To ask how you managed to buy a house?

[ditziness]

We pay close to a grand rent a month. It's of our friend's mortgages are cheaper. As a consequence it's very difficult to save. But save we must to tryand get a deposit. So we have to continue to rent

Stuck in a vicious circle.

How the hell did you manage to buy a house?

Any financial, deposit raising, mortgage getting advice welcome

[joanofarchitrave]

I was born in the late 60s.

[RubyrooUK]

DH and I bought our flat before getting married etc so it was our major expense in life. We both worked two jobs for two years and saved 20 grand. Another 10 grand in inheritance meant we had a 30 grand deposit and we could get a 90% mortgage.

Three years later, we sold the flat for 35 grand more than we bought for (which was a decent return in a bad bad market). So we had 65K when we took back our original deposit from the first flat. We then worked two jobs again (while I was pregnant) for over a year so we could make the 25% deposit necessary for our small house.

Then the bank decided we needed 30% deposit but that's another story. We got a different mortgage elsewhere.

It's been hard work, dedicating money to saving hard and some good luck, I would say.

[turtles]

We never rented. We used savings+small inheritance for 1st deposit but it was a new build and last one to be sold in the block so we didn't need much for a deposit.

[Bintang]

We lived in cheap, crappy accommodation for years- this house is the first we've been in with central heating!

Worked 7 days a week, at 3 jobs at once.

Of course, this was prior to having children.

[IKnowItsMyFaultBut]

Did 80 hours a week and lived in truly nasty acommodation for most of my twenties.

[marshmallowpies]

Very very fortunate to have a string of great aunts/second cousins who were unmarried or childless so inherited enough money to put towards a deposit. Was able to get a tracker mortgage at the end of 2007 & my mortgage is now £300 less per month than it was in 2008. (though if interest rates go up I'm fcked). Been overpaying it to try and pay it off quicker but it's a drop in the ocean really...

[AnnoyingOrange]

Dp and I both lived with our respective parents until we had saved a deposit. Then bought a one bed flat

[wheresmespecs]

Luck and budgeting.

Luck - my parents remortgaged their house to give me ten grand for a deposit ten years ago (otherwise I would have had to raise the cash on a credit card, or get a 100 percent mortgage... which existed in those days....).

Luck - I changed jobs and had a couple of years earning a lot of money I wasn't expecting (bit complicated, but like a lot of commission on contracts I hadn't expected to get).

Budgeting - no foreign holidays, no mini breaks, go camping instead, a very old car that works and is cheap to insure, virtually no meals out, takeaways once in a blue moon, hair cuts on training days at the salon, no 'recreational' shopping for clothes, use libraries, go for runs rather than joining a gym, do food shopping with a list and a budget.

I prioritised the mortgage and overpaid whenever I could so I now have very low repayments.

[NeverKnowinglyUnderstood]

It was a long time ago but i lived very frugally for 2 years to save up £5,000 (earned £12,000)
found a small 1 bed house for £35,000
was granted a £30,000 mortgage on my salary

not sure how I would do it now.. the £5,000 was hard enough. I think the shared ownership scheme is a great one though if you can find one in an area that is right for you.

[marshmallowpies]

Oh and I bought a wreck. I knew it would be bad living in it till it was done up...I had no idea HOW hard it would be living like that - bare floorboards, leaky toilet, no working oven. I coped, just about!

[BettyandDon]

Luck my parents gave me £35k which was a 10% deposit in old London town in 2010.

They said they'd rather me have it now than when they die.

[WillYouDoTheFandango]

Had a good job, lived with lovely parents who didn't take keep and saved £19000 in my first year at work. Put it down as deposit and it got swallowed into negative equity. Now saving a new deposit so we can move, but much more difficult when paying a mortgage.

[wisecamel]

Mostly luck if I'm honest...bought a 2 up 2 down for £74,000 on a 100+% mortgage (remember those?) in 1998. I actually remember putting half the deposit down on my credit card! We had no savings and added to he solicitor's fees on to the mortgage. The house had almost doubled in value when we sold in 2004 and bought a three bedroom terrace.

