Decisions decisions

gmt0587

Hi all my partner and i are in a bit of a quandry and would appreciate any advice or suggestions as i dont have a great deal of knowledge about the housing market.

My partner currently owns her own property with a £70k equaty in it, however the house is a little on the small side with only two bedrooms and doesnt have a gas supply.

I have arround £20k which i will use towards where we live.


The options as i see it are:

1. Put my £20k into her house and the two of us pay off the mortguage as quickly as possible.
2. Rent her house out to cover her mortguage and buy a 3 bed semi for around £140k between us using my £20k as the deposit.
3. Buy a 2 bed bungalow which we have seen for around £180k between us and extend the property to 3-4 beds for a further £40k. (current market would then be between £250k - £300K)
4. Buy a 3-4 bed detatched house between us for £220k ish.
5. Sit tight for the time being to see what the market does.

Many thanks for all advice and suggetions

Cash-Cow_3

Doing option one is not much far removed from sitting tight if you are worried about the market. Options 2-4 all have an element of extra expense and/or risk to them.

hazyjo

So you don't currently live together? Or is hers sitting empty?

1. If her house is going to be too small, don't put your equity into it as you risk losing it. It'd be better sitting in a bank.

2. Do you want to become LLs? Read up on some of the posts here. I'd avoid it like the plague personally, but plenty of others manage it. If you buy somewhere for more (no idea how much more as you don't say what each property's worth), if you do go down the LL route, can you afford to not get paid by tenants? It's not always plain sailing. Saw someone on some makeover show the other day whose tenants had trashed their house causing around £20k worth of damage. You just never know...

3. That £250k-300k bracket is very 'risky' if you're looking to make money on something. Because of the stamp duty bracket, things quickly tumble down to £250k - and even then people expect to make offers. Looks like you'd get your money back - ie total cost £220k after works, but don't expect to sell it on for more than £250k in this market.

4. I'd sell all and buy together - but only after you've lived together for a while! Saying that, I was married and living with my now husband within 8 months of meeting him lol (have since bought a house together after selling our two properties).

5. If you're not planning on living together yet, or to live together and are happy for a property to sit empty (not great and don't forget to check insurances, etc), that's your option.

Nobody can really comment without knowing about your relationship and how committed you both are. You have to think long term. Dunno if kids are involved, or planned, or your ages, or values of your properties, or locations... just too many factors for someone to come along and say 'do this'.

Jx