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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

"Have you thought about buying?"...

182 replies

NickyEds · 27/04/2015 13:28

As in a house. We're currently (and increasingly desperately) looking for a new house to rent. In our area stuff comes up, is viewed and goes within a day. We're on all the usual websites every day looking for somewhere suitable. The last house we viewed and applied for, 14 other people also applied for and we didn't get it.
If one more person says "If you're having trouble renting, have you thought of buying??"...GGrrrrr. Yes we have thought about it. We don't have thousands of pounds sat about. It's not an option. The question is usually followed by "Can't your parents help you out?". Angry. Maybe they think that the thought has actually never occurred to us and they're genuinely being helpful but AIBU to scream in the face of the next person who says this?

OP posts:
Skeppers · 27/04/2015 15:37

If I could have my time again, GottaFeeling, I'd learn a trade. All the nice big 4-5 bed houses around us (which have to be worth at least £500k) are owned by tradespeople. I'd forget Uni and the debt it's left me saddled with, and set up a plumbing busines...!

Skeppers · 27/04/2015 15:38

(and maybe learn to spell)...businesS! Hmm

Skeppers · 27/04/2015 15:38

And then I'd be able to fix MY OWN F*CKING TOILET.

Grin
PeppermintCrayon · 27/04/2015 15:40

YANBU. We rent and I get very sick of being asked this. We haven't got any money for a deposit, DH's family can't afford to help us and mine aren't in my life. So how exactly are we supposed to buy?

I particularly hate it when people say renting is 'money for nothing'. No, it's not, because someone else pays for the carpets and the repairs and the plumber and the buildings insurance and it enables us to live in a lovely house in a street where we can afford to rent but not buy.

We also don't actually WANT to buy right now, nice though it would be to have a say over the curtain rails. But some people just cannot get their heads around the idea, can they?

MrsKoala · 27/04/2015 15:53

Yanbu OP. I still get furious when remembering looking at our first flats. We had a maximum £130k 100% mortgage offer and the bastarding estate agents kept showing flats that were on for £160k and not telling us till we'd fallen in love with it. saying things like 'can't you just borrow more' or 'can't you just ask your parents for the rest' oh yeah, cos they've got a loose 30k knocking about the house. Confused

I used to cry in frustration on the way home and fantasise about roundhouse kicking them in the face. After a while I demanded to know how much things were on for up front and refused to go to any over our budget. They kept mentioning that I should 'be more flexible'. I rather angrily told one that an extra thousand pounds may as well be a million when you don't have it. They seemed genuinely baffled we couldn't just magic up more money. Fucking london estate agents.

And for the record I am now a great landlord. Dh and I often travel round for a year at a time for his work so have relied heavily on renting too. It does serve a need. Not everyone wants to buy. It should be easier if you do tho.

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest · 27/04/2015 16:00

Have you tried searching for private rents, OP? There are websites where people are trying to get their own tenants which saves landlords on management fees and the tenants on all the absurd estate agent charges.

We found a lovely landlady through spareroom.com (just select whole properties only in advanced search) and we all saved ourselves so much hassle. Everything else is standard - so there's a proper contract and what not - we've just cut out the middle man.

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 27/04/2015 16:01

There's a reason house prices are cheaper up north. Less jobs, lower income on lots of the ones there are available.

I hate renting. I hate paying someone else's mortgage. I hate not even being able to put a shelf up. I hate having no inbuilt storage anywhere in the house except the kitchen. I hate having a cheap half a fitted kitchen with a bare minimum of cabinets. I hate that it took them several years to come & sort the mouldy windows, bathroom & conked out bathroom fan, despite regular chasing from me due to frequent asthma attacks. I hate occasionally finding the LL/their workmen in the house when we'd no idea they were even coming - not that they ever fix anything we need them to. I'd like to be able to get my gas fire fixed, it was condemned 10 months ago...

I hate that we can't move anywhere else now as we're on benefits. And I know people in a far worse position than us. The BTL/private landlord system needs a major overhaul with consideration for tenants' rights and needs, not just landlords' income.

BreakingDad77 · 27/04/2015 16:19

Tweaks to taxation on multiple properties would shake things up, in Spain Germans dumped loads of their 2nd homes and caused lots to be freed up.

Original poster
NickyEds · 27/04/2015 16:28

I hate occasionally finding the LL/their workmen in the house when we'd no idea they were even coming Shock Shock

Yes BreakingDad it most certainly would!

We currently have a private landlord and they've been fine (except for the washing machine issue) but they just don't seem to exist anymore. Part of the problem with "part time" LL ie people who bought a new house without selling their old one, is that they always seem to use letting agents. The letting agents screw them too, taking from both sides really. I've asked friends who use them why they do and they just say that they "can't be bothered dealing with it all".

