Any ideas

climbgirl

Just want to reiterate the message of not rushing into buying a place at all costs. There is an obsession with owning property in the UK at all costs, buying a house and pouring money into it to do it up isn't necessarily going to guarantee that you're going to make money on it in the long-run. Look what happened with the last property. To turn it into an asset, you need it to be worth more than you paid for it - and getting yourself into worse debt for a deposit and improvement costs isn't going to help that process. Paying money on rent for a while isn't necessarily 'dead' money if it's going to help you clear your debts and put you into a much better financial position to buy a house. Making your debt worse to end up with an asset in the long-run, only serves to devalue that asset.

Chortle_2

Hate to say it, but you sound to me like those people who buy half a tonne of cat food, 'because it was a good deal' - despite never owning a cat. Just because a house is a 'good buy' doesn't mean that it is a good buy for you.

If you go ahead with this, and continue spending at the same rate, let alone with the additional debt from extending/renovating it, you're going to make your situation a LOT worse. Just the increase in mortgage payments would be a killer!

climbgirl

Chortle wrote:

Hate to say it, but you sound to me like those people who buy half a tonne of cat food, 'because it was a good deal' - despite never owning a cat. Just because a house is a 'good buy' doesn't mean that it is a good buy for you.

Exactly.

And you say that by buying the house you'll be 'rent free' and paying the mortgage, paying off an asset. But so much of that payment is interest - the longer you take to pay your mortgage, the more interest you're paying, the more you're effectively paying for the house. And to make money on it, to turn it into a real asset or an investment, you're going to need to make it worth more than you're paying for it. Not an easy thing to do when you're starting out from a position of debt and not of savings...

tesuhoha

This house we bought for £50,000 in 1987 and have sold it for £179,995. The main problem has been our foolish way with money. Although buying this house might seem foolish I am making a serious effort to pay off our present debt. It was at £26,000 last year. I dont go out, spend money on clothes and we dont have holidays. I am going to have a serious talk with OH tonight to see what he thinks about all you have said to me.

tesuhoha

The mortgage term on our new house is 9 years, so we wont be paying that much interest. However I am seriously thinking about all this now as everyone is so against the idea.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

tesuhoha wrote:

I've taken this all on board guys and realise what a total mess our life is. I think im going to take a lot of your advice. Thanks Lynz im definitely going to do most of what you suggest on your detailed breakdown. the difficulty paying off the last 11p was a joke by the way. And yes Nationwide is a credit card but i do pay it off each month cos its not 0%. Think perhaps though we are still going to buy the house but live in it till debts all paid off. Will suggest that to OH tonight. Will still only take about a year, 18 months, then can start work on house gradually. Have already committed ourselves financially with survey etc. Can you think of major financial reason why renting would be better than doing this. At least in buying house we will be rent free as paying off mortgage. Bit of a lightbulb moment here. Feeling a bit startled.

Hi Tesushuho,

It is difficult when you have made an emotional and financial commitment to buying this house and then suddenly a load of loud mouths MSE's come along and say no don't do it.

If you pulled out of buying the house now how much would you lose ? e.g what is the cost of the survey or any other expenses you have comittted to ?????? (compare this to how much you would save ininterest by paying of your debts in 1 year not taking on extra debt)

No one is saying dont strive for a better house or better area, that is a noble aim its just this way of doing it may not be the best way rather than option 1 or 2 (outlined in / see my earlier post)

Your life is NOT a mess you sound like a really hardworking family who already own their own property and have done their best for their childrens education.

That sounds like a successful family to me and a good example to many !!!

Good luck. WE are ALL on YOUR side.

Maybe show your OH this thread and talk it through.

Madstuthe1st

tesuhoha,

I can understand the position you are in, but I going to go against most of the advice on here and say that moving house isn't a problem. I think you should wait for the extension tho. I would never rent as this is just throwing money away. As an idea would you consider a interest only mortgage? I had one a few years ago as I knew that I would only be in the house for a year and repayment would of been a waste of money.

My wife and I were in the same sort of position money wise last year, but ours came from having a huge wedding and then a baby. We moved house, had only been in that one 6 months. We wanted to extent and sell within a year, but have decided that we are going to stay a little longer and save the money for the extension.

lynzpower

Tes, seriously ,where are you going to find the money for doing the new place up?
Possibly have an MFI kitchen, but apart from that? What? Have you sold you place thne? Paid the estate agents? Van etc? Stamp duty? To be honest we are right at the bottom of the food chain in so far and we are estimating a move cost of about 10k all in ( inc bits of work to the new place) that we want to save before we can actually move.

tesuhoha

Thank you I know you are all my friends and I can count on good honest advice from you all. I know you are only on my side but it is hard to back out of something like this when youve committed to it and I know we could pay the mortgage easily enough and i know we could pay the debt off easily enough if we didnt spend on the improvements. So maybe thats the way to go.

tesuhoha

It wouldnt cost us anything in labour to do the improvements, and he will do it gradually like he did this place. Also, he gets everything at trade price, being in the building trade. I'm going to suggest to him that we pay off debts first. But yes youre right about the move but some people move several times in their lives. We have been here since 1987.