Living in a 2 bed flat currently with DH and 1 year old DS. Relatively small, nicely furnished, and quite cheap overheads. Ideally we would like more space for DS as he gets older as 2 bedrooms is a bit of a tight squeeze. We won’t be able to afford to move for at least 10 years as I’m a SAHM and DH doesn’t earn enough to get a mortgage on a larger property.
We’ve been given an opportunity to move into a deceased relatives house. The house is huge - 5 bedrooms (including a large loft conversion), 2 sitting rooms, and a massive garden. The problem is, the house needs ALOT of work. Around £50-£60k which we don’t have at the moment. Also, we can’t afford the mortgage on this house, so another relative has offered to pay for 1/3 of the house (so he would effectively own a third) and we would get a mortgage for the other 2/3.
Leaving aside any potential disagreements over the relatives involvement in the property (what if we want to sell in future? What if DHs relative wants his 1/3 investment and we can’t afford to buy him out? What if DHs relative dies? Etc), would you go for it? The house is liveable but very old fixtures and fittings so a new kitchen, bathroom will be required, plus every room needs decorating quite extensively. We don’t have the money for this so would have to live in pretty rough conditions until we had some surplus cash, which may not be for a few years.
I have my reservations because our 2 bed flat is so lovely and it feels like our family home, but it’s just not big enough for our growing family (especially if we considered baby number 2). OTOH, the bigger house will be a fantastic family home once it’s decorated and cleaned up. But that may not be for a long while and I don’t know how I feel about living in these conditions in the meantime.
WWYD?