Anyone else utterly depressed re buying first home?

partialycloudy

Good Luck to you too Golden. This time next year when you have home this will all be a distant memory!

pinkteapot

To the Chelmsford/Colchester people - I live and work in Colchester, have previously lived in Chelmsford and my parents-in-law still live in Chelmsford. My mum lived in Chelmsford and drove to work in Colchester every day before she retired. And I commuted to London every day until last year. Let me know if you've got any Colchester questions.

Like everywhere it's got good and bad areas. And some road junctions are horrific in rush hour (if you work 9-5 and drive) so worth checking out.

FloppyDisk

Best of luck, but with only 53k between you and just starting out on the career ladder you have plenty of time to sort yourselves out with a 25 year committment! Be patient.

pinkteapot

meander wrote: »

In this price bracket there are only so many run down 2 up 2 down terraces you can look at. It's like same street, different town.

To be fair, my parents' first house in the 1970s was a two-up two-down in need of complete modernisation. It was all they could afford.

Kevie192

When you are only just starting out in your career, I can't help but think you would be so much better off renting rather than buying.

What happens if you finish the grad scheme and then can't get a job? How do you pay the mortgage and bills with only one income?

Conversely, what happens if you finish the grad scheme and get an excellent job on a much higher wage and decide the house you compromised on to buy is now not what you want because you CAN afford something that ticks ALL of your boxes?

I'm 25 and my partner is 23. We live alone with our dog and are renters for that very reason. I know what I can afford to buy now will be a compromise and I expect to progress in my career significantly in the next 5 years to a place where I will be able to buy somewhere that is perfect for us.

Not saying buying is definitely not the answer but I don't really understand why people are so fixated on owning 'stuff' in this country. I have seen so many friends really struggle because of their perceived 'need' to own a house when they could rent and be much more comfortable...

Just my opinion

Kevin

TBagpuss

It is depressing, and I can understand why (particualrly with pets) you'd like to buy.

I think the key issues have been covered- compromise - you have to be realistic about what you can afford, and what compromises that entials. It may be that the compromises are too great, and that you decide that you would rather rent than buy something which falls too far short of what you want. (again, renting first may help you to focus on which of the things on your wish-list are essential and which aren't - living with your parents you may have subconsciously got used to the the standard of living they can afford, not the one you can afford, if that makes sense)

It's also worth looking at which of your criteria are things you can change - you won't be able to afford everything as soon as you move in, but some things you will be able to change once you are in the house, even if it means saving up for a while to be able to afford to do the work.

You can also think about not only what you want, but *why* you want it - as that may make it easier to think of what compromises might be possible - for instance, if you want a big garden so growing your own veg is possible, would looking at whether you could apply for an allotment be an alternative, that sort of thing.

Looking at prices, and how they change, is always going to be scary.

TheCyclingProgrammer

pinkteapot wrote: »

To the Chelmsford/Colchester people - I live and work in Colchester, have previously lived in Chelmsford and my parents-in-law still live in Chelmsford. My mum lived in Chelmsford and drove to work in Colchester every day before she retired. And I commuted to London every day until last year. Let me know if you've got any Colchester questions.

Like everywhere it's got good and bad areas. And some road junctions are horrific in rush hour (if you work 9-5 and drive) so worth checking out.

How does Colchester compare to Chelmsford? From my research, it seems to have its share of nice areas and a few areas to avoid (from what I can tell, avoid Melbourne in Chelmsford and Greenstead in Colchester) but both are pretty comparable in terms of schooling (lots of good schools).

I don't have to do much rush hour driving and would cycle to the station if I needed to go into London (I do occasionally but mostly work from home). But its quite a significant increase in cost/time if I do have to go in.

Also much further away from family who live in Billericay (which is why Chelmsford would be great), Harold Hill and Romford.

There does seem to be lots of new building work going on near Colchester though.

GoldenShadow

I have been thinking about this some more and I am quite surprised at the replies I got. I think (from reading this forum quite a bit) I expected people to say if you don't buy now/ASAP you might struggle. I never expected anyone to encourage me to rent. For what it would cost and all the stress involved I can't get my head around it being worthwhile.

I think deep down I do worry what happens if we leave it later. Owning a home is really important to us and we don't want to miss out entirely, which is the kind of fear being locked into us by media lately, and this forum at times.

PasturesNew

I just gave up looking for a house that ticked most of the boxes .... and ended up buying "a house". If I compare it to the ticklist the only thing it has going for it is its age .... nothing from the tick list is there....

But sometimes you simply have to buy "a house" so you can get on with living.... the perfect house rarely exists and all that happens is you waste time looking.

landt2013

The irony of the whole thing for me was that if the bank had decided I couldn't afford the monthly mortgage repayments (which thankfully they did, eventually), I'd have had to pay twice as much to rent a flat like the one I'm trying to buy. My monthly mortgage repayments will be about the same as the rent on a "professional house share". Rental prices are utterly stupid, and mortgages are almost impossible to get. What are we supposed to do?