Renting or Buying - nightmare decision, please help!!

JimmyTheWig

Lalalemon wrote: »

I like your thinking Jimmy, see how it goes for 6 months. We would have to buy some furniture though! Can't live without a sofa!

eBay, Gumtree, local Facebook sites - should be able to get a second hand sofa for not much money.
Or Freegle/Freecycle often have sofas that people no longer want.

If, aside from your saving towards a house deposit, you want to save up money that you otherwise would have spent each month to buy a sofa then go for it. But don't spend savings meant for a house deposit on something that will eventually end up at the tip.

Lalalemon

Thank you Lindyloo, that is music to my ears!

Now how exactly do I convincer Mr Other Half that this is what we should do, before he went to work this morning he said 'i'm not going to change my mind you know!'

JimmyTheWig

To clightly contradict what I have been saying...

Lalalemon wrote: »

His parents are absolutely dead against us renting because apparently we'll NEVER be able to afford to buy if we do.

If house prices shoot up in your area in the next few years then this may well be the case. If prices fall it will be easier for you in a few years. If they stay around the same level then so will your chances of getting on the housing ladder.

If his parents feel strongly about this, are they prepared to give you (give, not lend) the rest of the deposit that you need? Because from what you've said you're not in a position to buy at the moment!

JimmyTheWig

Lalalemon wrote: »

Now how exactly do I convincer Mr Other Half that this is what we should do, before he went to work this morning he said 'i'm not going to change my mind you know!'

1. Tell him that you love him and you don't want to wait two years before you can live with him.

2. Draw up a budget (use this site for help) to show that (a) you can afford to rent and (b) you will still be able to save towards a house.

ReadingTim

Lalalemon wrote: »

Thank you for that, this is partly why I want to rent first.

His parents are absolutely dead against us renting because apparently we'll NEVER be able to afford to buy if we do.

Sadly there are merits to both sides of this argument.

I'd certainly recommend living together before committing to a joint mortgage, which, as someone else pointed out, is a considerably longer and more onerous committment than even marriage in this day and age.

However, his parents are also right, and it's not clear to me whether your sum of approximately £525pcm to rent covers everything you'll need to pay, which you don't always appreciate (or pay for!) when you're living at home - aside from rent there's council tax, electricity, gas, water, contents insurance, phone, internet, tv license, food etc, to name the obvious.

Living at home is the best opportunity you'll have to save to buy. Isn't sucking that up for a couple of years with the prospect of home ownership worth more than a temporary feeling of independence, but condemning yourself and the family you want to a lifetime of renting?

dimbo61

Do not take any 0% free credit for sofa,s , furniture etc
If he wants to be with you then you want a place together !!!
As others have said check out ebay for a sofa, IKEA for basics such as plates, knives&forks ( they do a basic box which includes pots&pans etc)
Lots of friends and family will have junk they do not want or check out free cycle, LOOT etc
He needs to stand up for himself and support you ( Still under Mum,s control)
If you really want to get to know me come and live with me.

I have also got to agree with everything READING TIM has also stated and many first time renters and buyers forget is all the other costs of living on your own.

Lalalemon

Not when I'll be 30 before we move in together no! Plus we still won't know if we can live together at that point!

The £525pcm is just the rent, because the house price for buying doesn't include bills etc either! It is a lot more expensive when you own the property as there is more to pay for. Plus our monthly mortgage payments would probably be almost as much as, if not more than the rental pcm. (If I go buy the figures our mortgage advisor gave us)

dimbo61

You are right a £112,000 mortgage at 5% over 25 years would cost £655 a month with all the normal bills on top.
If you can rent a modern flat as it may have smaller rooms but the heating bills should be lower and better insulation, double glazing, security etc

sulphate

ReadingTim wrote: »

Sadly there are merits to both sides of this argument.

I'd certainly recommend living together before committing to a joint mortgage, which, as someone else pointed out, is a considerably longer and more onerous committment than even marriage in this day and age.

However, his parents are also right, and it's not clear to me whether your sum of approximately £525pcm to rent covers everything you'll need to pay, which you don't always appreciate (or pay for!) when you're living at home - aside from rent there's council tax, electricity, gas, water, contents insurance, phone, internet, tv license, food etc, to name the obvious.

Living at home is the best opportunity you'll have to save to buy. Isn't sucking that up for a couple of years with the prospect of home ownership worth more than a temporary feeling of independence, but condemning yourself and the family you want to a lifetime of renting?

I agree with this basically.

I'll tell you our little story that might help you. OH and I moved in together after 6 months back in 2009. We rented - same reasons as you basically, didn't have any savings worth mentioning so couldn't afford to buy, and we hadn't been together that long.

I'm in the SE (near Cambridge) so living costs high here too. We rented probably the cheapest house we could, but we were only saving probably £50-£100 a month after all our outgoings.

Then after 18 months OH decided he wanted to go to uni. At the time I was still on a band 2 NHS salary so we couldn't have afforded to still rent. So moved back in with my parents.

Managed to save around £1500 a month for 2 years, had a nice (not extortionate) wedding and just bought a house this year.

Our parents helped us, definitely and other things helped too, I got promoted/changed jobs twice. But if we hadn't have moved back with my parents we'd still be in that same rented house.

Depends on how much you really want to buy, right now I guess.

The problem (imo) that young people have with saving a deposit is renting. Renting alone (unless they have extortionate debts). Not the £30 a month on an iphone or whatever else people tend to bring up first as the primary reason why people aren't on the property ladder.

Living at home with my parents was extremely difficult but worth it.

Part of the reason (and this is none of my business what your future holds) why we did this was because we wanted to buy a house before we had children and we wouldn't have been able to buy a house otherwise before I hit 35-40 probably..

eta: just realised how my post sounds really "down on renting" and i didn't mean for it to come off that way. Renting was the right thing for us to do at the time. But it wasn't what we wanted long term (no offence at all if that's what you decide to do long term/no offence to anyone else, but we always had the goal of buying a house)

Lalalemon

The 2 bedroom house we viewed was no bigger than a 2 bed flat. Would be very cheap to heat etc.

Here is a budget i've written up, what do you think?
All amounts are per month
Income = £1750

Rent = £525
Council Tax £100 (it's a band 'a' property)
Gas = £50
Electric =£50
Water = £50
(Wasn't really sure on these, but in my old house which was much bigger we never paid more than £150 per quarter for any of our utilities)
TV License = £12.12
Mobile Phones £70 (we have both got £35pm contract)
Phone/Broadband £30
Food Shopping £300 to include packed lunches
Petrol £100 (he could walk to work from the house we've looked at, so only other driving would be dropping me to work 4 mornings a week, 2 miles away)
Car expenses - I've budgeted that we would put £50pcm in a car account for when we need to pay insurance, car tax, MOT etc
Bus Fares - £17.60

Total = £1354.72pcm
Left over = £395.38 pcm
So £95 as contingency money
£300 in savings
which would be £3,600 savings per year minimum

ETA: I could also start working 5 days instead of 4 (currently do 4 x 10 hour days) thus bringing home an extra £200 or so a month, and partner could probably get some overtime too.