In December 2021, I managed to get a modest (but I consider beautiful) little house, purchased with a 27-year term mortgage, secured by the income from the job I now don’t have in the area where my job was and where I am now not. During the last period where people stopped buying houses (at the end of 2022), I couldn’t sell it because there were no buyers. So, I took the decision to let it out, and I did.
I’m now coming to the end (it’s August 2023) of my fixed term mortgage rate time (2 years at 2.4%) and the bank tell me I will have to go to a tracker mortgage which tracks with the interest rate as it moves. The hike up to 5.25% as the base rate, with the additional 1.6% from the bank is, let’s say, significant. To compound that, there is the additional joy of not knowing if it will rise again month by month. As I have ‘permission to let’ from the bank, this is the one mortgage option.
I do have (they tell me) the so-called ‘choice’ of going to a different bank but seeing as I don’t yet have any kind of substantial job, that is hardly a viable proposition. So, I then took the next decision to try again to sell the beautiful, if modest, little house, as I was assuming the tenants (quite rightly) wouldn’t want to pay an additional £500pcm on top of the £800pcm they already pay.
Do I think the housing market will recover? Yes. History shows it does that and it might take some time, but it will likely recover. Do I think interest rates will come down? Yes. That is the aim and I believe it will happen based on (admittedly my little knowledge of) evidence historical.
Will I be able to cover the intervening time (between now and when things look a little more financially stable) by paying the shortfall for the mortgage (which will not be covered by the rent) for as long as it needs covering or until I am able to sell my modest (and as I consider it beautiful) little house, while I still seem to be unable to have a job (other than the bit of instrumental teaching) since the ‘great breaking’ caused by the last job? This is the question I don’t know the answer to.
Am I the only person in such a situation? Not a chance of it. There have been news stories about the hike in rent and issues with landlords apparently abusing the current climate for their own advantage and I’m sure some of those news stories are true. But let’s be very clear, it isn’t all landlords. I am most definitely not trying to make things difficult for the tenants and I’m not trying to benefit from the tricky financial times. I’m still trying to sell it, yes, but again there aren’t buyers (again because of the mortgage situation for many trying to secure one). Another thought in my mind is the responsibility I have for putting a young family in a situation where they will need to find alternative rental accommodation if I do sell. Oh my. Then my inner empath kicks into overdrive.
Other than the one potential buyer who reportedly said it needed a ‘significant amount of work to get it to an acceptable living standard’, (rude🤷🏻♀️and untrue) there is no other interest. That little house remains a delightful property with a lovely next-door-neighbour who makes living there a wonderful thing.
My autistic brain vacillates between many different scenarios concerning all this, including going and living there myself and getting a job in a coffee shop (which is ridiculous as I’ve only been living here for 8 months and yes, okay, I do tend to move frequently, and yes, Mum has had to put my name on a different page of her old-school alphabetised address book because there have been too many addresses to fit into the allocated space for one letter’s worth of addresses and yes, there are clearly issues with my ability (or non-ability) to settle anywhere…plus, my husband would have a view on the matter as apparently, he likes me to live in the same house as him (weird, but true)...and there’s the fact I’ve never used a coffee machine…and there’s the truth that all of my work experience and qualifications are within education, (even if I now seem to only get allergic reactions towards it, and even more so since having to navigate what has become an impenetrable barrier to get any interviews because of the necessity to exit the place that ended ‘the career that was’…but to be fair to those shortlisting at the places I have applied, I’d not shortlist me either, even though I know if anywhere did employ me, I’d give all I have and would do (for them and the children) a good/excellent job)…but even so all that, I still have not yet developed skills with a coffee machine, so the job in the coffee shop is probably also a non-starter).
It seems that my initial wondering remains: To Let or Not to Let? That is still the Question for this Autist.
