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OK Van, thanks for your reply and your kind words!

Van/Gilf - thanks to you both for your valued input - Although I have more insight now, I still don't have enough information to know which way to go! What do I need to know to enable me to make a decision!!!

Hi there - thanks for your input and honesty! The company would pay removal costs but I doubt if they'd pay anything to do with renting the property out. The company is simply looking to shift the property as quickly as possible - they don't any involvement in the housebuying process - any profits are passed to ourselves, they just don't want to make a loss, hence the very low guarantee price so the risk to them is negligible.

Does anybody think it would NOT be worth incurring the £7,000 penalty to rent? And 1 other thing - what do you think of the idea of putting the house on the market with a local agent for a 'quick sale' price for the 3 weeks prior to the deadline I have of accepting or rejecting the guaranteed price? I would then perhaps have a fair idea of how things are going??? All opinions greatly appreciated and thanks again!

Hi again! Good point, but they will only do this if the cost is totally unavoidable, and believe me, they will want 7,000 good reasons...

jpjh - It's only part of the package I'm not considering - Estate Agents/Sols fees etc are paid. Relocation was offered as an alternative to a very nasty sideways move which thankfully cannot be done now for reasons I can't go into.

Hi Topher Bear - thanks for your reply! Valuations obtained less than a month ago. Moving from Worcester to Bingley (West Yorkshire) area.

Hi Who Knows - thanks for your reply! Yes, I know that one well - that was exactly the same as the deal I got with my last package 4 years ago (although it was somewhat less than £8k ) - how I wish we were back in those days and how lucky we were - the same day we got the guaranteed price, a local firm known as the Rover Group announced several thousand redundancies and the bottom fell out of the market!

Hi Jpjh - thanks for replying so quickly and your suggestion - I can't keep up with this! The offered price - out of the question I'm afraid, the bar stewards say my valuations are not the same as theirs!!! doh - they must have visualised a male member standing in front of them when they told me that... One positive thing about the relocation is that Estate Agents/Sols fees are paid whether or not you accept the guarantee. Just

Gilf - thank you for a very valid suggestion which I hadn't considered, because of the £7,000 that I hadn't mentioned the wonderful building society in the middle of of Birmingham and surrounding counties will impose on early redemption...

Hi there! I apologise if this isn't the right place to post this, but I feel there must be others like me and I don't know where they are lurking! Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you are maybe able to offer me some much-needed advice. I have been offered a relocation package as part of a new role within the same company. I took a 10% salary cut in doing so, but I thought the relocation deal would offset this. The company involved shall remain nameless and will be known as company C. I am, however. SORELY tempted to reveal this to expose what I see is a hard-nosed practice, which is as follows: Company C effectively buy your house from you at a guaranteed price, saving you the worry and time associated with selling. They obtain 2 surveys from surveyors which are both along the lines of homebuyer reports. They then approach a local estate agent for a market value. Before C got involved, I obtained 3 valuations of my own - the lowest being offers over £250,000. The mid-figure being £275,000 to sell at £265,000 and the final one being for £279,950. None of the agents were aware of the others' figures! The 'guaranteed price' I was offered by C was £230,000. They said they would allow us to market the property at a maximum of 10% more than this (say £250,000) to reduce our loss, but of course the excess is not guaranteed, particularly as a £250k asking price will be met with a reduced offer! Initially I felt shocked and insulted. I then felt angry to think that C were not interested in our home, simply a property to dispose of as soon as possible. My dilemna is this: In theory I have an agreement to relocate within 12 weeks from Jan 1 2005. I don't know what the consequences would be if I didn't, but they can hardly expect me to travel 170 miles each way to work each day - or can they??? So it comes down to this. Do I swallow the bitterest of pills and go with their guaranteed price, potentially losing well over £20,000 of equity, or do I use my own estate agent to sell at a realistic price but with the time and the hassle that goes with it? There is 1 more factor! We didn't realise the guaranteed price would be so low and had an offer accepted on a property in the new location. We could just about afford to buy it if we used all our savings, and hope that these would be replaced should our property sell for whatever we get up between £230k and £240k. Any opinions would be very gratefully received. Thank you.