It's sad you have seen this as a anchor but as Binky mentioned earlier in the thread. The larger houses take some shifting and as you have found out it's not a simple task of putting it on the market and it will sell.If we are into accidental landlord teritory now, I am one. 8 years ago, we tried to sell our old house as we were starting the build of the new one. I tried to sell the old house but it sat on the market for 3 years with no buyers in a dead market with many other similar houses also just sitting unsold. Everyone said if it is not selling it was over priced, but if we reduced the price much more we would be selling a 5 bedroom house for more than the cost of building the new 3 bedroom house, i.e. it would be costing us money to downsize, which would be just plain stupid.
So we reluctantly let the old house to a T who said he wanted to buy it in a few years. 8 years of rental income now has largely paid for completing the new build, but we still own both. And the T seems no closer to being able to buy the house so early next year we serve notice so we can try again to sell it on the open market.
I am totally fed up with having our largest asset stuck like this and with retirement now just around the corner I want it gone and the pot of money to play with.
I hope you get it sold asap m8 as it can be a real stress.
On a positive side. How did the new house turn out. Did you get it just right and most importantly. Was the Mrs happy?
From my side of the fence as an investor i would have viewed the property differently.
They would have rented it like you did but remortgaged it to get 75% of the capital out. You say 8 years which after 5 years remortgage and get probably all the capital out. So your then left with a 5 bed house which has a steady rentable income per month. Most of your cash back in the bank and still have 25% equity in the property.