First time buyer, what would you do

kingsi15

Hi all

It has come to that time in my life when me and my partner are ready to move in to our first house. We have found a house we like and have put in an offer on the house, we also have a mortgage promise from NR.

I have been saving up for the past 5 years and have managed to save up £35,000 for a house, but I'm not sure what to do as I have never owned a house do I:

Put down 15%(£24,000) and keep the rest incase of any unexpected bills in future i.e car breaking down or nice holiday

Or do I put down £31,000(20%) leaving me with £4k which will buy the furnature but no money left after that, how ever my monthly mortgage will be a bit less.

Any advice would be great if maybe you were in my situation before, or what you would do in my situation.

Thanks

Southend1

Why duplicate your original post? Just bump the original one.... https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3660511

flashg67

Well done, that's a hell of an effort to get £35k!

My opinion, for what it's worth, would be to have the smallest mortgage you can, after moving in costs & furniture costs etc. You appear to be quite disciplined, so building up another smaller 'pot' for repairs, holidays etc shouldn't take you too long?

Depending how affordable the mortgage is for you, you don't want to struggle in future if/when interest rates rise.

Things may have changed in the 20+ years since I bought my first house, but I felt no shame in making do with cheap or second hand furniture for a while?

Good luck and enjoy your new home - it's a special time!

Yorkie1

There are always unexpected expenses after moving into a property. I would do the first of your options rather than the second. You can always overpay the mortgage if you have spare cash, but you can't find extra cash if you need it but put it into the mortgage from the outset.