Property ladder - when did you buy your second home?

princeofpounds

I realise my post in the thread have been somewhat less practical than they should be, so I'll just give a view on when to trade up:

1) When you need to due to your personal circumstances
2) When the financial risks in terms of the size and cost of the mortgage are acceptable
3) When you think the outlook for house prices is ok.

penguingirl

We've just our first house on the market. We've been here just over 5 years and we're both late 20s. For us it was the right time as we were ready for a new location, our financial circumstances have changed quite a lot and I got a new job (although that was because we were looking at a new area so I applied for a job there, but it was the kick we needed!). We're thinking 3-5 years for our next house as we can only afford a small house in the area we're moving to due to it being expensive, so our plan is to over pay and then reconsider if our circumstances change again (due to work, starting a family etc)

Old_Git

first house was a repo ,a 2 bed house .If it hadnt been a repo I couldnt have afforded it .I lived in it for six years .
Second house was a three bed semi ,lived in it for 16 years .
Third house was inherited ,sold it and bought present house with the cash .

barnaclebill

Sorry but this is very old but it may show how things can go.
At age 22 I took out a life endowment with someone my wife knew on the basis we could get a mortgage easier this was 1969. we found a new house for £5750 and tried to get a 100% mortgage and were refused, my wife went to the guy my wife knew, he had words with the manager of the building society and we got a mortgage.
5 years later we sold for £12500and bought a house for £13900.
5 years later after work promotion we sold for £26000 and bought a detached bungalow for £30000.
After 9 years I made a career change and had to move south and had to pay £105000 for a house, the company had a relocation scheme but in the end I only got £89000 for the bungalow, The property in Hertfordshire went down in value and we made an extension, after 10 years the house reached £130,000, (recently sold for £330,000) so we sold, tried to move north but the prices had gone up. In the end we bought a new build in Wiltshire for £128,000.
After 10 years we tried to sell, got an offer for £240,000 but could not find a house, built a conservatory for £18,000 but wife still not happy.
moved north in rented while we searched renting our house out, after 2.5 years we sold for £230,000 and just bought a house that needs a lot of work for £185,000, writing this surrounded by packing box's, traveling back to the rented one for cleaning tomorrow.
Moral of the story, two of my friends bought a house after marrying and never moved, still live there, mortgage paid off years ago so my advice is try to buy a house you like in a good area and stay there.

gazter

After privately renting for twelve months, my wife and I bought our first home in 2004. It was a new build and included a 20% discount, classed as low cost housing. Two bedrooms very small, but it was ours! £63,200 on a 1% plus base tracker mortgage. Built extension etc. When interest rates crashed, our mortgage repayments dropped off a cliff. We decided to maintain payments at the original rate. This resulted in a significant amunt of equity when we decided to move nine years later. We sold for £105,000.

The equity allowed us to buy a house we could only have dreamed of. A four bedroom Georgian house in a lovely village.