AIBU to be slightly freaked out at the thought of committing to a house for five years

[Bells3032]

We are buying a house hurrah. Very excited. it's a lovely house, plenty of space for us and a growing family (we are looking to start trying to conceive later this year Coronavirus pending) and very close to excellent schools/nurseries etc.

Then we got the mortgage offer through and it is excellent value and we decided best to lock in for five years as rates are really low. Just seeing that five years on paper and the charges if we leave before 5 years have me a little freaked out. Committing to something for that long - I can't even recognise my life from five years ago and no idea what the next five years would bring.

As of three years ago I hadn't even met my now husband and could not even conceive that three years from that date i would be married, buying a house and looking toward having kids.

I'm not backing out of the house or anything because of it - just feeling a little overwhelmed.

Thanks everyone. Feeling a bit better now. It is a bit scary making such grown up moves. We are currently living in a relatives flat so paying no mortgage or rent etc so it is really scary to be buying a big scary house with all the financial issues that come with it.

Have taken your advice and checked the porting and I can port it as long as what we buy is worth more than the mortgage and we can extend the mortgage amount if we want something bigger. Our mortgage is about 50% ltv so I can't see us buying sonething half the size in the next 5 years.

It's very hard to make such a massive financial commitment when you've only spent a few hours somewhere

My advice OP would be above all else make SURE you like the area. Anything else you can change when your a homeowner. We love the area our house is in. We bought a two bed instead of a 3 so we could buy on our favourite road in our favourite area. We are so happy here that we will extend most likely instead of moving but you will never feel trapped if you like the area. Buying the worst house on the best street sounds like a cliche but it's true.

The area is deff right. I know it very well and previously lived round there, my dad and sister live five minutes away and most of my friends live in the same town

OP we fixed for 3 years last year and need/want to move this year, we are porting our mortgage. The main issue is the cost with moving of course so you don't want to be moving too often (thank you Rishi for stamp duty holiday!) but being fixed doesn't mean you are stuck or have to pay the redemption fee, necessarily (if it's a portable mortgage).

(Sorry just seen others have mentioned!) I know what you mean though, I don't like feeling trapped, it's a bit overwhelming.