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So close but yet so far

Chaul
Posts: 11 Forumite
Hi all, I am a new user here after being a general browser for some time and enjoy reading peoples debt free diaries and seeing how they progress and tips and tricks that they use.
Anyhoo, I thought I would share my situation with you, its an annoying one which referring to the title of this thread leaves me so near but yet so far away from being comfortable and debt free.
My history has been patchy to say the least the main thing was 5 years ago being left by the ex with huge debts and a house to sell, this is all sorted now but still 5 years on I am waiting till September next year until I have a clean credit history which is a pain.
Anyway, my current situation is very annoying.
I own a flat on a 75% shared equity
I have also just bought a house with my wonderful gf - she was lucky enough to sell her place really quickly
I am now in a situation where we are a month into living in the new home, the mortgage is about to kick in meaning I will now be paying for 1 and a half mortgages!:eek:
I have calculated it all and I can do it but it leaves me with zero cash for anything, I really dont want to ask for an overdraft as it took me a couple of years and a fortuitous redundancy to clear a managed loan to get rid of the last one so i am really going to have to be careful.
I do have the gf to help but I am very old fashioned in my views, I dont want her to have to help me in any way my pride wont allow it.
So the biggy is my flat, I have informed the electric company so i only pay £9 a month to keep that ticking over, although i will still probably end up having credit with them i need to claim back every quarter, which is kind of like a little savings account so all good. I have stopped everything i can but the flat costs me £600 a month including service charge, mortgage and rent on the 25%
I wrote a letter to the housing company asking if i could sublet, they refused, I thought they might let me, maybe i should do what I know other people do and just sublet anyway... does anyone know what the worst that can happen is?
The flat is up for sale and has been for around 5 months now, not one viewing! I have swapped estate agents twice and still nothing, its in a decent area, and is in excellent condition and decoration, the housing market has to pick up soon or I fear I will slip into another overdraft nightmare which i really dont want to return to the bad old days of being paid and not even returning to the black
Anyway, I guess this will be my kind of diary of how I manage to cut back now i have the 2 properties to pay for, dont know if anyone will be interested but it will help me to vent my frustrations I guess... it will just take one person to buy my flat, I have equity in the property which will pay off the last off my debts ever, these go back to 2004 when i had 14k debts I am now down to one credit card of just under 2k with the budget so tight I dont want all my good work over the past 5 years to go down the drain.
The other thing is i really want to ask the gf to marry me but i dont have the money to do it the way i want to and to buy a ring, she is also frustrated that i havent asked her yet and she doesnt know what I am waiting for.
Anyhoo, I thought I would share my situation with you, its an annoying one which referring to the title of this thread leaves me so near but yet so far away from being comfortable and debt free.
My history has been patchy to say the least the main thing was 5 years ago being left by the ex with huge debts and a house to sell, this is all sorted now but still 5 years on I am waiting till September next year until I have a clean credit history which is a pain.
Anyway, my current situation is very annoying.
I own a flat on a 75% shared equity
I have also just bought a house with my wonderful gf - she was lucky enough to sell her place really quickly
I am now in a situation where we are a month into living in the new home, the mortgage is about to kick in meaning I will now be paying for 1 and a half mortgages!:eek:
I have calculated it all and I can do it but it leaves me with zero cash for anything, I really dont want to ask for an overdraft as it took me a couple of years and a fortuitous redundancy to clear a managed loan to get rid of the last one so i am really going to have to be careful.
I do have the gf to help but I am very old fashioned in my views, I dont want her to have to help me in any way my pride wont allow it.
So the biggy is my flat, I have informed the electric company so i only pay £9 a month to keep that ticking over, although i will still probably end up having credit with them i need to claim back every quarter, which is kind of like a little savings account so all good. I have stopped everything i can but the flat costs me £600 a month including service charge, mortgage and rent on the 25%
I wrote a letter to the housing company asking if i could sublet, they refused, I thought they might let me, maybe i should do what I know other people do and just sublet anyway... does anyone know what the worst that can happen is?
The flat is up for sale and has been for around 5 months now, not one viewing! I have swapped estate agents twice and still nothing, its in a decent area, and is in excellent condition and decoration, the housing market has to pick up soon or I fear I will slip into another overdraft nightmare which i really dont want to return to the bad old days of being paid and not even returning to the black
Anyway, I guess this will be my kind of diary of how I manage to cut back now i have the 2 properties to pay for, dont know if anyone will be interested but it will help me to vent my frustrations I guess... it will just take one person to buy my flat, I have equity in the property which will pay off the last off my debts ever, these go back to 2004 when i had 14k debts I am now down to one credit card of just under 2k with the budget so tight I dont want all my good work over the past 5 years to go down the drain.
The other thing is i really want to ask the gf to marry me but i dont have the money to do it the way i want to and to buy a ring, she is also frustrated that i havent asked her yet and she doesnt know what I am waiting for.

0
Comments
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Hi and welcome to MSE
First of all I would sit down with your gf and explain about the financial situation. Getting engaged is something which will have to wait and if she knows the reason why then she should understand.
Secondly, the flat. If you have been on the market for 5 months with no viewings then the flat is overpriced. Look at what other places have sold for in the past few months in that area and also look to see what else is on the market for the same price or there abouts to your flat. Having been through a house sale in the last couple of years I can tell you that the only thing that will sell a place quickly is dropping the price.
