Bought property, big mistake :( any words of wisdom?

jackyann

Best thing to do is sit tight, as all above have said, and well done on working so hard to get your own place.

I get the impression that other things are maybe making you feel unhappy where you are, and honestly, the only way to tackle that (yes, I've been there!) is to look around and make the best of it.

If you are commuting, it is true that especially this time of year, you see little of your area, but make a decision at the weekends to get to know what is great about Watford.

I don't really know it, but lived about 30 mins away, so I can tell you at least this:

Lovely walks in Hertfordshire, and a good number of decent pubs
Ashridge Forest is lovely to wander round
I don't know what Watford market is like, but St. Albans on a Saturday is fantastic - much more fun than going round the supermarket
And I used to love the Palace Theatre - do they still manage to get celebrities to do the odd 3 week run? I saw Jerry Hall in Bus Stop there!

I_have_spoken

buy a flat with his GF and her two younger sisters.

No secrets in that household! :shocked:

Fedupofworrying86

Thanks all, i know it seems silly to worry in advance but I've always thought that hard work paid off and so to think it might have cost us if we had to sell for less than what be bought for is just very frustrating. Like you say though we don't know- like with any situation though I just wish the media would stop fuelling things and wish reports would stop being dictated by those who want prices to drop, forgetting what a horrible impact that could have on so many, and therefore the country.
I do understand that things should perhaps slow and even stall in places for a year but really hope, for all the blood sweat and tears put into saving that deposit that we can at least sell for what we bought at.
We paid £240k for a brand new 2 bed flat, still a lot of money but in keeping with the area. I love the flat inside but don't really love the area although it works for our lifestyle.
I think I just felt deflated having moved from Central London, and having expected it to be the best moment of my life, I've been worrying inside when friends and family are saying" you must be so happy/relieved etc" when I just don't feel like that or feel like I could be honest. It's good to share on here though as think it's been making me a bit depressed!!
It's true though, it's only an issue because I'm letting it be- I need to stop reading media reports on the market. It's also not relevant until we want to sell as things change all the time. And also have to remember if wouldn't be the end of the world if we made a huge loss, I suppose we'd just move on and see it as a life lesson, then hopefully by somewhere cheaper further up north if things go to plan.
It's a bit of a relentless situation we create for young people today I think, pressure to do what we think is right then sometimes only to find it might not have been right in the first place. Think it's a lesson to do what you want rather than what you think you should.
Essay over

Fedupofworrying86

P.s- overpayments on a mortgage- we can do 10% per year. Is it best to save that 10% in a savings account and pay once a year (or as close as we can afford) or do overpayments monthly- is the new amount owed and therefore interest due, recalculated every time we pay? I am presuming not as our repayments are the same every month for our 2 year fixed period...not sure I fully understand overpaying, thanks again all

Mallotum_X

Everyone worries just after buying. Commuter towns near London are still showing increases in prices. Watford is not going to be an exception so I really wouldn't worry, enjoy life and what is now your home.

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn

Fedupofworrying86 wrote: »

Hi there!

Have been driving myself mad regretting our purchase as first time buyers so thought to vent some stress I'd turn to the lovely people on here to see if you can offer any similar experiences/words of wisdom or words of advice.
Myself and partner have been living in London for 6 years since finishing uni and have saved so hard to get a deposit together against the odds, thinking it was the best thing to do to buy a flat of our own. We had no help from anyone, don't earn above average at all (I earn below average) and decided not to travel or do basically ANYTHING luxurious for 6 years just to get our deposit together. It came our 'turn' to buy in 2014, just as the market soared and it can honestly say I hated every bit of the buying process but as we had always had In mind we would buy and without any real personal advice, we just thought it was the best thing, but I'm starting to think we should have carried on renting. We had one purchase fall through a week before exchange and lost out on many others in the bidding wars that kept occurring, so in the end we gave up on zone 6 and looked in a Watford.
We want to move way out of London in 2-3 years if we can make OH's job allow it, so will want to sell the 2 bed flat we bought in Watford then! But with the way the market seems we may even make a loss on our flat, everyone seems to be willing prices to come down but they forget about first time buyers who just worked so hard to finally do it, or any buyer who has just bought for that matter. Yes prices need to slow in their growth, but surely them dropping would just actually bring around huge problems for the economy with stagnation of the property market, banks falling into crisis and 1000's of people who just bought, losing money on their properties??
This is supposed to be a great time for us but I just feel consumed with worry that we have made a mistake buying in 2014 just for a short term home and feel so stupid as usually I feel most decisions I make are sensible. There is no way I'd have bought a property to make a loss!!
Obviously I don't know what will happen to prices but media talk/forecasts at the moment are really ruining this new experience for us and I'm wanting to rewind to our risk free rental life.
Mortgage life is not financially much better for us, think after interest and extra travel costs we save around 3k a year than on rent!! And it cost us around 5k to move!!
Sorry to rant but is anyone in a similar position? London is such a hard place to be if you are someone who is not well off and having to do it yourself, I love London life so much, hence why we chose to stay another couple of years, but I'm now wishing for the next two years to fly by so I can move on from this flat!!
Thanks all, weight of my mind just writing this! Any advice to pull me out of my negativity?

You bought a new build flat with the plan to sell in 2 years, I can't help but feel you've been a bit stupid, all new builds come with a cost premium, then you've got all the associated buying / selling & moving fees. You took a big risk.... Maybe it will pay off for you. You can't do much about the predicament you find yourself in, so just try and get on with it without worrying too much.

Fedupofworrying86

Jack_Johnson_the_acorn wrote: »

You bought a new build flat with the plan to sell in 2 years, I can't help but feel you've been a bit stupid, all new builds come with a cost premium, then you've got all the associated buying / selling & moving fees. You took a big risk.... Maybe it will pay off for you. You can't do much about the predicament you find yourself in, so just try and get on with it without worrying too much.

Yes I think that's what is it; we didn't know we were taking a risk until we were so far into the whole process and thanks to a purchase falling through week before exchange and lots of other hiccups, in the end we just had to go with something before our mortgage offer ran out. It is what it is though as you sum it up, it may pay off but it may not and we will deal with it there and then. We didn't do it to make money at all, just to stop renting, and it was supposed to be more like a 5 year thing but I can't see that now... I just need to try and get in in perspective. It just helps to hear other peoples advice and similar experiences...

Thrugelmir

Fedupofworrying86 wrote: »

We didn't do it to make money at all, just to stop renting,

Then why the concern with making a "loss"?

Fedupofworrying86

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Then why the concern with making a "loss"?

Well mainly because I am worried that having bought a new build flat at the peak of the market and looking to move further up to the midlands in say 3 years if we can ensure we could work out of London, that we might have to sell for less than we paid, given the way the market seems to be going. I've just been reading the predictions of prices stalling and seeing the out crys of people complaining after the huge price increases seen in London this year....I'm just lacking confidence in what we've done. Il be 100% happy if we sell for what we bought for, I don't care about profit, I've just seen so much negativity in the past 3 months that I'm worried our effort to get out of renting might not work out. Sounds silly to worry in advance but because we only moved in November I suppose it's just on my mind a lot and it's become very consuming!

zaax

You brought a very wise investment. House prices might go down in the near term but in the long term they always go up. Of course it will be shortly be time to make the next investment - children