Worried First Time Buyer - In Too Deep?

amosp

OK, wow. Lots of posts to take in.

Firstly, I’d like to come to the defence of my poor girlfriend. I said she can be irresponsible with her money and that seems to have been blown out of proportion a little bit. I truly believe we could live on next to nothing if we wanted to, although we wouldn’t particularly enjoy it.

Where we live there are a ton of properties available for rent and some from next to nothing but I don’t see the point in doing that when we can save more money living at home for the time being. I’m not completely ruling it out though. It’s not a complete waste of money to have your own space away from the ‘rents.

Yes it would perhaps teach us a little more about living together but at the moment when we’re not at work we’re with each other constantly. We cook tea together, we go out together, we stay in and watch films together and we regularly stay over when we can. I can’t think of a time in the last year where 24 hours have passed where I haven’t seen her. I really don’t see us being able to live together as a problem. It’s simply the money aspect that concerns me.

We’ve more or less agreed that whilst it is (barely) doable as we would be really stretching ourselves with this it’s not worth the risk that rates could increase or house prices could fall or an array of other eventualities that we can’t even begin to account for.

I’m going to do what I wanted to do in the first place and get my career sorted out before we have another serious look. It’s crushing because we really liked the house and even walking away from it I’m still thinking ‘what ifs’ but I have to keep reminding myself that it’s irrelevant if we can’t afford it.

I think I need a holiday >_>

PasturesNew

poppyolivia wrote: »

yes I agree but what I'm saying and all I'm saying is (and stated this previously) basically if your mortgage and rent are about the same why rent?

1] Because house ownership comes with greater up front costs than renting
2] Because house ownership comes with extra costs in the form of responsibilities, like fixing things yourself. And even in a new house things can go wrong (you can break a window, leave the bath running, etc)
3] Because house ownership requires buildings insurance, a bit extra
4] Because renting you can rent furnished at first
5] Because new houses are that: just new houses. So extra instant cost of carpets/curtains and 100 other small things you don't even think about
6] Because if you lose your job your mortgage isn't paid, but rent is
7] Because if you really can't afford it, with renting you can get out easily, just the remainder of the 6-month AST to go and you can move on.
8] Because renting you don't care how much the property is worth/has gone down
9] Because it doesn't take you months and cost thousands to move somewhere else. Maybe if the area isn't as nice as you thought, or your job changes location, or you want a bigger house/garden.

And those are my openers.

carolt

Well done amosp - definitely the right decision for now.

Good luck with the job hunting - sure you'll find something, and maybe a year from now, you can fill us in on buying your 'dream house' at 15K less and twice the income?!

poppyolivia

kunekune wrote: »

Yeah, but, poppyolivia ...

You are suggesting, I think, that you are proof that it works to stretch yourself to the limit and buy.
And then it turns out that, despite admitting to a pathetic hourly rate, you aren't relying on that to pay your mortgage.

Fine, but don't expect any of us to take your "financial advice" seriously. You just aren't in a normal position to start wtih.

erm excuse me the 'my husband is minted' was a tongue in cheek remark. Going by the OPs yearly rate and his GFs rate, me and my husband were give or take that so I reckon I was in a normal position....I managed, yes we don't have a brand new car, we don't go out every wk end, we save where we can...so yes it can happen it depends on you attitude and how much you want something. We've not had help from anyone to get where we are...and I'm not boasting, my house isn't posh, it needs new windows, artex to be removed etc but my priority was to get a property and to own it.

We started out with secongd hand furniture and I worked over time when I could....what can I say, I'm please what I've achieved and thats that!

amosp

I knew I'd forget something in my last post.

Although there are still some big things we would need (i.e. curtains, carpets, fridge-freezer. We have a double and a single bed, chests of drawers, desks, we've recently been donated 2 leather sofas and I could say my girlfriend has a 'bottom drawer' full of kitchen and cleaning stuff but 'drawer' would be an understatement. It's taking over her parents utility room.

There wouldn't be an awful lot we would need especially if we started looking at cheaper properties that are already carpeted.

poppyolivia

amosp wrote: »

I knew I'd forget something in my last post.

Although there are still some big things we would need (i.e. curtains, carpets, fridge-freezer. We have a double and a single bed, chests of drawers, desks, we've recently been donated 2 leather sofas and I could say my girlfriend has a 'bottom drawer' full of kitchen and cleaning stuff but 'drawer' would be an understatement. It's taking over her parents utility room.

There wouldn't be an awful lot we would need especially if we started looking at cheaper properties that are already carpeted.

I might be reading this wrong but to me you sound as if you really want to live together, buying if possible??? I really can't see how you can't do this, even if you get a smaller property.

The price you are talking about and the size of the property, I just wish they had that here! It sounds really lovely! Are they doing new builds but smaller in the same area?

Lavendyr

OP, have you looked at smaller houses? 3 bedroom is really quite large for a first-time purchase. You may be able to afford to buy a smaller house together as a first home, if it's what you really want to do (though I'd not buy a flat if you can afford it, as they tend to lose their value more easily). It's a shame that you won't consider renting even in the short-term, because it sounds like you really want to live together but only if you can also buy together, and personally I think that's a lot of big steps to take all at once! Living with someone is not the same as spending time with them, no matter how much time you spend together (I know, I've been there ) so you really can't judge how it's going to work until you've been in the situation.

poppyolivia wrote:

yes we don't have a brand new car, we don't go out every wk end, we save where we can...so yes it can happen it depends on you attitude and how much you want something.

aargh, it really irritates me when people seem to imply that those of us who can't buy a house currently just 'don't want it enough' and fritter our money away elsewhere. It's just not true! OH and I both have old cars, we go out once in a very blue moon, we don't waste our money on frivolities and we save at least a third of our take-home salaries every month, sometimes more. We are very lucky to have each other because it means that we'll be able to afford to buy a house at some stage - if I was trying to do it on my own I'd never manage it, because house prices are so high relative to wages.

amosp

The houses are lovely and yes they are doing smaller properties but they really are like boxes. The surrounding area isn't too brilliant as it's right in the heart of the town in something they've called a regeneration area.

We do want to live together, we just can't afford to right now, at least not there.

Lavendyr

Amos I think you sound very sensible, by the way, and it's brilliant that you're thinking this through so carefully. I do wish you both all the best of luck if and when you do come to buy.

han2505

After reading through the thread it is interesting to read everyone's different opinions.

I myself was in the same situation to you in November, me and my partner aint on a lot and we put a deposit down on a house we liked and then started to worry like you are. We are on interest only so that we have a little more money to spend a month.

We cope amazingly well, we dont go out all the time anyhow, we pay the mortgage and all the bills on time and still have enough money to last on, be it not a lot.

We love owning our own house, and dont regret it for a second. Yes beforehand we were stressed, but everyone goes through it and if you seriously think you can afford it then go for it.

We had an unexpected BT bill through for the first time after about a month, and you know what we managed to pay it, its amazing how you can find the money when you have it.

We didnt have anything when we moved in either, we managed to carpet downstairs and most of upstairs, but still havnt done it all, we found it was cheaper to tile as well so we have done that downstiars. We still dont have everything, but thats the fun of buying your first house, we dont mind not having carpet in every room and we didnt manage to get a sofa (we had my partners nans) and yes it was horrible but we saved and now have a gorgeous one.

You can ask for as much advice and people will give you there opinions but only YOU know if you can realisticly afford it. I'm only 20 and i'm proud to have my own house.

Good luck in whatever you decide!!