In the meantime, put up a SOA and we'll take a look at that for you to help with the short term.:A
:A"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid" - Albert Einstein0 -
The flat is a huge liability for you at the moment, reduce the price to the bare bones to get it sold as quickly as possible. Whatever you have to reduce it to it's better than it costing you month after month in mortgage payments and maintainace.
There is a price at which everything will sell, that may not meet your expectations but the market sets the price.0 -
Thanks for the reply, I have looked at the price of my flat and have dropped it 5k so far my dilemma is that the agents say that the first time buyer market just isnt very big at the moment so when i drop the price I am scared of dropping it essentially for noone, I would rather people start to view it and tell me they wont pay that much for it so I can then drop it. With no viewings it feels like i am dangling carrots when there is no donkey.
What is an SOA?0 -
But youre not getting any viewings at the price it is.
So at the moment you have a donkey and no carrots to danlge. .
SOA is Statement of Affairs, outgoings and incomings.make the most of it, we are only here for the weekend.
and we will never, ever return.0 -
There are as many wanabee first time buyers out there as there always was. The trouble is at the moment property is too expensive for those buyers. Mortgages are much harder to come by but mortgages are out there if the numbers are right.
Honestly to a degree I would ignore what the estate agent tells you, he isn't the one paying for 2 houses. There is a price that this flat will sell at quickly, you just need to find it.:A
:A"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid" - Albert Einstein0 -
The replies are making sense and I think I am being stubborn and hoping that magically the market will improve and I will get the price that gives me a nice lump sum.
I just sat and thought about it and basically in 5 months i have spent 3k on the place just on bills for a place i dont even live in.
If this goes on another 5 months that will be 6k in total, thats alot of money to just give away.
I am fearful of dropping it to a point where I wont have any equity left and it still doesnt sell.
I totally hear what everyone is saying though and agree that maybe I should drop the price again.
My basic SOA is:
Monthly Income - £1885
Monthly Outgoings:
Flat - Rent+Service charge+mortgage = £464
Flat - Home and contents - £20
Flat - Water - £20
Flat - Electric - £9
Flat - Council Tax - £50
Car Ins - £46
Credit Card - min payment £45
Petrol - £200
House - My half of all utilites and insurances (home and life) tv license etc = £196
House Council Tax - £60
Mortgage - £410
Food and household good budget contribution £150
Mobile phone - am on pay as you go and use £10 maximum0 -
Hello Chaul,
Your attitude towards your girlfriend is very strange. Today men and women are equal. When you buy a house together (does not matter married or not) you have formed a partnership.
She has to be involved in this.
Make out your SOA again using this (link - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html ) Try not to guess at the figures, dig out the paperwork! However remember a partial completed one is better than none. It is in fact one of the most IMPORTANT things you will ever do to start on the road to recovery. If you want a lot of help on this forum, posting your SOA is the first and most important step. After it is done it is very easy to keep it up to date. In my opinion everyone should have an up to date SOA even if you have little or no debt. It is a great tool to manage your life with.
If you post it on the forum answer the obvious questions before they are asked so you get immediate feedback, such as :-
If there is “other” Income explain what it is
Mortgage – interest only or not.
What is the age of any children.
Council tax is it over 10 or 12 months.
Electricity and gas any arrears.
Water rates meter yes or no.
Mobiles, how many and when are the contracts up for renewal.
If no contents insurance is it include with buildings insurance.
If pets cost money, what are they.
House or flat value, has it been valued by an Estate Agent and when.
The more that can explain about the financial figures and circumstances the quicker the post will get advise rather than lots of questions.
When you have posted it and it does not look right or you want to change it, do so and repost it.There will be no Brexit dividend for Britain.0 -
Thanks for the link gfplux, I will get together with the other half tonight and work things out, I have everything on direct debit and do internet banking so will be easy to see the exact amounts of the DD's each month0
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Well, posting my story on here has given me food for thought and after sleeping on everyones thoughts I have just called the estate agent and asked them to drop the price a further 5k... lets hope for a good weekend and maybe my first viewing!!
Thanks to everyone for stating the obvious, it just took a few people to tell me what i already know to make me budge.
Still working on the proper SOA
Pay day today so starting my experiment of how little I can spend per day of non essentials which should be fun.0 -
Hello all, to be frank its been slow. I have dropped the price of my flat by 10k now and still not even one viewing. On the budgetting front I have been doing very well, no luxuries and taking measures to increase the mpg in my car from 42mpg to 52 mpg which also saves me a little bit of money each month. I even managed to buy one of the gf's Christmas presents early and stash it in the wardrobe!
On the upside I managed to get a new job, so from Monday I will be earning better money which is an incredible turn up, plus on top of that I wont be commuting my 75 miles a day thus both reducing my carbon footprint AND the dent in my wallet by about 150 quid a month! hurrah... things are finally looking better just in time for Christmas. :j
I also had a great idea for the flat, to drum up some interest I have asked my estate agent to arrange for an open house event this saturday, he is inviting everyone on his mailing list looking for that type of property, and relaunching it on rightmove and advertising in the estate agent paper. So fingers crossed some people will be drawn to see the place with the promise of a glass of cava and a further 5% on the day discount for any offers made.
With the new job its looking like i can breath again and not panic so much about getting rid of the flat asap as I am on a repayment mortgage so not all the money is lost each month. Although the saga is not over I would like to thank everyone for their help and encouragement when it was at its worst and I needed this boards support.0
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