdonshire’ and Cambridgeshire.
01480 433933. www.gatehouserental.co.uk
Are We In Denial?
A trickle of second homes for sale turns into a flood.
The credit crunch has started to take effect on the second home market in countries where there are many new developments just coming to the stage of completion. When purchase decisions were made two years ago and consumer confidence was high, properties were increasing in value due to high demand, cheap local loans and high equity values in the primary homes.
It´s very different now. Many new developments are now coming up to the completion stage and the developers are asking their buyers to part with the balance owed, in return for the title deeds and the keys. Some buyers are choosing to cut their losses and sell for below perceived market value, but many remain in denial. The reality is that, to sell, offers of 20% below the asking price are likely and should be considered in most circumstances. The alternative is to keep the properties and hope to rent them out. Bluntly, there are not enough prospective tenants to fill all of these holiday homes.
For those, with property overseas in “Euroland”, there is the prospect of mentally off-setting some losses against the rise in the strength of the Euro against the Pound. In some cases, most people will get 10-15% more Pounds for their Euros when converting money back to the UK as the Euro has strengthened considerably against the pound over the last year.
Where´s the good news? It is predicted that the buyers who still exist will begin a buying frenzy this summer. The really smart buyers will pick from the crop now. If you have a property to sell, simply advertise it on a For Sale By Owner site like BuyMyVilla.com for just a few pounds, avoid the estate agency fee, and let the savvy buyer contact you direct. They´re out there, you just need to let them know your property is for sale.
How to sell your house fast with little hassle
Selling a house has become increasingly difficult and the recent property market conditions are presenting some tough challenges for homeowners who are looking to sell their property quickly. It is taking much longer for a homeowner to get a house sale compared to a couple of years ago. The confidence in the property markets around the world has been dented and buyers are holding back on buying property until market conditions improve.
So what does a homeowner do if he/ she needs to get sell house fast? How do they deal with the stress of having their house on the market for long periods of time, not knowing when the next buyer will come along (if a buyer ever will). Well if the seller is looking to sell home fast using an estate agent then there is a good chance that they will not know when the house will be sold and it could be very likely that it will stay on the market for a while.
If the seller really needs a guaranteed, quick sale then there is another option; they can exercise the option of selling their house to a company that will directly purchase property from sellers. These companies work directly with the seller who says I want to sell my house fastand look to complete the direct purchase of a house within weeks. There are no estate agents or third parties to worry about and the sale process is normally smooth.
Selling in this way allows a seller to relax, knowing that there house sale is pretty much guaranteed and they can move on and plan to move on a definitive date. This method of selling helps people is difficult circumstances to move on in life. Circumstances such as moving due to a divorce, family bereavement, ill health, releasing equity, relocating, financial debt and so on. All these situations can be resolved by the quick sale of a house to a direct cash buyer.
Investing in property in changing times
Now that the buzz of property investing is over and the property markets around the world have started cooling considerably from their peaks, is there still any opportunities left for property investment? Is it time to look elsewhere and find alternative markets for investing your money?
The simple and short answer is of course not. The property market is probably becoming one of the best investments opportunities to plan for big rewards. If you are the one to usually think “out of the box” and are successful in making money, then you will know that the property investment market is where your money should be going. That’s right, as crazy as it may sound; the smart money always goes against the crowd.
While everyone is jumping the property ship, the smart investor will be looking for investment property bargains at low prices. That means finding property that is being sold at rock bottom prices from people who are looking to sell quickly and happy with a lower price.
The property markets of countries like the american property, Spanish property and now even the UK property markets have experienced significant falls and these markets are now presenting the savvy buyer with excellent opportunity to buy properties significantly below the market value. The savvy investors have already started picking up property at bargain prices and it is the perfect time to go against the crowd while everyone else is abandoning property investment. If you are serious about making big money in the long term, then investing in property is definitely the way to go.
How to sell a house quick
Getting a quick house sale is not easy when you are restricted to tight deadlines and you need to sell your property quickly to move on in life. There are a variety of reasons that force a homeowner to pursue the option of needing a quick house sale. Some of these reasons include the following: a divorce or a relationship split forcing a quick sale, family bereavement, financial debt or threat of house repossession, relocation to another area or another country, the need to sell a family inheritance quickly, releasing equity from a property owned and so on…
If a homeowner is facing the dilemma to get a quick property sale then the option to sell a house using an agent will not always work for you. In such cases one method for consideration would be to sell your property directly to companies that specialize in buying property for cash from homeowners.
This method of selling gives the seller the advantage of getting a fast house sale without the hassles and long waits involved when selling using an estate agent. Some of these advantages include: zero agent fees, a guaranteed sale, no property chains involved in the sale thus eliminating any obstacles to the sale, a straightforward selling process and so on. The method ensures that the seller can get a guaranteed sale time without worrying about any hold ups.
This method of selling will also work well in slow markets. If your house is on for sale and has been on the agents window for too long, then this option will allow you to sell quickly.
