Regarding selling the place, have you had it looked over by several estate agents? Might not be the most appealing prospect, letting a judgemental stranger look at the place, but I believe that it could be worth it, if you want to sell. Since buying my place I have had two agents in to look at it and offer advice on work I could or should do if I wanted to either sell it or rent it out. The last time was to do with my job moving and I wanted to understand options for following it.
The feedback that I got was, if you are selling, don't bother doing anything. The house that I am comfortably living in, that is far from dilapidated, would be seen as a "fixer-upper" project house by most people who would buy it. Yeah, shocked me too. However, I have an older bathroom, both neighbours have extensions and I do not, flooring, guttering, pointing, rusting cast iron down pipes...I was told that many people would come in, get a builder, hire a skip, knock down my kitchen-in-the-coal-shed and cheap conservatory, and while they had those on hand, dealing with other things would be easy for them, but much more effort for me. Also, many people (especially women) want to put their stamp on a property, make it look the way they want. My old neighbours had an immaculate house, lost one interested couple because their house was "too nice" to fix up, and the woman who bought it promptly ripped out bathroom, toilet, walls, kitchen and redecorated the lot.
An estate agent might give you some needed clarity about what really is important, and what is not, for selling a house.
Having said all that, I am not sure that selling your own house is going to be the best for long term financial stability. I might be wrong, but I didn't think you have a mortgage on it? Paying rent could eat your capital and your income faster than paying maintenance. Not something to be taken lightly.
Being slightly fatuous here...there is always this option...
