Broke M60+, no income recently, due inheritance of half a house, chances of mortgaging the rest?

T8T

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

In 2019, I sacrificed a small, not very profitable business, to go home and look after Mum and Dad, as their fulltime carer. They both passed away 4 years later in 2023. I am a 50% beneficiary in their wills, another relative is an equal beneficiary. The family house is split 50/50, worth about £950k.

I’m a newbie to all things mortgages. I am hoping/praying there is some remote chance of obtaining the necessary mortgage/loan to secure ownership of their house in full. Before, or at the same time as, starting a new lucrative (fingers crossed) business. After inheritance tax and other nasties, I’m expecting about £475k in inheritance, which is about the same as half the house.

To cut a long story short, the other beneficiary and myself, do not get along. The probate process ended up in court, and an independent solicitors was appointed to see probate through for my parents assets/estate. That process has reached a stage, where by the solicitors are going to allow me a short window of time, to make offers to the other beneficiary, to buy out their 50% of the house. If that fails, then the solicitors intend to put the house on the open market. A viable offer from me, might be in the region of £425-450k. I don’t currently have 1% of that, at my disposal.  A long grieving process, severe hernia issues, and the appointed solicitors wasting 5 months of my time trying to secure a loan against inheritance due. That’s partly why I’m broke right now.

After a very frustrating 6 years, I have an ambitious entrepreneurial appetite to make some serious money. I have 3 business plans. The first of which could prove to be lucrative, very quickly. I’m currently setting that up on a very tight budget, with help from an old friend. This business won’t be active and profitable until after the window of opportunity set by the solicitors, to make offers on the other half of the house.

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months.

The remaining option is to start up the new business, whilst at the same time the solicitors make the property for sale. Then it’s a race between getting the business profitable, sufficiently to attract what ever shortfall is left, in the form of a mortgage/loan.

Do I currently have available the first option? I fear not, but at this point in time, it was worth asking.

Keep_pedalling

Frankly I would go for the sale and take the cash and move on, I can’t see the other beneficiary (presumably a sibling) being cooperative and this has already dragged on far to long.

Robin9

T8T said:

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

 

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months. 

Are you counting the £475 k twice -   or have you £475k in addition to your 50% of the house  value ? (but you say you are broke) or can this business magically give you an income of £100k to pay a mortgage of £475 k ?

T8T

Robin9 said:

T8T said:

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

 

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months. 

Are you counting the £475 k twice -   or have you £475k in addition to your 50% of the house  value ? (but you say you are broke) or can this business magically give you an income of £100k to pay a mortgage of £475 k ?

£475k in total from the estate/assets, which coincidently equals roughly half the price of the house. I have high hopes for the business being very lucrative. In the ballpark of £100k monthly, if things go to plan.

Exodi

Sorry for your loss, and apologies for being blunt here, but I think your plan to purchase the house is insanity - clearly you are emotionally invested in this property, but realistically it sounds as if you are not in a position to be purchasing property worth £950k, even with the £475k inheritance in your pocket.

This is for numerous reasons but the most obvious being a lender will not only expect you to be earning in excess of £100k p/a to lend that sort of money but you'd also need to prove you have been earning that income consistently (e.g. proving you have been earning the same for at least the last 3 months). I'd imagine they will give exceedingly short shrift to the idea of lending nearly half a million pounds on the promises of a new business while being asked to defer the very first payments for 3-4 months.

How do you currently support yourself? Are you in employment?

Let's say the family property magically disappeared tomorrow, would you still be looking to purchase a house for £950k?

As an aside, I don't usually like to pry, but given emotions sound high at the moment:

T8T said:
I have an ambitious entrepreneurial appetite to make some serious money. I have 3 business plans. The first of which could prove to be lucrative, very quickly. I’m currently setting that up on a very tight budget, with help from an old friend. This business won’t be active and profitable until after the window of opportunity set by the solicitors, to make offers on the other half of the house.

This was giving some red flags to me - smacks of 'get rich quick'.

You don't need to tell me the name, but what is the rough gist of the first opportunity? Is it a field you have expertise in or an opportunity you've been told about by someone else?

It's not something faddy like dropshipping, day-trading, crypto, etc with help from your friend is it? Have you met the friend?

Sorry to ask, I don't mean to pry, it's all meant with the best of intentions - you wouldn't believe how many people we see getting scammed with these forms of 'opportunities' - particularly when they are emotionally vulnerable and will have access to large amounts of cash (e.g. divorce/inheritance).

Personally, I'd forget about the family home (easy for me to say, I appreciate that) and take a wider view of your financial plan. You're 63, wouldn't you want to think about retiring soon? What is your pension situation? Do you own any other property? When was the last time you went on holiday and had some 'me-time'?

£425k is a serious amount of cash that could not only help you purchase a decent house for yourself (even in Kent where I live, you can get a nice 2 bed semi for £250-£300k, which leaves you £150k to put towards your retirement (assuming your pension pots are a bit lean). If you live further up north, you could get a mansion with a swimming pool, sauna, home gym, helipad and 10 acres of land and still have £300k left over 

Could it also be that there is an additional motivation to buy the house, outside of your personal emotional ties to the 'family home', perhaps involving the other beneficiary?

ACG

There are a couple of potential options I think. Neither are ideal. 
1) Some sort of Lifetime mortgage, I think you can get around 1% of the property value at 55 years old and 1% more a year so at 63, you could get around 8% - £75k. Not ideal, but combined with the inheritance would give you a little bit of cash to buy the property and put towards the business... Figures are ballpark though so just  take as a guide. 

