Right, going into shared equity from full ownership - am I mad?

Eels100

dmg24 wrote: »

Whilst I would not consider most of the newer SO/ SE schemes, some of the original ones do still offer excellent value.

What's the difference between the original ones and the older ones?

dmg24 wrote: »

Also, some schemes have an index linked cap on service charges.

Sorry to be dim, but what does this mean?

Incyder

It all went wrong when kids were bred.

Let this thread be a warning to others starting out. YES, you may afford a flat/house and have a nice life. BUT chop the wage in half and chuck a kid or two into the equation and its a slippery slope downhill.

Eels100

Incyder wrote: »

you may afford a flat/house and have a nice life. BUT chop the wage in half and chuck a kid or two into the equation and its a slippery slope downhill.

That is so true, I didn't even want kids when I bought the house!

poppysarah

Eels100 wrote: »

We're keeping up with the mortgage on an IO basis, but that's no good long term.

We have no savings .

*sighs*

Really?

You think increasing a mortgage you have no repayment plan for is a good idea?

Eels100

No, no, no - reducing the mortgage. There's no way we could increase it, we can't afford what we've got!

Our savings were meagre but a couple of thousand this time last year and on the up. Then a series of huge and unavoidable car bills culminating in having to sell it for parts and buy another banger pretty much wiped us out. I managed to squirrel about £1000 again before my maternity leave started but it was a drop in the ocean. An emergency journey to see family hundreds of miles away and two repair bills for the new car wiped that out. Obviously we hadn't nearly enough saved.

Eels100

If we'd waited to have enough savings for us to be properly comfortable I wouldn't ever have been able to have children. So we shouldn't have bought the house because we could never really afford it. I know that now.

poppysarah

If you can sell would you be better off not being on the "property ladder"?

girlatplay

Hi Eels

Have a look at Shelter Scotland's website and look for New Supply Shared Equity scheme. I don't know if this will be of any use to you but it is worth a look. 3 years ago I was in a different situation from yours but it came down to the same thing: I couldn't afford a whole house myself (single parent, 1 child). There was a pilot scheme running in Edinburgh at the time which seems to be similar to the one I have mentioned above. I now own (mortgage) 70% of my property and a housing association owns the other 30%. I have a mortgage over my share and I don't pay any rent to the HA. I have the option to buy out their share or if I decide to sell the property they will get 30% of the sale price and I will get 70% (or at least my lender will!!) or if I die they will get their 30% back when the property is sold. I have to pay for any repairs / modifications myself and don't get any help from the HA. Basically it is an investment for the HA. They make their money from the value of the property going up. I'm not sure what the new scheme is but it is worth a look.

I don't know if this is useful to you or just complete ramblings from me

Eels100

girlatplay wrote: »

New Supply Shared Equity scheme

That's exactly what I'm talking about - it's part of the LIFT scheme

girlatplay

I don't really know anything about LIFT but I find that the agreement that I have works really well for me. It is really just like someone lending me the 30% I needed for buying my property and their only stipulation being that they get 30% back when the time comes to sell or buy out the share. I think the only difference to the pilot scheme I did and the scheme they have now is that I was able to purchase on the open market whereas with the new scheme you need to purchase a purpose built property (HA property built for the scheme).

Sorry, rambling again!