Planning to start family, should we stay in current home (small) or move before kids arrive?

sheramber

My SIL opened a nursery rather than go out to work and pay someone else to look after her girls. After the went to school she still had a profitable business.

DairyQueen

The longer you delay the more expensive (relatively) it will be to move upmarket. If prices increase (and they always do over the medium/long term) then, for example, a 10% increase would add £17k-£19k to your property but the house you wish to buy would increase by £33k+. 

You wisely realise that your lack of space will be compounded with a child. Babies may require little space as small infants but s/he will be on their feet within a year and even tinies acquire a load of 'stuff'. Buggy/cot/baby bath/highchair/clothes/toys/walker.... the list is endless. 

Stretching your finances now will be worth the effort.

wannabe_a_saver

The OP is the higher earner, maybe she already has a job/career she is quite happy with?

zagubov

Not sure you need to move yet.

We had our first child in our first house, a two-bed, two reception. We put up stud walls and reconfigured it. You need more separate spaces in the immediate future. I very much agree with people who suggest you should get space for a home office. Maybe a shed as was suggested earlier.

The advantages of staying where you are (with modifications) is that you've lower mortgage costs to pay while on leave. Your first child will be fine in your current/first house.

Then you've a few years to think bout the next move. You want to minimise these moves unless you'e from that remarkable subset of the population who regard moving house a as an enjoyable game, when it's apparently about as stressful as a bereavement for the bulk of us.

BTW, start looking for a childminder ASAP. Good ones are worth their weight in gold.
Time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted.

Emmia

wannabe_a_saver said:

The OP is the higher earner, maybe she already has a job/career she is quite happy with?

and perhaps she'd also rather not give up her career to become a professional childcarer - whether in a nursery (employed or as her own business) or her own home as a childminder. There's a huge difference between caring for your own kids vs. looking after those of other people on a professional basis

Is it possible her fiancee / future husband might give up his career to be a stay at home dad after her maternity leave?

Rosestar123

Emmia said:

wannabe_a_saver said:

The OP is the higher earner, maybe she already has a job/career she is quite happy with?

and perhaps she'd also rather not give up her career to become a professional childcarer - whether in a nursery (employed or as her own business) or her own home as a childminder. There's a huge difference between caring for your own kids vs. looking after those of other people on a professional basis

Is it possible her fiancee / future husband might give up his career to be a stay at home dad after her maternity leave?

My OH is happy to go part time/reduce his hours. So gives more flexibility in terms of childcare which is great. It also makes sense financially. 

Emmia

Rosestar123 said:

Emmia said:

wannabe_a_saver said:

The OP is the higher earner, maybe she already has a job/career she is quite happy with?

and perhaps she'd also rather not give up her career to become a professional childcarer - whether in a nursery (employed or as her own business) or her own home as a childminder. There's a huge difference between caring for your own kids vs. looking after those of other people on a professional basis

Is it possible her fiancee / future husband might give up his career to be a stay at home dad after her maternity leave?

My OH is happy to go part time/reduce his hours. So gives more flexibility in terms of childcare which is great. It also makes sense financially. 

That's presumably only workable if you stick with your current property though, as it doesn't need 2x F/T incomes to service the mortgage?

Personally I'm all in favour of women not automatically being the parent who sacrifices/slow pedals their career to raise the kids.

Rosestar123

MFWannabe said:

Is another option being able to extend current property if you needed to? 

It generally is quite a small narrow house. Which would make for a narrow extension/conservatory. I’m not great at visualising but I was thinking the cost to extend I could just use that money to move? If I was going to spend £

This is a link of a house similar to mine. It’s basically the same house type copy and pasted for a few streets! 

Might also highlight the space I’m working with 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=58455585&sale=9739951&country=england

bare in mind my living room has my office desk , corner sofa & dog bed so feels at lot more *cosy* ... to say the least!

