People who've climbed up the property ladder after their first purchase, how did you do it?

[HowdyBubble]

If you were in a situation where you were sole "owner" (i.e. paying a mortgage - not paid off) of a small 3-bed terrace in a town which you bought when you were aged mid/late-20s and you've now climbed up to affording a larger house (semi-detached/detached) and/or in larger cities, how did you manage it and how old were you when you managed to climb up from your starter home?

Ideally looking for stories where someone didn't win the lottery or get a hefty inheritance to facilitate the step up lol.

Thanks

We were lucky when we bought our first house as my husband had inheritance and that paid the deposit.
Didn’t really climb that much until we bought this one. It has gone up in price over the last four years. But I don’t want to move as I love it here.

House prices went up in the area.

Thanks everyone - what renovations gave you very value for money in terms of increasing the house value?

Do you strongly believe you were better off in terms of affording your dream/forever home by getting onto the property ladder buying a starter home or do you think saving up for longer whilst renting and going straight for buying your dream home would have also worked?

equity so nothing i did

Bought a two bed semi for 210k. It was a unloved ex rental. Injected some life into it and the property market was good, sold it for 260k 18 months later. Now in a four bed semi period cottage a bit further north.

If I was buying in London (not already on ladder) now I would bypass the flat stage & just buy a house maybe in outer zones. Future proof as much as possible.

As PP have said, we have always bought houses that have required some work! No major building work like a roof, more internal modernisation such as bathrooms, kitchens, windows, rewiring. First house we had for 7 years, second house (which I thought would be our forever house but we relocated for work) for around 16 years.

If you are moving up the property ladder in the same area as your current property, it's likely that prices have moved at the same rate so even doubling the value of your first house isn't going to make a big dent if the next step up property-wise has also doubled - it was adding value by doing work that has made the difference for us.

DH and I bought a three end semi in our mid twenties. We bought at the top of our budget. When we got any pay rises we overpaid the mortgage. We always overpaid by at least the interest per month in the last 2-3 years of living there and it was great to see the amount owed going down substantially. We were lucky as well in terms of house prices rising.

We sold after 7 years for 35% more than we bought it for. We'd done a bit of work to the downstairs and modernised a bit.

We were able to buy a 4 bed detached in a more upmarket area and increased the size of the mortgage. I've now just had another pay rise having lived here a year so we will now start to overpay this mortgage too. My aim is to cover the interest now with the extra money.

We've always seen the mortgage as a priority to pay and overpay when able. We're not fussy over our cars or spend loads on clothes etc. We enjoy trips out, nice holidays etc still though. But I wouldn't go shopping and spend on clothes or make up for no specific reason as it's just not me.

I waited 14 years for income and equity to grow enough!! To be fair it wasn't really our first house as we both had owned with exes but came away with not very much. If we had still owned our previous houses we would have been able to move much sooner!

We moved last year from ex council 3 bed terrace to large 4 bed semi.

We did buy as a couple (he is a teacher and I am a lawyer). We moved to bigger houses because we bought when I was 22 and I picked a career where in London your earnings go up (in commercial law in big firms) and always kept pushing the limits - 5x salary loans, every penny of savings used up, mortgaged to the hilt and then paying back debt as much as possible (and 2 week maternity leaves - yes weeks not months) and I always worked full time as did we both. Took risks, endured property crashes over the years - at one point after my divorce my interest only mortgage of £1.3m cost me £90k a year.

We 1st bought years ago, sold for about £100k more than we paid. The second move wasn't a huge profit but we had paid the mortgage off. Stayed there 8 yrs. this house was bought at a bargain( compared to other houses on the road now ) we have done about £100k worth of work but I won't be leaving. We have been lucky with when we bought & sold. And we live in a very popular area.
I honestly think you can only move 'up' the ladder if you buy a house that someone has left a little u loved / needs a shed load of work doing to it.

We had the extremely lucky combination of our first home increasing in value substantially and getting our new house way under valuation.

Wow @Xenia 90K a year is crazy, especially an interest only mortgage. Was it your second husband who is the teacher that you bought with or he is your first husband that you've since divorced? 2 weeks maternity leave is also something I'd not heard of - you must be really determined :).

I bought my first house alone aged 25, in 2000.

We did a few things.
Moved to a job that had a house and rented ours to accumulate a bigger capital for a larger deposit so we could move.
Did work that added value- converted too small garage to downstairs loo, study and utility. Did a loft conversion with en-suite.
Increased income to allow bigger mortgage.

Our son is just upgrading from first bachelor flat to a horror a couple. He’s saved hard to build up capital but is lucky to have been deployed, so receiving additional money for being away for nearly a year. He also had a friend/lodger that offset mortgage and bills and allowed more savings. His girlfriend is in very similar position so between them they’ll have about £90k to put down and all them an increased budget.
They won’t get their forever house, but will get somewhere solid that can be tarted up and allow them to move up again in a few years time.

Sold my three bed inner city terrace and bought two dumps. Two seriously dilapidated buildings with water coming through the roof, windows boarded up, and sagging floors. Been on the market for years and no one wanted them. Still working on one of them 30 years later. But live in a huge detached house in a small village surrounded by hills and the most wonderful community.

@TheSandman wow 30 years is crazy!

Bought first house for £125k in 2012. Redecorated, added new kitchen and roof. Sold for £145k last year with £105k left on the mortgage and bought new house for £250k which we are able to do because our income has doubled since we bought our first house.

We overpaid our mortgage every month. Because we kept our jobs through the credit crunch we also benefited from very low interest rates and a base rate with our (agreed in 2006) mortgage which was very lucky. As a result we made “two” jumps when we moved 13 years after our first purchase.

Our house gained 50k in 4 years due to being in a popular road. We increased our borrowing potential as we had both had salary increases and we moved further from the nearest city (to be closer to work and family) meant we were able to upgrade our house fairly well.

Honestly I think some of it is luck we brought our first house in 2000 for £75k spent probably around £25-£30k renovating and sold for £175k brought current house for £290k not really done all that much to it but recently valued at £500k I think some of it really does depend on the location but one thing I would say don't spend money on a conservatory- cost a fortune and add little to no value

Bought in Edinburgh (2 bed flat).

Bought for £250k in 2013, sold for £350k in 2018.

Bought four bed do-er upper for £450k.

Saved about £20k with an ex DP and bought a house which took a lot of time and money to do up. We split up after 2 years and I walked away with £40k. Used that as a deposit to buy a flat (so technically downsized) which was another project. Improved the flat massively and in 5 years I believe it’s worth about £80k more. I’ve now got in excess of £120k equity which would be a sizeable deposit for the next house

We were late 20's and lived on an awful lot of potatoes and mince made ito whatever could think of. No eating out no pubs, no partys for a very long timw while we saved a 10% deposit. I worked two jobs also.
Bought an ex rental 2 bed tiny house and did it up. Lived in it 5 years, sold and moved to a slightly larger 3 bed on a bigger plot in our early 30's. Paid extra on the mortgage for ever. Sold and bought this house 3 bed again, for cash, and needed to renovate this one too in our early 50's. But no more mortgage.

I bought my first house aged 21 (27 years ago).. got lucky with the huge price increases but also did up 4 wrecks and sold them for good profit (think Sarah Beeney!) . Did very well out of it. Probably not so easy these days however. Don't know how I would ever afford the house I live in currently if I had to start from scratch so really feel for first time buyers now.