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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To rent not own a house now I have a child?

105 replies

CharlieMumma · 15/01/2012 10:09

I rent my house privately with my dp and our ds. We don't earn enough to be able to get a big enough mortgage for a 3 bed house. So until we get pay rises and save a big deposit we are renting. I think It definitely has positives as webcam move easily for schools etc.

Have had a few comments from other friends who own and are married saying buying is best what about the security of your children you could get chucked out if landlord want house back and in the future what will u pass on to them etc?

Is renting really that reasonable?

OP posts:
Kellogg · 15/01/2012 11:19

We have also discussed buying somewhere smaller in the future, I imagine we could do so in cash so no need for a mortgage. Or my favoured option is using the money we save while we are renting to travel the world and go out in a blaze of glory.

Chubfuddler · 15/01/2012 11:21

Yes we can decorate, we have two dogs. Our situation is atypical but renting does not = moving every year and unscrupulous agents and Lls.

MoreBeta · 15/01/2012 11:23

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll - too true. People always forget the cost of maintaining a property and insuring it in their calculations of cost of ownership.

Guess what? That is why so many houses on the market are in such terrible condition BECAUSE the owner discovered that they could not actually afford to own it. Old people selling houses will rarely acknowledge what terrible physical condition their house is in.

Chubfuddler · 15/01/2012 11:29

Our aim is to be able to buy a small flat cash when the children leave home. I have no intention of being one of those pensioners living in squalor in the crumbling wreck of a once lovely home they no longer have the time, money or physical energy to care for.

ZillionChocolate · 15/01/2012 11:37

Owning a house is massively overrated as far as I can see. The suggestion that you should move from a 3 bed house to a 2 bed flat is ludicrous. Tell your friends to mind their own business!

Kellogg · 15/01/2012 11:41

I think quality of life is an important consideration. We have four bedrooms for two adults and a child. We do hope to fill those bedrooms with children but in the meantime we constantly have people to stay. Dd gets much more from that than us owning the deeds to the house. I would never move to a small flat so I can buy .

Garliccheesechips · 15/01/2012 11:48

I don't see how there is an argument here when for many people there isn't a choice.

We rent. Where we live the average 3 bedroom house is upwards of half a million (and more). We want to live here. The schools are good, there is lots to do. It's beautiful. We rent because we can't afford to buy. If we did buy it would be somewhere we didn't want to live. The day that changes then we'll buy.

And to refer back to the earlier point- if you have a mortgage, you don't own your house anyway, the bank owns YOU. Miss a few payments if you want to test that theory.

Original poster
CharlieMumma · 15/01/2012 12:45

Kellogg-love the going out in a blaze of glory idea!! Why not life is for living after all. Am deffo feeling v happy about my renting over buying and thinking that yes when we are older and can buy almost outright we might do but by then who knows what things will be like.

I too live in the south east so to buy a family home in an area I would like to live is incredibly expensive and like another poster has said I would at the moment rather have the freedom to move and the safety of not worrying about repairs!

OP posts:
SootySweepandSue · 15/01/2012 12:55

If it's cheaper to live rented property in your preferred area I would do it. Some people prefer to have a home that is quite personalised and really get into the decorating etc. I think is part of the buzz of owning if you can afford it. But there is nothing wrong with renting and in some areas is better. There are good landlords out there. I rented a lovely terraced house for 5 years with no problems. We bought a place half the size and our mortgage is the same as my old rent I do wonder if we did the right thing...albeit we have renovated and think we've added quite a bit to the houses value. I think it was 6 and half a dozen for us.

Kellogg · 15/01/2012 13:04

I am influenced by the fact that I know my life expectancy is probably limited and in some ways I am lucky to be alive. It has shifted my focus on life . I doubt I will live long enoug to see the benefits if owning a property so I live each day as it comes.

sharenicely · 15/01/2012 13:10

I couldn't afford to rent. My mortgage is £115 per month (3 bed terrace) which means I always have a good amount of disposable income.
I hope to have paid my mortgage off within the next two years but will then hopefully be buying a bigger house with a tiny mortgage again.

Kellogg · 15/01/2012 13:15

I suppose it depends when you took out your mortgage. Our rent is ten times your mortgage but it is something we can comfortably afford and still save while having a good quality of life .

McHappyPants2012 · 15/01/2012 13:20

yanbu, yes you may get given notice......but nobody knows what around the corner your friends maybe made redundant and lose the house.

startail · 15/01/2012 13:24

In the present climate I think the OP is wise only to buy a house because she really wants to live in it long term.
We bought our 1st house in 1992. The profit we made on it just covered our moving expenses, that was it.
We ended up borrowing from family to get the house we wanted.
Since then the house prices have risen ridiculously (as they did in the late 1980's).
The rises were not sustainable then and they certainly aren't now.