Rosestar123

Emmia said:

Rosestar123 said:

Emmia said:

wannabe_a_saver said:

The OP is the higher earner, maybe she already has a job/career she is quite happy with?

and perhaps she'd also rather not give up her career to become a professional childcarer - whether in a nursery (employed or as her own business) or her own home as a childminder. There's a huge difference between caring for your own kids vs. looking after those of other people on a professional basis

Is it possible her fiancee / future husband might give up his career to be a stay at home dad after her maternity leave?

My OH is happy to go part time/reduce his hours. So gives more flexibility in terms of childcare which is great. It also makes sense financially. 

That's presumably only workable if you stick with your current property though, as it doesn't need 2x F/T incomes to service the mortgage?

Personally I'm all in favour of women not automatically being the parent who sacrifices/slow pedals their career to raise the kids.

Indeed it’s a hard one. I definitely feel I can’t win either way. My partners family are all SAHMs which is wonderful and my own mum was career minded. So it makes for interesting conversations with family.

Yes so in terms of salaries at the moment if we added the household income together I’d earn around 70%

I could run this house on my salary with money left over.

in terms of a potential move to somewhere bigger, not necessarily at max budget.
 Him dropping a day a week wouldn’t be too bad. Also his work are quite flexible So if he didn’t  drop his hours he could work his 5 days a week but one of those days be a Saturday. And I’m off weekends. 

It really is mind boggling finances with planning future family. I did say to my OH am I just overthinking this!  

Appreciate all views as clearly this topic is keeping me up at night 😂

getmore4less

I have had a read and it is clear which way to go(bigger) but the decision is when

Wedding kids gives a 18-24m window to make it happen before. 

Saving £1,500 after everything including fun gives a lot of options(including extreme saving cut out the fun).

A quick look at the current mortgage, remember that will impact timings if in a fix.
£560pm £170(less deposit) 35y 2.19% May 2018 say 3 years without overpayment
(Going roughly on your other I am buying post)

amount	rate	payment	owing
£167,000.00	2.19%	£569.63	£157,154.25

Equity in a couple of months say £190-£157k £33k
With another year and say £1k overpayment

amount	rate	payment	owing
£157,000.00	2.19%	£1,560.00	£141,563.97

Should be around £50k equity by then and still have a decent savings pot.


if they will lend £335k that joint salary £65k-£70k,  net say £4k current  mortgage+saving ~£2k  leaving £2k to live off still room for a lot more savings.

going with(over 35y-40y keep payment down overpay before and after kids)
80% LTV 1.9%  £270+£70k deposit  £800pm-£900pm  
or 
85% LTV 2.5% £330k+£50k deposit £1100pm-£1200pm

upto £380k to play with 
lets have a look close to where you live now using the link given. for 4bed + up to £375k

only 6 within 1m(21 SSTC) and going out to 3m does not help something nice might come along but a quick scan nothing jumps out detached a couple of nice spaces  but not detached.

Seems to be a lot on hills round there need to be creative with slopes.

Load more 3 beds might be something decent space with potential.


here is what I think 
You are going to move so get on with the process but waiting for the right property, you do not want to miss one(loads SSTC not so many for sale) because you waited.

If  it comes you can move  if baby comes along there may have to be a pause but keep looking.

In the mean time
Sacrifice the second bedroom as WFH space to make it more comfortable downstairs,
Get the place ready to sell and if you can make the WFH room look like a bedroom quickly even better if you need to get selling.

That mortgage is 2.1% start paying that down to create the equity to move save a bit of interest

Could review if extending to the side is an option, parking may be an issue if the council policy is to keep the spaces, but having a look at that style even on places like silverbank they don't have much development potential except a couple on the ends and some look like 3beds..

If the OH is handy and not the big earner any option for a project property a bit cheaper something you could add value and make a decent home in a couple of years ready for the family

I don't know the area but his has loads of potential massive south west garden and backs onto the park.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/88639822#/

IN budget at £345 might be able to squeeze a bit and depending on savings might get to 80% LTV if not within 2 years