First OP made. We're on our way!

Ellie78

Called Halifax this morning and they confirmed there's no penalty for us OPing more than 10%. So I threw another £5,100 into the mortgage account from my savings, rounding our OPs for the year up to a nice even £10,000.

That's dropped us down into the 30s bracket! :j

Started a major de-stash of my wardrobe this week too and found lots of things to sell, including some lovely vintage pieces that I haven't worn much but keep their value for resale.
Next on the list is to clear out the loft but that will have to wait until OH gets back from a trip with friends as he's needed for ladder holding duties. Our loft is tiny and I'm the only one who can fit up there! :rotfl:

killerpeaty

Your OPs are massive!

You must be so excited to be making huge progress already.

What are your motivations if you don't mind me asking?

Ellie78

killerpeaty wrote: »

Your OPs are massive!

You must be so excited to be making huge progress already.

What are your motivations if you don't mind me asking?

Hi killerpeaty

Yeah we thought the money we'd saved to move (move has been postponed a while) would be better used against the mortgage than earning a tiny amount of interest in the bank. It's very exciting, we've knocked over 7 years off already!

As for motivation I'm really annoyed at myself that I didn't have a better grasp of our mortgage debt years ago so now I'm on a mission to make our money work as hard as possible for us! Being self employed has definitely given me a sense of focus and stubborn determination!

We won't be able to keep making these massive OPs but got the big ones out of the way early, now we should be able to do little but often OPs to keep the ball rolling. Fingers crossed.

Ellie78

Our online balance updated this morning, after interest and our regular monthly payment had been accounted for it was standing at £39,023.94. I've seen a few people post about rounding off their numbers so I transferred that £23.94 into the account to make it a nice round £39k exactly. Our next monthly payment will drop us into the 38's!

Had an interesting chat with our neighbour today, who's in an identical house and also 50/50 ownership. Theirs has been on the market for 2-3 months now with no offers and barely any viewings. They're convinced the shared ownership is putting people off and the housing association are being less than helpful.
We'd been wondering lately whether it's worth staircasing ours to 100%. We always assumed it would be easier to sell on the shared scheme but perhaps not? We already paid the full SD when we bought the house. Is anyone else in a similar situation? Any staircasing advice?

Ellie78

We managed to make another OP today. £2,500 from the OH and my £100 bank account switch bonus also came through so our balance is now down to £36,400!

I know there's no way we can realistically keep this pace up but wouldn't it be amazing if we could?! :rotfl:

Our term is now down to 16 years. Interest saved so far is a whopping £16,500!

killerpeaty

That's a huge amount of interest! How long until you you get a new mortgage deal? How much do you want to pay off before then?

I don't know much about shared ownership properties other than working with HA finance departments way back when. Have you searched on the site to see other people's experiences?

Ellie78

killerpeaty wrote: »

That's a huge amount of interest! How long until you you get a new mortgage deal? How much do you want to pay off before then?

I don't know much about shared ownership properties other than working with HA finance departments way back when. Have you searched on the site to see other people's experiences?

Yes after I put that post up I searched for "staircasing" and read as many threads as I could find on SO. A few people saying it's worked well for them but a lot of people either unhappy or advising against the whole thing. I made a couple of calls to our HA today to try and find out buying the other 50% and what would happen with the freehold but I need to call back tomorrow to speak to the right person. I think that's probably the right call for us at this point. Buy the rest now while it's affordable and hopefully get an easier sale in a couple of years. We'll see.

With the amount we're managing to OP we're wondering if it's even worth remortgaging at this point. We're just on our providers variable rate now so no limits on how much we can OP. A fixed rate would limit us to 10% and not all providers will lend on SO property. My second job brings in sporadic income but sometimes in big chunks so ideally I'd like to use all of that as OP/savings as I can happily live off my income from job No1. We may clear the remaining amount quicker if we stay put. A lot to think about at the moment!

PurpleFairy26

Well done on OP so far. With the fix thing, I guess it's a straight call between costs of the 2 particularly if a) you are thinking of buying the other half and b) attitude to risk if you are able to fund higher monthly cost if rates go up.

Even if you fix you can still OP 10% and then put rest in high interest and pay off when fix ends before new fix.

Ellie78

Hi PurpleFairy

Oh yeah if we buy the other half we'd definitely fix the rate. High interest accounts seem to be disappearing fast at the moment though. H$BC & FD have just scrapped their 5% savers (luckily I opened mine a few weeks ago - good timing!)

Need to make a decision on the staircasing situation and find a lender who deals with SO. Although as we'd be buying the other half of the house (to own it 100%) would that even come into consideration? Would it technically be SO any more? :think:

A_Frayed_Knot

Hi, and Welcome,

not been reading or posting for a while, so just came across your diary now.

Excellent o/p's -I was a great one for rounding down to 00.00 at the end of the mortgage
and mine disappeared very quickly

I know you are looking at staircasing, but I would say to you to get onto a fixed rate as soon as,
after my fixed rate finished, it dropped to a lower rate that I was paying, so thought "thats OK"
being smug - not realising that if I got a fixed rate - my interest added to my mortgage would
half :eek:.

You only need to reduce your mortgage years when you re-mortgage if you wish, which would up
your payments. I upped my payments to include the interest I would be saving and rounded it up
which made my mortgage payments a £100 more a month, which was still ok as I was o/p more than
that each month.

Hope this helps you - work out your rate just now and what you could get - and see the difference :beer: