Happy stories of moving from rented house to your own first house

[BewareTheLibrarians]

We’re currently in a long term rental, and have always rented, but next year we’re hoping to buy our own house - both first time buyers.

It’s probably a ridiculous time to buy as house prices are so inflated, but we’re already in our 40s and some stability would be nice!

We’ll probably end up buying a new build as there are lots being built near us, and some have quite reasonable help to buy schemes. I know some people think new builds are a bit rubbish, but I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of choice.

Anyway, it is a bit scary to move from a nice house with good neighbours and the convenience of renting (don’t have to pay for repairs - although no guarantee that repairs will actually ever be done, there are bits literally falling off our rental at the moment!)

Has anyone moved from long term renting to first time ownership and been really happy with their decision? (If you have any scare stories please don’t tell me as I’m naturally cautious about this kind of thing and need a bit of a push to do it! )

Yes, we loved it. We didn't move to a new build; victorian semi that needed a lot of work. We've since sold for a decent profit so of course no regrets but generally it was great to know we could do whatever the hell we liked with the house and decorate it to our taste. We also got a cat haha which we couldn't have done so easily in rental. Yes it's a bugger when you have to fork out for someone that's broken but those issues don't roll around every week.

We moved from long term renting just under two years ago. Definitely really happy with our decision. One thing that has been a happy suprise is our new deal on remortgage as our 2 year fixed deal is coming to an end. Our property value has risen enough that we qualify for a 15% LTV instead of the 5% we started with. Meaning our fixed rate is less than it was and what we pay eat month will be about £100 less. Something I didn't know about.

@CourgetteSeason That sounds like it worked out really well And cats.. the stress! We’ve been lucky to have two pet-friendly landlords in a row, but we have dark brown carpets throughout and a mostly white cat. So much hoovering! We need either pale carpet so we can’t see the fur, or laminate so we can gather the fur balls and knit them into a rug

@PurplePinecone That is a really happy surprise! Perfect timing! I worry that as soon as we buy, house prices will crash and we’ll be stuck with a huge mortgage and lots of stress. But we can’t keep putting it off forever as we’re already ancient for 1st time buyers. It’s good to hear that it can work out positively too!

Ours was a slightly different situation in that our rental was awful with no effort by the landlord and had no hearing or hot water and the 1970s kitchen was barley holding itself together. We were in that rental over 20 years and thanks to a gift from my in-laws and a work project we were able to afford a decent deposit which made for a lower repayment. It was almost 5 years ago now and we are so much happier and have huge plans for here. Best decision ever. Hope it works out for you too @BewareTheLibrarians

I've had two new builds and loved them. My current house was built in the 70s and its lovely but it's cost so much more than we expected, I miss my low maintenance new build.
My only advice would be make sure the garden is acceptable, my second new build had the worst garden. We got it for a steal and thought the crap garden was a payoff for getting a 4 bed house but it was eventually a factor in moving.
If I'd had the finances to buy a better positioned 4 bed with a garden that was bigger than a postage stamp and actually got some sun I would probably have stayed there x

We bought 2 years ago and we are so much happier. Better off financially and we can do what we want to our home. We have also just remortgaged after our 2 year deal finished and we are now doing up the house a bit... I feel so lucky. Good luck to you!

We bought, and it feels so good to be able to make changes to things. I’ve lived in so many horrible rentals in my lifetime (and some nice ones) and put up with pink carpeted bathrooms, trickley showers, 70s kitchens, that sort of thing. Having the freedom to have pets, plant a garden and make changes is just so nice. You’ll love it.
Ours isn’t a new build but I’ve rented a new build before and I actually loved it. There’s a lot to be said for new builds, the cleanliness and order, and the ease of living in them and maintaining them. A lot of them are pretty, too.
Hopefully you’ll do it and love it!

Yes us! We moved into a cheap new build in 2018 and sold it in 2019 for £30k more than we paid for it! We scraped together an £8k deposit for our first house and then had nearly £60k for the deposit on our next house the year after. I know there are lots of issues with new builds but it was the best thing we ever did!

