Looking for advice on property

jiminho

Hi folks,

I have a bit of a dilemma right now and I was hoping for some advice. I bought a property about 18 months ago and made a lot of upgrades to the sum of 10% of the value of price I bought it at. It was a fixer upper but we wanted that so we could put our own stamp on it. Well here we are in the present day and the house is on the market but it's not selling. We're in a buyers market right now so buyers are few and they're also being very choosy about what they buy knowing that they have the upper hand. We've reduced the price once already and if it were to sell at the current listing price, we would be happy but we've yet to even get an offer so we're potentially delving into the break even/lose money territory. House has been on the market for 3 weeks and we know the first 2-3 weeks is the busiest time.
Couple of notes as I'm sure people will be curious:
-We're currently living abroad and looking to move home. For us, it's essentially a move home now or never due to job offer, economy on the up, young family etc. A difficult decision but one hopefully we won't regret in the future. It wasn't the original intent to buy a house and only keep it for 18 months but that's just how it's all turned out.
-Options i'm faced with in my eyes, drop the price to a fire sale price and get rid of it or rent it for maybe a year or two in hoping the property market will take a swing. Pros and cons to both. Renting might be the way to go but I won't lie, i'm a little hesitant having a rental property half a world away.
Any advice would be appreciated

antoinolachtnai

Well what sort of rental return would it give you, when tax is taken into account? If the rental market is as soft as the sale market, maybe you are better to just get out at whatever cost.

This is where you need the advice of your agent wherever you are. They are the experts (hopefully) in what that market wants.

One other thing: In the last twenty years we have gotten used in Ireland to houses going on the market and selling within a few weeks or maybe two or three months. This is not typical. It used to sometimes take years to sell houses in South Dublin, as late as the early 90s. It might just be that you'll have to wait longer. Again, be guided by your agent.

It is great news, obviously, that you have gotten the opportunity to come home. This might be a small price to pay.

athtrasna

It's very difficult to give you advice on a property that is, as you put it "half a world away". Property markets and property culture varies hugely between countries. Have you tried a local site for advice?

jiminho

We had a property management company over tonight to go through everything so they're going to come back and let us know what rental range we'd be looking at but we would just be looking to break even. From what I've read, everything excluding mortgage principle is tax deductible. Unfortuently we were told the house we have is almost "too nice" and we'd be renting to a niche market. Oh the irony. House isn't good enough for buyers but too good for renters.

Where I live, while not small, is not big either so I don't know if there is a boards equivalent. There's an FB page but it rarely gets posted on.

davindub

Where is the house?

tradesman

you could always put it to auction. Set your lowest sale price and stick to it. You might get a surprise on the day