How long did it take you to buy your fisr home

bopsybunny

Currently in process of buying our first home. I'm 26, OH is 29. We have been saving for 26 months. We could barely save much at all at first, until 18 months ago when I started a new job with a better salary. We started viewing houses in March 2018 when we had a smaller deposit. Kept on saving so we could buy a bigger house. We were looking all summer and viewed 9 houses in total. Found perfect house in early November. We've got our mortgage offer/survey/searches sorted, have signed our contract in readiness for exchange, and now just need to pay our deposit to the solicitor and formally exchange contracts.

While having a deposit is clearly important, you also need to be sure that you can afford a mortgage on the type of house you want. Neither me or my OH would be given a mortgage for the value of our house on our own, but together we are fine. You should have a free of charge conversation with a mortgage broker to get an idea of what you can afford in terms of a mortgage.

[Deleted User]

3 years saving for a deposit
around 2 months viewing houses (5 in total)
5 months from offer accepted to completion

I was 26, and collected the keys the day before my 27th birthday! Spent the whole of my birthday in my scruffs and on my hands and knees cleaning the house from top to bottom (it was a mess!), but couldn't have wished for better way to celebrate my birthday than toasting to our first home.

RandomDan

Bought in 2000 aged 25. Deposit was from bank of Mum and Dad, 15k. I was on a low wage.

Live in South East so property is expensive. I got the cheapest 1 bedroom basement flat in the area, all we could afford. It got me on the ladder and after moving again I have a much nicer place almost mortgage free. Am hoping my next move will be my forever home.

Getting on the housing ladder is the important part. Don't set your sights too high with your first purchase.

ginger_chocolate

Best advise is that those coffees, drinks out etc DO matter. I saved 45k whilst renting and never earning more then 21k and I did it through making small changes throughout every aspect of my life.

TBF 21k is a pretty decent salary by many people's standards. It was around when my salary hit 18k (about 8 years ago) that I started to feel owning a house might be more than a pipe dream for me. I was lucky that my salary doubled within a few years of that,meaning I was able to get there much quicker than I'd previously imagined.

One of the ways I managed to save a large deposit was by not changing the spending habits I developed on a lower income. On minimum wage those habits were a necessity just to be able to afford groceries, but on a decent wage they suddenly become a way of building savings very quickly.

mdori003

How old were you and how hard/difficult was it for you to get your first home
27. Relatively easy as a doctor in an area where housing isn't too ridiculously priced (NI) Also bought a small fixer upper flat at a good time post crash. So definitely feel lucky timing wise.

how long did it take you to save up and
3 years fulltime work (always worked during uni/ full time jobs in the summers but don't count that as saving towards deposit, more avoiding going into the red)

DD265

We're in the process of buying now at 30. I'll be 31 before we move though!

It's actually been easier than I thought. I had assumed that because we have credit card debt we wouldn't be able to get a mortgage and if I had known that that wasn't true, we might've made some different choices over the past couple of years.

We decided to buy in mid-August (after money had been allocated/spent to that month's bills). We've had a little help from family (£2k towards deposit and £2k towards fees/appliances) and used a LISA/HTB ISA, but we had the 5% deposit by the end of October. This was helped by having some stuff to sell which brought in over £2.5k!

I do wish we had a higher deposit as we'd get a better interest rate, but it is what it is.

AlexMac

1975
Late 20's
profigate waster, so no savings

But socialism intervened
-100% mortgage from the (socialist) Greater London Council
-"Home improvement grants" for basics like roof and central heating from the (socialist) local Council - administered by local Environmental Health Officers who were really committed to dragging the crap area we lived in (proto tendy Brixton) up to habitable levels
- so we bought a wreck for £10k..
- and slaved over it...

Looked it up once on Zoopla; £850K (albeit blinged up)- prob over £1 mil now?

Those was the days; of course, now Capitalism rules, we couldn't do it.

Our kids can't. (well- one did, by moving 100 miles away where property is just about affordable as there are no jobs on the Isle of Wight). The grandkids might if we bung em... or die early

Thank Thatcher and her legacy

SG27

vincefoster45 wrote: »

How old were you and how hard/difficult was it for you to get your first home
how long did it take you to save up and

what is the process to get into the property ladder

Saved for 8 years bought at 30. This was 6 years ago and I thought it was near on impossible. Now prices are about 30% higher here its just insane. Which I think is partly why prices have started falling back in the 6 months or so.

Murphybear

The first house we bought was a cash deal for an empty property so no chain. 22 years ago. I don't remember how long it took but as it was the only transaction and we didn't need a mortgage it was very quick, weeks rather than months. It took us much longer to put in a kitchen, bathroom, utility room and redecorate.

When I got a permanent contract at the University I worked for, we sold it (first viewing in a few days, those were the days) and bought a bungalow.

datlex

It took me 45 years and 3 months.