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

[Pooka]

90% mortgage,first taken out 15 years ago on the basis of my dh's salary (he was dp at the time). I had just left university. His parents gifted him a deposit on a 40k flat. We sold the flat 3 years later for 98k. I was settled in a career by then, and our next mortgage was joint. Bought house for 235k in 2000. Sold for 300k in 2005. Bought next house (where we live now) for 330k. It's now worth c. 480. But we have spent a lot doing it up. no mortgage now though.

So really was just down to good luck (dh's parents are very generous) and circumstance (bought when prices were still manageable and hefty mortgages were still given). We're lucky - dh's older brother was 5 years ahead of us in house buying and by changing up and picking rising area managed to make much bigger leaps each time, ending up with 850k house from similar start, labeit 5 years earlier.

[ganglygiraffe]

I was lucky enough to get a teaching job straight out of university. Me and DP both lived with parents, saved really hard for that first year. Bought a 2 bed flat at ages 22/23. It needed a lot of work and we did most it ourselves.

It's worth quite a lot more than we paid for it now (bought it two years ago) and hoping to move to a house in the next 1-2 years. £500 pm, London borough.

For us it was living with our parents still which enabled us to do it. Neither of our parent's were able to help financially, but my parents allowed me to not pay any house keep which meant I could save.

[ditziness]

I feel so jealous and sad reading all that. Even if we manage to get a deposit together, we 'll only be able to get something tiny.

[EasilyBored]

We lived in a tiny 1 bed flat, in a less than great area so we paid as little rent as we reasonably could. Jointly saved for 4 years, DH had been saving for a long timebefore that too. We then bought a small house and are overpaying the mortgage. I'm lucky I married a saver basically.

[CherylWillBounceBack]

You seem completely determined to be frustrated over this op. Take a step back, analyse the economic and monetary situation this country is in. Do you seriously think that there isn't going to be a resolution of this massive disparity between wages and housing costs eventually? sit back, enjoy the important things in life and stop working yourself into a tizzy. Eventually the market will return to mean. They always do.

[Orenishii]

ditziness I feel for you because I'm the same. I moved to London when I was 18 and spent many years just living life. When I was 25 I met DP - now DH - and we settled down, renting. It was all fine.

Then suddenly I became obsessed with wanting to buy, I needed the security so badly. I'd had bad experiences of horrible landlords and losing my home because of their shittiness - the lack of being in control of my own destiny killed me, I hated it. But DH wasn't interested in buying and I couldn't do it on my own. I was saving like mad and forgoing a lot but I couldn't force him into it - I reckon it takes a lot to organise house buying, a mortgage - a lot more than just money, a lot of emotional input. It didn't work if we both didn't want it.

Now we're married, I'm nine months pregnant with our first, and I still often get a pang of wishing we owned where we live. But you can't torture yourself like that. What will be will be - we'll keep renting until something else happens. Like you, we might move in with family, or things will change in other ways. But of all the things I wanted, I am more grateful for having DH and our first child on the way than a house I own and I can't speak those words anymore - I wish I owned. Because I wanted three things so badly - marriage, children, a house - and I have two out of three. I am grateful for what I have and I no longer look to others and what they have.

Things will change. For now my best advice for both of us keep your chin up, keep your finances healthy because when things change - and they will - you want to be in the best position possible :) And plus - I wouldn't buy in London now if I had all the tea in China! I'd feel like a right mug, at these insane prices. I'd buy elsewhere, for investment purposes, rent it out and get security that way while moving on up the rental chain to a nicer property.

[marriedinwhite]

Have you thought about buying a permanent type mobile home to start with? There are some near where my mother lives and the two sites where they are quite nice. One is in the village and walking distancce to everything.

[FatFaced]

I'm in a similar position OP, it's frustrating.
We spend over a grand renting a one bed place.

But when I look at people doing v expensive repair jobs on their dodgy boiler on a property that's in negative equity I feel a bit better about it!

[cupcake78]

Rented cheap, lived cheap and saved saved saved.

