To be or not to be mortgage free?

PipPip

liuhut wrote: »

But at least you will have the option of the holidays in the Maldives!!
Good luck with the house sale in Bristol, if it doesn't sell quickly, is there an option of renting a three bed in a village to see how you find it...if you have been used to a large house is Paris, it might be a bit of a shock space and storage wise with kids to go to a smaller place?
Hope the move goes OK
L.

Thanks. Yes we will rent first for 6 months or so and will have to get used to stepping down in size. Our current house is big but in an impractical way if that makes sense. Its a 19th century villa with a huge living room and 4 enormous bedrooms with 15 foot high ceilings, 2 enormous drafty bathrooms, but no built in wardrobes, no storage cupboards, no garage, stupidly designed cupboard sized kitchen. Honestly, i think a modern 3 bed house will have more storage than our current house! Will miss the garden though, half an acre of walled garden for the kids to run around in. But this place is provided by my employer and to buy it would be £1.5m so its always been a short term fantasy life!!

DVardysShadow

PipPip wrote: »

Thanks. Yes we will rent first for 6 months or so and will have to get used to stepping down in size.

Good move, renting, in your position. Not only will it give you the opportunity to try a house for size, it will give you time and proximity to find a good location to buy. And on your overall question, I would say go mortgage free and save - I think you are a house or 2 away from your forever house, so there does not seem to be a lot of point in stretching when you really don't know what you will require.

slummymummyof3

If you go for the no mortgage, smaller house option; ensure you have the potential to extend. This may take sometime to find but will leave you with options for the future without the need for paying selling and moving costs. I always think it pays to live in a property prior to extending so that you can identify what you actually NEED as opposed to planning an extension that doesn't necessarily meet your household requirements when push comes to shove.