Update

Time has flown by and it doesn't seem that it has been three weeks since I last updated this blog. That sounds like a confession "bless me father for I have sinned, it has been three weeks since my last update....."

That means the house has been on the market for about five weeks and whilst there have been plenty of viewings there haven't really been any meaningful offers. I say "meaningful" in this context as we did get one offer which the agent had the sense to reject before I even had the opportunity to comment on it. Interestingly this was the right call as I said that if they were prepared to "move a bit" we might be able to reach a deal but they then didn't get back to us at all – not even to reject our approach. I am confident that these people would not have progressed with a purchase even if we had accepted their original, low offer.

The house remains on the market but we have now decided to investigate the rental market as well. This was always a backstop position (outright sale was and remains the preferred solution) but it is far from a disaster and many people have commented privately that they believe this to be a better approach anyway. It appears that people make decisions on rental quite quickly and there are already a couple of people who have expressed an interest.

Should we end up renting I will then re-mortgage this house to free up as much cash as possible from it. Strictly speaking the house is currently owned outright but that is because we funded it from the current family home. There is nothing wrong with doing that but I have been told that it is harder to offset interest on loans against tax if you don't have a specific loan for a rental property.

More news as soon as I hear anything.