Mr and Mrs G bought their family home some years ago, when the kids were just primary age. The area was great and the house was close to a good school. The children grew up and moved on, leaving Mr and Mrs G to enjoy their house and garden, spend a bit more time with their friends and neighbours, and with more space to themselves. They converted one of the kids’ rooms to an office and Mrs G put her cross-trainer in the other one.
However, although they should have been better off now the family were off their hands financially, there was a problem.
Their current mortgage deal ended some months before and had now reverted to a high “standard variable rate” so payments had more than doubled. However, recent tightening of lending criteria had made it impossible to remortgage to another company. Their existing mortgage company would not change them to a new deal without applying the new lending criteria, which Mr and Mrs G couldn’t satisfy.
The new monthly payments were a burden – they could do it, but it left nothing for the city breaks and occasional dinner out that they had promised themselves. The pressure was mounting – they had approached a number of banks, mortgage companies and brokers but there seemed no way around the problem. The thought of living long-term with such large commitments was depressing. They also felt very vulnerable as Mrs. G’s company had recently been taken over and she was concerned about how that might affect her job. Although part-time, the money was essential and they had nothing to fall back on if anything happened. They contacted our sister group Getmovingtoday and like lots of people, began with the words”…you probably can’t help but…”
Our specialists managed to find three different options that might help their 
situation. One involved our land experts and this was the couple’s chosen option.
Their choice involved selling part of their garden, which was fine as it still left more than half their land. In fact it was perfect, as the vegetable plot at the end had got overgrown and a bit much to deal with – the G’s had lost interest in veg but were planning on making a beautiful area nearer the house where the trampoline and goal posts had been before.
The end result was that Mr and Mrs G received a substantial sum. It was enough to make all the difference.
They decided to use the money to pay off a good chunk of the mortgage. This meant they were able to satisfy affordability criteria on a now-smaller loan. There are some terrific rates around right now and they decided to change mortgage company and go for a fixed rate this time. With the smaller mortgage and lower rate, they had more than enough left each month to enjoy life and cope with the unexpected.
They were hugely relieved to have escaped from the worry they were living under before – and from being trapped in their old mortgage paying inflated interest rates. They are now looking forward to a secure future and have the money to spend on enjoying life the way they want.
Contact us now if this situation sounds familiar – we’ll try to help