Found my dream home - but won't have my deposit for 6 months!

jd0963

Hi all,
Just a bit of background - myself and my partner have been saving for our first home for 2 years now. We both have lifetime ISAs and have a good amount saved in them.
We have recently seen a house in the area we want to live that is currently for sale (it was first listed in February this year, then reduced in October) and we are in love with it. It isn't a new build.

The only issue is we won't have the deposit needed for the house for another 6 months! We don't have any family that would be able to help us out with money either so it will just be a case of us saving as much as we can each month.

This might be a stupid question but is there anything we could do to maybe reserve the house? Is it possible that the process of buying might take longer than 6 months anyway so by the time it comes to exchanging we would have the deposit? It's also been listed now for the majority of the year so there is a chance it might still be available in 6 months time anyway, I just know we will both be disappointed if it goes before then!

I appreciate any advice with this. 

AdrianC

Talk to the vendor...
But the reality is that if somebody else comes up, they probably won't wait for you.

Put yourself in their position as a vendor. Would you?

RelievedSheff

Until you have your deposit you can not proceed. It is unlikely that the vendor will wait six months for you.

Rambosmum

Well, really they would only be waiting 3 months for you to start the process. If you are vey certain of having the deposit in 6 months you could start the paperwork in 3 months. 

Personally  I would view the property - it may not be your dream home when you get in there. Then talk to the vendor/ agent and explain the situation. 

lillypoo

Rambosmum said:

Well, really they would only be waiting 3 months for you to start the process. If you are vey certain of having the deposit in 6 months you could start the paperwork in 3 months. 

Personally  I would view the property - it may not be your dream home when you get in there. Then talk to the vendor/ agent and explain the situation. 

depending on where the OP lives, they might not be able to view until theyre proceedable.  i know you certainly cant where i am currently selling nor 200 miles away where i am buying.

Suseka97

Same here where we are selling and 300+ miles away where we are buying.  Couldn't view unless we had a AIP and offer on our house and when we put an offer in, the EA wouldn't list the house as SSTC until they'd checked the chain and confirmed we were proceedable.  Maybe it's just a sign of current times - certainly don't recall it being this way when we were in the buying and selling game 16 years ago.

pjcox2005

How far off are you? May be one for a mortgage broker to see if they can do anything with a smaller deposit. I’m also wondering if you took 0% credit cards for next 3 months day to day spend, you could save what you would have spent in cash to the house deposit. Not sure if this would work but may do if lender is only looking at ability to service current debt and not just taking the full debt amount off the amount they’d lend. Wouldn’t do anything though without proper mortgage advice.

Have you factored in costs of buying and moving? Have you got those about right etc to check how far off you are including any stamp duty if not a first time buyer.

Anything like a car you could sell or downgrade to proceed (only if you then don’t go out and rebuy otherwise it would cost you more in the long run). Particularly if you can get the ISA uplift.

I’m not saying do these but worth weighing up the risk and cost of each against how good the house is. Normally a similar one comes along 9 times out of 10.

trex227

Do you have any flexibility in your budget to cut costs to the bone to save up quicker? E.g I would guess most people can half their food budget temporarily by eating much more cheaply/cut out entertainment subscriptions for a few months/downgrade mobile contract etc.

fiwen30

If you really, truly, can’t stump up the deposit any faster, then I’d suggest pressing pause on looking at houses until you’re at least half way there. I broke my heart mooning over countless houses these past few years, so many were just ‘perfect’...except I couldn’t afford any of them at the time.

It’s one thing to browse and be aware of the market, it’s another to get so hung up on specific properties that it upsets you that you’re not proceedable yet. If it’s getting to that stage, then cold-turkey might be the best thing, for now.

macman

Approach them via the agent and ask them if they will rent it to you for 6 months?
Unlikely to succeed, but you've nothing to lose by asking.
Of course, you could then find that you don't want to buy it after all.

AskAsk

6 months is a long time to wait so the seller wouldn't entertain it.  effectively you are not in a position to buy a house, or at least this house, so until you are, forget about it, unless you could get them to reduce the property value further, which you may be able to do if it has been on sale since February but hasn't yet shifted.