[Orenishii]

Or people that have over-extended themselves ridiculously.

I know one couple who had a lovely three bed house just on the outskirts of London. She earns slightly below average, her husband is close to 100K. I would have been very happy in that situation but I guess it wasn't enough because they've bought a lovely, huge, converted barn. I have no idea how much it is but - I guess the mortgage is killing them because even though her husband earns what he earns - she has said she can't afford to quit her job and has to return to work from maternity leave.

This woman is a very sweet, kind, home-making lady, bakes all the time, is very creative at home and all she ever wanted to be was a SAHM. Literally, that was her dream and she was very open about that. If they'd stayed in their three bed house, she could have had her dream. But she also wanted the massive house and although they got it and I'm sure it's lovely, she has to return to a job she hates and resents - pretty much the opposite of what she wanted for her life.

I have to say - I don't get it. It's not like it was a choice between buying or not and being a SAHM. They had a lovely, lovely house, and a three bed house is more than sufficient for a young family. Her choices baffled me, knowing how much she wanted to be a SAHM mum - and by her DH's salary, she should be able to. When she said they were upset they'd be losing child benefit and how she couldn't afford to not work - it suddenly dawned on me how much they'd over-extended themselves to get this big house.

I dunno - horses for courses and all that. I'm sure she would have weighed up her options and made the right choice for her, but from the outside, it was so at odds with what she said she wanted.

[valiumredhead]

Worked long hours before ds was born and bought just before the boom, paid off our mortgage on our flat which was then worth 4x what we paid for it and moved out of London and bought a house. We were very very lucky because it would've been very hard otherwise.

[Bluegingham]

Both bought at 25, before we met each other. Both properties trebelled in the 8 years we had them. We both scrimped and saved and were utterly determined.

[Nancy66]

I bought my house in London in 1995

It cost me £120,000 and I earned 50k - so very affordable for me.

It's now worth £850,000 -and i'd never be able to afford it, if I was buying now.

I feel very sorry for anyone trying to get on the property ladder today.
houses were affordable in my day because they were in line with the 3 x salary rule....now they are way out of synch

[PowerDresser]

From what I've read here, most of you were able to buy houses for the first time because you had no children!

If only we could go back to marriage before children as well.

[ditziness]

Yes I guess I am feeling determined to feel pissed off just now. Not constructive or particularly good for my mental health. But that's where I am today. Thanks all for your experiences and advice. I appreciate it

[thepowerofvoodoo]

got a 100% mortgage in 2001 with my ex partner a few years after we graduated (I was 25) on a £115k 2 bed property in bad area of town. we split up after 5 years and house was worth about £155k, so by that stage I could afford the mortgage on my own and bought him out. Met current partner (who lost all equity he had in a divorce) and we stayed there for 3 years, had DD, and sold house for £175k in 2009. Bought current house in nice area (complete doer upper, no electricity, water, floors/ceilings in some places for £250k (max we could afford). Madness with a 1 year old as we got very cold and dirty for a long while (we had to live there as had nowhere to go).... However, have scrimped and saved since and done house up over last 3 years (still going) but it's now worth £350k.
So mixture of luck (could not have afforded a house without 100% mortgage before that, we were renting in shared houses and although professionals, have never been able to save or have inheritances) and buying in bad areas that are on the up and houses that need a LOT of work.
house is finally getting to the stage where it's almost worth it!

I think the shared equity schemes are actually propping up the over inflated housing market at the moment and far from being a good thing are keeping prices sky high by making unaffordable houses affordable. The market needs to level out and schemes keeping prices high and allowing people to "buy" are partly responsible.

[MrsKeithRichards]

We bought our first house when we were 21 which was 7 years ago. We had about 4k saved but got 100% mortgage and used that for the work needed. Sold it for around 30% more than we'd paid and bought a bigger house for slightly less than we sold the other one for.

Fixed rate for 5 years in 2006 so onlystarted benefiting from the drop in rates last year which we needed as dh got very ill and was out of work for months.

