Buying our first house - Would you wait?

breadlinebetty

If you want it as a family home you may as well start looking now. It's all very well people suggesting you wait - but you can end up missing out on a dream home or a fantastic bargain by doing that - and worse than that: you're putting your lives on hold *in case* something cheaper, or better, turns up. What if it doesn't? You will always recoup money eventually (property ALWAYS goes up eventually - you just watch in 10 years from now) but you can never recoup TIME.

I know of someone years ago who wanted to wait for video cameras to come down in price before buying one. Four years later they did come down...........but he'd lost 4 years of capturing his children growing up! Now I know a house and video camera can't be compared in money terms, but just think of all the moments, the happiness, the setting up home together you'll be missing out on - and supposing property prices suddenly shoot up again? They have done before after a slump..........

Caroline_a

Just to say that your £13k doesnt include as mentioned before any of your buying costs, solicitors, surveys, stamp duty, etc. Not to mention any furnishings or fittings your new house might need - cooker, fridge, curtains (all of which are a bit more important than a massive tv!). Personally I think house prices are going to go further down, or at the very least stabilise. I would wait a little longer.

breadlinebetty

Caroline_a wrote: »

Just to say that your £13k doesnt include as mentioned before any of your buying costs, solicitors, surveys, stamp duty, etc. Not to mention any furnishings or fittings your new house might need - cooker, fridge, curtains (all of which are a bit more important than a massive tv!). Personally I think house prices are going to go further down, or at the very least stabilise. I would wait a little longer.

There's nothing wrong in secondhand when you're starting up home. That's what people used to do before everyone got demanding and expected the best of everything from DAY ONE. You appreciate things more when you have to work and wait for them.

kford224

Hello!

Thank you for your replies.

We have since 'grown up' a lot in the world of looking at houses. Since the property mentioned above, we have looked at about six others to get a feel of what we do and don't want and it has been a massive help. It has also enabled us to narrow down our search area and think about how much we really want to pay out on a mortgage every month.

Last week we put in an offer on a different house, which was accepted and are currently in the process of going through the 'fun and games' of buying.

B_Blank

Buying a house with a boyfriend/girlfriend is a terrible idea. You will probably split up and then be in a complete mess with the property

kford224

breadlinebetty wrote: »

If you want it as a family home you may as well start looking now. It's all very well people suggesting you wait - but you can end up missing out on a dream home or a fantastic bargain by doing that - and worse than that: you're putting your lives on hold *in case* something cheaper, or better, turns up. What if it doesn't? You will always recoup money eventually (property ALWAYS goes up eventually - you just watch in 10 years from now) but you can never recoup TIME.

I know of someone years ago who wanted to wait for video cameras to come down in price before buying one. Four years later they did come down...........but he'd lost 4 years of capturing his children growing up! Now I know a house and video camera can't be compared in money terms, but just think of all the moments, the happiness, the setting up home together you'll be missing out on - and supposing property prices suddenly shoot up again? They have done before after a slump..........

Very true and I totally agree! We are still low on deposit, but after losing one house we really liked, we put an offer on another one last week with the help of my parents to boost the deposit a bit. At the end of the day we didn't want to wait any longer before we started our lives together 'properly' so decided to bite the bullet when we found a house we loved

quantic

Personally I viewed maybe 40 houses before buying ours, even when I didn't have a deposit. You could consider that wasting people's time but given that they where all still on the market once we did actually have our deposit I thought it was fair crack. We ended up buying the 2nd property we had viewed so would probably do the same again.

kford224

B_Blank wrote: »

Buying a house with a boyfriend/girlfriend is a terrible idea. You will probably split up and then be in a complete mess with the property

I think that is a tad narrow minded. There is nothing to say a married couple are less likely to split than one that isn't nowadays. We are engaged and have a wedding planned for next year, it's not like we got together three months ago...I know unmarried couples that have been together a lot longer than married ones!!

brit1234

kford224 wrote: »

I think that is a tad narrow minded. There is nothing to say a married couple are less likely to split than one that isn't nowadays. We are engaged and have a wedding planned for next year, it's not like we got together three months ago...I know unmarried couples that have been together a lot longer than married ones!!

He has a point though, you should try living together first before you buy.

kford224

brit1234 wrote: »

He has a point though, you should try living together first before you buy.

I don't think we need to waste a few months of house deposit savings in order to know whether we want to live together or not. Renting is dead money, and if you feel you need to do that before buying, then surely the relationship is already a bit shakey?!