house buying with friend

robpaton

I am in London and looking to buy somewhere a bit more central with a good friend. We both have our own flats, both of which are valued at around 450,000. I have a small mortgage of 50,000, my friend has an interest only mortgage of 300,000 plus some savings form a previous sale (about 100,000). What is the most sensible thing to do? Should we both sell and pool the money? Or should I not sell but remortgage to raise deposit while keep ing the flat to rent out and help with the second mortgage (as another friend has suggested)?
Any advice/ similar experience welcome.
Rob

marksoton

At £450K for your current flat you must be relatively central. I think you'd be mad to co-own when you're already in a good position on your own.

What if you meet a partner and want to extricate yourself from the deal? You'd also be financially linked.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

never do business with friends and family I say if goes sour with a stranger then its down to experience you can move on, when its family or friends the cut runs deep for eternity.


DO NOT DO IT is my advice

Cheeky_Monkey

robpaton wrote: »

I am in London and looking to buy somewhere a bit more central with a good friend. We both have our own flats, both of which are valued at around 450,000. I have a small mortgage of 50,000, my friend has an interest only mortgage of 300,000 plus some savings form a previous sale (about 100,000). What is the most sensible thing to do? Should we both sell and pool the money? Or should I not sell but remortgage to raise deposit while keep ing the flat to rent out and help with the second mortgage (as another friend has suggested)?
Any advice/ similar experience welcome.
Rob

Don't do it!

However, if you are not the sensible type just remember that if you keep your flat and rent it out, you will be paying the extra 3% stamp duty

barbiedoll

Don't do it. It rarely ends well, if one of you loses your job, or meets a new partner who wants to move in, or if one of you wants to sell up and move out....the list of horrors goes on and on.

I've done it and I would never do it again....nor would my friend/house partner!

Mickygg

Don't do it. My friend did it, fell out with the friend then was awful for 2 years until they sold.

Argghhh

have you lived with this friend previously, some people are really hard to live with, think nothing of cutting toenails next to you when you are eating your tea, not emptying washing machine for days and their clothes stink, not washing up - and so on. My best m8 was a slob, i found this out within 2 hours of him moving in whilst he "sorted himself out" after his nagging gf kicked him out, i now know why she did. To get back to point - never get into 1 sided financial agreements with friends or family, but if you are determined i would sell your flat and only put into the new place the same amount of cash your friend does and get finance for the rest on equal terms. Put an exit clause into a contract and with your excess funds in bank - you night be able to buy your friend out at a later date

hazyjo

I find it hard to holiday with some friends for more than 2 nights lol. Have been away for a week with one on several occasions and whilst we have never fallen out, I find it very hard going!

Maybe a house share at 18 but I wouldn't dream of buying with a friend. It's a very different relationship to one you'd have with a partner if you bought with them.

Jx

Doozergirl

Another voice for not doing it.

You know it's as serious as marriage.

My uncle did it and regretted it. There are too many variables, not only about whether the friendship pasts but because you aren't in a couple, you are bound to have different ideas about when you need to or want to sell. At least the intention as a couple is that it's together.

AdrianC

If it was a choice between not owning, and owning with a friend, then I might be a bit more positive. But you already have a damn-near-half-million-quid flat, damn-near-mortgage-free.

If you do decide to do it and let your existing flat, remember that you'll be looking at a 3% SDLT hike. On an £800k property, that's £24k. How long will your existing flat be rented just to cover that?

hazyjo

Have you ever been on holiday with her?

Have you ever spent more than a few nights together?

My friend - who I love dearly and see a lot - gets up earlier than me and thinks nothing of putting the TV on and chatting to people on her phone. She does this weird snorting water thing which quite frankly makes me want to vomit, she snores horrendously (bad - I mean really really bad. Enough to wake the dead), she faffs a lot (we almost fell out once when I said she faffed as she took great offence). We leave a restaurant and I'm ready to leave immediately but she'll be changing shoes, ringing someone, nipping back in for a wee, then having a cig, then maybe wanting another wee just in case or going back in for something she forgot, then suggesting a quick one for the road so we spend another couple of hours with the same ritual lol. She has no sense of urgency or rush. We went to a wedding recently and literally had to run past the bride and groom who were about to enter the room they were married in (over an hour's drive away, but it took an unexpected 45 mins (fag, wee, chat, search to borrow something she forgot, etc) to leave my house - we checked into the (wedding) hotel and I slapped some makeup on but she was doing the works and I kept saying look we really have to go... She moans about the same things she's been upset about for the 20-odd years I've known her.

A night away? Lovely. I've been on holiday with her half a dozen times for a week or two. But to live with her on a full time basis, despite her being my best friend? I'd be locked up.

Jx