AIBU in asking how much money you had left after buying your first home?

[jbevan6]

Myself and my partner are the first of our friends to be purchasing our first home, so without anyone else to ask, I’m hoping to find out the general consensus on here.....

We have found a property we would like to make an offer on and it is at the very top end of our budget when it comes to our borrowing facility. We are confident we can afford the repayments comfortably enough but our issue is the initial fees involved.

We just about have enough money to cover the deposit, stamp duty, legal fees etc. After we have paid all of these fees we will have no more saved money and would have to use all of the furniture in our current rented property (we already have all the basics as our property was totally unfurnished).

Are we being absolutely stupid here? I was originally of the opinion that all first time buyers put absolutely every last penny in to buying their first home but I’m worried I could be wrong and this is not the norm!
Thanks

I don't remember but I do remember spending thousands on paint and floor and screws and lightbulbs and a new refridgerator because the old one only was cold when empty and an electrician and and and

We had practically nothing left. Accepted all offers of 2nd hand furniture etc. House prices were much lower then so I was able to build up some savings fairly quickly and prioritised that over replacing the terrible decor and furniture. which was fortunate as when XH and I divorced I was able to buy him out

We had enough left over to buy a washing machine and a fridge.

We did have a quite a few bits and bobs that we'd bought/collected as students, everything else had to wait.

I know we got the house in Sept, and spent a lot of time painting it, and doing the tiling ourselves (new build). We got married in February, and got lots of furnishings as presents. We also got some money as presents which went into putting down carpet in about April (concrete floors downstairs - I was soooo glad to stop sweeping up concrete dust daily!). I think I sewed about half the curtains myself.

We moved on less than 3 years later, had only just replaced the 3 piece suite (another relative was getting a first house so it was recycled within the family - I think they still use it). Again, the family baskets of curtains were borrowed. We did more tiling and painting ourselves, including cork tiled floor. And again, we were smashed. We had booked movers as there was a lot of big furniture - but we moved in, a load of things supposed to be gone were still there, there were big holes in the bathroom wall where she had just pulled off the fittings (agreed she could take them just didn't expect the state she left the place in), and the boiler wasn't working on a rainy miserable night when we were exhausted and wondering WTF have we done?! We cried, slept, started again.

And 15 years on, I don't think we'll ever leave here!

Virtually nothing.

In the SE of England we were stretched to the max. Our furniture was mostly hand me downs and pieces inherited from my grandparents.

We still have the same bed, that we slept on the floor to save up for. It's a big, really solid waxed pine thing. Hardly anyone except us has ever slept in it (parents a handful of times). All of our four children have been snuggled in it. We've replaced a few planks and, of course, the mattress a few times. I would hate to have another bed.

Again ( a long time back) but nothing! We bought a sofa for £50 and the rest of the furniture were second hand purchases or donations from family.

I am always amazed when I see TV programmes where youngsters buying expect to have the latest leather sofas, snazzy kitchens etc.

You will settle in to what your outgoings are and I always am surprised that actually I have more than I expect to have.

I have seen youngsters expecting the same house and lifestyle than their parents, conveniently forgetting that said parents have been in their house for more than 20 years and it had taken that long to make it the home it is today.
There's a reason why SOME (and I insist on SOME) people cannot afford to buy a house today. They would have never accepted to live the way others have started out. I am not sure I could do it again now, I am too old to sleep on the floor!

We were skint to the point that we slept on camping mattresses for two months while we got money together to buy beds!! It was fine, after 6 months we had perfectly serviceable furniture!!

Does anyone remember 15% interest on your mortgage back in the 80's. My partner is predicting shit happening now Brexit has begun.

Savings? We bought in the 90s when you needed a 5% deposit. We got a bank loan that we declared was for furniture and that was our deposit. No savings (and no furniture).

We had to borrow the deposit money from a family member anyway but the reservation fee (new build), Stamp Duty, solicitors fees, carpets, extra kitchen cupboards, blinds, etc, used up every penny we had plus some on credit cards.

We knew it would even out soon enough though as our outgoings were set for years and the cost of having to move from rental to rental was killing us financially and mentally.

We only bought what we could afford on one wage as our main priority has always been to allow for a SAHP. We moved in together a month before DC1 was born.
Even then most of our furniture had was second hand at first as any spare money went into things like kitchen, bathroom, central heating etc.
I'm glad we've never been in the position DH's siblings are, of being upset that they want to reduce hours or put their careers on hold after having DC but can't because they bought at the very top of their budgets borrowing extra to buy everything new.

