To wonder how you came to live in a big character house

[Summerofloaf]

As in how did you afford it? What job do you do that enables you to live in a lovely big character house with big gardens?
Did you inherit? Work from scratch?

How? (Doesn’t anyone else wonder this?)

The two lovely houses shown in East Sussex, would be up for 2 or 3 million in my area.

Not sure if mine counts either, but
2 sisters , horribly inappropriate relationship with father from a very young age,
Ridiculously rich father, whilst in very poor health, decided to leave all of his worldly goods to both sisters, on condition they would speak well of him at his funeral and recant anything untoward they have ever said about him.
One sister inherited, one didn’t.

I live near you too I think! And definitely near tenterden 😀

Xenia's post is interesting as actually what was possible in the eighties isn't possible anymore. How many law grads get training contracts these days? And if they do they'd be paying most of their salary to live in a shared house in London until they were partners. And then if they're earning 150-200k they could afford a two bed flat maybe? There will be a hell of a lot of graduates with firsts who aren't even getting a minimum wage job this year, nothing to do with hard work. Luck is a huge factor in this.

Parents have a big house in London worth about 2.5m plus. Paid about 80k for it in the early 80s.

Marry a millionaire 😂

We both had flats in London when we met, 10 years ago, when we moved in together we bought a house so had 3 properties together. We sold at the top of the market and our parents gave us some early inheritance to buy the million pound house. We have a low ltv and are asset rather than cash rich.

A combination of hard work, being frugal and good luck. Getting on the housing ladder young and always buying wrecks to do up. Lucky with the market so we always made a six figure profit. Overpaying the mortgage every chance we've had and saving hard. Now we've succeeded in buying a big characterful house which is also a wreck but is gorgeous.

So (nc for this as a one off). DH bought his first 2 bed flat in Hackney in about 1996 I think it was - for £70k! He’d just got an gold markets trading job and bought it with his bonus. He would have been 26. I moved in after we got engaged. Then we went to NYC with his work. When we came back, it must have been about 1999 and we bought a tiny 2 bed flat in Chelsea. I think it was about £280k back then? Then, three years later, we sold it for almost £400k and bought a house in Barnes for just over £600k. Four years later, in about 2007, we sold it for almost £800k, if I remember rightly, and bought a nearby but larger house for £1.4m. This house more than doubled in price in the next few years, as did everything in the area, so it was basically luck. We sold it a couple of years ago for £3.4m. We bought a “doer-upper” which is built in 1800 and did it up. It cost £4.4m. We spent £300k in renovations. When I had it valued by several agents in the midst of Brexit it was worth £5.3m. It’s not as big as the houses in your photos - maybe the first one? But it’s in zone 2 London and a lovely area. I think we’ll be here forever now.

@Xenia nanny for the kids? It’s a sacrifice I wouldn’t have made. I did similarly well, too A levels, Oxbridge law, couldn’t be bothered to make my career all about money (either mine or other people’s). Horses for courses.

Top not too! Where’s the edit function MN?!

Location!!
Our house isn't in the same league as some of these but is large Edwardian end terrace with lovely character features. Long hallway, large reception rooms and dining kitchen, very big utility, 3 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms and a dressing room, courtyard, then another 2-storey large workshop big enough to convert into 3-bed house, and a small garden. Good access to cathedral city, excellent schools. Cost just under 180,000. Was beautifully decorated and needed no work done.
Love living in the North East!

I've lived in lots of lovely big character houses:

1. That my parents owned
2. In school and university residences, converted into dorms and bedsits
3. As a lodger
4. Renting a flat in ones that have been converted.

It's possible to live in really amazing places without having much money. But you have to be willing and able to share them with lots of other people.

He’d just got an gold markets trading job and bought it with his bonus

Another example of how obscene City bonuses warped the London property market and have done lasting damage.

I’d not say those houses had much character personally. They’re big, but fake, fairly modern looking to me. I’d want something a couple of hundred years for character.

Thinking of the "best" houses of my friends, two took over the large family home when their parents were older but all the rest have been bought through intelligence+hard work+high paying job e.g. merchant banker, hedge fund manager, surgeon, entrepreneur.

Both high earners, bought with hefty deposit and large mortgage. No help from anyone.

what was possible in the eighties isn't possible anymore.

I agree with this, we got on the London ladder young in our 20s (with help) so made lots of money through equity & our now live in a bog standard terrace that would sell for 1m plus. The bottom rung of the ladder is now so high that many are stuck on it as the 600k flat bought last yr is unlikely to be worth 900k in 2021.

For us (well DH) it was working really hard, buying property and doing it up, selling or renting, then repeat. He had to take risks too - being in the property business isn’t for the faint hearted or work-shy.

I was just lucky enough to marry him (which I’d have done even without the money!)

buy young, and move up the ladder over a lifetime. If you start at 20 and have a 25 yr mortgage, you could start again with 100% from that at 45. similar to what we have done. But in order to get the really nice house around here realistically you'd need inheritance or a business with good dividends really.

Built a business, worked nigh-on to death, sold business, made an offer on a house, left offer on house for months and months, eventually bought said house, live in house, gutted it and rebuilt it from the inside out, now reside in house.

Family member has a large isolated period property with outbuildings and a swimming pool. They have a business plus lettings and a holiday let and most likely inherited wealth.

Are you local to Crowborough? It has a good train link to London so that why those houses are pricey... that first one isn’t even that big. Those rooms look small.

My parents bought a shell of an Oast house and we lived in a mobile home for years whilst they got planning permission and converted it.

It’s was a combination of hard work and luck on their part.

We bought a dump via auction and have spent the last 7 years doing it up. We have not been on holiday and don’t spend what we don’t have... it’s hard but it’s been sooo worth it the last 7 weeks. We have land and we’re in the countryside. We have chickens and a productive veggie patch.

Luck and hard work

Thanks for that detail Xenia. I guess that’s also what I’m asking, how do I get a house like that! I look at houses like that and think who actually lives there, what do they do, how did they get there.

Sounds good WoollyFoolly having a bit of land must be so fulfilling.
emsyj it does sound exciting actually. Software developer hadn’t imagined that.

That’s amazing HasaDigaEebowai very inspirational.

Beautiful houses and totally out of my league

This is an interesting thread, I've always wondered this too! I own a very small house outright (that was luck in my divorce), and have just retrained for what could be quite a good career (it really depends what I make of it) where I could earn around £50K+ pa. Not amazing but not bad either.

I live in a decent area and my house is now probably worth £165,000. It will sell relatively easily I think when the time comes. I want to move to another area of the country to a forever home the likes of which are around £700,000. I don't mind (in fact would love) a doer upper which would be cheaper than this, although I'm not sure where I want to go has many of them left! But, you only need one, I guess.

The steps to get there seem doable, if pushing it, yet a long road ahead! I'm already 50, divorced, with the prospect of possibly an inheritance of between £50,000 - £100,000 at some point, but certainly not guaranteed, and it could be 10-20 years away anyway.

I live quite frugally I think as my income's been very low whilst I've been retraining. Little savings since divorce.

So from what I've gathered on this thread, it comes down to a lot of luck, hard work, living frugally, having a decent income and possibly having an inheritance.

I'm wondering what my interim measures might be now. Some helpful stories on the thread, thanks!