thanks guys especially to mr man and mr dt at least u guys understood the question. as for treehouse and jethro tull whats biting you guys i only asked a question no need to be so offensive. in my last post i explained that i did not buy to make a quick profit did u guys not understand that. i bought the house to live in it but as i said my circumstamces changed and thats why im selling surely u dont need too many brain cells to understand that. iwill drop the price if needed im not a greedy person like tree and jetro might think. i just posted a question asking for advice and i must say as always i got some great advice but could have done without the smart remarks
so guys thanks again keep smiling and i will sell the house and make a profit i know that and i will take jetro and tree house for a drink it might brighten them up
Actually, I don't think they
did understand your question. If I read you correctly, you wished to know what options were available to you for perhaps selling the property to the council. Their responses seemed to amount to implying to you that you could get out of this ownership without taking a loss.
The world is not, however, that simple.
I'm not entirely sure what north Cork town you're talking about, or what kind of property but coincidentally I know a bit about some of them. Interestingly enough, in a few north Cork towns there is affordable housing available for less than you want. It's not shifting because in said towns, there are unencumbered properties available for the same or less. I'm not entirely sure what kind of a property you are selling but since I was looking at three bedroomed terraced houses in Cork city today for under 250K today I am inclined to suggest that you may have an uphill struggle.
From this post and your original post, the overwhelming impression I get is that you want to divest yourself of this property. It's costing you 900E a month and by the sounds of things it's unoccupied. I doubt very much if you will get 900E a month in rent so if you want it to stop costing you cashflow, selling it is about your main option. After that it's a question of whether you can clear the outstanding debt on the property. You haven't given enough information for that, but assuming some of the calculations here are correct, you're interest only on a purchase price of 196K so the outstanding balance is 196K. Your current ask, you say is 230K, so you're angling for a 36KE gross profit, not accounting for interest paid in the last two years which according to me is in the region of 21600. You may also have been liable for stamp duty if the property was not owneroccupied and I suppose you spent some money fitting out the property. I cannot remember if investors are liable for stamp duty on new properties under 125sqm - someone will have to remind me - but as far as I know, yes they are. Even at 230K your chances of break even are limited.
If you want to sell the property, you need to look at the following:
1) what similar properties are on sale in the area, and what asking prices do they have
2) what properties in the area have similar asking prices to yours? Are they similar properties, bigger properties, smaller, closer to the town/facilities etc. Does yours have an unattractive encumbrance such as a management company, for example? It's a buyers market right now and they can - and are - making calls on those factors.
3) How much of a financial hit can you take? How long can you afford to have it on the market not selling? For every month you have it on sale, you have to pay 900E. Your property has had no interest for seven months. That's a lot of money. Can you afford to have it on sale for another seven months with no interest?
What is the rental market like in the town? "You can just rent it out" is a facile piece of advice. Just being able to rent something out for 300E a month less than it's costing you is also not necessarily wise.
With respect to farming it out to the council I have this to say: I'm not currently resident in Cork but you can be sure that if I was, i would have a lot to say about the local authority paying above market rates for property that will not sell on the open market. In other words, you have no business assuming that the County Council should pay a premium for your property when the open market thinks it's over priced.
Your key option here is price. Anyone who is advising you to do it up is probably misguided - evidence from elsewhere suggests that this just delays the inevitable. I am not sure what the going rate for your property is going to be. There is some argument for bringing down the price incrementally over a few months but again, that's going to cost you 900E a month. If you want to shift the property quickly, your options are a bit limited.
I have one other comment to make - and this is a general comment. You stated further up that everyone is entitled to make a profit. This is not true. Everyone is entitled to try to make a profit. That doesn't mean they will succeed.