First time buyer, worth looking around?

ft_buyer

Very true! Over the years I've seen that my father spends load of time and money on fixing the boiler, roof, garden, etc etc. Which is one of the reasons I'm opting for a small (electrics-only) flat, don't trust myself to constantly maintain stuff, especially outdoors. No boilers, gas or outdoors so hopefully less things that can go wrong

getmore4less wrote: »

ownership comes with costs you don't have with renting.

AnotherJoe

ft_buyer wrote: »

Very true! Over the years I've seen that my father spends load of time and money on fixing the boiler, roof, garden, etc etc. Which is one of the reasons I'm opting for a small (electrics-only) flat, don't trust myself to constantly maintain stuff, especially outdoors. No boilers, gas or outdoors so hopefully less things that can go wrong

There's no such thing as a free lunch

When things do go wrong with a flat, the costs, shared amongst all the leaseholders, are likely to be very high compared to a house, and either paid ongoing as part of a service charge / sinking fund, or as big one off contributions, eg "flat needs painting externally, thats £20k, 10 flats so £2k each please.

steampowered

I found the mortgage affordability calculators to be pretty accurate. The banks work from similar salary/price ratios. In fact I managed to borrow slightly in excess of what the calculators told me.

The next step would be to try and get a decision in principle or speak to a broker. I'm not sure what would the implications of the credit card debt are.

I am in the same boat as I also have quite a lot of debt on 0% cards that I could pay off in order to move up the ladder if I really need to, but I don't want to do this while the debt is at 0%.

ft_buyer

Quite right, my father always tells me that! My colleague's flat management is done by the residents' association and because of that the service charges and insurance are very reasonable compared to some of the other flats in the area, they can indeed be scandalously high!

I think for me it's also the fact that I like to worry about as little as possible outside my front door so in that way a small flat works quite well for where I am in my life at the moment.

AnotherJoe wrote: »

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Thanks, that's good to hear. I got a recommendation from a friend and have made an appointment to see the broker before work tomorrow. Hopefully she will confirm that I can borrow 300k and I can make an offer before my colleague puts up his flat for sale through an estate agent in the new year! :beer:

steampowered wrote: »

I found the mortgage affordability calculators to be pretty accurate. The banks work from similar salary/price ratios. In fact I managed to borrow slightly in excess of what the calculators told me.

The next step would be to try and get a decision in principle or speak to a broker. I'm not sure what would the implications of the credit card debt are.

Norscbu

How have you managed to accumulate that credit card debt with that income? That is what I would be asking myself. Then I would be thinking whether having more disposable income will really lead to less debt or increased spending. I'm swaying toward the latter.

ft_buyer

Don't ask, it's a mix of helping out family and some poor spending choices! :eek: Anyhoo that's all in the past now. Thankfully I had enough sense to make sure there aren't any blemishes in my credit history. A lot of the debt is on 0% cards and very low interest. Did a load of balance transfers last year after watching Martin suggest it on TV. Saved me a bundle! :money:

Once I get a mortgage and my own place, I'm confident that I'll steer the significant excess disposable income that I'll have into paying off debt and overpaying my mortgage instead of my landlord's. Will check if there's any chance of consolidating the cc debt into the mortgage at all when I meet the broker tomorrow.

Norscbu wrote: »

How have you managed to accumulate that credit card debt with that income? That is what I would be asking myself. Then I would be thinking whether having more disposable income will really lead to less debt or increased spending. I'm swaying toward the latter.

ft_buyer

Quick update - spoke to the broker this morning, she was very positive and said that as long as my credit history is clean, she doesn't see any reason why I can't borrow 300k. Happy days!

Will talk to my colleague today and put in an offer. Zoopla tells me that similar flats in the complex have gone for 330k-350k in the past year and he mentioned 335k. Given that he'll save on estate agent fee if I'm buying from him, I think I'll go in with 320-325k to start with.

Thanks all for your help and thoughts on this, very excited!

Noel