First Time Buyer Frusutration

chelseablue

Where abouts are you and what sort of property are you hoping to buy?

foxy-stoat

Maybe the OP needs the help of Phil and Kirsty !

alchemist.1

mashmash90 wrote: »

Hello Rose

We were in a similar situation (we're 4 years out of uni) and are about to move into our shared owneship property on friday! We have been renting (so not living with parents as where they live there are no jobs!) and moved to London to secure good careers. We've been renting since leaving uni in london (elephant & castle) and the prices have only gone up and up (both rent & buying). We had been checking on zoopla and there were some properties in the block we were renting that went up by over 70K in 1 year. We thought if we keep renting and trying to save, the prices will also keep going up so we looked into shared ownership. I think you should definitely consider this as an option as you are at least getting your foot on the property ladder and starting to build up some equity.

Also if you haven't been paying rent, you may struggle to get a mortgage unless you have a substantial deposit (don't quote me on this), whereas Shared Ownership lenders are a lot more lenient as it's an affordable housing solution.

Anyway, something to consider!

Makes no difference.

Rose46

Haha you're right foxy-stoat! Phil and Kirsty need to do a new series for first time buyers! Or alternatively Kevin McCloud on Grand Designs needs to do a series about self building on a budget for people who can't get on the housing market!! The latest series of GD has been particularly extravagant look-how-much-money-we-have-to-throw-at-our-house builds (not jealous at all!)

Thanks for all the comments. Believe me I am under no illusion that we are going to find a perfect house but I don't want to sacrifice everything just for the sake of buying something. But I will admit it is the reality of the situation that is hard to deal with... that life is unfair! And that the housing situation really is as diabolical as it is portrayed at the moment.

I suppose in terms of needs and wants we are only asking for what we need, the main thing being that I part work from home so I need a second bedroom to work from OR a garden I can build a shed in!

OK yes I suppose a garden is a want but it would be more ideal for me and also for the boyfs bike as I doubt we're going to find a place with a driveway!!!

But we've already sacrificed things like:

might not be a house
doesn't need to be near a station
happy to do work to it

We've already offered on a few places but they've all gone for 20/30k more. One place didn't even have central heating!

We have a very good deposit and obviously the plus to still being at home is we continue to save until we move so it's ever increasing... our max budget is 320k and we have a 20-25% deposit on that. Mortgage is all approved, in terms of having a decision in principle. And because I'm freelance thats not even based on the latest years income as the bank takes into account 2 years back from the last full tax year so in terms of affordability we've calculated even with increased interest rates we should be ok based on our most recent incomes.

So by all means if any one can find us something, fell free to look! But like PasturesNew said, everyone's in the same boat I know...

selement

Is there any chance you could move up north? Plenty available within your budget. How about Birmingham, it's only an hour and a half on the train to London...

Rose46

It would be a whole change of lifestyle to move that far away I think. A lot of my work I've now set up around where I live and I get there by car with all my equipment. So I would have to lose work in order to move. Plus we're near family here... friends... so everything would have to change

xylophone

You haven't said where you want to buy?

Rose46

Oh! Thought I'd written it, sorry. We're looking in SM1 and 5 miles from there, South London/Surrey

[Deleted User]

Have you looked around Croydon? Lots of property, it's coming up, and we're in the process of buying a two bed house there (with a garden!) for about 20k less than what you say your budget is.

Andrew_Ryan_89

Hey Rose, my partner and I are in a similar situation. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you guys and how long have you been looking for?

We were looking in the East London area, Chadwell Heath etc because they were the only places we could actually get a house for are budget. We quickly realised everywhere we made a bid on we were always outbid. We were offering £2-5k above the asking price and getting no where. Everytime we went for a viewing there were queues of at least 20 people so you can imagine what the competition was like.

What I figured out is the house price set is usually done in a way to encourage as many viewings as possible. The main question I think you have to ask yourself is what is the max you'll fill comfortable paying for the house and make that offer. We saw a place we loved and put a offer £25k over the lower asking price which was successful.

With your budget in mind, maybe it's worth looking for lower cost homes, £20k or so below your budget, and offering £20k more. On the asking price