My Journey as a First Time Buyer!

vixarooni

RetroBob wrote: »

Why do you decide what he spends his cash on?

i thought my choice of words made that more of a funny comment than a serious one, it was meant as a joke. I still would be arsed if he did buy one cos we dont need it.

Saver-Rob

Wow, 9 pages, mainly of arguments and I havent even put an offer in yet!

nig0609

Saver-Rob wrote: »

Wow, 9 pages, mainly of arguments and I havent even put an offer in yet!

if only you could "tidy" it up a bit, leaving only the positive comments...;)

bob79

russ21282 wrote: »

It's all well and good saying they could buy when house prices are 20% lower but what if interest rates are at 10% and their mortgage payments are £1500 instead of £500 if they bought now (for example)

There exists something called a 'long term fixed rate mortgage'. Even if for whatever reason you don't want to take one, you can use the interest rate it on for calculation purposes to compare renting to buying. Calculating this with today's short term rates is of course madness, I agree with you there.

russ21282

bob79 wrote: »

There exists something called a 'long term fixed rate mortgage'. Even if for whatever reason you don't want to take one, you can use the interest rate it on for calculation purposes to compare renting to buying. Calculating this with today's short term rates is of course madness, I agree with you there.

That's all i was trying to say, the renting vs buying debate is based on speculation of what happens in the near future.

We are currently buying at the minute. we could rent for £400 or buy for a little more.
If we wait and get a similar place cheaper in a year, interest rates may shoot up and the mortgage payments could be twice as much and so we have a cheaper house but we are paying more each month, so then we would have to wait for interest rates to drop and so it could be 5, 6, 7 years down the line, and then house prices would go up again! a vicious circle! But that's 5 years of rent (wasted in my opinion) as we could have a house we can afford comfortably, fixed rate for 5 years and over pay, so we have equity in it. If house prices raise to current levels in 5-10 years we will be in a good position.

The above is just an example (albeit a little confusing!) and none of it may happen, but its as good a guess as anyones!

VKay

Hi Rob, How's it going?

We went to view a 3 bed terrace today (modern) on for £150k. The lady selling it had a buyer pull out the day before exchange and the house is full of boxes she has packed. I felt really sorry for her as her purchase will fall through potentially too.

Anyway it was a good house- I'm sure we could have got a great price in the circumstances but i just don't think we liked it enough to bother! IThere was a loud road nearby but the double glazing sorted that out for inside but the garden seemed a bit noisy. I guess it was rush hour.

I think we will just take this very slow after pulling out of buying house last week. I keep rushing into things and getting excited- luckily my boyfriend is very level headed (frustrating when im bouncing off the walls).

Not sure we'll know when to stop looking and buy. i keep thinking if house prices continue to slowly slide we will be looking at better houses in a couple of months? I don't know...!

Saver-Rob

Hi VKay,

We are in a similar debate about whether to wait or go for it. You will find alot of people on here that are very sure of themselves to be able to predict how things will go. At the end of the day we want the right house for a good price, if that comes up next month then great, if it is a year away then so be it.

If something comes along that you really want and the price is right for you then dont be put off by people telling you to leave it. You may regret not buying it, then again something better might come along a few months down the line and you'd wish you waited.

Its all very difficult to know but waiting is unlikely to hurt if you dont find somewhere 'perfect' in the mean time. We are saving still so hopefully in a better position as each month goes past.

VKay

That's how i feel- I'm becoming obsessed with saving. i don't want to part with it unless we find a house we really want to live in for a while. It was hard work getting it all together.

I agree, if we find something soon we should just go for it. liek you we are looking for a home. We are 10 years older than you though!

Happy searching -will keep checking how it's going for you and your girlfriend.

Saver-Rob

Well I'll keep this updated with any big milestones though there may not be too much for the next few months until our bonds mature which gives us a bit more money for it all. By that time we should have closer to £65,000 hopefully!

sal_strawberry

Hi Rob...We just had our offered accepted on our first home so i know how you feel to a certain extent. We have fixed our mortgage (approved fully 2 days ago!) for 5 years but the payments are fine for us.

We got £30k off the asking price and bought it for what was paid for it in 2002! I think that is a very good deal. We are planning to stay in it for a while (many years) so feel very comfortable with what we have done.

We have consulted many financial advisors, friends, parents, family, mortgage advisors etc... they are suggesting and certainly from our experience now, that now is a good time to buy IF you have a deposit and can get a good price, and can afford the monthly payments with money left over! It is all very well people saying we shoudl wait til it bottoms out but that throws up its own problems.

We have found that in the last month the houses we have been viewing have been selling very fast and i think people are manking informed decisions about buying now. Yes, we do not know what will happen in the future but if you are careful, consider the facts, have saved a deposit, can afford the payments, plus bills, plus insurances and extra then i think it is a good time to buy.

I wish you all the best, before this all happened buying a house was out of the question for us unless we had a huge mortgage and over stretched ourselves. There is always an element of risk but it doesn't mean it is the wrong thing to do.

One thing to be aware of is to get a mortgage in principle too early can be bad...it expires after a certain amount of months then you would have to reapply,...if you've been credit checked then you would have to have another check, too many credit checks are not good.

Good Luck! I think some of us FTB should be credited for having done our research, saved our money, looked at the risks and made informed decisions based on our circumstances.