Buying A Home Or Private Renting? Which Is The Best Option?

System

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

Please do this with the money as I'm a little worried about your security now.

Well I have padlocked my bags and only I have the key to the padlock.

But they could still break the lock if they wanted to. So that is not a guaranteed means of safety.
Can't go to the bank now because it's 5 o'clock and they are closed.
So I guess I will just have to take my money with me when I got out tonight.

I am not saying that any one will go in my room and steal something while I am out.
But you just don't know.

I think I am more worried about this now because I told some of the hotel staff about my inheritance and I should not have done that.

fairy_lights

Please don't carry large amounts of cash with you - perhaps the hotel has a safe you could store it in.

Red-Squirrel_2

How soon can you get home? Do you have a train ticket booked or can you just go to the station tomorrow?

IAmWales

I'd be using some of your funds to get some support in place.

If I was a conveyancing solicitor I would be asking for confirmation that you have mental capacity before allowing you to enter into a contract.

Like others I am concerned for your safety. Please get home (there are trains tonight if you don't want to wait) and don't make any big decisions until you have someone to help you.

System

fairy_lights wrote: »

Please don't carry large amounts of cash with you - perhaps the hotel has a safe you could store it in.

Yes they do have a safe but it's down in reception not in the rooms.
Some big hotels have a safes in the rooms. But I would not store it in there. Because it is a digital safe where you set your own PIN number and if the safe won't open then you cannot get your money out.

I could give the money to reception for them to put in their safe but I don't feel comfortable about giving my valuables to anyone else.

And if reception is busy as they always are, or there is no one there I cannot get my things back.

I have both cash cards and debit cards. So I think I should just get up tomorrow morning and get to the bank and put the money in there. Most restaurants accept payment by debit card and I pay my for my hotel stay that way anyway. So I don't need to carry much cash on me, just what I need. The rest can go in my debit cards or other bank accounts.

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

How soon can you get home? Do you have a train ticket booked or can you just go to the station tomorrow?

I am leaving Liverpool on Friday morning and going to Manchester for the weekend. Then after that I am going back home to Essex next Monday.

When I come here I always go to Manchester first from London Euston station. Because trains to Liverpool are only once every hour. But trains to Manchester from London are every 20 minutes.

So I get the train to Manchester Piccadilly then change on the cross Rail to Liverpool. Which is 30 minutes ride from there.

The train journey itself from Manchester to London takes 2 and a half hours. Then I have to get a train out to Essex which is another hour and a half.

So it makes sense to stop over at Manchester on the way back, stay the night or 2, then go on to London.

I like Manchester to visit but I would not live there.
Manchester is very rough and impersonal like London in a way worse. And I have heard the health trusts are not very good.

So I would never move to Manchester.
Manchester is a big NO on my list.

Liverpool is more friendly and from what I have seen of it, it seems nice. But as I am not from here and it's still a big place, I don't know my way round it very well.

I think I am only seeing the tourist side of it.
Because I cannot stay here long enough to get to know it very well.
Unless maybe I find somewhere cheaper like the youth hostels.
But as I said they are not as nice as the Premir Inns.

But I have not got round to visiting a letting agent at all. By the time I am ready to go out, it's late afternoon and they are closing for the day.

Well I think that I don't want to get a private flat or move up here. That's the real reason why I go out late and miss the letting agents.

True I don't know my way around Liverpool that well. But I have been here 2 weeks since the 2nd of May. So if I had really wanted to go to a letting agent and look at flats I would have done it buy now.

There are plenty of taxis and min cabs here. I could get one of those and they would have dropped me at the door of the letting agents.

That's why I do when I am in London so I could have done the same thing here.

So I think the real reason why I have not gone to the letting agents is because I don't really want to get a private flat up here.

Well as I said I have changed my mind a lot since I got my inheritace and I don't want to move give up my HA flat for a private one.

Because I know a private rented is not very secure as well as the fact that a lot of landlords and letting agents won't let you decorate your flat.

If I was going to leave the HA buying a flat or a house would be a better option as my Solicitor and other people have said I would have a secure home for life.


But that would cost me most of my inheritace that I have. So in a year or so I would be back on full benefits again when my money ran out.
That's what's stopping me from buying a place.

My mothers house was sold for 250k and if I had been an only child I would have got the lot. Then I would not have hestitated to buy something as I would have had the full 250k from the house sale.

But because there are 3 of us, my sisters and I we only got a third each. 118k which sounds like a lot but it's not if you have to live on it as I do because I cannot work and cannot get Housing Benefit anymore.

And although it is possible for me to buy a place for 50k or 70k up here I would not get anything like that In Essex or anywhere in the South of England.

Unless I moved to Birmingham or the Midlands where I have seen some for that price. But not in the South of England or in London.

And I cannot get a mortgage because I am not working the only way I can buy a place is upfront buy paying the full amount of what the flat or house is being sold for.

Although I do have capital it is not enough to buy a place which is more than what I have got. If I had got the full amount from the house sale I would have been able to and had plenty of money left over.

But as I said I and my sisters only inherited a third which is not really enough to buy a place anywhere.

Or in Essex which might have been better for me as at least I know the areas there.
But properties there are not what I can afford unfortunately.
no where near it.


So I am restricted to what I can buy because of this .

Red-Squirrel_2

Why are you going to Manchester? Why not just go straight home from Liverpool? Even if you've already paid for accommodation you don't have to go, that money is already wasted and you'll only waste more on food etc. if you go.

Slithery

annbarbs wrote: »

My mothers house was sold for 250k and if I had been an only child I would have got the lot. Then I would not have hestitated to buy something as I would have had the full 250k from the house sale.

But because there are 3 of us, my sisters and I we only got a third each. 118k which sounds like a lot but it's not if you have to live on it as I do because I cannot work and cannot get Housing Benefit anymore.

You need to check your maths.
A third of 250k is only 83k.

Red-Squirrel_2

Slithery wrote: »

You need to check your maths.
A third of 250k is only 83k.

Presumably there was more than the house in the mother's estate.

Rejast

Slithery wrote: »

You need to check your maths.
A third of 250k is only 83k.

Yes but OP has not mentioned that she got approx £25k from her Mothers savings account too.

AnnBarbs I have read through this and most of your other threads and just wanted to say I admire that you are obviously thinking long term with regards to your inheritance and it is admirable that you are also considering the implications of any decision on your benefits entitlement
.
I think you should get home asap and just take a few weeks to let everything settle in your mind in the comfort of your own home. I also realy think you should see if there is anyone (a friend/charity etc) who could offer you some support with all the big decisions you are trying to make at the moment.

As others have suggested you should look into spreading your funds around as many highish interest accounts as possible to maximise your return, but first of all please try to get as much of whatever you are carrying around at the moment safe in a bank. You have enough to worry about at the moment without the added worry of hiding/storing/carrying around a large amount of cash.

Lastly, Good Luck and I'm sure with the right support you will make the right decision for you

ViolaLass

To echo the others, please stop carrying large amounts of cash around. There is no need to do so. Nowhere will require you to pay large bills in cash.