Tm's MFW ramblings

Hello

I've been overpaying but with no real consistency or effort put in to it, for a while now.

After getting locoblade's spreadsheet I realised how much I could be saving, so I want to give this my attention.

Ideally, I'd like to be MF twice by 42. I'm 29 this year (OH is 38 this year). I did once upon a time dream of this being by 40 but times change and I think 42 is more realistic. I am currently NOT on target for this! So there's some hard slog ahead. Sharing the goal will hopefully mean I have to keep trying, as now I know I have to come and update here....

I have 2 mortgages, both residential, one with consent to let.

M1: Initially a 50% shared ownership on a refurbished ex-LA house (not a newbuild), bought for 47500 on a 100% mortgage in Nov 2007, fixed rate at 6.49% - at the time that was a good deal on a shared ownership! Then pretty much soon as I signed on the dotted line, rates plummeted and I was kicking myself!!!! But I was still paying less with paying mortgage+rent than I had been with just renting.

The house was never really worth £95k full price, that was over-inflated by the HA selling it. I was young (21) and stupid, and didn't think to question it. Fast forward to 2010, the price had plummeted so I decided to look at buying the other 50%. The HA sent an "independent" surveyor out who valued it at £85k.....massively over what similar properties were selling for locally. After a very lengthy complaints process with the HA being awkward at every turn, I eventually got them to agree to using a GENUINELY independent valuation. I used a local firm (office around 2 miles from the house) who provided a very detailed comparison in their report and valued it at £65k - that's more like it!! The HA accepted this, and despite having set the ball rolling in May 2010, eventually it completed in Nov 2011. I bought the second half and the freehold for £32500. As interest rates were now much lower, this new mortgage for the 100% of the house was lower than the previous mortgage on 50% plus monthly rent. :T

This house is in a really rough area - hence the low price for a 3 bed end terrace. After 4 years living there, I'd sort of got used to it, but I wasn't happy and I didn't feel safe.

In the midst of this, along came a little surprise... 2 blue lines on a pregnancy test, whoops!

There was no way I was going to bring up my child in that area, I didn't feel safe as it was, I couldn't have my child living there. My OH lived in a very small rented flat so there was no space for baby and I, plus he has an older son who he has 3/4 nights a week. So we rented a 3 bed house together.

I explored my options on the mortgaged house - basically in order to sell it I'd need to find 5k - simply didn't have it, nor the means to get it. So after researching renting it out, I approached my lender, got consent to let, and then advertised the house via the LA for people going down the 'homeless' route. The LA offer a bond scheme where they stump up the deposit if the tenant does something they shouldn't. The rental income is very low as I set the rent at the housing benefit levels - no point being higher than that. So it ticked over, mostly, with me subbing it around £50 a month, sometimes higher if there were repairs etc.

Our rental house developed a quite serious roof leak, our landlord and agent refused to do anything about it, it eventually rendered 2 of the 3 bedroom completely unusable so at the end of our fixed term (luckily only a year), we scarpered out of there.

With me having been on maternity leave for a year (I'm the main wage earner), my savings were now non existent and I had some CC debt. We moved to another rental. We decided we wanted to buy, but thought it wouldn't be for a good few years yet, probably not until the baby was in school. We viewed a few properties in the summer of 2013 - not to buy, but to get an idea of what we wanted, what price range we were looking at....when we accidentally found THE ONE.

It was a s**thole!!!! We later found out the house had been empty for at least 12 years, possibly more. However as we walked around this filthy, dated, dark and dingy house, I could practically hear it singing to me about how good it could be. We got in the car after the viewing, looked at each other, and both blurted out that we loved it. After some frantic rejigging of finances and exploring all the options with my mortgage advisor, we realised we could *just* get it. We offered low, they haggled, we ended up at 114500 with a 10% deposit. We completed November 2013 and moved in to the dump!! This is M2.

Thankfully, most of the work is just cosmetic and also compensating for it being neglected for so long. Despite it being empty for so long, the previous owners had a gas boiler and central heating in stalled in 2003 - as it has been unused it is in great condition, and double glazing installed in 2010. However the kitchen was totally unusable - the actual carcasses were rotting - but luckily my Dad is a carpenter so we got a new kitchen from Wickes for fairly cheap, and zero labour costs apart from a few dinners, thanks Dad!! Unfortunately he lives abroad so we can't set him to work on the rest of the jobs that need doing :rotfl:

So, we are chipping away bit by bit at the work that needs doing. The top 3 big jobs that need doing are - bathroom full replacement, downstairs loo replacement, and the flat roof on the brick store needs replacing. All of those are on hold as we had to use a CC to pay for the kitchen - so we are just having to put up with those for now.




My what an essay! I don't blame you if you didn't read it all, but thought I'd explain it just in case anyone wants to know!