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

[beth12345]

We bought before we had children, back in 2002. We bought in the North, in an area where property prices hadn't yet risen too ridiculously high - though we were very lucky that prices in this particular area did then rise significantly after we bought.
Jobs changed and we moved near-ish to London a few years later, and we were lucky again in that our house value had risen such that we had around 50% equity.
We could then buy (back in 2005) a 3 bed semi in Surrey on a reasonable mortgage. We currently pay around £500 a month mortgage. But I really can't see how we could have bought had we been first time buyers in 2012.

[VeritableSmorgasbord]

Inherited a deposit (sorry) and then scrimped, no holidays, no new things to speak of for years, bought furniture in second-hand shops, etc. Will never own houses the size that our parents have, times are very different now, although they technically started with far less.

Know people my age living in massive, pristinely renovated Victorian townhouses and they are the ones who made totally different career choices ie became lawyers and bankers (not doctors, not enough money in that any more).

[OHforDUCKScake]

For DP and I to buy a house we need over 30k.

Reading that some people paid 4k or even 12.5k makes me want to cry.

My rent is nearly 1k pcm as well.


The only possible way we'd afford a place is through inheritance and I really dont want to consider that. Plus its neither here nor there as I hope I dont have to face that for at least 20 years.

Until then, its money down the drain.

[hugoagogo]

Luck- I actually feel a bit guilty sometimes.

100% mortgage in 1997, the mortgage now on our terrace is less than we were paying on rent on a 1 bedroom flat before.

It could so easily have gone wrong.

[eurochick]

Rented room in shared house and saved like mad. I was fortunate enough to buy when a 5% deposit was the norm so 18 months of saving like crazy was enough for the deposit, stamp duty and my first furniture. I only had two folding chairs (borrowed from parents), a blowup mattress (borrowed from a friend) and a tiny portable tv when I moved in though.

[arthurfowlersallotment]

We rent. But meh, my twenties were bloody fun. :o

[Bigwheel]

Dh and I brought our first home a few months ago, at 32 and 35 years old, after 6 years together and 2 dc. We rented at £550 PCM and our mortage now for a much bigger, nicer house is £460 PCM. There's no way we could have saved on our joint income of 26k but my dad gave us 16k as a gift for which we'll always be thankful for. We could never have done it with out this.

[VeritableSmorgasbord]

Options for getting rent down so you can save are:
rent in a far shittier area than you would normally consider
rent a bigger house with more people in it (I know someone who did this: there were 3 families, 3 apartments but a shared kitchen)
houseboat for a while if near a canal (also know people who have done this)
rent and (illegally?) sublet, maybe to a relative
relocate totally to an area with lower rents
move in with older relatives - big big deal, this one, only works for some people, but could be amazing. My grandparents did this with a very elderly aunt, they had no savings and she needed the company (and the care, a couple of years later), it really helped them (and was very above board I promise).

[OddGoldBoots]

Next door to us has been turned into a HMO, there's a lovely couple living in one of the rooms saving to buy their own place, they each seem to have 3 jobs and it can't be fun living with 4 other adults but hopefully it'll pay off for them.

[elinorbellowed]

I trained as a teacher at a crucial point and got a golden hello of £4000. DP and I saved very hard for a year until we had another £4000. That was our 5% deposit on a 2-bedroom house in East London that needed a lot of work. We did not over-extend ourself and we took 6 years to do it up (well, renovate really) We made a significant profit and bought a much bigger house. When our fixed rate was up, the mortgage repayments dropped by a third and have stayed that way for two years. Cheaper than our rent was 10 years ago. This is the only good financial decision either of us have ever made.
We drive battered old cars, shop in sales and charity shops, haven't had a foreign holiday since the children were born and almost never go out.But our home is safe and we are not subject to the whims of a private landlord.

[Ragwort]

Luck & savings - bought my first home in the 1980s & sold on at good times, always saved hard as others have said & did without lots of things so many people think are essential (ie: even though we are now mortgage free we choose to just have one TV etc). Stayed in our first home for a long time whilst other friends continually moved 'up market'. Both DH and I were very established in our careers and didn't have a DC until our 40s and then stuck at one .

[Claifairy]

We were 25 in 2002.

We were lucky as the mortgage people accepted the £5000 we knocked off the asking price of the flat we bought as the 10% deposit to get us the best deal even though 100% and 110% mortgages at 30 years exsisted.

