Worried First Time Buyer - In Too Deep?

ValuableYouth

Just don't do it, you t w a t .

Lavendyr

No need for that...

Lavendyr

poppyolivia wrote: »

Things happen eh? What a scarey world we live in if we are scared to get a home with someone on the fear they might fall pregnant, split up or get divorced. Just the way the world is I suppose!:rolleyes:

You just take things far too far (perhaps you are reading between the lines too much!). No one is saying that - but it's common sense that if things are too tight and only just affordable, it's most sensible to wait until things are less tight and more manageable - so that if pregnancy, redundancy etc, does happen, it's not a total disaster which culminates in the people involved losing everything they had to begin with. That's not saying "never" or "too scared to do X" - that's just being sensible and pragmatic.

MORPH3US

Right guys, here we go, hope this is helpful to the OP, but remember every situation is different so use what helps you...

Background:
GF and I finished Uni in 2003 and went travelling for a year. When we got back we found decent jobs (that we are still in now) quite quickly and rented a flat together for a year to pay off some debts. Christmas 2005 we started looking for a house. We looked at lots in the region of £130k to £150 with the plan of paying no more than £145. In the end it was July 2006 that we had purchased a 3 bed mid-terrace house. We paid £126,000 and had managed to save enough to put £1000 towards that and also cover all of our fees.

The reason we opted for the 126k house over other much bigger and nicer £150k houses was all down to money. Too many people tried to screw us on the more expensive houses but in the end, that did us a favour when we found the nicer cheap house.

The mortgage:
In the end we took out £125k on a £126k purchase so it was still classed as a 100% mortgage. We got a really good 5 year fix of 5.09 (a graduate only deal).

Now the SOA:

Income:
GF Wage = £1168
My wage = £1168
Other - I am a bit of a wheeler dealer and sell bits on ebay, use Quidco a lot etc, but none of this was guaranteed so we count this as a bonus and not in our main budget.

TOTAL INCOME = £2336

From our income we each put £868 into our joint account to cover:

Outgoings:
Gas Bill = £19.50 (probably a little too high but better too much than too little)
Elec Bill = £26.50 (probably a little too high but better too much than too little)
Water Bill (Meter) = £30
Council Tax = £102
Food (inc alcohol and cleaning etc) = £200
TV Licence = £12
Car Maintenance = £150 (for two cars - to cover insurance, mot, tax, repairs)
Buildings and Contents Insure = £15
Mortgage = £885 (including 20% overpayment each month)
Savings = £100
House improvments = £100
Contingency = £96 (for house emergencies etc)

OUTGOINGS FROM JOINT ACCOUNT TOTAL = £1640

This then leaves us each with £300 in our individual accounts to cover:
Petrol = £100
Loan repayments = £100
General spending = £100 (going out, treats, cosmetics for her, football for me, haircuts, clothes, mobiles etc)

I think that about covers it although i'm sure i've missed some stuff.

What I will say is that the "general spending" of £100 is usually very tight. You could count how often we go out on one hand. Mobile bills used to be £25 of this (i.e. a quarter) but we have that down to £10 now which makes things easier. However as I said, we sell bits on ebay, get travel payments from work and other bits of unexpected monry that we can use for treats here.

I'm sure if we wanted to we could cut back more, but we don't really need to.

You will notice that we took a risk with no form of protection on our mortgage for a number of reasons:
1) we both have local government pension schemes that pay good death in service benefits
2) we overpay the maximum 20% on our mortgage each month
3) our savings of £100 each month

As I said, doing that is a risk, but we think we will be ok.

Any questions or anything I missed, please don't hesitate to ask.

M

poppyolivia

Lavendyr wrote: »

You just take things far too far (perhaps you are reading between the lines too much!). No one is saying that - but it's common sense that if things are too tight and only just affordable, it's most sensible to wait until things are less tight and more manageable - so that if pregnancy, redundancy etc, does happen, it's not a total disaster which culminates in the people involved losing everything they had to begin with. That's not saying "never" or "too scared to do X" - that's just being sensible and pragmatic.

oh yes you are sooooo right:T Well done!:rolleyes:

Lavendyr

*wanders off to watch Pride and Prejudice for the nth time, wishing OP all the very best of luck* :j:j

cats!

Not a lot of sympathy on housepricecrash.co.uk - OP is being accused of being a troll!

strongboes

poppyolivia wrote: »

EXACTLY!!!! Doesn't make sense eh?:T

If they both stay living with their parents then they can save 800 per month between them, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work this out, if they want a house then the sacrifice of another year not living together will get them an extra 10k deposit. Then they would be in a much better position to move forward.

To those people advising them to go for it then you are being extremely reckless. They can't afford it, they will end up losing the house and end up with nothing.

fc123

cats! wrote: »

Not a lot of sympathy on housepricecrash.co.uk - OP is being accused of being a troll!

No way, he is a genuine bloke with concerns. Though the thread spiralled off topic in places, the essence of the message (too expensive house for now) got through.

Good Luck OP....Work on that salary :wave:

Xeno

strongboes wrote: »

They can't afford it, they will end up losing the house and end up with nothing.

You can't just say that. The figure prove that they can afford it, although it would be extremely tight. But there is a difference between a tight budget and 'losing everything' as you put it. I wouldn't recommend them to do it, as people have pointed out saving a deposit and waiting to see what happns is probably the best option, but I wouldn't condescend them either.