The world is full of surprises. Having spent many a night and weekend with paintbrushes in hand and working our way through the house giving it a coat of magnolia and repainting the whites, we had our bungalow valued at the end of May. This was great as HIPs had been abolished thanks to the new government, whoo hoo. EPCs were still necessary so we booked to have that done just before the valuation.
We met a lovely local RICS surveyor through twitter, who happened to have owned french property some years ago, always nice to meet Francophiles, we somehow seem to gravitate towards them as the weeks and months go by. We chose an RICS surveyor as they are qualified to value property. It's OK for an Estate Agent to do so, but surely their opinion is based on what's selling. Mrs W having worked with mortgages back in the early 90's is aware that when buyers apply for a mortgage, the lender instructs and RICS surveyor, so that is what we went with.
It appears that we are considering selling at the wrong time... the market has dipped by 20%, particularly in our quiet area of Brighton & Hove. The value was more or less equivalent to the mortgage that we have. Not ones to be deterred by disappointing knowledge, we have decided to effect Plan B, to rent out our lovely 3bedroomed bungalow. We have been paying our mortgage at 7.29% from April 2008 to April 2010 and believe us, it has amounted to £1000+ each month for the last 2 years. The amazing thing is, we can acquire rent in that region! Ironic we think.
We are rather pleased that we have decorated throughout - we know every nook and cranny of this place, it's a lovely home to rent, with a bus stop right outside to get to and from town, some local schools and backs right onto the South Downs. Anyone wishing to move slightly away from the kiss me quick culture of Brighton, will we are sure, be very happy.
The sale of the house, would have enabled us to be financially free of the UK, and put us in a position to purchase in France towards the end of 2011. The property market in the UK will pretty much govern our activities for the foreseeable future. Team Wilkins is fairly creative at making and saving money.
We have started to research the process of renting in France..... ooh la la, what a lot of paperwork and consideration involved. Our French teacher has been a marvel, researching the current process, legislation and emailing her French family and contacts to amass this info for us. We are now working on crafting conversations, so that when we visit in July, we can visit Agents, and seek private French and English landlords and be taken seriously about our efforts to move to France in December 2010.
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