The 'We're saving for a deposit' thread

stark_source

Hi Everyone:

I've been contemplating getting off the rental threadmill, but, well, the more I read up on it, the more it seems as if now's not the time. However, I've taken the view that some time will be the right time, so I had better start saving.

So, I've got a long-term plan (see sig), unless a shorter term one suddenly reveals itself.

What I'm wondering: are there any single people on here, struggling toward getting a mortgage, god forbid, on their own?!?!

So far, that's my situation, and I've begun to accept that, for now at least, I'm going to have to be in it for the long haul.

Any folks out their indentifying with what I'm saying?

blargh

stark_source wrote: »

Hi Everyone:

I've been contemplating getting off the rental threadmill, but, well, the more I read up on it, the more it seems as if now's not the time. However, I've taken the view that some time will be the right time, so I had better start saving.

So, I've got a long-term plan (see sig), unless a shorter term one suddenly reveals itself.

What I'm wondering: are there any single people on here, struggling toward getting a mortgage, god forbid, on their own?!?!

So far, that's my situation, and I've begun to accept that, for now at least, I'm going to have to be in it for the long haul.

Any folks out their indentifying with what I'm saying?

:beer:

I've been saving for the past 2 years on my own. I refuse to be responsible for another human being (been burned before), I don't want to rely on anybody but myself and the comfort of knowing that this kind of risk won't be a factor is worth the painful additional time and money required to get myself a home.

My original plan was to get a 15/20% deposit by end of 2013 for a 1-bed flat. However a spanner has been thrown in the works recently after I found a perfect flat. I've looked at pretty much every single flat online that's <£140k in London the past couple of months (browsing rather than visiting of course!) and all of them have been kinda 'meh' at best and 'gah' at worst, so I was perfectly comfortable continuing the long haul for another couple of years.

But now I've seen a droolworthy place which ticks every picky box I have - boxes I shouldn't even be thinking about for my budget - and it's only £125k... I'd have a 10% deposit (plus a few K for costs) ready in the next couple of months. I'm so torn... The difference in interest rate deals I can get is HUGE between a 10% and a 15% deposit, it would work out at a £30k+ saving over the mortgage term (the repayments aren't an issue however, even with 90LTV the repayments are easily affordable for me - I've budgeted for an increase in interest rates up to 10% just to be on the safe side). But to get a 15% deposit would take me another 10 months at least and this awesome flat will certainly have gone by then.

Can someone please convince me that another awesome - and cheap - flat will be available this time next year? I'm not especially optimistic about it as I've only seen one such place among the hundreds (maybe thousands actually!) that I've looked at online recently. The excitement of getting this place and moving in by the autumn of this year has overwhelmed me, despite every rational economic bone in my body telling me it's crazy to give away over £30k in interest payments for the privilege of getting something in a few months rather than next year...

Kittenkirst

Hi all, we've moved a nice £545 this month to our savings and so are now 39% towards our target! Yay! :j

Next few months will be slow saving for us as we're clearing our C/C as 0% runs out in October so need it gone for then so all our furniture is paid off :0)

Happy Savings & Happy St Patricks day to all that celebrate!

beckythemadcow

blargh wrote: »

Can someone please convince me that another awesome - and cheap - flat will be available this time next year? I'm not especially optimistic about it as I've only seen one such place among the hundreds (maybe thousands actually!) that I've looked at online recently. The excitement of getting this place and moving in by the autumn of this year has overwhelmed me, despite every rational economic bone in my body telling me it's crazy to give away over £30k in interest payments for the privilege of getting something in a few months rather than next year...

I think I am a sensible person, but if you have found the perfect place I think you should go for it! Try hard to make overpayments and you can always remortgage in a few years at a 85% or better LTV! This would mean you'd only be paying the higher interest rate until you remortgage and you won't end up paying £30k extra.

Mikazaru

blargh wrote: »

:beer:

The excitement of getting this place and moving in by the autumn of this year has overwhelmed me, despite every rational economic bone in my body telling me it's crazy to give away over £30k in interest payments for the privilege of getting something in a few months rather than next year...

When you put it look that I suppose it does sound crazy but if it was the only one you've seen in that long and it is feasible I would go for it and then either carry on saving as much as possible for when you re-mortgage or over paying the mortgage if it allows. Also if you're renting that's a years rental payment that could be going towards your mortgage. And I suppose you don't know what will happen with mortgage deals in the future, I'm sure the Natwest 2 year deal I was looking at is now more expensive than a few weeks ago. But then that's an awful lot of money!

I'm also saving and will be buying on my own, going to take a long time to get there!

blargh

Thanks Becky & Mikazaru, just what I wanted to hear And yes I'd be able to overpay by 20% (over a 5-year fixed which is what I'm planning for). The repayments would also be roughly the same as (bit less than in fact) my current rent so I'll still be able to save at a decent rate much like I have been the past couple of years just in case.

Ok, so now all my energy needs to be focused on hiding just how much I want this flat when I view it. Hopefully I won't be like Fry in the iphone Futurama episode saying "shut up and take my money!"

Btw just a question in terms of timing the whole thing if anybody who's been through this before could advise please: I expect to have a deposit for this place in a couple of months' time (with hopefully enough set aside for fees as well) but I'm not quite there yet at the moment. Is it a bad idea to do some viewings and make an offer before I'm 100% ready to get a formal mortgage application done? Let's say I'm a grand short one month away from having all the necessary cash - can I still do the mortgage application...? Is the full deposit meant to be available at that point in the process? Or can I convince my bank that I'll have it all the following month? I presume the answer's no and I shouldn't do the application until I've got everything ready money-wise, but the impatient side of me has to ask

mimimt

blargh: yes, start viewing and negotiating the offer now. The conveyancing will take a couple of months, if not longer. You usually need 10% at exchange of contracts, so just make sure that you save hard for the next two months and have the money ready when you exchange. The bank does not verify how much money you actually have at the time of application (mine didn't anyway), so you can do the mortgage application once you've agreed the offer. You just need to make sure you will have the money when you exchange/complete.

I started looking when I saved up 15% deposit but was able to put down 20% when I bought. I wish I started looking sooner.

blargh

wow, thanks mimimt yeah my bank told me it would take 2-3 months for the whole process but I still presumed I could only start that process once the deposit / fee money was ready. This is several different kinds of awesome :T

mimimt

blargh wrote: »

wow, thanks mimimt yeah my bank told me it would take 2-3 months for the whole process but I still presumed I could only start that process once the deposit / fee money was ready. This is several different kinds of awesome :T

Just to make you feel more comfortable and confident, when I applied for my mortgage I was £4k short of the 20% deposit required. But I was confident that I would be able to save an additional £4k upon completion, so I went for it.

gazfocus

It's great to hear these stories... I've not updated my sig yet (will be doing it tomorrow when we've had our final count) but we're approaching our 10% deposit goal for the shared ownership house we want but the rate we've been saving, we're really confident that we will be able to raise it to 15% by the time the exchange of contracts happens.

However, one question...what happens if exchange arrives and you don't have the deposit you said you'd have?