Predicament

Dhrucku

Hi all,

Here is my story so far:

In a relationship with my fiance and we've been looking to buy a house for 1-2 months. We both earn well with good salaries (31k & 33k) with good credit history and can achieve a 301k mortgage for a ballpark 350k house. We have also managed to save £60-65k for the deposit. We both work professional jobs Project Management & Accounting. I commute to London and she drives to Woking. We still live with parents.

In our quest we have also gone through the following:

1) Looking to buy a new build house at Castle Hill (Ward Homes) which we found out to be sold out for ages with a waiting list of 100s so realised it was a no go, great houses though and within our price range so was a bit sad to see the opportunity fall away

2) We then proceeded to place ourselves on the next best waiting lists. We missed our opportunity for Bellway Homes St Clements Lakes near Bluewater due to my fiance having her ACCA exams the following Monday after the Saturday open day so were again sad to see that opportunity go begging

3) We have now placed ourselves on the Persimmon waiting list for Castle Hill and also Redrow . We await something in the next few months...

The deadline for a closure on the housing situation is November / December as we're due to get married in March. It sounds tight but her parents are organising the wedding whereas I am in control of buying the house so it is manageable at least.

I did some reading and asking around and came to realise that New Builds are not the greatest to buy due to the premium and the nature of the housebuilding, so are steering away (slowly) from the idea of buying brand new.

Due to being able to borrow enough with a good deposit, I feel inclined to buy something around the 300-350k price range as we all want a nice house with space, prospects etc. Yet at the same time think that by limiting back to 200-220k I will be able to own a property quicker (paying off a mortgage of 140-180k due to the 60k deposit). Take this for example. This property would still have a garage and a garden. I would have a more comfortable lifestyle with more disposable income, own the GTR I've always wanted etc. I would then be able to put the house up for rent and gain cash flow that way.

Is there a reason I would look to do anything else other than buy a property for 300k+? I see so many people around my age of around <29 years old, who go for houses around 360k and I think to myself why?! Why would you commit so quickly...?

It's a selfish question but one I hope the thread can help me realise and one that dictates the right approach for me.

I live in the Medway Town so anything within a 10 mile radius is fine.

TBeckett100

Well, There are many schools of thought

1) buy big and hopefully it will appreciate equity faster thus allowing you to jump further up the ladder.

2) buy small to start with and then gradually build up your comfort level whilst appreciating that a child coming along may force another move

However a lot can be said for a lifestyle option. If you buy cheaper and have money left over to do fund stuff, why not. That's what we have done the past several years and now we are getting sensible.

Kynthia

Buying and selling incurs lots of costs such as solicitors fees, estate agents fees, stamp duty, removals, surveys, mortgage arrangement fees, etc. Therefore you want to minimise the number of times you buy and sell if you don't want to spend thousands unnecessarily. So generally people say you should buy the best house you can afford, but what they mean is buy a place that will last you the longest because it has the size and location you want and is as future-proof as possible. However unless you know your incomes are going to go up over the next few years don't stretch yourself too much as you might think you can live without much disposable income at first but after a couple of years it wears thin.

missbiggles1

Dhrucku wrote: »

Hi all,

Here is my story so far:

In a relationship with my fiance and we've been looking to buy a house for 1-2 months. We both earn well with good salaries (31k & 33k) with good credit history and can achieve a 301k mortgage for a ballpark 350k house. We have also managed to save £60-65k for the deposit. We both work professional jobs Project Management & Accounting. I commute to London and she drives to Woking. We still live with parents.

In our quest we have also gone through the following:

1) Looking to buy a new build house at Castle Hill (Ward Homes) which we found out to be sold out for ages with a waiting list of 100s so realised it was a no go, great houses though and within our price range so was a bit sad to see the opportunity fall away

2) We then proceeded to place ourselves on the next best waiting lists. We missed our opportunity for Bellway Homes St Clements Lakes near Bluewater due to my fiance having her ACCA exams the following Monday after the Saturday open day so were again sad to see that opportunity go begging

3) We have now placed ourselves on the Persimmon waiting list for Castle Hill and also Redrow . We await something in the next few months...

The deadline for a closure on the housing situation is November / December as we're due to get married in March. It sounds tight but her parents are organising the wedding whereas I am in control of buying the house so it is manageable at least.

I did some reading and asking around and came to realise that New Builds are not the greatest to buy due to the premium and the nature of the housebuilding, so are steering away (slowly) from the idea of buying brand new.

Due to being able to borrow enough with a good deposit, I feel inclined to buy something around the 300-350k price range as we all want a nice house with space, prospects etc. Yet at the same time think that by limiting back to 200-220k I will be able to own a property quicker (paying off a mortgage of 140-180k due to the 60k deposit). Take this for example. This property would still have a garage and a garden. I would have a more comfortable lifestyle with more disposable income, own the GTR I've always wanted etc. I would then be able to put the house up for rent and gain cash flow that way.

Is there a reason I would look to do anything else other than buy a property for 300k+? I see so many people around my age of around <29 years old, who go for houses around 360k and I think to myself why?! Why would you commit so quickly...?

It's a selfish question but one I hope the thread can help me realise and one that dictates the right approach for me.

I live in the Medway Town so anything within a 10 mile radius is fine.

Gillingham to Woking's a hell of a commute!

csgohan4

Please avoid persimmon, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4VNJyVS7Z56pRTQm3j4bSYY/persimmon-house-builders


Generally new build quality these days are pretty mixed and not consistent to take the risk.

elvenlomadia

It depends how close to your limits you want to stretch yourself, we could afford a 240k mortgage but have ended up buying a 3 bedroom house with plenty of room with a 135k mortgage. Our reasoning was that down the line if one of us wants to work part time etc, that is a choice that will be available to us.

Dhrucku

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Gillingham to Woking's a hell of a commute!

She lives near Heathrow, and I meant to say Weybridge. As I said we still live at home. Both of us.

csgohan4 wrote: »

Please avoid persimmon, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4VNJyVS7Z56pRTQm3j4bSYY/persimmon-house-builders


Generally new build quality these days are pretty mixed and not consistent to take the risk.

Yes I saw this and also the episode of Watchdog. Steering away from them. If I am to buy in Ebssfleet it'll be the Redrow development.

TBeckett100 wrote: »

Well, There are many schools of thought

1) buy big and hopefully it will appreciate equity faster thus allowing you to jump further up the ladder.

2) buy small to start with and then gradually build up your comfort level whilst appreciating that a child coming along may force another move

However a lot can be said for a lifestyle option. If you buy cheaper and have money left over to do fund stuff, why not. That's what we have done the past several years and now we are getting sensible.

Buying big will force me to sacrifice on other things I want and it might be the case I'm forcing myself to pay a high mortgage for very little gain.

elvenlomadia wrote: »

It depends how close to your limits you want to stretch yourself, we could afford a 240k mortgage but have ended up buying a 3 bedroom house with plenty of room with a 135k mortgage. Our reasoning was that down the line if one of us wants to work part time etc, that is a choice that will be available to us.

This is a very similar situation to us. We can afford the 300k mortgage but may opt for the 240k one just so that we can have that relaxed element whilst "bagging" a property at the same time.

Something that I failed to mention was that i would be looking to put the house up for rent after a certain period of time so it would not just be a case of buying/owning and then selling off and me to move to another house. It would also be about me getting on to the property ladder (it would still be a decent house in any case) sooner rather than later due to the lower price of the house as a whole.