Your first time buying

[simon]

Hey

Just wondering about other peoples first time buying a flat / house.


1/ the situation

Examples:

Did you move out and buy to be with a partner ?

Had a bad time at home with patents / guardians ?

And

2/ the property

Was it your dream home ?

Was it something cheap that you have built up. ?

Did you buy your own furniture / stuff to begin with or get it given ?

Was the house / flat in the area that you desired ?

Thanks

ihatemyhouse

bought a house 10 years ago, never again, bought a old house that looked ok, survey said damp course, nothing big, day we moved in solicitor phones at 3.30 saying we will have to wait till Monday to move in and paper work wasn't ready, damp course was a bigger job than expected as skirting boards where concreate, had to have a full rewire, fit a full central heating system, replace all water and gas pipes in the property, cost me fortune just to make liveable, then they the parking out side the house, was made double yellow so couldn't park there, side street had a school in so half the street could not be used for parking, final straw was getting 3 parking tickets in a week

if I was to buy a house now, would only buy a new build

LADYXXMACBETH

Bought my first house at 19 with my boyfriend as we had just had a child. It was a run down ex council house in Nottingham. We didn't drive so went up to Nottingham not knowing any areas and only got to see one house. I don't know what possessed us to buy it, we paid full asking price in case it sold to someone else. We knew nothing of surveys or anything. It had no central heating and no fitted kitchen. Bathroom downstairs and it needed the whole lot ripping out and starting again. We had no money to do it up and lived with no proper kitchen, no carpets, no heating and no hot water. I lived there for nearly 3 years.
I would never buy a house again that needed work unless I had a mountain of cash to fix everything.

jonewer

Bought 3 years ago. Not our dream home, but a home large enough and with a big enough garden and decent enough transport links that we should never have to move again.

We were staying in my grandad's house for a while after he died, then bought our own place.

In a way we were quite fortunate in that we took a lot of his furniture with us and the vendors left all the curtains and other fittings in place.

Nothing had to be done but we're slowly re-doing the place to our taste.

Unlikel to move unless we win the lotto

Leo2020

Buying my first house (and still current house) was straight forward. But it was one of those houses that looked OK on the surface but needed a new central heating system (not just boiler the whole works), new windows, and other minor bodge jobs. We knew if needed a new kitchen and bathroom. The previous owners "papered over" stuff to make it look better.

The boiler was not only very old, over 30 years, but also leaking gas. The gas pipe to the meter outside was also leaking.

We didn't have full survey so totally our fault.

I had been with my now husband but then boyfriend for about 6 months before we decided to buy somewhere. It was to be a starter home and we always planned to move to somewhere bigger and better later. Not in the best area then again we don't have the budget for a nice area.

Most of the furniture was given or brought with us. We were both living with our parents before we moved in together so we had some bedroom furniture.

We recently tried to buy a new build through Keepmoat. Complete nightmare, I seriously doubt I will ever look at a new build again. Will probably look at an ex-council house that needs work but this time I will know what to look for and to get a survey.

bathwiggle

My parents offered me a deposit so i could buy rather than keep renting with family. The house needed work but i got so much more than i would have because of it. I knew most of what needed doing before i got the survey so that wasn't a problem, and 6 months later i just have one room left to decorate now.

Furniture was mainly gifts/freecycle/ebay- some i had from my flat, but other bits had been given away

Davesnave

I sold my furniture and my car to speed along the job of getting a deposit. I saw house prices going up quickly, so it was a matter of urgency.

I bought a terraced house without a proper kitchen and with a primitive bathroom, but it was in exactly the right area and it was structurally good. You only get to be a FTB once.

For the first few years I lived in chaos, with floors up everywhere and holes where old fireplaces had been etc etc. Eventually, I got basic heating in and a bathroom.

I was 32 by then.


All this happened in the 1970s. We Boomers had it easy. :rotfl:

onlyroz

When I met my husband he already owned a 2-bed flat which he had bought at the bottom of the market in 1995 for about £45k. We sold it in 2007 for £202k and we bought a 3-bed end terrace for £250k. This was never intended to be our "forever home" - however in the end we decided that it would be cheaper to extend than to upgrade, and so we've recently done a loft conversion to turn it into a 4-bed.

On the day we moved in (it was an extremely chilly february) we found that the boiler didn't work - our fault for not getting it inspected. We replaced that and then over the next year or so improved the electrics, replaced the carpet, decorated, fixed the leaking skylight in the conservatory. I don't dare think about how much we've spent on the place but it's significantly improved over when we moved in. The next projects are to replace some of the windows and to put in a new kitchen. But slowly slowly - we intend on staying here until the kids move out.

The area is good - the local primary school is excellent, the local secondary schools are OK, and we have a large park on our doorstep. I was brought up in a tiny hamlet with no local ameneties at all and I was determined that my own kids would never have to suffer this - we've got a decent range of local shops, takeaways and pubs, and have a number of large supermarkets within a few miles.

vasseur

I bought my first place, a lovely one bedroom flat, on my own when I was 27. I'd been saving for my deposit since I was 18 when I started work but I kept spending it so had to keep saving up again. I always knew I wanted to buy on my own and as soon as I split up with my then boyfriend I did!

I bought at the right time just as prices were starting to rise quickly and less than 4 years later I sold it for double what I'd paid for it.

I seem to have been a bit lucky with things I have bought because my next house was right near where they were building the high speed rail link and although I didn't really like the area the prices again rose quite quickly and I made enough to buy in the area I am now - I am now selling again.

ash28

First house in 1982....had rented since marriage in 1975 (that was when we got given furniture etc).....had 3 very young children - brand new 3 bed mid terrace - we only needed a 5% deposit because it was new, older houses at the time normally needed a bigger deposit and if there was work to be done then mortgage retentions were pretty common. It came with nothing, no carpets or anything.

It wasn't our dream home or in the right location....but it was a start. We were 28. The dream house came about 10 years later - and that house was like the house that Jack built and a bit of a money pit initially.

Winkle1908

I bought with my boyfriend in 2007 at the height of the market, we had a 3% deposit and that bought us a 2 bed old terraced built in 1896.

It was a FTB house, the vendors had it as their first house and the people before them were FTB's too. They hadn't done much to it so it was dated but not old person dated.

We bought it and did all the painting whilst still at home, moved in then changed the bathroom about 4 months later in the spring. We then changed the kitchen Sept 2011 and marketed in Feb 2012. We sold to FTB's who loved it.

It wasn't our dream house, it was always a house to get on the property ladder. It was structurally sound, we could have lived in it without changing anything but it wasn't to our taste. Because it was in an ok state we didn't have to decorate until we wanted to which added to less pressure as a new couple living together.

In the end my husband hated the house, but it was more to do with parking wars being on a narrow un adopted road (and the fact that there was no heating in the second floor bedroom - which was fine until we had a baby).

We moved last year but lost 10K on the house dispite putting a quality bathroom and kitchen in, but figured if we hadn't bought when we did we wouldn't have got a mortgage as we didn't have 10%. I have no regrets!

My second house isn't my dream house, much bigger and 10 years old, but not my forever house and chosen for nice location and school catchment areas.

I would be surprised if younger FTB's feel that their first house is their dream house longer term. Mine was perfect for my life at the time.