Absolutely!

We’ve always decorated and put shelves up in rented houses and then ‘made it right’ before we left (which has always been very stressful) but having our own place is amazing.

Everything is our choice. Our decor. Where we hang shelves. There’s no rush to fix any decorating mistakes or fill in holes quickly. We can keep the house as tidy or as messy as our lives dictate at the time without worrying about an inspection.

If you’re buying a new build then you probably won’t want to make massive changes to the kitchen or bathrooms just yet, but you know that you CAN which is really an amazing feeling.

I also overpay the mortgage. It is so easy to forgo a takeaway, pop £25 over to the mortgage and then run a mortgage overpayment calculator to see how much faster we will pay it off.

Yes there’s the worry of neighbours etc but we’ve been very lucky. We are very close to our new neighbours and class them as friends.

We also didn’t really ‘upgrade’ when we moved. We rented a gorgeous, unique and large property that was a once in a lifetime change for us to live in such a house. Yet I am still so much happier here.

(I also never believe that renting is ‘wasted money’)

It's nice to read this thread we are early forties and saving for our deposit after our landlord sold our old home . It nearly destroyed me so are now determined to buy .
OP can I ask you how much you saved ?
It's daunting isn't it .

Yes. We moved I’m into our own home last year after a few years of renting. I hated it- never felt secure or able to guarantee that we had a home anywhere long term.

We were lucky that we already had a deposit (inheritance), but the area we wanted to buy in was expensive and only the small ex-council estate was within our budget, so we had to wait until something came in the market.

We were extremely fortunate that we had an offer accepted on a house which suited our needs perfectly, was in good condition (owned by a builder) and was well under budget.

It’s lovely being able to decorate, put a bit of paint in the walls and commit to buying naice furniture because you don’t need to worry about moving it all when the lease ends.

It also feels like a burden’s been lifted. We have more security now, with our monthly repayments being over £100 less than our rent on a smaller property was.

My house has no Magnolia woodchip, has a lovely walk in shower and a garden we can do what we like with.

I'm happy.

(And I haven't got itchy feet after 9 months... honest... 7 homes in different locations around Europe in 10 years!)

All of this sounds really amazing and now I want to move tomorrow

The point about new builds being low maintenance is really a good one. Our house is nice, but it’s older so bits are falling off, and the landlord either won’t replace, or replaces with the cheapest budget option Having the freedom to make it look how you want would be incredible.

I’ll keep an eye out for good gardens (or else dh and the cat will complain!)

@Bedsheets4knickers I’m so sorry to hear about your home, that must have been awful. I hate that insecurity and it’s a big motivation for us too. I have no idea if we’ve saved enough, because although we’ve both been working and saving, we’ve moved countries so lots was lost on plane tickets and visas and moving, so we really started from behind. Even if we get a 7x mortgage we’d still need about £50k deposit to buy in this area and safe to say we’re not there yet!

We did this 7.5 years ago after several years of renting & it was the best thing we ever did. We really had to tighten our belt & it took us years & years of saving as DH was the only one working FT & We had our 2nd child in that time. I worked part time. We calculated we paid around £38,000 over several years rent. Don’t get me me wrong, renting serves a purpose, of course it does. But at the end of the day, it’s paying off someone else’s mortgage.

We didn’t get any help from family with buying our first house, a two bed. We paid a 5% deposit (HTB). There was a LOT of work that needed to be and it was hard but we’re almost there! There’s always something but the best thing is you can do what you like, it’s your house, your home, you’re free to decorate how you’ve always wanted. It’s an investment. The mortgage was quite high at first but now it’s lower than what our rent was, we couldn’t rent for less than what our mortgage is. Yeah so you don’t pay for repairs when you rent, but sometimes the repairs were never done when we were renting or it was just a bodge job! You find you just manage when you own your own home. If it’s a new build then I’m assuming you won’t need to fork out for repairs any time soon. I’d say just save as much as you can & go for it, you won’t regret it!