Getting off the property ladder

I’m thinking of selling my home.  The reason for this is winter is on the way and I’ve noticed a distinct chill in the air as I walk the dog in the fields behind Rob Towers.  So the lure of living abroad is getting stronger again.  Also I have just had a bellyful of politicians on the television AND the expenses scandal has resurfaced.  I am sick of this country and my urge to  get somewhere warm is very strong indeed.

 Alas so is the Euro.  So I suspect that any mortgage news on getting a bit of help buying a place abroad is not going to be good news.  But one day soon I think I will make the plunge.  The trouble is – as you already know if you plan to sell your house now is not a good time for me to be thinking of selling my home

But is there ever a good time?  Well yes – there is as it happens.  The best time to sell your home is when there are people who want to buy it.  And that can happen any time.  You don’t need hundreds of people walking around your house, sneering at the kitchen fittings, coloured bathroom suite or lack of white paint – you just need one person who actually wants to buy your house. 

So how about paying more attention to the owner rather than the house?  Maybe we identify with a house because we have a load in common with the owners.

So if I was an estate agent (which thank god I am not), I would make a simple rule to sell your house as I believe it will be very important in selling my home.  Make a connection with the potential buyer.  If they are remotely like you they will probably like the reasons you bought your house.  And if they are not – you know it is a waste of time.

 Can I patent this idea?  Think of the benefits of matching owners rather than house requirements.  Less wasted time, less time spent complaining to real estate agents – and more time looking at a house you actually want to buy.

Foreign Money

And so ends another week with the rest of Europe apparently coming out of recession.  And Britain somehow even deeper in the mire.  No wonder all the finance gurus are recommending offshore bank accounts and finance.  In fact with no end to the recession in sight there will surely never be a better time to start looking into offshore financial service.

 

The only snag with all this of course is that you need to have some money to start off with.  Then the benefits begin to stack up.   There is the slight worry that your money is offshore – and might not come back when things get sticky.  Icelandic banks pop into mind at this juncture.

 

But this time things are different.  You see all our banks and building societies seem to have cottoned on to the idea of locating somewhere with conveniently low tax rates.  You don’t even have to send your money anywhere too worrying Jersey seems to do very nicely for most of our high street banks for offshore financial service.

 

 

Then all they need so is bombard their customers with tempting mailers, emails and phone calls highlighting all the potential benefits.  Top of these is the fact that you should make more money because the tax rates are so much lower.  And there in a nutshell you have it.  These little wheezes are for high rate tax payers.

 

But not necessarily.  As well as saving on income tax on any income, there is the small matter of inheritance tax to consider.  It’s a fair bet that you are going to die at some point – and most of us can think of something better to do with 40% of our hard earned savings than give it to the government.

 

I wonder if the rush to make use of offshore financial services is in no small way contributing to the stagnation in this country.  After all, if we are trying to hoist ourselves out of recession…. Investing in our own economy rather than somebody else’s seems a better option.

 

So for now I will just have to restrict my foreign currency speculation to seeing if the cash machine at Sainsbury’s can be fooled into taking unwanted foreign currency.  And I already know the answer to that one – no.