Name changed so as not to out self. Would really appreciate any advice.
We live in 3 bed rented semi, we pay what is essentially a knock down price of 500 quid a month to live here, we have lived here since 2009 except for a 7 month period where we moved out after the landlord decided he wanted to sell in 2011 (he approached us at our new rental and asked us to move back in as he couldn't sell it for the price he wanted to). DS goes to school in the village we live in, DD goes to school in another village about 2 miles away (not walkable) DD's Best friend recently moved to the new school village having previously lived over the road from us. DS has 5 years left at his current school and DD has 3 years left at hers, our preferred next school for star girl is right on our catchment border where we live now, if we lived in next school village she would likely get in. At the minute DS and I can walk to school together in the morning, he loves doing this. DD gets to school via a lift from her best friends mum as she still has to make the trip to our village to take her other child to school (this will stop as of September). Oh the house also has a south facing back garden. Which we absolutely love.
So that's a bit of background.
Mr SA has a bit of a chequered past with regard to finances, he's sorted and this year everything finally drops off his credit report (aside from a couple of settled accounts that had one late payment on from approx 5 years ago) so we were looking to maybe buying our own home again this year. We don't have a huge amount saved for a deposit however we are possibly in a position to borrow 10k to use as a deposit. This isn't certain.
So the landlord decides he wants to sell the house again, he wants approx 135k for the house and has offered us first refusal. Houses like this are common in this area, in reasonable nick they can go for approx 140-150k....
See example www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 31153.html
This house has also been extended and has a porch on, making it more desirable than the one we are in.
The house we live in needs work doing to it. Quite a bit of work, it still has an old back boiler so central heating needs entirely replacing, some double glazing needs to be finished (2 small windows) there is a large crack/hole in the kitchen ceiling from old water damage, the kitchen needs replacing as does the bathroom and the electrics are looking a bit dodgy. I estimate approx 10-15k worth of work just to begin. I think a fair price for the house would be 120-125k. However if we borrow the money to out up as a deposit we won't have anything to do the work with. *ETA, we could most likely pull together a 5% deposit for this if we tightened our belts and cashed in a few bits and pieces without having to borrow.
The other thing is we're always considering having a third child, at the minute the house would not easily accommodate a third child although could be doable in the short to medium term and there is room to extend over the garage as many other houses have done.
To buy a bigger house in this village we'd be looking at approx a price of 160-180k (the upper end of which is out of our price range), examples of which are here... www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 38282.html and www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 36965.html however we wouldn't be able to muster up much more than a 5% deposit for these houses (assuming that we could even do so).
Village B (where DD goes to school) and the surrounding area are quite nice, however we wouldn't be able to buy a bigger house there, it would be 3 bedrooms or nothing. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 08389.html or www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 57750.html (again assuming a deposit could be borrowed).
So. We weren't wanting to move for around 6 months (if we moved at all) and we wanted to use that time to increase our savings and look into borrowing the money to use as a deposit.
So. What would you do... (If you managed to wade through all of that)
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8 replies
MrsStatesAttorney · 18/03/2014 14:30
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