Buying furniture as a first time buyer

Morganarla

Hi all

This is my first post on MSE, and there is so much advice available I hoped I'd get an answer to my silly noob question here

If this has been answered before please accept my apologies!

MrMcLaren and I are first time buyers, actively looking within the market at the moment. We have always rented, therefore we have VERY little furniture (a table top freezer and a rickety old bedside table is all we have!).

We have a very strong deposit, and also have an agreement in principal from the bank. All good on that front.

My question - as first time buyers, where do the funds come from to furnish your house and also to decorate it to your tastes? Is this something the bank will advise you would need to take away from your deposit or other savings? Or will the bank allow you to add something on top of the purchase price of the house and therefore allow you to borrow a bit more on your mortgage for this?

We forgot to ask this when we met with the mortgage advisor at the bank, and it seems such a silly thing to ask too!

Can anyone help, please?

Thanks in advance!

BitterAndTwisted

You need additional savings on top of the mortgage deposit for all furniture and appliances. I certainly wouldn't consider borrowing more and paying for that furniture over the mortgage-term: most, if not all of it will need to be replaced well within the 25 years.

Norma_Desmond

We've virtually furnished our house through eBay and local auction sales - our taste is antique but you'll also find wonderful and well made modern / retro furniture for literally a few pounds.
I certainly don't envisage that my old solid yew (£15) dining table will need replacing within 25 years!

ognum

Well this is probably a very old fashioned concept but when we had our first house we also had very very little like you have. We did not ask for a loan for the things we needed or borrow. We slept on a mattress on the floor until we could afford the bed base to put it on.
We traweled second hand shops and the occasional auction to find the furniture. We accepted the offering of relatives who offered to give or lend chests of drawers or tables.
We got by, it was not necessarily a show house but it was ours and we owned it all no loans. Thast is the way we have managed our whole lives we now have several houses (no mortgages) and homes the way we want them.
Young people sometimes want everything now but it honestly feels better if you save hard and wait.
It is unlikely that the bak will help you buy your furniture, they are only interested in giving loans against things they can take back f you fail to repay. New furniture is worth 20% of the price you paid once you have used it for a week. If you really want new stuff dont use all the money you have saved as a deposit.
Sorry for the rant. Hope this helps.

BitterAndTwisted

Yep, I also slept on a mattress on the floor for six months when I moved into my current unfurnished rented flat. I didn't have any savings or a stick of furniture to my name. Thank goodness for Mums and families, Freecycle and ebay!

slummymummyof3

We slept in my single bed that I had from home for the first two years after we bought our first house, we bought the vendors 3 piece suite off them for £100 and I had bought general house stuff such as saucepans in the months leading up to us buying the house. We were given a fridge. We had no tv for the first 4 months and then saved up for a small portable (2nd hand). We have always stuck to the principle of, if you haven't got the funds...you go without until you do.

tek-monkey

ebay/car boot sales/charity shops* are what you need, buy whats useful not what looks most flash. Replace with 'proper' stuff as you can.

*We have a furniture warehouse in Stafford operated by a local charity, which is useful.

Morganarla

Thanks for all the answers so far!

I hope I didn't come across as that we wanted all flash brand new stuff straight away, cos we are quite the opposite!! I am the queen of cheap and love hunting out bargains. Ebay, secondhand, auctions, free stuff and family hand downs is the way we hope to go, there are some things of course we will have to buy new if we can't find a decent enough secondhand version...

I just primarily needed to know where the money would come from. We will have the money available from the deposit as we are both blessed with very generous inheritances.

Fortheloveofmoney

When I bought my 1st house I kept back a few thousand from my deposit money to buy furniture. I bought everything brand new but only because I didn't know any different then (I have a label conscious mother who is a marketeers dream :rolleyes: ). If doing it now I would ask family if they had stuff they wanted rid of, use Freecycle and check out paper adds.

Don't borrow money to buy furniture, it isn't worth it!

tek-monkey

My vendor is leaving me half their furniture as they don't need it, possibly worth asking?

Fortheloveofmoney

tek-monkey wrote: »

My vendor is leaving me half their furniture as they don't need it, possibly worth asking?

Actually this is a good point. I'm selling a property and no longer need the furniture in my old place so was going to try and sell it to the purchaser.