The more I try to help myself the worse off I'm becoming

zcrat41

I can get to St Albans from where I live either by train or by car in probably less than 1 hr. There are 3 bed houses available round here for £140k.

If you want to buy you need to move somewhere cheaper.

Luton isn't that far either. I bet you can get a lot more for your money there.

zcrat41

Forgot to say - Bedford/St Neots area.

Not the nicest of houses but unless you can significantly up your income that's what you'll be looking at.

kaom

zcrat41 wrote: »

I can get to St Albans from where I live either by train or by car in probably less than 1 hr. There are 3 bed houses available round here for £140k.

If you want to buy you need to move somewhere cheaper.

Luton isn't that far either. I bet you can get a lot more for your money there.

thanks - where abouts do you live? this is definitely a possibility but (and I know that this is part of the problem and part of the sacrifices) I've been wanting to lessen the impact of the divorce on my little ones as much as possible so I see them as much as possible: Monday I pick them up from school. Weds: I pop over to their house. Friday night they stay with me and back to their mum's on Saturday.

if I was an hour away it would make (for instance) Monday a 4 hour trip (2 trips required). While they're at a vulnerable and impressionable age I feel that this close and constant contact is best for them. I acknowledge that this isn't the best fiscally but even so there are plenty of families in St Albans who earn a lot less than I do who more than survive! Some things are worth more than money - I do accept there have to be compromises made but I'm not ready to live so far from them. yet.

kaom

zcrat41 wrote: »

Forgot to say - Bedford/St Neots area.

Not the nicest of houses but unless you can significantly up your income that's what you'll be looking at.

btw, very interesting. looks very nice there. I just checked on Vebra and you can indeed get a 3 bed for £130k...so I will park this and come back to it as soon as I can. thanks again

escortg3

http://www.findaproperty.com/for-sale/property-10894753

I like this kitchen, not a bad price £204,995

zcrat41

Kaom - my head says you should move somewhere cheaper but my heart says you should do right by your kids.

I really do think that with a bit of searching and time you'd be able to find a decent property nearish St Albans. South side of Bedford you'd be looking at more like a 30 min journey. I reckon that would be doable.

Best of luck with what you go for.

chloo

sorry to but in but what about watford tube there rickmondsworth or amersham, the chalfonts that kind of area. tube links to london nice areas

kaom

thanks - yeah been looking at Watford (parts of) and Ricky. Plus Croxley Green (and well, lots of places)

If you're personally not looking for rented at the moment then you won't be aware of the EXTREME competition for each property which has two huge and negative impacts:

1) the properties disappear super fast
2) it pushes the rent prices up

The only properties that hang around are over priced and/or disgusting

Lara44

Hi OP, my partner and I managed to buy a share of a house in London through a shared ownership scheme. I hesitate to recommend it - some of the new builds we saw were overpriced, their service charges seemed very poor value for money, the design and build of some schemes didn't seem great. There has been a lot of negative press in the media. It is for sure the most expensive way to buy a property, and if you can buy on the open market you will find it better value to do so.

However all that said we bought half of a 1970s ex-council house and it has been brilliant. Crucially it's a re-sale, not a new build and is a house (which keeps the service charge extremely low). The mortgage for our half of the house is fine and we have a competitive rate. We rent the other half from the housing association (although rent has been increasing steadily and you would be wise to check your contract regarding scope for increases).

It has worked well for us and we hope to staircase to full ownership at some point in the future. My OH is self employed so we want to keep some flexibility. We work from home too and so use the extra space we have with SO. It is a good scheme for our particular circumstances. Maybe you should do some research to see if it might suit you. Be cautious

kaom

thanks Lara44 - useful info