OP posts:
HerRoyalNotness · 27/04/2015 16:31

nolim I can't recall the site I looked up before (it was a statistics site), however a quick google brings up this (and number similar to what I found before)

www.emptyhomes.com/ 600k houses in UK empty, 200k of them long term.

Also shockingly, if this is true

11m empty homes in europe

The80sweregreat · 27/04/2015 16:43

I am so sorry, my own sons will no doubt be the same though and I think they will be at home with me till they are 30 or 40, the way things are going. Its horrible, renting privately isnt regualted enough and it seems a lot of folk are getting very rich out of it all. I hope things improve for you, good luck with the new baby.

SevenAteNine · 21/05/2015 07:26

I am from London originally. I live up north now, but still work in London.

We have a great house which we bought last month. It was 166k. Where I come from, a similar house would be about 800k.

If it wasn't for working and living a half-life in London, I couldn't do it.

SevenAteNine · 21/05/2015 07:29

The thing I hate most about it is I know it makes it harder for the people around where I live to get started on the housing market.

SevenAteNine · 21/05/2015 07:31

But what can you do?

propelusagain · 21/05/2015 07:35

THis is a much bigger problem in the London area.
Oh has turned down a couple of jobs in London because the housing situation is so dire.

THere are plenty of places to rent near where I live, and a decent three bed semi would cost around £140K. Thats near Edinburgh ( incidentally unemployment raetes are lower here than in London)

Arsenic · 21/05/2015 09:29

I worry about these grown adults who think asking older adults for £££££ is normal, desirable and even the obvious thing to do.

SevenAteNine · 21/05/2015 09:32

I'm not so sure.
We couldn't own our house on any sort of wage I'd have outside of London.
I am a bit mistrustful of unemployment figures, to be honest. There may be low unemployment, but the majority of jobs that pass for employment where my home is don't pay a wage commensurate with owning a house. £140k might as well be £800k if you're on minimum wage.

skinoncustard · 21/05/2015 10:00

We have to move because, get this, our current house doesn't have plumbing for a washing machine and the landlord won't put it in. We've managed with the laundrette so far but figure with a toddler and a new born we need a washing machine. It'll cost us a fortune to put one in ourselves and the house would still belong to someone else and be too small.

Unless you have an extremely odd plumbing system it will not ' cost a fortune ' to plumb in a washing machine. No where near the cost of moving .

judypoovey26 · 21/05/2015 10:02

i think it's really unfair to lay the blame at the door of BTL landlords or landlords in general. Right to buy has been a long term disaster for the South East and without all us evil landlords there would be even less housing and it would be even more expensive. The toxic combination of RTB+perilously little new housing schemes (either social or private or shared ownership)+non-Dom prime residential house price madness having a knock on effect in surrounding areas is the problem. And actually, from my POV as a landlord, I would actively support longer secure tenancies and would take not raising rent every year over changing tenants too frequently. Plus some of us would like nothing better to rent to families over the long term and provide good, secure housing.

We're not all bad money grabbing shysters you know.

I'm hoping George Osborne's plan to regenerate the northern cities will correct this imbalance and mean being able to afford to buy somewhere where prices are lower doesn't mean not being able to find a job easily.

Newbrummie · 21/05/2015 10:05

Any child of mine had a degree and £10,000 in the bank is be packing for them and driving them to the airport, get the hell outta here

LadylikeCough · 21/05/2015 10:14

ROTFL at 'have you tried ginger biscuits?'.

At least you can thank someone for that advice by throwing up on or near them!

lljkk · 21/05/2015 10:25

If BTL didn't exist then how would people who don't qualify for council housing ever move into an area where they didn't feel they should buy just yet? Are you saying all housing would be either privately owned or council housing, nothing else allowed to exist (okay prisons & nursing homes, I guess) Confused

londonrach · 21/05/2015 10:29

Lljkk btl is the biggest housing problem at the moment. If btl didnt exist the houses wouldnt be as expensive so no need for renting in most cases.

WhiteConverseSkinnyJeans · 21/05/2015 10:30

oh this pisses me off OP

dh and I rent and no one can understand why we haven't bought mostly my loaded relatives

am sick of the judging tbh

loveareadingthanks · 21/05/2015 10:36

Feel your pain, OP. We have no hope in hell of ever buying now. Not even a little flat.

And it doesn't help that PIL keep helpfully commenting about how we should. They were GIVEN a house outright when they got married, 100% given it, and kept moving up from there with mortgages etc all now paid off and living in a home worth £450k. So they have absolutely no idea. I want to scream when they say anything. FFS.