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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not want to move

47 replies

mrsnw · 23/02/2012 10:06

We own a nice three bedroom mid terrace house in a good area with fab schools almost outright. Our mortage payments are less than £350 a month. I am a SAHM. Slap me please and tell me I do not need a detached three bed and a mortage almost double what we have. Just feels like all my friends have got so much bloody more grrrrrrr xx

OP posts:

lollystix · 23/02/2012 10:39

So how much more would your mortgage be for the detachedness, the downstairs loo and the bigger third bedroom?

Work that out, add on the fees to sell/buy plus stamp duty if applicable and work out what the monthly mortgage would be.

Are you willing to pay that much more for the remaining years your kids will be living with you?

badtasteflump · 23/02/2012 10:39

Ooh yes what about a loft conversion? Don't old terraced houses usually have huge lofts?

Original poster

mrsnw · 23/02/2012 10:40

We have savings to pay the mortgage off it we wanted to. It would be about £750 on a detached.

OP posts:

badtasteflump · 23/02/2012 10:42

... so surely a semi-detached would be somewhere inbetween? Why does it need to be detached?

lollystix · 23/02/2012 10:43

If you have savings to pay off mortgage you're mad paying the interest on one-get it paid off tomorrow-you're throwing money down the toilet just now.

Original poster

mrsnw · 23/02/2012 10:44

Hubs doesn't want to move again so we need to make it a big move and not an in between

OP posts:

Trills · 23/02/2012 10:44

"In-between" houses don't always actually exist, or come onto the market.

badtasteflump · 23/02/2012 10:45

Trills · 23/02/2012 10:47

Is that ?? was at me I'll explain further - you were saying that a semi-detached house should cost between the current terraced house and the proposed detached house, but in the area that mrsnw wants to live there might not be any semi-detached houses in nice areas for that price, or if there are they might not be for sale.

badtasteflump · 23/02/2012 10:48

And BTW if you can afford £750 a month, then it's not too much. If you can't, then it is!

And I agree that it's mad to have savings sitting there and not use them to pay off the mortgage - unless you've got an offset mortgage maybe.

Olderyetwilder · 23/02/2012 10:48

Our 3rd bedroom was a tiny boxroom. It's now got a nice playing/furniture etc area and a groovy curtained bed area, created by taking a chunk of the double room next to it. Both kids have roughly the same amount of space and both happy with their rooms. Might that be possible in yours? (ours is 30's house rather than terrace so layout may be different)

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 23/02/2012 10:50

What lollystix said.

Savings are getting interest of 1 or 2% on larger amounts (unless it is in an ISA) but your mortgage interest is probably 5-6%.

Unless all those savings are needed as your safety net then either pay off or pay down your mortgage (e.g. use half the savings and keep half as a safety net).

mojitomania · 23/02/2012 10:51

as lives in a one bed with a DS of 14, so sleeps on a sofabed in front room

chipmunksex · 23/02/2012 10:55

Just because your friends live in bigger houses, they are no better off really are they? Having savings and a small mortgage is a better investment in you and your family's future.

So If I were you (and I so nearly am, except we don't have any savings) I would not move.

But it doesn't sound like you could go too wrong if you do move. So what do You really want to do?

badtasteflump · 23/02/2012 10:55

Or if you have a terraced house OP do you have a separate living room and dining room off a hallway? What about using one of those rooms as your room and giving the DC the bigger bedrooms upstairs...

If you really don't want to move, that is...

suburbophobe · 23/02/2012 10:56

Bigger house = more cleaning....

Original poster

mrsnw · 23/02/2012 11:03

Defo to the more cleaning. We have never paid off the mortgage because don't you lose exsisting borrowers rights? And we would have to pay £1000 redemption fee! It comes to an end in 18 months. So could pay it off then. But we would then have to add the cost of borrowing to the mortgage when we do move

OP posts:

happybubblebrain · 23/02/2012 11:10

I think the best thing you could do is stay where you are, and save save save for the bigger house in a few years. I think house prices are going to be dropping still so in a few years you might be able to get that bigger house without having to increase your mortgage. It would mean living on less now, but be worth it in the long run.

Original poster

mrsnw · 23/02/2012 11:17

I like your thinking and I might even be back at work part time as well

OP posts:

kitsmummy · 23/02/2012 11:27

You need to let us know your finances to get a proper response - how old are the kids, how many mortgage paying years do you have left in you? How much money would you have left at the end of each month etc etc.

Fwiw I don't think it's ridiculous to want to upgrade house if you can afford it - after all most people upgrade at some time in their life don't they? A first house is not usually the house for life nowadays.

Cherriesarelovely · 23/02/2012 13:10

you could always do a loft conversion if you want to create a bigger bedroom.

lollystix · 23/02/2012 13:20

Ok - don't pay it all off but pay off everything up to 18x£350 monthly payments plus another £1k. Seriously bonkers to be earning 2-3% max on savings and paying out 3-6% on mortgage. I am making assumptions. You could have higher interest rate ISAs and be on an old base rate tracker at around 1-2% now and then the picture could change.

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