Tell me No! ( to buying big house)

Notnewnotold

Octothorpe said:

Notnewnotold said:

I don't regret buying a decent size house (around 2500sq ft) at all despite the maintenance cost that comes with it. In the current situation, it's been a godsend for everyone to have their own space for study/work. Plus plenty of outside space, woodland nearby etc.

This is the new normal - I might go back to the office but never again full time. We need home offices for more than just occasional use. Space space space... as much as you can reasonably afford. Why anyone would want to live in a London shoebox is beyond me.

That's the thing- we've discussed my going part time but with a big house it wouldn't be possible. I used to be so ambitious but now more kid focused lol

just to clarify what I meant - I will continue to work full time, as will my OH, but whereas in the past we were in the office virtually the whole week, in future I fully expect we will both be working from home for the majority of the time. We have managed working fully at home for almost a year now, so no argument that it's viable!

But what that means is that we've gone from only needing one study for part time office use; to two fully permanent office spaces for us to use. Luckily for us space is not a problem - we've also kitted out another room as as a study for our children - but a smaller house would have limited our options. I have colleagues that use kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and even sheds to work from.

Life is challenging enough without working from a shed, in this weather!

Octothorpe

MalMonroe said:

I think you're probably a bit bored during Lockdown and there's nothing wrong with looking, is there? What does your husband think? Does he want to move? 

At the end of the day where you live is only bricks and mortar. Unless you're in a caravan or other abode made of something similar, of course.

It's the people who make it what it is. Is it a happy home? If so, why move? When lockdown's finished take your extra money and take your kids away to different places once, twice or three times a year. Your kids won't mind if you move or not, as long as they have a happy homelife. 

You can't take it with you! And any house you move to will probably be there when you've gone. LIVE! While you can. Life's too short to be hung up about property and things. They don't matter. And to be honest for me, I've lived abroad twice and have moved around here in the UK, I've had enough and couldn't bear the thought of any more upheaval. But that is just me! 

Hope I've helped in some small way. . . Good luck, whatever you do. 

Thankyou. He likes the idea but only if  perfect move in condition as is ocd with decorating etc. He prefers money in the bank, like me, as we both struggled financially early on.
Yeah tbf not much on market atm and if we saved could do 600k upwards but you're right. As long as kids have Netflix they're all good 😂

Octothorpe

Thanks for all replies. 
And to those telling me to do it  - i hate you 😂😂

lookstraightahead

We pushed our mortgage years ago, had a huge income and mortgaged to the hilt. Husband lost his job. Few years later we divorced. Ended up with loads of debt and had to sell the house because we couldn't afford the upkeep. 
Im back on my feet now and remarried and DD is a grown up. I wish I had not placed so much emphasis on number of bricks I could buy for my buck back in the day. I think a nice home and security is great, but after that it's the experiences you have.

Cypruseast

It’s an interesting dilemma and maybe my own experience can possibly help you out. I’m about 9yrs older than you but when I was about 33 or 34 I’d worked my way up from a single bed tenement apartment, to a beautiful two bed rural duplex apartment, to a 4 bed Victorian Semi and all the way to a large 5 bed Victorian property in an amazing street and spent a year gutting and renovating it. Big mortgage, rates, heating, electricity etc were all large and definitely eating into monthly disposable income. 

For various reasons that are irrelevant I sold that house about 7yrs ago for just over 500k so similar cost base to what your looking at. I downsized to another 4 bed Victorian terrace that was about half the cost and lived there happily whereupon I sold about 18months ago. I now live in a 3 bed semi by the sea (there are 4 of us permanently and a 5th with us for approx 30% of the time), I’m in my mid 40’s and am living in what would probably be the 2nd cheapest property of the 6 that I have ever owned. 

My mortgage is about 25% of what it was when I was in the large house and it allows me to put aside over £1500 a month or about 50% of my take home income into savings, I salary sacrifice over 20% of my income into a pension and between myself and the company I work for there is approx £1500 a month that goes into it. 

In the past 6 yrs from moving from the big expensive house I have saved in S&S ISA’s and my investments have grown and I now have over £250k in my ISA’s. My pension has grown by over £300k in the past 6 yrs (I have been lucky with the bull market in place over that time). I have over £50k saved for my 3 kids in S&S ISA’s for their future. But what it has made me realise is the following:

- I was chasing the dream of the big house etc. I lost myself in that and didn’t have enough to do all the other things I wanted.
- I have been lucky to invest my money at a good time but no house value increase would have given me that growth especially when interest payments are mitigated against capital growth.
- I remembered that the term mortgage comes form the french where it means death grip!! 

