[D&J]

It's early days but I thought I'd ask the question anyway. House on the market (since February). RRV due to expire 23rd March 2009. Giving the "credit crunch" and housing market slow down we are wondering about our options (if we have any)??

1. Has anyone been given an extension to their RRV to allow them a little more time to make the move?
2. If an extension is not an option (I suspect it isn't) is it possible for my husband (the main applicant) to go to NZ before the RRV expiry date and the rest of the family follow when the house is sold (which could be after the expiry date), or do we all have to be there before it runs out?

We're just feeling a little nervous with everything slowing down. We've reduced the price of the house but this still hasn't generated any more interest. (There is someone interested but it's a catch 22! They haven't sold their own).

In the ideal world we really want to sell and make the move together but we also have to be realistic. We don't want to rent our UK house, for us it's an all or nothing attitude. Hanging onto a UK house may make it too easy for us to not give it a real go and return(?). I don't want our 2 sons and me to have to follow when all the loose ends have been tied.

Anyone got any advice (or want to buy a 4-bed detached house!!).

D&J

[napiers]

We are in a similar position to you in that we have a house to sell and we have until next February to get to NZ. I don't know about extending visas etc but from reading something recently in another thread (not sure which one now, someone else might know) I think that because they need to be activated, so one option (although pricey) would be to go to NZ to activate it and then come back and tie up loose ends.

We are fully intending to go and just hope that when the time comes to sell the house we will be able to. I am feeling quite nervous about it all too as it's all really uncertain, but as you also said it's early days. Lots of others will no doubt have some (probably more useful) advice for you.

[nippa&pippa]

Or bite the bullet and go while house still on market like we did? as along you can afford ongoing payments or get someone to help you with finance that you can pay this person back after sale? Some company offer 6 months mortagage payment holiday, check this out (our didn't :mad: ). Our house was 4 bedrooms house and was finally sold 6months after we arrived in NZ after been on market for a year. Yes it is big risk to take....

[peebles16]

Or bite the bullet and go while house still on market like we did? as along you can afford ongoing payments or get someone to help you with finance that you can pay this person back after sale? Some company offer 6 months mortagage payment holiday, check this out (our didn't :mad: ). Our house was 4 bedrooms house and was finally sold 6months after we arrived in NZ after been on market for a year. Yes it is big risk to take....

Exactly what we did and it paid off for us, the house has sold but it was a very painful first few months both financially and emotionally :( Our bank didn't offer mortgage holidays either but let us go to interest only holiday which reduced the repayments significantly. It's a horrible situation to be in our house went on the market last September and buyers will move in May so 5 months in NZ keeping two houses going and financing move to NZ has basically killed our equity...

But I have to say we are really pleased we made the leap :yes

All the best
Karen

[D&J]

Thanks for your replies. We are considering the 6-month break and the help with finance if it doesn't sell. That said, we had a call from the estate agent yesterday and we've got a viewing on Sunday. Fingers crossed.:raebanana

[dusk]

ooh good luck with that :)

[Paul & Rach]

I would definately sell or rent out before you leave....

We left before our house sold and it was disastrous - all our savings went on mortgage and rates and other bills over 16 months... In the end we were forced to accept a much lower price for the house . The end result is we are priced out of the housing market here.... it'll take years before we can get back to what we expected we could do here.... if ever. House prices are still rising here, the cost of living is very high and wages are poor.... financially you will be much worse off in NZ and if you can't sell your house in a declining UK house market you'll lose a lot of money.

[chocolate cake]

I would definately sell or rent out before you leave....

We left before our house sold and it was disastrous - all our savings went on mortgage and rates and other bills over 16 months... In the end we were forced to accept a much lower price for the house . The end result is we are priced out of the housing market here.... it'll take years before we can get back to what we expected we could do here.... if ever. House prices are still rising here, the cost of living is very high and wages are poor.... financially you will be much worse off in NZ and if you can't sell your house in a declining UK house market you'll lose a lot of money.

Agree with much of above, except about NZ market rising. It's in a pretty similar position to the UK house market, with sales falling and prices too.

[D&J]

Thanks for posting. I must say it makes me a little nervous when I read statements like "much worse off in NZ", "high cost of living", "poor wages". I already know much of this but reality of living it can be very different. We do have a potentially large "stash of cash" from our house sale (well large for us) which we hope will cushion some of the transition from reasonably well of comfortable to "on the bones of our ......". Maybe it won't be that bad. House viewing went well so we'll keep you posted.

[3littlepikes]

fingers crossed for you - we are in the same dilemma ?!!!!??just hope it all falls into place in time

[Peter&Liz]

Have you considered renting out your UK home? If the rent is more than the mortgage then it would pay for itself.

It is something we are considering, if we get to the point where we are ready to move but still don’t have our house sold.

Peter