MamaGeekChic · 15/01/2012 13:33

We rent. We have a lovely 3 bed townhouse with a big garden, when I looked in to it if we bought this property the interest on the mortgage would be as much as the rent and we would have to pay for repairs/maintenance etc... so we are putting the extra money we would be paying into a savings account to buy somewhere hopefully in about 5yrs time. Its likely we will stay here if we can though and buy somewhere for OH ( a tradesman struggling for work so SAHD) to do up once DD is at school which we'll either rent out or sell on. My salary is made up of a big % of commission so I like not having the overhead of £000's of debt. i'm also not overly concerned with leaving something for DD. I have an life policy which pays out if i die before 60 and a private pension, she'll be 35 by then so i'd hope that if i go after that she'll be able to support herself.

larry5 · 15/01/2012 13:35

We bought our first property (2 bed maisonette) when we got married and were then fortunate enough to move up the property ladder to bigger houses. 6 years ago my dh had to take early retirement so we were able to sell our large house, downsize and move to a much cheaper area without a mortgage. We then lived on the capital until his state pension kicked in.

We had no rent or mortgage to pay so sometimes it is good to own as we were able to manage on a much lower income. If necessary in the future we could downsize again to free more capital and reduce general outgoings.

Kellogg · 15/01/2012 13:38

I think if you were fortunate enough to buy when prices were low and then sell when they were high it was probably a wise decision . That is not the situation we are in now so I don't want to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to live in a smaller house with less freedom. If the situation were different I may change my mind.

Portofino · 15/01/2012 13:41

We sold our house when we moved to Belgium and have rented ever since. We have a lovely house at the mo that we couldn't afford to buy in a million years. I like the flexibility - we could move country/area almost at the drop of a hat and not have to worry about it. We could seriously downsize if one of us lost our job. When dd is a bit older we will probably move to be close to a decent secondary school - even if this means moving to a smaller house or flat - as at 12, she won't be so bothered about playing in the garden and riding her bike outside. I think all this buying property as an investment is what has caused a lot of the problem with ridiculous house prices in the UK.

Curtainmyself · 15/01/2012 13:44

OP I think you are one of the wise ones and your friends are envious.

It's much cheaper to rent than own - and probably will be for another 10 years or so. Most of your friends have millstones around their necks.

Original poster
CharlieMumma · 15/01/2012 13:58

Curtain - I am starting to think that way particularly when I look at a friend who I
Has just found out she is pregnant - they own a one bed house with no garden(was all the could afford) they and £20k to upsize and move which they don't have so they are looking at sharing a room with dc for many years to come, not ideal really.

OP posts:
TuesdayNightClub · 15/01/2012 13:59

My mortgage is £115 per month (3 bed terrace) which means I always have a good amount of disposable income.

Kellogg · 15/01/2012 14:01

There is not one answer for some people in certain life situations it is better to buy and for others to rent. The danger lies in assuming that either is necessarily better without fully looking into both options. If you have the choice, which many do not

Firawla · 15/01/2012 14:08

It's none of your friends business and of course it is not BU to rent as most of the time people dont really have a choice, it is true there are positives to buying your own house but your friends should let you make your own decision.
We rented when we had ds1 and 2 but just recently bought after having ds3 and tbh there is more stability in buying as we had moved around so many times and were getting sick of it! due to 2 landlords selling and one landlady just a nightmare.. so we had been in 3 places in 3 yrs, and each time you move rents have gone up and can be hard to even find a place in the area you want etc.. so now i am really glad we have settled in one place in time for ds1 starting school but when they are under school age it doesnt matter that much, and if you are lucky to get a good landlord then you would be fine

wordfactory · 15/01/2012 14:14

Op - you should do whatever is best for your family's happiness and also financial stability. If at this moment that means renting then so be it.

I must be honest though and say, having done both, I much prefer to own.
I like the idea that it's ours and we can, within reason do what the hell we like to it. I like that one day it will be the DCs.

carabos · 15/01/2012 15:05

We rent privately and have been in our house for almost 8 years. We did this because we previously had accommodation with DH work and through force of circumstance had to move in a rush and find a school for DS2 to start in the September- secondary school, he was 11.

As a result we have been able to live in a house we couldn't afford to buy, in a town we couldn't afford to buy in and DS went to a very good state school within walking distance. It's all good.

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