To consider renting when I can buy?

[failingwit]

I am newly separated and currently renting a place I was going to buy but it turns out the proceeds from the sale of our previous home have not left me with enough to afford the mortgage I need with all the extras on top.

It's a bit gutting. I've got a rental agreement for 6 months which I'm tied into if I don't buy. It's a rough area but all I can afford to buy in this part of the world. I have 2 preschool children and want them to have security and consistency and I don't have much social life but I'm tempted to move to a nicer area and carry on renting rather than buying in the rough area for the sake of owning a home. I have an ok job and my ex has 50/50 shared care.

WWYD? Is it more important to cut your cloth when you have kids and bring them up in a depressing area, or is it worth renting so that you can keep up appearances and give them a seemingly better lifestyle? I was living in an ok area before and I feel like I've come down in the world. It's lonely enough but I want to be smart rather than sensible. I don't have any other debts and I don't drive.

Buy if you can.There is no security in renting and your children do now need to be settled. As for renting for outward appearance that is just madness.

Do what best for your family and yourself. Owning is not the end all and be all especially if it’ll have a negative effect on your family life. You can always buy another time, prices are not exactly rocketing (moving at all) with the economy and brexit etc etc

Buy to rent out then rent in a better area.

Or be very flexible on which nicer area to choose, size of place and if it needs work.

When we move I look for something within commuting distance of dps work then anything else is flexible.

Rent n an area you like. if you buy in an area you don't like you could be stuck there for years with a property that is hard to shift.

You’ve got preschool aged children, when they go to school will your earnings increase and allow you to get a bigger mortgage? If it will then I’d be tempted to rent in the area that you’ll hopefully end up buying in, keep rent as low as possible so you don’t waste all your capital and then look to buy when your earnings increase.

I would buy & look towards moving in the future. Saving rates are very low.

Definitely buy.

Renting is a mugs game. No security, little room to change anything in the property. It trashes your credit rating if you move house frequently. Buy buy buy.

You say it's a rough area - could it be up and coming, marked for regeneration. Often in poorer areas there were quite good amenities for preschoolers (or used to be).

Regarding the more expensive area, can you not look for a smaller property. Or a doer upper? One - replanning. Friend of mine, down sized from a three bed to two by giving her two daughters the main bedroom and she took the box room.

I would say buying would provide more security in the long run. Look at moving in a few years - to the poster who said a property in a bad area may be difficult to shift, I would say someone is always the ladder get on the ladder.

There is little in security in private renting. Two renters I know have had to leave because the landlord had their properties repossessed and they had paid regularly.

I’d have a look around at the local primary schools. That will be a priority fairly soon, and more problematic to move once your dcs are settled in school. Is the rough area more dangerous or just not so nice? Ismuch rather own a house than rent, but I wouldn’t buy anything as a first time buyer before brexit.

Buy the best place you can, even if it's in a bad area. I bought the one and only property I could afford in my town. It was so bad there weren't even internal photos. Ten years down the line it has doubled in value and I've cleared a huge chunk of the mortgage.

Op I've been in a similar position to you - dh and I had enough money to buy in a pretty rough area but not in the lovely area with great schools that we wanted to live.

We did both - bought and rented.

We bought a house in the rough (but popular) area and rented it out. We moved to the nice area and rented a house here.

Overall, we're about £300 a month 'worse off' than if we'd just lived in our mortgaged house - our rent is about £200 a month more than the mortgage would have cost us and the shortfall of the rent we receive to cover the mortgage/insurances is £100.

Some people think we were nuts to move to the nice area but I don't regret it for a second. We love it here - the schools are excellent, the people are generally nicer, the scenery and 'feel' of the place is nicer and tbh it just lifts me up living here. I enjoy the drive home from work, I enjoy pootling around the village on weekends.

That kind of 'wellbeing' feeling is hard to describe until you've lived somewhere not-nice and then move somewhere nicer. You'd have to drag me back kicking and screaming.

If your ex has 50:50 custody, is his address ok to use for school applications (if he's in an ok area)?

I know I should probably be sensible and buy. The area is not violent, just run down and has a bad reputation. The city has quite upmarket areas that contrast considerably with social housing heavy areas. There are places in the middle, recently gentrified and more cosmopolitan, but these are out of my price range at the moment, at least as far as buying goes.

I want my boys to be near to decent schools and to have nice amenities but I'm not exactly a yummy mummy myself. I don't think I really fit in anywhere anymore! I've been spoiled out of my price range!

As the poster above said, the well-being you get from living in a pleasant, leafy area is hard to quantify but so important to day to day mood.

Buying and renting is a great idea but it might be a bit risky for me as a single parent, especially if the tenant turns out to be difficult and won't pay.

I would say buy and sell up and buy in a nicer area when you can.

Buy and make your garden a green oasis.
After divorce I bought in an area I would never have looked at and a small house.It has taken some getting used to but I am safe and secure and my DD is too.

"Buy the best place you can, even if it's in a bad area. I bought the one and only property I could afford in my town. It was so bad there weren't even internal photos. Ten years down the line it has doubled in value and I've cleared a huge chunk of the mortgage."

Yeah, we did similar. Ten years later we still have negative equity.

To the OP - Whatever you do don't buy with a plan to move in a few years. The economic uncertainty means I'd have to say that is a bad idea.

Buy - it is very easy to buy small things eg furniture, art, bedding, clothes, kitchen, bathroom, lounge, bedroom, garden accessories. However, it is incredibly difficult to buy something big like property. That is why very few people own their own property. So if you have the means BUY !