Over-Hauling and Selling Up

So, we've reached another sad chapter in the current ongoing saga that is our life. Chris has been medically retried, and as a consequence we are now a one income family; mine. We need to make cut backs and one of the biggest is our lovely flat by the sea :(

We are fortunate enough to live on the South coast of England, and in our town you are never more than 10 minutes from the sea. Or in our case, a five minute walk.

We bought our flat in 2009, and it was a whopping £193k - now there is now way that we could firstly afford that, and secondly that we would spend that much money on a flat with no garden - despite the beautiful views!

We were lucky enough to be eligible for a government grant (First Time Buyers Initiative) so that we only had to get a mortgage on 51% of the property. The mortgage was much cheaper than renting, the location was wonderful and we had enough money left over each month to finally get married!

Fast forward to now and the government is requesting monthly interest payments on the percentage that they helped to pay for, and once the maintenance charges, ground rent and mortgage is taken into account, we are quickly coming to the point where it is no longer financially viable to stay here :( So we are toying with the idea of selling.

We are competing with neighboring flats that are listed for £220k and that have been sat on the market for over 6 months. We need an edge to make our home look not only on a par with these fancy flats, but to entice the buyers to settle for the full asking price. If we don't achieve market value, the government will not let us sell (or it will take a lot of stress and hassle to convince them of why we need to sell at a low price). We may be lucky and come away with a few £k to settle our debts and maybe enter into another shared ownership scheme, so every penny really does count!

The next few posts will show you how we have over-hauled our home for as little ££ as possible! Fingers crossed this all helps. The only downside is that it is going to be even more difficult to leave our lovely home once all these extras are complete.

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