Advice needed - FTB really wants to buy, can we?

**dancingbutterfly**

Hi guys,


We need some advice please.

My fiance and I really want to buy/have our own house. We've been renting for 7 years and want to have something to call our own and something to show for it rather than chucking money away renting.

Bit of background,

fiance is 32 and a MOT tester/Mechanic and earns around £27,000 py before tax.

I am 25, self employed (since sep 2010) and earn roughly £10000 py (however i am hopefully due to start a job which pays £12,500 py before tax)

we have a 6 year old child also.

We dont have a deposit (yet) we're getting married in a few weeks and might get £2-3000 in greatfully received cash gifts, in laws also may lend us a few thousand, possibly £5000? In 12 months we could probably save £2-3000 towards it also.

This is still not enough is it? Ive been on a mortgage calculator on a banks website which said for a mortgage of £110000 we're going to need at least a £20000 deposit.

Ive read about rent to buy schemes but there are no homes in our area. Are there any other government schemes that may help us? We dont particularly want to go down the shared ownership route.

In time we could save enough for a deposit but time isnt on our side with fiance age with re to lenders. Does this still happen?

We could afford repayments of £600 per month maximum really.

Is it a longshot? or are we ever going to get there?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

brit1234

I'm 2 years older than your partner and I have no problem getting a mortgage. Better saving a deposit for 2 years as prices continue to fall.

I agree with you on not going down the shared ownership route, you would be far worse off than if you save now.

Good luck.

GMS

brit as you are refusing to buy how do you know you have no problem getting a mortgage?

Why would you have bothered to find out if you have no intention of buying

hcb42

your fiance's age is fine - most mortgages are typical term 25 years, and the normal requirement is they are paid before retirement.

As we all will shortly have to work into our early 70s then your ages wont be a problem. Just keep saving, and aim for that £20K

moesasji

**dancingbutterfly** wrote: »

Hi guys,
<snip> and something to show for it rather than chucking money away renting.<snip>

There is absolutely no difference between renting and paying interest on a loan, so do the numbers instead of believing this "phrase".

You really have to ask yourself the question whether or not this point is a good time to buy a house as it is likely that house-prices will drop in the near future, simply because banks have difficulties to attract funds to lend out.

Note that buying a house is one of the biggest financial decisions you make in your lifetime. So do your research....do please not just look at the mortgage you can get to prevent problems in the future.

ACG

You will need at least a 10% deposit. On top of this its best to have another £1,000 to cover any costs that may be involved (solicitors etc - although some mortgage lenders include these for free).

There are a few exceptions to this but generally speaking you would need a guarentor who is able to cover about 20%.

I would guess that a £110k mortgage wouldnt be an issue (depending on whether you have any loans or credit cards etc) , its the deposit that seems to be the problem.

**dancingbutterfly**

thankyou very much for all your advice.

We've found a house for £95,000 that we like, but we're still going to need at least £11,000 for deposit and fees.

So we've decided to keep saving and saving and wait until house prices drop further.

Thanks again