FTB - Advice & reassurance needed!!!!

kirstyreanne

Hijacked somebody's thread yesterday with this but I think it's got lost within...

Me & my partner have been looking to buy a house since January & still haven't found a property we like. I'm obviously worried about the state of the market & I think this is why we're so fussy - thinking this is somewhere we need to be happy to live for 5 years plus so it needs to be right!

My partner earns £18.8k/year & I earn £15.5k (partner also has chance for overtime most weeks but we don't want to take this into account incase it dries up in the future) & we have been in our current jobs 12 & 5 years respectively.

We're looking to buy a house for the maximum of around £110k, we have a total of £22k saved & intend to use between around £15k & £17k as a deposit. This is changeable though as we have capped our possible monthly mortgage payments at max £650 & so total mortgage we're willing to take out changes with the rates.

I know on paper this sounds good, but I'm still worried that we'll have a problem either getting a mortgage or that we'll choose the wrong thing. At the moment I've decided to fix for 5 years so that hopefully we won't have any (or little) negative equity in the house to enable us to remortgage. Is this the sensible option? Scared I'll do the wrong thing as my partner isn't great with figures & has said that choosing the right mortgage is down to me!!!

Sorry that this is long winded but just wanted a bit of advice with our situation from people who know more than we do!!!

Note: Forgot to say we're FTB's who currently live with parents & are desperate to fly the nest.......

Bf109

What can you get for the money where you live? Would you be happy there for 5 years? Why not go rent instead? It would give you a much better idea of how you and your partner would get along before you tie the financial know by buying together.

Well done on saving so much money by the way, I know its prolly been a help that have been at the parents and so havent been paying rent, but theres many a soul in the same position as you thats £22k in debt!

Two house points each.

Zammo

Why on earth would anyone want to be an FTB during a house price crash?

Bf109

Some poeple just wanna have their own house.

They might save ten of thousands by holding off but some people have already been waiting for years. If you can get a place that -25% reduced compared to similar properties in the surrounding area, then i reckon you're pretty safe.

inamess200

Because sometimes its about getting a home for a family or to start a new life together - renting is not the same as having your own bricks and mortar - we have watched prices rise and rise and never thought there would be a chance of us affording a house big enough for us and 3 children but now there is a glimmer of hope. We are not looking to buy for the shortterm but somewhere our kids can grow up in (youngest is 3 so a good 10 years+) - we rent and are forever telling them not to do this or that becasue its not ours - definatley would be different if it was ours.

GDB2222

Bf109 wrote: »

If you can get a place that -25% reduced compared to similar properties in the surrounding area, then i reckon you're pretty safe.

But you can't get somewhere that's really 25% reduced compared to real current house prices. You might look at what other properties are offered at, and get offered one at 25% less than that, but that's a false comparison. What you really need is to see what they have sold at. I agree that if you could get 25% off current sale prices you would be reasonably safe, but I really don't think that sort of discount is actually available.

Bf109

Seen a few on property bee.

Biggest drop I have found is -33% (although thats a parking space in Islington). Next biggest drop is a 3-bed detached in Surrey coming in at -29.2%.

inamess200

There are a few repossions around our area that are coming in around 20% less than similar properties in our area so we are only looking at repos in the hope that will give us a good value resonably priced family home.

kirstyreanne

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies!

We both feel that renting would be dead money as by staying where we are we can continue to build our deposit further. At the same time I really feel that I need my own space - probably slightly moreso than bf. We decided the beginning of last year that it was time to start saving & we would start looking to buy in 2008.

As for current house prices, I've been watching the properties on rightmove in our area (South Wales) & a lot of them have dropped around £10k with starting prices of around £100-120k. There's been a definite slow down in houses that are actually selling in our area & I do think that several sellers will probably be willing to accept quite low offers.

I think the hardest part is trying to find somewhere where we feel we'll be able to stay for a while. We can't afford the nicer properties & a few in our price range are very small & would be ok for the short term but definitely no room for expansion!!!

We are in an area that was awarded heritage status in 2000 & since then prices have skyrocketed. Prior then you could buy a house for around £25k easily & now the same house would cost you around £100k.

In answer to Zammo about why would FTB's want to buy - I would like to wait & have a house I love for a lot less but I feel absolutely desperate to have a space to call my own! Currently living between my grandparents & my boyfriends house & it is totally not ideal. So it's just the circumstances that surround us which makes the decision more imminent.

GDB2222

Better to pay dead money as rent than to suffer a huge capital loss on a property you buy?

lincroft1710

In your orig post, you say you haven't found anything yet. What sort of property are you looking for?