Relocating – renting whilst selling our flat?
I need to relocate because of my boyfriend’s job. Our place has only been on the market for 2 weeks, but we need to move in the next month. The estate agents think that it will sell within another 2-4 weeks, but obviously completion will take an extra 2 months or so.
We are considering renting in one month’s time. This would mean paying both rent on a new place and mortgage on the old place until the sale of our flat is complete. The rent would be about £800 pcm. I could pay half of this; the other half would go on overdraft every month. We could pay the overdraft back with the profit from the sale.
Best case scenario – we get a buyer in the next month before we rent, so we don’t have to pay a mortgage and rent for very long. Worst case scenario, we can’t shift our old flat and are left paying for both for a long time…
I am re-posting this question from last night in the hope of getting a few more answers, so please give opinions if you can 
Thanks! xx Emmie
If you don’t manage to sell your flat you should put it on the rental market at a rate slightly higher than your mortgage. That way you get your mortgage money back with a little extra for contingencies. As long as your flat is clean and neutrally decorated then most lettings agents would snap it up like a shot! Good luck.
Hi Emmie!
This must be an exciting but rather stressful time for you and your boyfriend.
I think that renting is not just a good option, but seems to be your only option. If you stay in your current flat until completion, it seems that your boyfriend will lose his job.
If you have no offers in 3 months time, then you can consider renting your place out until it sells. I personally wouldn’t suggest trying to rent it out straight away, because it’s not as easy as that. For a start, it would make you a landlord and this might be a lot of hassle you don’t need during this stressful time. Secondly, I know that I get put off by properties being tenanted when I go to buy a flat. Tenants can make a mess and even if they are great, it won’t be presented exactly the way you would present it. The potential buyer may also be put off by the fact that you’d have to get rid of your tenants before they can move in, which could delay things. So I’d only rent it out as a last resort.
It will be a little expensive to rent and pay a mortgage at the same time, but it would be worth it, in my opinion as it sounds like you really need to move. It would also mean that not only would your flat have no onward chain, but that you’d have no chain when you come to buy a place.
If you can try to save as much money as you can over the next few months, you will be putting less strain on your overdraft. The more rent you can afford to pay, the less debt you’ll be in at the end and the longer you’ll be able to wait for a sale.