Okay.. So I currently live in Leeds in a house I purchased outright with some inheritance money (it's all in my name) and I live with DH and my daughter 
I've lived in Leeds for nearly 5 years, although for the first 3 years of this I was renting properties, so moving around (and moving up here in the first place) was pretty simple.
So.. How would I go about moving back down South near my family??
Obviously we'd have to get a mortgage, and DH would have responsibility for that. This house would effectively be the deposit for the mortgage (about £100k, houses down South are about double this for the same size as what we've got here).
As I said, this is our situation. We live in Leeds, DH works in York. He spends about £350 a month in petrol, and we pay higher insurance as we live in a higher-crime area (both house insurance and car insurance, but car insurance is definitely more noticeable). His job is relatively secure; they've been having cash-flow issues but seem okay at the moment, but he wants to get out of there more for the sake of his mental health at the moment, as the stress is getting to him and he's overworked and underpaid (although on about £36.5k, he should be on more for what he does.. Same job we've seen £40-45k in Leeds, and around £45-60k down South).
I was wondering how we'd go about it.. From what I can gather, our options are as follows:
- For him to apply for a job down South and relocate on his own, and I'm left with the baby and trying to sell this place (This is NOT an option for us, I would like to add... Not even considering it as we've just recovered from a marriage breakdown, and I'm still recovering from PND so being left with the responsibility of selling the house alone, a long-distance relationship and LO all alone? No).
- Same as above but I relocate too, and leave it to the estate agents to sell the house (CON: empty house takes longer to sell, plus I wouldn't be anywhere nearby to keep check on how things are going, and we would have to commute for certain things and it could get long-drawn out and expensive.. All while throwing away money in rent with no financial back-up)
- For him to stay in his job and us to put the house on the market, with the eventual aim of moving over to a rented place in York (saving money on petrol and insurance to help towards paying rent), to THEN start looking at places down South (moving into a rented place down South too so we can move as soon as he gets a job, and can buy a place while we're down there.. CON: LOTS of moving!)
- For us to sell the house, him to hand in his notice when we do, and us to up and move into a rented place down South and hope he gets a new job soon, which he should as he always has done before (with the back-up being the cash from the sale of this place) CON: Risky!
- For us to find a new-build and part-exchange .. Except I rang the one we wanted to day and they won't part-exchange as far away as Leeds
They suggested doing it with a more nationwide company like Barratts, but there isn't a development anywhere where we're aiming to move. They do an "express mover" but meaning we'd have to drop the price of this house, and if we haven't sold in 4 weeks they give the plot to someone else. CON: Risky, as he could secure a job in that time only for our house not to sell.
So yeah... Other than moving into a new build, we're safest moving into a rented place down South I think, so we can look at houses properly down there and not just on odd weekends, as I don't want to buy in haste.
We're not really in a position to rent this place out and move down South and rent, since renting it out here wouldn't even cover half the rent of a place down South, and we wouldn't be in a position to buy until we've sold this place so we'd be throwing money away (plus I don't want to attempt selling it long-distance or when we've got tenants in!)
Any advice for those who have moved long-distance, with a family/job/baby etc?? It was so easy before as I had no commitments!!
I've lived in Leeds for nearly 5 years, although for the first 3 years of this I was renting properties, so moving around (and moving up here in the first place) was pretty simple.
So.. How would I go about moving back down South near my family??
Obviously we'd have to get a mortgage, and DH would have responsibility for that. This house would effectively be the deposit for the mortgage (about £100k, houses down South are about double this for the same size as what we've got here).
As I said, this is our situation. We live in Leeds, DH works in York. He spends about £350 a month in petrol, and we pay higher insurance as we live in a higher-crime area (both house insurance and car insurance, but car insurance is definitely more noticeable). His job is relatively secure; they've been having cash-flow issues but seem okay at the moment, but he wants to get out of there more for the sake of his mental health at the moment, as the stress is getting to him and he's overworked and underpaid (although on about £36.5k, he should be on more for what he does.. Same job we've seen £40-45k in Leeds, and around £45-60k down South).
I was wondering how we'd go about it.. From what I can gather, our options are as follows:
- For him to apply for a job down South and relocate on his own, and I'm left with the baby and trying to sell this place (This is NOT an option for us, I would like to add... Not even considering it as we've just recovered from a marriage breakdown, and I'm still recovering from PND so being left with the responsibility of selling the house alone, a long-distance relationship and LO all alone? No).
- Same as above but I relocate too, and leave it to the estate agents to sell the house (CON: empty house takes longer to sell, plus I wouldn't be anywhere nearby to keep check on how things are going, and we would have to commute for certain things and it could get long-drawn out and expensive.. All while throwing away money in rent with no financial back-up)
- For him to stay in his job and us to put the house on the market, with the eventual aim of moving over to a rented place in York (saving money on petrol and insurance to help towards paying rent), to THEN start looking at places down South (moving into a rented place down South too so we can move as soon as he gets a job, and can buy a place while we're down there.. CON: LOTS of moving!)
- For us to sell the house, him to hand in his notice when we do, and us to up and move into a rented place down South and hope he gets a new job soon, which he should as he always has done before (with the back-up being the cash from the sale of this place) CON: Risky!
- For us to find a new-build and part-exchange .. Except I rang the one we wanted to day and they won't part-exchange as far away as Leeds
They suggested doing it with a more nationwide company like Barratts, but there isn't a development anywhere where we're aiming to move. They do an "express mover" but meaning we'd have to drop the price of this house, and if we haven't sold in 4 weeks they give the plot to someone else. CON: Risky, as he could secure a job in that time only for our house not to sell.So yeah... Other than moving into a new build, we're safest moving into a rented place down South I think, so we can look at houses properly down there and not just on odd weekends, as I don't want to buy in haste.
We're not really in a position to rent this place out and move down South and rent, since renting it out here wouldn't even cover half the rent of a place down South, and we wouldn't be in a position to buy until we've sold this place so we'd be throwing money away (plus I don't want to attempt selling it long-distance or when we've got tenants in!)
Any advice for those who have moved long-distance, with a family/job/baby etc?? It was so easy before as I had no commitments!!