I certainly remember interest rates hitting 15% after Black Wednesday, that was for a month and then they fell to 8% and went downwards after that, I think my first mortgage rate was around 5% which was pretty standard and I benefited from MIRAS. My mortgage was £200 a month, I earned far more than now, utilities were so cheap I barely noticed them and I paid a 5% deposit from savings which had benefited from high interest rates which hovered around 8/9% for much of the eighties.

I remember going through the Estate Agents windows and being shocked at how cheap houses were. Seems unreal now.

Does anyone remember 15% interest on your mortgage back in the 80's.

It was way before my time, but with the current prices, that would hurt!
I bet not many people would be able to pay their mortgage with rates like that, when you need nearly £300k to buy a simple 2 bed flat.

We would have been skint but we're paying rent in advance and mortgage in arrears so basically ended up with a month off paying rent or mortgage. Then we got £1k back for our deposit on what we'd been renting. So used that £2k to sort the house. Still owe £5k to parents though

Sod all if memory serves. And I only paid £34,400 for the house. Turned out to be a great purchase—still there 24 years on

Absolutely nothing left after paying for the deposit and legal costs, and a bed.

This was 25ish years ago I was 21, interest rates were 15%, the flat (a large 1 bedroom place) cost 17.5k and we paid 10% deposit. I was earning the princely sum of 8.5k, and I was financially supporting Boyfriend who was still at university.

We had no money for a moving van, so my brother, myself and DH (boyfriend at the time) carried an assortment of bags and boxes from our rental (which had been mostly furnished). For a year we had no carpet, and hunted through skips for furniture. Luckily I the flat came with a cooker and fridge.
It was more important to us to get a foot on the ladder as soon as we could, than wait to be able to afford the furnishings.

We didn't have much of anything but those were good times.
*misty eyed

I recall I had £84 and a week until payday. I was young and it didn't bother me. I would probably be more stressed about that now though.

I had some 12 months interest free credits cards which I used to buy a new kitchen and bathroom. It was 6 months until I had a sofa instead of a futon. But after a year a was all sorted.

I didn't borrow up to my maximum amount. I wish I had now. I got a substantial pay rise a few months after and could have easily afforded a larger repayment. £20k could have bought a much bigger flat then, and it would have more than doubled as an investment. I was being a cautious.

Absolutely nothing. The only things we had was a sofa a tv and a fridge. We didn't even have a plate.

Pretty much nothing although we were earning well So that changed pretty quickly and we did a bit of 0% credit to buy some essential furniture

If interest rates were 15%, very few people would be able to pay their mortgages. It would be a national disaster. I know it happened - I remember my parents struggling to pay the mortgage - but it was possible to pay because house prices were lower and therefore it was a smaller amount. Nowadays, that would probably be more than our combined salaries and completely unaffordable.

Those saying they borrowed the maximum amount and are glad they did - you got very lucky! With Brexit coming, it's unlikely house prices will rise at the levels they have in the last few years. We bought last summer and I don't think our house is worth any more than it was then. In 2015, when we were looking to buy but couldn't quite afford to, prices were going up faster than we could save.

Those saying they borrowed the maximum amount and are glad they did - you got very lucky

Not lucky, unlike the op we worked very very hard doing any extra jobs we could find in my teens/twenties I don't think we have ever free ranged

It was many years ago but I can remember not having a bean after buying my flat. I used to dread letters falling on my mat - every single one in the days after I moved in seemed to be a bill. Combine that with the interest rate steadily rising, up to 15% at one point, it was tough at the beginning. I know everyone these days think it was a doddle back then but believe me it wasn't. At one point I rented out my bedroom and lived in my living room to make a bit extra to pay the bills. And the utility bills appeared very quickly.

So if you can keep back, even a small amount, it will help I think.

I remember my parents really, really struggling in the early 80's with the mortgage rate. They both worked FT and both took 2nd jobs and worked evenings and weekends at the local Berni/Beefeater by about mid 1980. We also took in foreign exchange students to make more money. To this day I swear it killed my dad, in Feb 1981 he collapsed with a brain haemorrhage (at the age of 51) in front of a class of 9 year olds (he was a deputy head). He had been so stressed and tired in the weeks leading up to his death worrying about the mortgage. He left a widow and three teens all under 17.
I hope we never see those rates again.