If you’ve decided to move home, you may be stuck trying to decide whether you should sell your current house to move, or you may be considering other alternatives.
Selling your house to move to a new one is fraught with stress and uncertainty, with the level of stress you experience in this process third in-line after the death of a loved-one and divorce. You are therefore quite right to question how to go about whether you should sell your house to move, as this is a question that is also close to my heart too.
You should only sell your house to move if you have to, as it is possible to convert your mortgage to a buy to let and keep your house as an investment instead. You could also use the new buy to let mortgage to withdraw some of your equity for your deposit on your new home.
There is another alternative to selling your house and buying your next home at the same time, which means you also reduce the stress and uncertainty of moving home, plus you take control of the process. Also, becoming a landlord is not to be underestimated and to include this alternative as part of your move needs to be done correctly.
This is why I’ve created a course that helps with both scenarios, and includes how to make more money if you choose to sell your current property, plus explains how you could save significant money when you buy your next home.
You should sell your house now if you want to capitalise on house-price growth from the last few years, and certainly consider selling now if you are upsizing, because in a downward market, the amount of drop on your lower-priced house will be less than that on a higher priced house.
Will house prices go down in 2023 UK?
There are various predictions that suggest house prices will go down in 2023 that are as a result of interest rate rises and the wider economic downturn, The OBR predict a 10% fall by 2024, whereas Nationwide and Hoopla predict this to be a 5% fall.
However, please bear in mind these are predictions, which are often wrong as some were back in 2020.
For example, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicted house prices would drop by 13% in 2020, Savills predicted that house prices would drop by 7.5%, Knight Frank forecast a 7% fall, and Lloyds a 5% fall.
Hedge your bets and don’t sell now
The best way to hedge your bets is to not sell now, and keep your property as an investment, but if prices are fall as predicted in 2023, you should be able to buy as a chain-free buyer and get a better deal on your new home.
If you want to learn negotiation techniques used by property investors, please consider investing in my course.
The chicken and egg of moving home
Most homeowners struggle with the decision of whether to sell first and then look for their next home vs finding somewhere to buy first, and then putting their current house on the market. Neither way works well, and both have their drawbacks.
Sell your house first and then find a new home: The problem with this approach is that once you’ve sold, you are then under pressure to find somewhere to buy. But what if you can’t find somewhere you like, as you don’t want to buy the wrong house and regret your purchase and have buyer’s remorse, you may lose your buyers if they can’t wait.
Find your next home and then sell your current house: This approach is also floored, as most estate agents and sellers will not accept offers from buyers who have not accepted an offer to sell their current home. This could result in you losing there home you’ve found to another buyer who is either chain-free or who have already sold.
The above chicken and egg problem is made worse by the fact that even when you think you’ve “sold” your house, your buyers could pull out at any time up to the day of exchanging contracts. Their reason could be as a result of a change of mind.
My course deals with the chicken and egg conundrum to help you through this decision making processes, as the moving home process is broken.
Hesitating to sell house now
You may be hesitating to sell your house now as you fear being homeless, or because you may not find a place you like. But be aware that even if you’ve put your house on the market and had an offer, you may not see many of the properties that come to market, as they are snapped up by cash buyers and chain-free buyers.
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Should I Sell My House To Move?
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!
