[migratory birds]

Did anyone keep their home before moving - and ultimately sell? Did you sell from afar?

Did you move back after a time in NZ? (If so, you're likely not on the list anymore!)

If you sold your home before you moved, when did you put it on the market in relation to your targeted move date?

Did you wait to sell before you moved?

Did you move with your house still on the market?

Did your house sell TOO quickly - before you were ready to move?

Did you rent your home for a time before finally deciding you were indeed staying in NZ and sold it?

_________________________
ITA Dec 05; submitted Apr 06
PR approval Nov 06
Working on logistics for the move....

[Cardy]

Hi there
we tried to sell our house 5 month before we moved. we got a BUYER(HEE HEE) who dropped out 2 week before we were emigrating. We delayed the emigration as we were dependant on the money to buy here. Anyway we thought long and hard and decided to still make the move but to cut our outgoings in england to the bone. we didnt want to rent the house as we thought it would be harder to sell with tenants in and we didnt want to worry about damage etc. I asked for a 12 month mortgage freeze from the building society which they gave us with no problem . So no mortgage to pay. rang the council about house rates and they said if i didnt have any furniture in i didnt have to pay rates for 6 months. Water rates were great didnt have to pay anything once moved out. So it was costing me virtually nothing to leave the house until it sold. the week we flew to NZ we got an offer on the house and 2 month after we arrived it had completed.Just about right timing as my savings were running out then with all the stuff we had to buty while waiting for the container to arrive.

Hope this helps
Cardy :cheers

[wilson182]

Hi
I put a reply to this on your other thread:D

[spudulike]

Hi,

I think it would depend on whether you would like the security of somewhere to return if it doesn't work out, whether you have enough money to come here without selling the house and whether you can afford any expenses a house in the UK might incur whilst you are here.

We had to sell our house to afford to come over here but probably would have sold it anyway as we fully intended to stay here - as it is we will be returning to the UK next year so will be starting the whole buying houses thing again :uhoh . My biggest piece of advice would be to think carefully about what you would do if you don't decide to stay here after all, whether that means keeping a place in the UK or money in the bank at least you have the option to set up again in either country.

All the best.

Louise :)

[Jameelka]

We had our house on the market well before we decided on emigrating to NZ.
We did start looking at places like Spain or France, and then last Xmas decided to give NZ ago!
All in all the house was on the market about 21 months.
We came over to NZ in August this year, thinking that we had a buyer for our house, they were so keen as there house had n't sold they asked if they could rent ours while theres sold.We agreed, this being about a month before we came out, and then blow me the first week we were here, Mum and the estate agents called saying the UK buyers still wanted to buy it but could n't afford to rent! I was well cheesed off as this had wasted about 6 weeks by now plus all the hastle of sorting stuff out for renting and we even had to pay Abbey whom we had the mortgage with over 400.00 pounds as we were renting! So the house went straight back on the market.
To cut along story short,a week later we had another buyer who then 2 weeks later pulled out! Then few days later had 3 peops after it, and we chose a cash buyer and we completed about 3 weeks ago now.
What a relief I can tell you!
We did keep some money in the UK for the mortgage but it was running very low, and paying rent over here and mortgage in the UK was n't exactly ideal unless u have lots of money, and we don't!
We had to take out a loan to come over here, but all paid off now from the house sale, but it would have been easier to sell before we moved to NZ and just gone into rented and stored the furniture.
Problem is in the housing market in the UK as it is, it can take some time to sell as alot of peops have experienced on this forum!
Still we made it, expensive made it though! but we think it's worth it so far anyway! and the moral of the story for us is complete on your UK house
on the Friday and buy a house in NZ on the Monday!!!
Funny how things work out!!!
:raebanana

[H & Rick]

Hi there

We only put our house on the market a week after getting our Approved in Principle letter.

We plan to go to NZ as soon as the house is sold......soon I hope :p

The house we have is really nice so for us we did not want to give everything up until we were sure we had been accepted.

[real_sunfire]

It really depends on your situation particularly in terms of how much savings you have. Caz and I were lucky as I sold my house after moving in with Caz in her house so we have quite a bit of money to use to set up our new life in NZ.

So your first question is do you need sell up to afford to move to NZ?

Caz and I are renting out Caz's house in the UK. Again we are lucky as Caz' s parents are around to keep to keep an eye on the house and the letting agent we are using is a friend of the family. We are going to rent out the house for 2 years so we have the choice to return to the UK if we need to. We knew if we sold up now and decided to return to the UK at a later point there is absolutely no chance we could afford to jump back on the housing ladder.

Therefore your second question should be will you want to return to the UK within the next few years?

In summary I personally would say rent until you are sure you are stay in the UK if you can afford to do this. Others on the forums would say sell up now. Although I respect this position IMHO I disagree with it.

Rgds.,
Nick.