How on earth can two FTBs raise 20% deposits?

theartfullodger

G_M wrote: »

The obsession with ownership is a (relatively) new one, and is very British. Up till the 80s/90s renting was far more common. And across the Channel in France, renting is still the norm.

...........

Hesitate to disagree with G_M but, not sure about this "France, renting is still the norm"...

Both Wrongipedia..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owner-occupier
& this site..
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_hom_own-people-home-ownership
- show a spread of numbers for various countries, with France home ownership in both cases "the norm" (greater than 50% .) ..

2nd site chart shows...


Cheers!!

System

Its an open market. The reason someone else will be buying the house you could have bought/wanted is because they weren't busy 'buying nice things' and actually being proactive in achieving their goal of ownership.

PinkKiwi

As always, members of the forum shoot you down in flames, put a downer on your ideas and make you lose all faith in trying not to mention pick their way through your posts, nastily commenting on things you have said without realising you would offend these idiots that haven't got anything better to do but spend all day everyday posting their bitter replies on here.

Anything is possible and I'm sure if you put your mind to it you can get exactly what you want give it a little time and some sacrificing here and there. I understood perfectly what you meant when you mentioned you were both gay and in terms of decorating may want dramatic feature walls, colours etc which a landlord may not allow. Ignore the nasty, small minded comments.

SG27

My partner and I earn less than you two and we have saved more than 50% deposit so far. We live with our parents and pay keep but if we rented a 1 bed flat we would still have saved at least half that at 25% or nearly £50k. It's taken a long time but it's been well worth it as we are in such a good position now. We are 28 and 26 you just have to cut your spending and socialising right back for a number of years. If you're not prepared to do that then you'll have to stay in rented. But it is relatively easy if you put the effort in.

firsttimetom

PinkKiwi wrote: »

As always, members of the forum shoot you down in flames, put a downer on your ideas and make you lose all faith in trying not to mention pick their way through your posts, nastily commenting on things you have said without realising you would offend these idiots that haven't got anything better to do but spend all day everyday posting their bitter replies on here.

Anything is possible and I'm sure if you put your mind to it you can get exactly what you want give it a little time and some sacrificing here and there. I understood perfectly what you meant when you mentioned you were both gay and in terms of decorating may want dramatic feature walls, colours etc which a landlord may not allow. Ignore the nasty, small minded comments.

I don't think they have been shot down, but you do sometimes have to take a direct approach.

To me, it sounds like they perhaps spend too much on social life/furniture/electronics/eating out - they must be because they have decent wages and are unable to save. The simple fact is, if they want to buy a house, they have to cut down on there other spedning and if they don't want to that, then they have no case for moaning about it.

The great thing with Internet forums is that you are 'disconnected' from the person asking for advice. If they were to go to their parents or friends, they might just get a pat on the back and be told those nasty banks aren't lending like they used too - not really good advice at all, but family and friends don't want to hurt their loved ones. A forum can give you a bit of hard hitting honest advice, and if they were to take the advice of the majority of the posters on here, then in 12 - 18 months, they will have a good deposit and be in a good posistion to buy.

And I do not think that being gay is an excuse for not wanting to rent. We have 2 rather bold feature walls in our (rented) house and I am straight. If you are a good tennant, most landlords will not care what you put on the walls - even Del Boy's luminous paint - as long as you leave them how you left them.

homestraight

Im new to this site but hope nobody minds me sharing my opinion.
I can see what the OP is getting at and one way that may help him understand his predicament is that the place he wants is likely to be more expensive to buy or rent than his current property (from description). He has used the (understandable) cliche of not wanting to pay someone elses mortgage.
Thats fine OP but I think you may not have thought that your £600/month rent gets you the property you are in and that is 'below' what you want. Now the landlord probably wont be making some ridiculous amount of profit out of your rent so Im gonna guess at something like 10% but you could also use 7% or 15% if you like. My own way of thinking about this is to say that if you buy your own place for the same amount per month then you could only really buy a place 10% 'better/bigger' than you're in. That involves a lot of assumptions but its ok to work from. Now it seems you and your other half are aiming for something much more than 10% above where you currently are. Possibly 20-30% or more 'better'? This is not even taking into account the savings for deposit or the nice furniture and fittings you would like. I hope my point comes across that I think you're possibly being a little unrealistic at the present time given that you are likely to currently be in a place that you can afford (£600/month) otherwise you wouldnt be there and what you're aiming for would require much more than that per month in mortgage AND savings pot for deposit AND nice fittings/decor.

To come on to your question about how...its been answered before but in lots of different ways and bascially you have to knuckle down, cut spending and really get saving. You may have to sacrifice some of the things you enjoy but you do have to prioritise when buying a house. Its a market and unfortunately some people can save a bit more to get what they want so that means sellers can charge that little bit more.

Lastly I just wanted to comment about the whole issue about being gay and the decor of the house. I have to say that I really did not understand why you mentioned being gay until after when you explained it was about decorating. You didnt say this when you first mentioned it and because you didnt, you must have assumed that others would have just known thats what you meant. In essence you were expecting everyone to stereotype gay people into a group of expensive-taste decorators, whilst at the same time leaving them to think you assume that straight people dont spend money on nice decorating or 'dramatic feature walls' (pinkkiwi). I think this is completely wrong on both counts and left me feeling uncomfortable even wanting to give you any reasonable advice (which i hope i have?).

Please check before typing out as people may not understand what you mean, especially on a forum.

Hope i've been of some help
hs

Southend1

I'm gay and I hate dramatic feature walls. My flat is all done out in cream and beige. Is there something wrong with me? LOL

I also managed (eventually) to save a 30% deposit! It just takes a lot of saving and sacrifices.

Gwhiz

I'm straight, like cushions and bought my house for cash!

So there

BitterAndTwisted

Crikey, on those sorts of salaries and with that rent a month going out between you, which is relatively low, you should be saving a grand a month. No pain, no gain. It has ever been thus.

If your current circs are so unfavourable and the issues of disrepair so serious to you, I dunno why you haven't found anything better by now. For that sort of rent I'd have popped out and bought a couple of flourescent tubes myself by now, they're less than a tenner each.

Oldernotwiser

Southend1 wrote: »

I'm gay and I hate dramatic feature walls. My flat is all done out in cream and beige. Is there something wrong with me? LOL

You'll probably find you're banned from gay bars!