That's still worth pretty much what we paid for it, so we'll be staying here probably for ever as we have nothing to trade up with. We've just come off of a 6% fixed rate so are currently feeling flush.

We weren't strategic, just took advantage of the 100% mortgage to get us started.

[TheFallenMadonna]

We bought young (way before children).

So we had cheap rent (shared hourses) and could save a deposit.

Bought cheap (ex council, less desirable area) and gradually moved up.

Toughest hit was when we moved from North to South when we had DS. Halved the size of our house and doubled the size of our mortgage.

[OodHousekeeping]

Bought at. 18 in 1998. £26k for my first house.

[Nuttyprofessor]

I went to a part time job early mornings, went to a full time job during thebday and another part time job in the evenings to save the deposit.

[mumblecrumble]

I think it is much much harder now. (Sorry) and its crap that rent seems to have got so expensive (double sorry).

We were lucky with timing I think. So lucky and we don't take it for granted.

We approached a nice lady, independant from an estate agent and she looked at our income, outcome, asked us our life plans etc etc and she made suggestions. At the time we both worked full time. She said that we could afford aprox £110,000. We chatted more about what we wanted in life..... babies was high on the list... doing up properties and killing ourselves for the mortgage was not so we bought house for £75,000 on lovely (ish) housing estate in North East.... (so also much cheaper than our Edinburgh and London friends). We got £78,000 mortgage, spent £2000 on furniture and white goods (we had nothing when we married... except books, my Grandma's piano etc etc... sorry I am digressing) so over 100% over 35 years.

Which sounds daft but we concentrated on being able to afford the monthly payments rather than house value and making money from it type thing. rent on flat we had at the time that was the same as are mortgage is now twice as expensive

We were very very lucky. But also i like to think we were not greedy and were careful that mortgage was buying our acomodation not obtaining an investment. We had also tried to save but felt buying at that time was a better way to go.

No way we would buy now. We'd rent but perhaps not have 'house costs'.

I reckon now its a deposit game and saving up is the only way.

[Startailoforangeandgold]

By doing it in 1991 with a 90% mortgage and £65000 ex council house.

No idea how, anyone manages it today.

[emsyj]

Bought our first house when huge mortgages were the norm (2004) - got a 95% mortgage and paid the deposit with my law school fees (reimbursed by the firm that I took a training contract at) whilst continuing to service my £30k student debt! Then moved to London in 2007 and rented that house out as we'd never have been able to sell it (small terrace, no first time buyers around by then as mortgage deals had dried up) - had highly paid jobs in London and paid off my student debts & saved £100k before returning to our home town and buying the house we live in now in 2009.

[minibmw2010]

Bought a 1 bed flat for £70k in 2000, sold it in 2003 for £120k, DH had a similar stroke of good luck so we were v fortunate to put down almost £100k on a £300k house. Could never ever do similar again and i feel for everyone who cant do the same

[Flosshilde]

DH bought a small place before we were married and massively overpaid on the mortgage. He ended up, with house price increases, with £90k equity. He chucked that on top of a mortgage we could afford to buy a decent house in a nice area. Unfortunately, we bought at the top of the market and that £90k has probably been swallowed up, but we know the house is still worth more than we owe on the mortgage at least. No idea how we'll ever get a bigger place though.

[VicWilcox]

Luck. Buying at a time when we both earned a decent full time wage and when properties were a lot cheaper (2000) and having parents who loaned us 5k for the deposit. Also, buying in the north west rather than the south east helps!

Had we waited 3 or 4 years I don't think we could have ever got onto the property ladder.

I am endlessly grateful for this, as am now divorced and there is no way I could get a mortgage now for my home.

[stressheaderic]

Bought in 2006 on a 97% mortgage, used my golden Hello from teaching. Mortgage is £480 a month. Still owe £100k

[BellaVita]

Bought our first house in 1987 with a 95% mortgage. We saved the money for a deposit during our engagement (we both lived at home with parents) until we got married.