first time buyer anxiety

w00519772

i had an offer accepted on a house today. I am a naturally anxious person. I am asking myself a number of questions:

1) have i paid too much?
2) will i be able to afford the mortgage in 3 years?
3) will i be offered another job in another city this year?
etc

i am interested to hear from other first time buyers who have this anxiety and if so how they deal with it.

milliemonster

You should have had the answers to these questions sorted before you made an offer

Pixie5740

Pour yourself a large G&T and calm down

Shoey1610

I'm there with you, FTB and a confirmed worrier. We have a DIP and are currently looking for a house. My current anxieties are:

- They got the DIP wrong despite me giving them very accurate information and it being above the budget we are looking within.

- That the mortgage will not be approved by anyone ever, despite the fact that I have no issues that should make it difficult.

- We will never find a house we like and then when we do, someone else will get it.

- What if either of us loses our jobs or the mortgage repayments suddenly go shooting up due to really high interest rates, even though we always insure for everything and have allowed for interest rate rises.

Like I said, I'm naturally anxious and a control freak, so buying a house is really testing me

ruggedtoast

w00519772 wrote: »

i had an offer accepted on a house today. I am a naturally anxious person. I am asking myself a number of questions:

1) have i paid too much?
2) will i be able to afford the mortgage in 3 years?
3) will i be offered another job in another city this year?
etc

i am interested to hear from other first time buyers who have this anxiety and if so how they deal with it.

These are all excellent questions, and ones I feel fully competent to answer. With the aid of my trusty online Magic 8 Ball!

http://www.magic8.co.uk/ask

Lets see what she says.

1) Has he paid too much? "Outlook Good"
2) will he be able to afford the mortgage in 3 years? "Cannot predict now"
3) will he be offered another job in another city this year? "Most likely"

Well there you are, I hope that was useful.

TBagpuss

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Pour yourself a large G&T and calm down

Good advice.

I think all of the things you mention are reasonable doubts to be having.

Have I paid too much?
You haven't paid yet. Are you happy that the price is a reasonable one (ie is the house worth that to you? If so, then no, you haven't.
If you've offered above what the house is really worth then this will become clear when you get your survey and valuation and you can negotiate with the seller then.

Will I be able to afford the mortgage in three years?
None of us can answer that. But if you weren't buying, you'd presumably have the same question about rent.
You can think about what will work for you. Are you going for a 3 year fix on your mortgage? plan now to start making regular savings or overpayments to cushion the effect of any rate rises. Your income may rise, as well as mortgage costs increasing. You might have the option of taking in a lodger in the future if you had to, etc.
Will I be offered a job in another city?
Are you applying for one? If you are actively seeking jobs elsewhere then maybe this isn't the best time for you to be buying. If not, cross that bridge when you come to it. If your dream job, at a great salary, came up elsewhere you can put your house on the market and move. You might end up having to rent for a while, or commute long distance - a lot would depend on how much you wanted the job.
It's another argument for starting to save - if you build up a cushion of savings it allows you to cover the cost of a mortgage and rent / commuting costs if you do need to sell in order to move to a new job.

It's natural to be stressed over a house purchase - it's a big deal, and there aren't any 100% guarantees for any of us. But you've got this far - has anything changed since you made the decision to make the offer? If not, trust yourself. You made the decision to go for it.

And if you sleep on it and then realise you did offer more than the house is worth to you,and that you don't want the responsibility of a mortgage or to be tied to your current city, then you can still back out. You haven't signed anything.

ging84

1)Probably
2)Probably
3)Probably not

MysteryMe

None of us know the future and you can't live your life on what ifs. It's natural to worry but don't let it affect your ability to make a decision.


On the positive side, if you can't afford your mortgage in three years time at least it means you haven't been run over by a lorry tomorrow.