To think sod it and just stay where we are?

[Alldressedup]

Firstly, I completely acknowledge that we are very lucky to be in this position and have this dilemma in the current time.

We bought our current house about 10 years ago. It was a case of buying the best that was available on the market at the time for our budget. I never really loved the house. But accepted that it offered us all that we wanted. We have done a decent bit of work to the place and I have grown to like the place.

Fast forward 10 years and my salary has doubled, DH’s has increased too and we’ve received a sum of money from family. We are currently overpaying the mortgage, so we’re not frittering the money away. But I can’t shake the feeling that we ‘should’ move to a more expensive house and invest the money into our property. But the houses I would make the effort to move for would be a financial stretch (think 2-3x current mortgage). I doubt our salaries will rise too much more/at all in the next few years. The ones more within our budget are not really giving us anything we don’t already have, they just come in a ‘nicer package’ if you know what I mean - more kerb appeal, en-suite rather than additional stand alone bathroom, an extra bedroom but all other bedrooms are smaller etc.

I’m torn. I feel we’re getting to the stage that we either make the move in the next 12 months or we stay put and spend some money on this house instead. I will admit that I have a bit of house envy of some of my friends, which is maybe fuelling this. I’m really not materialistic so I’m a bit ashamed to admit this.

AIBU to tell myself to get over it, stop looking on RightMove and live a very comfortable life here, pay the mortgage off early and enjoy nice holidays etc Or will I always regret not stretching us more?

YABU - You’ll regret not moving if you can afford it now
YANBU - Just stay in your current house and be more comfortable with the extra money

Definitely stay!

We were in this position and eventually settled on staying.

I actually felt like instagram was making me want to move iykwim? I was seeing other parents from the school buying new builds etc and felt sort of left behind in a way. Then I gave myself a good shake and snapped out of it.

I would have been paying 3x my mortgage if we had went ahead. Now I overpay my current mortgage and will be mortgage free at 44. Just around the time my kids will need the money and support for uni.

Put a loft conversion on?

I agree don't do it if the reasons are because of instagram or whatever as that is stupid. However if you want to do it because it would improve your life eg more space, then go for it.
Personally I don't get the need to be mortgage free in your 40s however we are in London & do have enough equity that we could be mortgage free somewhere further out.

Financially how much would in impact you? Would the new mortgage be 20-30% of your income?

@gasgig The new mortgage would be approx 30% of our current joint net income. That’s paying it off over 15 years so until DH is 60.

Hmm - that doesn’t sound good really having that level of financial commitment until then.

@StillCoughingandLaughing We have considered a buy to let but from speaking to friends who have done similar it’s put me off a bit. We both work full time and have no/very few diy skills and the commitment needed to sort out problems etc is not something I think we want to sign up to.

I’ll take a look at some of the suggestions for tarting up the front of the house a bit. It does need new windows which would help, and a coat of paint on the outside would tidy it up too. Potentially a new driveway too. There’s no garden at the front just the driveway, so I can’t do much with it. And strangely the door is at the side of the house so it just looks a bit like something is missing - but it matches the other houses in the cul de sac so it’s not odd.

Your house sounds lovely and having good neighbours is priceless, you just have to read some of the horror stories on here about bad neighbours.

Would you have enough room in your garden to build an outdoor room?

Would something like this be doable in your garden fur the extra space?

https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/helena-garden-office-right-w4-3m-x-d2-7m?msclkid=84e289b6e36618a30324e9baf4331f76&utmsource=bing&utmmmedium=cpc&utmcampaign=Shopping%20-%20All%20Product&utmmterm=4578160284701321&utm_content=All%20Products

Oops! Cross posted with Whatamesssss!

I think if you like your house, then why move?

We have pretty much always had a slightly smaller, slightly less desirable house than our friends. I left uni in the middle of the 90s recession and my first years at work I was surrounded by people who had fallen into negative equity and were really hating it, so it made me really wary of over committing on a mortgage.

We now have 5 years left on our mortgage (most of my friends have at least 10, some 15. This last few years we've spent money on the house. My kids are early and late teens , so potentially at least one moving out in the next few years. It's meant we could be flexible with jobs, and when I was made redundant in August, it wasn't a financial disaster.