2) A bridging loan, tricky if you plan on living in the property and not cheap at 1% a month give or take. But you can normally do these for 12 months, so would give you chance to get a 1 years accounts under your belt and try to get something more mainstream. 

I dont think there are any good options, but there is some potential. 
I think regardless of the route you go down, you are going to need a good experienced broker. It is probably worth finding one you like and trust and they may think of other options with more information (or rule out one or both of the above based on things not mentioned). 

MWT

T8T said:

Robin9 said:

T8T said:

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

 

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months. 

Are you counting the £475 k twice -   or have you £475k in addition to your 50% of the house  value ? (but you say you are broke) or can this business magically give you an income of £100k to pay a mortgage of £475 k ?

£475k in total from the estate/assets, which coincidently equals roughly half the price of the house. I have high hopes for the business being very lucrative. In the ballpark of £100k monthly, if things go to plan.

So you get £475k and you are trying to use that to buy a house valued at £950 k with no other cash or income?

... and you have a business idea that does not require you to put much/any capital, but will return £100k a month when it is successful...?

It doesn't feel like you have any possibility of pulling this off as you can't use the half of the house you can afford to purchase to get a loan large enough to buy the other half,

I'd let the house sell and use the money to navigate the time it takes to get one or other of your business ideas up and profitable.

It may also take some time to sell the property so if you are very lucky your business idea might come through before it sells anyway...  

Exodi

MWT said:

T8T said:

Robin9 said:

T8T said:

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

 

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months. 

Are you counting the £475 k twice -   or have you £475k in addition to your 50% of the house  value ? (but you say you are broke) or can this business magically give you an income of £100k to pay a mortgage of £475 k ?

£475k in total from the estate/assets, which coincidently equals roughly half the price of the house. I have high hopes for the business being very lucrative. In the ballpark of £100k monthly, if things go to plan.

So you get £475k and you are trying to use that to buy a house valued at £950 k with no other cash or income?

... and you have a business idea that does not require you to put much/any capital, but will return £100k a month when it is successful...?

That was my interpretation also.

On the 'opportunity' part, if I'm completely honest, the first thought that jumped to my mind while reading it is the potential of the OP being involved in a pig butchering scam.

E.g. the 'friend' (who in reality they've never met but 'randomly' starting speaking one day) just happens to mention in passing conversation that they are an expert crypto/day trader. After some persuasion, they convince the victim to add a small amount of money to a random website, and (un)surprisingly a short time later the website shows that the victim has significantly increased their money. This builds trust in the friend. Oftentimes the friend will encourage the victim to withdraw a small amount of the money at the start (to reinforces trust) but leaving the rest 'invested' to further grow.

In reality, the website is fake (ran by the 'friend'), the returns and sums displayed are totally fictious and the victim is encouraged to 'invest' ever-increasing amounts of money (which they are usually all too happy to do as they believe their money is quintupling every day). Except the first small withdrawal, which is only allowed to portray credibility, the victim will never receive money from the site again, as further down the line when they try to withdraw more money, they will be strung along with 'withdrawal fees', 'capital gains tax', 'platform fee', 'broker fee', etc which just works as a secondary way to extract money from the victim who is holding on to the glimmer of hope that they really are sitting on six figures.

This is just one of many types of scams.

I am sure this isn't the case for the OP and it is a fruitful get rich quick scheme 'lucrative, very quickly' opportunity, but it will help me sleep at night knowing I mentioned the possibility to the OP, just in case.

Emmia

T8T said:

Robin9 said:

T8T said:

I am a 63-year-old single male, and pretty much broke right now.

 

I didn’t think I stood a chance, as things currently stand, but then I got to thinking, I’m not entirely broke, I am due £475k inheritance, which could more than pay for one half of the house. Now could that be used as some kind of security, to somehow leverage the outstanding £425-450k, for the other 50% of the house? If there were a mortgage/loan available, then the first monthly payment would need to be deferred 3-4 months, to give me time to get the new business, to adequately profitable. Then mortgage repayments over 12-24 months. 

Are you counting the £475 k twice -   or have you £475k in addition to your 50% of the house  value ? (but you say you are broke) or can this business magically give you an income of £100k to pay a mortgage of £475 k ?

£475k in total from the estate/assets, which coincidently equals roughly half the price of the house. I have high hopes for the business being very lucrative. In the ballpark of £100k monthly, if things go to plan.

My question is, if you already have this fantastic idea, why are you not already doing it and reaping the £100k a month reward? Doing so would give you a strong basis to buy the other inheritor out...

I suspect this "opportunity" is probably a scam or a get rich quick scheme... Only it won't be you getting rich.

Humdinger1

I don't want to pile in here @T8T but please heed the warnings above.  There's no such thing as a free lunch; if you think there is, you are the lunch.  Humdinger 

MWT

Exodi said:

I am sure this isn't the case for the OP and it is a fruitful get rich quick scheme 'lucrative, very quickly' opportunity, but it will help me sleep at night knowing I mentioned the possibility to the OP, just in case.

The only good point is that the OP does not appear to have the cash or assets to lose right now, if it is a scam the scammer may have moved a little too early, but yes, I would certainly tread lightly, especially if this is a new friend or even an old friend that reappeared right after news of the inheritance was spreading...