- I currently have investments between shares, ISA’a and pensions with a value of over £900k and will more than likely be in a good place to retire in 10 years if I wanted or more likely 13/14yrs to see the kids all into adulthood/universities/full time employment etc. 

- We as a family can ultimately do whatever we want and for really the first time in my life I don’t have to even think about it. If I want a holiday we can go on a holiday, if my partner wants to reduce her hours she can do it, if I wanted to change careers then ultimately I could do it....

It has given me freedom and a huge level of relaxation that I didn’t have before as I was so stretched. 

Long term me may live and die here, but we may also buy a place in the sun, or we may build our dream home over looking the sea or mountains. But when and if I ever do move or get a second place there will be no mortgages involved!

If you have a beautiful home that works for you and suits your lifestyle and gives you opportunities to do a the things you want to do, then why for the sake of it buy somewhere bigger/more expensive etc?  I think a lot of it is down to the fact that it’s ultimately what we are conditioned to do from any age and is seen as the greatest expression of success, and it’s sometimes about keeping up with the Jones’s!  I know - I did it, but I don’t anymore and it was the best decision I ever made!!

Thats my tuppence-worth! But ultimately, carefully review all the pros and cons to your life of a decision one way or the other and make the call on what you think will allow you and your family to be happiest. 

Good luck...and remember it’s not called death grip for nothing ;-)

benson1980

We've concentrated on a decent house- you spend most of your time in it, and we have prioritised over car financing, and expensive holidays and the like. The key as a few have raised is low running costs and picking the right houses. We have a 600k house (needs redecoration but we are in no rush, and when done will easily be worth 650k), but gas and electric bills aren't much more than our house before last which was much smaller, somehow the council tax band is one band lower than it really should be, and we have the benefit of a feed in tariff for the next 16 years. We then benefit from being able to have a decent game of football with our son in our garden whenever we fancy, and a good amount of space for them to grow up in and having somewhere where relatives can visit and stay. We could have a massive nest egg instead but if you buy the right house, nothing over recent years has compared with the money gained in equity due to rise in values in prime areas, or not easily anyway i.e. basically just living somewhere and bricks and mortar increasing our investment made.

7 years ago we had 15k to put down. Now we have about 360k equity, from just pushing the boundaries a bit with house purchases but buying the right type of house- obsessive rightmove browsing examining sold prices and what sells well/quickly (which I sadly quite enjoy as well!) decent plots, simple improvements which increase value (no extension projects- just decor or addition of key features such as parking), and low running costs.

jenni_fer

We're in a similar position. We don't 'need' to move but we felt like we could afford to so why shouldn't we. Fancy holidays and expensive meals out aren't really our scene, both working from home at least some of the time moving forward and wanting to have plenty of space for our families to visit (when they are allowed again!) feels worth borrowing more for.
We did spend a couple of years paying off as much as the mortgage as we could though...both to increase our equity for the upwards move and also to get used to 'spending' the higher amount of money we'll be parting with when we do move.

Take your time to work out what you want, do the sums and weigh everything up. No harm in browsing rightmove while you ponder though!

Octothorpe

Thanks everyone ☺ 
Cypruseast,  benson1980 and lookstraightahead all really helpful perspectives. 
I think for now Covid has made the idea of more space very appealing however long term, for me anyway,  holidays and financial freedom may be too important a trade off - for the time being anyway 😀 

TheProfessional

We lived in and loved our Victorian mid-terrace. The rooms are beautifully proportioned, there was a storage cellar, good loft space and it was decorated to a high quality.

We had a child and planned a second so the two big things for us were lack of driveway and just slightly too little downstairs space. We could have done a side return extension but that may have annoyed the neighbours who probably wouldn't have done one at the same time and it wouldn't have given us loads more space.

The lack of driveway wasn't an issue until we had to load and unload loads of baby stuff (and baby) into the car. We didn't always get to park outside the house.

We had booked in for a loft extension to give us a 4th bed and 2nd bath but stamp duty window came and it made sense to move.up the ladder. We had prob £130k increase in house value over 5 years
We saved the 35k on the loft and only paid £4k stamp duty on a £600k house. We have a double driveway which is a dream now compared to street parking and there is even a driveway at the rear for visitor cars.
There is a large kitchen-lounge-diner which is what we wanted and a separate living room so lots more downstairs space and two bathrooms.
The stairs are less steep (my parents used to struggle a little with the steep pitch of the last stairs and there is room for a downstairs loo of needed

In all this seems like a forever home to grow in and enough space for a family to grow in so we are very glad we made the jump