help with part buy / part rent please!

[Bubbless]

okay, so me and my Dp are having a child in january together
we currently rent a flat at £600pcm
i earn 10k pa and he earns about 13k...
do we stand any chance in getting part buy part rent?
what do you need to 'qualify' for this?!
have no idea and looking for some advice!

we will be looking to move next october, so i know its too early to ask estate agents (?) etc, but we need to know where we stand so we can get thinking / saving!
also, DP's credit history isnt very good, mines perfect......

GO!...

[MrsJREwing]

Where in the country are you? I guess when baby arrives you will get ctc and wtc when you are not working, maybe housing benefit?

Sort out your credit rating, go on experian, pay bills on time etc.

House prices are in the way down right now, wait for your credit rating to improve.

[Bubbless]

buckinghamshire, south east of england!

i dont think i qualify for housing benefit because i have a job, even though il be on maternity leave- which is a bummer as it would really help

will low house prices help with part buy part rent, or do you think we should be looking at a proper mortgage?
we just need to get 'on the ladder' because we hate 'wasting' money on rent!

[GrandPoohBah]

A lot of mortgage companies won't lend on a split sale like that. Your best port of call is probably the administering company.

Also, bear in mind that if you buy a flat you don't have a lot of the protection offered to a leaseholder as you won't own the whole lease.

[MrsJREwing]

If I were you in would save, sort his credit rating and buy the normal way. It will be difficult to sell a half owned house for so many reasons. Property prices are falling. How would you feel in negative equity with a house difficult to sell?

[Bubbless]

very true, so say we were looking at a cheap house / flat to buy, how much do we realistically need to have in savings / be earning?

sorry to be asking stupid questions, but we dont have any family who can help advise us!

[MrsJREwing]

Basically save loads as a deposit, this along with house rises becomes your equity. The higher the percentage of deposit you have the easier it is to get a mortgage, to not get into negative equity and the lower interest rate you will have on the mortgage.

[MrsJREwing]

As a mum with no family, I would advise you to have a secret bit put by, I wish I had done this.

Make sure joint savings need you both to sign to remove money.

Hard lessons learned as I like you an sensible and was once with a mr bad credit rating.

[Bubbless]

thank you mrs, very good advice, my mum also got screwed by my dad and she never got any of the 'savings'
me and dp have agreed to have our own seperate accounts and only have a joint account for paying the bills!

just trying to get our heads around all of this, they dont like to make it easy to understand do they?!

[MrsJREwing]

Open a joint savings acc, he sounds rubbish with money, make sure you can't take money out unless you both sign.

Also this sounds odd. Get a credit card each, buy something then pay it all off, DO NOT use it again. That will help your credit rating.

Get his wages paid into joint account as he's rubbish with money, easier to keep an eye, he can tranfer his spends into his own account.

I would also advise you to do claims in your name for child benefit and child tax credit.

[noisytoys]

We were in a similar situation 4 years ago. We went for the only 2 bed place we could afford with just us owning it and learnt to do DIY quick to make it nice. Was a better option IMO cos its feels like ours and doesn't feel rented in any way

[Bubbless]

so whats the min price we are realistically looking at for a 2 bed flat / house? i have no idea whats reasonable- as currently we live in quiet a well off area?!

[MrsJREwing]

Where do you both work, where is your childcare?

[Bubbless]

both of our jobs are around here and some of our extended family is (who we think might be offering some childcare options, hopefully!)
so we kinda have to stay in the area, which is a bit of a bummer- but we have a while to look and get ourselves sorted!!
looking to stay in bucks..

[Bubbless]

thank you so much for your advice, were going to save as much as we can and i think i overheard my nan say she would match what we managed to raise for a deposit so that should help!
off to right move now! thank you :)