Selling the House

[herbert_jones 0]

Hi there,

 

  My wife is a dual British and American citizen. I am a British citizen. We have lived in the UK for about 7 years.

 

  We bought a home (in my name) in 2010. I want to sell the home before my wife and I go to the US to live (to be close to her family).

 

  In an ideal world, I could go through the whole immigration process now, and then sell the UK house when everything has (hopefully) been approved, get on a plane, and say hello to my new life in the US.

 

  The problem is that I have no idea how long it will take to sell my house in the UK.

 

  If I go through the visa process and everything goes well then, as I understand it, after the visa interview I will receive my visa (at some point) and then I'll have a 6-month window during which I will need to go to the US.

 

  If I get to the above stage before putting the house up for sale, then I'll potentially run out of time (i.e. the 6 months will elapse) before someone buys my house. If, on the other hand, I put the house on the market now, then I may have a buyer before I've been given approval to go to the US.

 

  The best solution I have been able to come up with is to put the house on the market now, so that my wife and I can rent somewhere as soon as the house sells. Once we are renting somewhere, we can go through the visa application process, and then give the landlord notice at such time as I (hopefully) get permission to go to the US. This would remove the uncertainty associated with selling the house.

 

  Can any helpful people here offer up any other suggestions?

 

 

Many thanks for your time,

Herb

[Ortolan 381]

We had the same thing happen in The Netherlands (had to sell a house before immigration). Have you talked with a real-estate agent in your area about comparable homes and whether it's a slow or fast probable sale? Is it in a particularly desirable area? Personally I would rather have the home sale done and over and money in the bank sooner rather than later; you can probably arrange a short-term (6 months or less?) lease to wait for your visa paperwork to be processed. It's just a lot to deal with all at once.

[Ryan H 3,834]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to UK regional forum.

[trudi 1,317]

I sold my house before moving here, it took longer to complete the process than I anticipated (mainly due to buyers dipstick of a solicitor)

i was in the fortunate position that I had family I could stay with for however long it took for my visa to arrive but at the end it was only a couple of weeks.

 

The whole process took a very long 5 months! I had looked into renting a place but the agents advised that most landlords wouldn't rent for less than 6 months and that I'd have to pay the full contract if I left earlier, that scenario could've cost me a fortune so was never possible

 

i would speak with at least 3 local agents and ask for their honest view on a timeframe to complete a sale and take it from there

[Leafsfan 54]

My advice would be to list and try to sell the house now. As someone who was unsuccessful in selling my home before moving from Canada and is now a reluctant landlord, it's a trouble you would rather not have. The process may play out faster then you think; it was about 6 months from file to visa approval for myself.