[CasperGutman]

Lots of posts saying things will get easier, as prices will drop soon. I'm not sure if they will, as the number of properties being built is falling well short of keeping up with the increasing number of households, at least in the south of England. Personally I think a period of slow growth, where prices fall slightly in real terms, is the best you can realistically hope for, but I'm no expert.

Whatever happens to prices though, you need to take control if you want to save a deposit. Make a realistic plan, and stick to it. If you can save £250 a month that's £3,000 after a year, push it a little harder and aim for £10,000 over 3 years. Does that get you anywhere?

The numbers will vary, but you need to be realistic, and take satisfaction from seeing your savings slowly building up, chipping away at the total.

[BertieBotts]

Sounds like most people did it before the credit crunch, (2007/8), before children.

Impossible for me - I was 19 in 2007 and in no way could afford a deposit on a house. I think the only first time buyers around now are using inheritance or loans from family, and/or they have well paid jobs and no children.

I have a nice stable long term let instead, like gold dust, am thankful for it. Would be nice if I could paint the walls and generally feel like it was mine though.

[Secondsop]

I bought a flat in 2004 using some money inherited from my dad as the deposit, and i was also working a well-paid job, but that was back in the day when they'd lend to anyone. When I got married 5 years later we lived there together for a bit, then rented it out and bought a house in a much cheaper area of London using the equity in the flat as the deposit on the new house. I'm hoping we've played our cards right by not selling when prices were low.

All of this was on my income alone because my husband is freelance and not earning much. However, having a second income, however small, still makes a big difference to our lifestyle; I really don't see how we would have afforded month-to-month living had we borrowed the most that lenders were prepared to lend so I really feel for those these days who have to borrow the most they can to get somewhere. And i worry about the longer term effects on the economy. Every £ spent on housing is after all a £ not spent in shops, cinemas, restaurants.

I know i'm very fortunate in that the stars all seemed to be aligned for me in that I had some inherited cash, prices hadn't reached their peak in 2004 and lenders were prepared to lend.

[MrsHoarder]

I graduated in 2007, had an Ok job. DH graduated a few years later, also ok job. We rented somewhere small and cheap, saved hard, asked for house deposit contributions for our wedding and bought a 3 bed house when I was pregnant with DS.

But I never got my season working in the Alps I wanted, I hate the house and village and feel horribly trapped (whereas I liked where we were renting).

[Hanah40]

Hmmmm. "No holidays, wearing clothes until they were threadbare/got holes in, rarely going out for a meal/having a takeaway"

Lol, we do that just to pay our rent.

[Keepthechangeyoufilthyanimal]

Combination of the following:
Saved almost every penny I earned between age 16-19 (working full time)
We bought our first house in the north east before the house prices crashed.
We paid £57,000 for it (2 bed end of terrace) in 2005 when we were 19.
Had a good deposit from my savings and both sets of parents helped us a little bit with furnishing it, etc.

We were there for about 18 months then relocated back to the midlands, and have just bought our forever home down here but in all honesty the only way we have managed to do that is because of inheritance money left to me by my dad who sadly died 5 years ago. I don't think we would have been able to buy anywhere round here without that money as we have no savings now.

My sister and her boyfriend have just bought a house after renting for a year and they are now better off by having a mortgage rather than renting!

[wisecamel]

OP - is there anyone in your family with any money? It's just that my aunt has recently retired and has received a lump sum. Her daughter was paying 5% on a mortgage, and my aunt was getting nowhere near that for her savings, so she's paid off the mortgage and her daughter now pays her the 5% that she would be giving the bank. It seems like win win to me and the money stays in the family. I'd not heard of this before but might be an option for you, although probably fraught with risk. Disclaimer:I am obviously not a financial advisor.

I know that owning is a priority for you, but think how your life experience will enhance your children's upbringing. I've never been on a plane or even travelled abroad or been to a music festival because there just wasn't the money (all going on the mortgage). When I hit 30, I sat down and cried for all the things I'd dreamt of doing and wouldn't now that I have the house and the DCs. Some of these things I am still aiming to do before I'm 45, but it's not the same.