Did it up and sold it 9 months later at a profit which bought us our first house and did the same putting it on the market 9 months later and bought the house we are in now.

It was different back in 2002-2004 when we did all our buying and selling as mortgages were so easy to get and at stupid amounts. I think we were offered 5x our joint salary which would have killed us once the mortgage rates changed and when I became a SAHM.

I don't think we could save now for the deposits needed even though we earn much better wages.

Friends have moved back in with family to save for the deposit and others have bought in areas that are up and coming to get onto the property ladder and try and make some profit for the next move.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

We bought our first house years ago when it was a lot easier to get a mortgage and house prices were much less. I think we'd struggle if we were starting from scratch now.

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

saved like bastards when we had 2 incomes and no kids. eventually scraped enough for 5% deposit on the smallest flat in the shittest street in town, when banks were still lending 95% at a reasonable rate. that was in 2004. said flat increase in value by a tiny amount. the increase plus the deposit plus a few years mortgage payments as equity gave us enough to put a deposit town on a small house in a cheaper town.

I think it's very, very hard to save that much if you have DC, plus borrowing any more than 75% is more expensive now.

[ivanapoo]

A mix of inheritance, negotiating pay rises and years of hard saving. Our mortgage is close to £1000 a month and that's about the same as it would cost to rent a comparative house in this area.

[Angelico]

Got lucky. Living in NI got a 100% mortgage on 2 bed terrace before the boom. Prices then went mad and was able to sell 2 bed and get a 3 bed further out of town on a 90% mortgage. Of course now post-crash still have the house and am living elsewhere so have to either sell at loss or let it with accompanying stress.

It is really annoying OP and I do feel for you - my mortgage was a lot less than a rent would be. They have thrown out 100% mortgages across the board when actually they were a good deal for people in reasonably secure jobs.

[slatternlymother]

The thing is (and sorry for the hijack), but I can't see where all this is going to end. There is a massive group of people who, at this rate, are going to not be able to ever get on the property ladder. So when they are too old to work and pay rent, the state will have to house them.

That's not going to work, is it? Surely there has to be an end point where either mortgage lenders ease up or house prices dive? Anyone have any answers?

[Northernlurkerisbackatwork]

Sorry not helpful in the current climate but we were able to buy because 13 years ago you could get a 100% mortgage on a slary of £13,000 and buy a house with it. We stayed in that home for 9 years then moved up. We did make quite a bit on it but then the next house cost more so it all evens out. We were very lucky that things were as they were. Without a 100% mortgage we would not have been able to buy. As it was a rising market it very swiftly became less than 100%. I wouldn't want a 100% mortgage now - which is lucky because I wouldn't get one. In the late 90s you could even get a 125% mortgage!

[xkcdfangirl]

rent the tiniest pokiest place you can bear to survive in instead of the reasonably OK place you are getting for a grand a month, put the difference into savings. Work more than you want to, spend less that you want to, put everything you can into savings.

We lived in a horrible, cramped, damp and mouldy flat for 3 years with both of us doing additional part-time work in the evening as well as our full-time jobs, after which we had enough money for a deposit on a not-paricularly-nice small house which we lived in for 6 years, paying off as much mortgage as we could and spending most of our spare time doing DIY to improve the value of the house, such that once we sold the equity was enough for the deposit on a decent house.

[ditziness]

This is all making me want to cry.

We've two kids. We had the kids late in our life's and very early in our relationship. Our credit rating is rubbish. We have no relatives to lend money/ inherit from.

We don't have foreign holidays, shop in charity shops, cut our own hair, budget etc just to afford the rent and bills, let alone save.

We've had to move 3 times in 4 years, twice while I was pregnant, once with a newborn. Because of shitty landlords who won't repair their property or turf you out or try and keep our deposit.

Just want a home for my children :-(

Need between 10-15 grand to make that happen. How to get it?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Had a gift from my parents towards deposit, the rest I saved up (some of it while living with parents and saving every penny I didn't spend on my commute)

DH moved in, and with our combined salary we were able to increase our mortgage and move to where we are living now.

We bought right at the top of the market, and with me a SAHM we couldn't see how we were ever going to move from here. But DH has increased his income hugely over the last year and we are now overpaying madly on our mortgage so we should have it paid off in 5 years, at which point we will move again.

[Bintang]

OP- where do you live?
£1k p.c.m. sounds ridiculous!
We live in an area of sky-high house prices, but renting a 2-bed house here would be around 6-700, and this is a mostly safe area with reasonable schools.