It's been the right decision for us. We're both fairly risk averse. Occasionally i get a pang of envy, and would like an extra room or a bigger garden, but mostly I'm totally happy with the compromises we made.

I'd look at doing some of the cheaper improvements to your house whilst keeping an eye on the market. That way you'll hopefully start to feel a bit more positive about your house and if you don't then you should at least find it a bit easier to sell. We're in a similar situation where we like our current house, but would like something a bit bigger and nicer. We'd only move for the right house though, not just for the sake of having a bigger house.

We’ve decided to stay put following similar discussions. House is lovely and big enough. We’d have to spend another 100k to get the extras that would be nice but not essential. Mortgage is paid off and we are paying extra into pensions.
I like holidays and I don’t want to work until I’m 70!

The new mortgage would be approx 30% of our current joint net income. That’s paying it off over 15 years so until DH is 60.

I wouldn't say that was high risk at all but we are in London as I said.

I would absolutely stay where you are, continue with the mortgage overpayments and do the house up.

Never get why people do these moves tbh - would much rather be mortgage free sooner and have loadsa spare cash to enjoy myself instead !

I think it depends on individual circumstances, having a mortgage at 30% of your salary if you earn 10k a month isn't going to leave you with no disposable income or an ability to save.

Never get why people do these moves tbh - would much rather be mortgage free sooner and have loadsa spare cash to enjoy myself instead ! In our case it would be an improvement in quality of life, having more space to do hobbies, relax etc. Even before Covid we haven't taken holidays, weekends away in over a decade due to running a business and not being able to take time off. If our situation was different and we were in a position to go travelling etc then I can totally see why staying put and paying off the mortgage sooner may be more appealing!

Not read all the replies but I’d move. With older kids it would be great to have a spare room and also maybe an extra lounge area for different TV tastes/gaming etc.

I'd stay put and enjoy financial security. A good pension, being able to have real choices about things like holidays and larger purchases, and able to help the kids out when they're adults. Perfect.

I think you'd be mad to move

Had to reread your op.
On the one hand you feel you should moved for financial investment. That's a bonus. But Also you have house envy. Nothing wrong with wanting nice things.
When I was in your position I put it to the back of my mind, but it didn't go away.
So if you want to I say go for it.
We've moved twice since lol. And got an awesome house. I love houses though.
Our mortgage doubled but it was well worth it. Good luck x

We're in a similar position. We don't have a mortgage (inherited property, definitely not anything fancy!) and the thought of getting one makes me balk now. I feel like we'd be putting ourselves in a tight situation. However, I want to move somewhere with more green spaces. I know exactly what kind of house I want (again, nothing fancy either!), but I've decided that unless I somehow find one that we can afford to buy outright then I'm not putting us through it...there's nothing "wrong" with this house, so I'm just going to give it a do over for now and see where we are in a few years time.

I personally love looking at real estate porn. Houses that are bigger/nicer/in a nicer area that I COULD afford (stretching) and super expensive ones that I will never be able to afford just dreaming

I don’t think you are wrong to want a bigger / nicer or whatever house that you can currently afford to upgrade to. What would personally stop me is we are in such a volatile economy, in a pandemic and people are being made redundant left and right having had no performance issues just as a cost cutting exercise by their employer, it seems the world is on tilt and this is ONLY my opinion but look, dream, imagine, prepare your current house for sale during the lockdown doing all those jobs hanging around. But if you have the dosh now, it will still be there in 6 months. Plus I believe due to some people needing to downsize there will be much more inventory on the market for you to be able to find your dream home as well as more information about how the world is going.

There isn't a right or wrong answer. My brother had this dilemma- loved the neighbourhood but wanted a bigger house, but to get a meaningful improvement had to go substantially up the cost ladder. They stayed put and extended and improved the look of their house and are very happy with choice. I might see what bang for your buck you get for making your place better and save your extra to give you options! For me nothing would beat financial security.

Some interesting viewpoints here. Thanks.

I don’t think now is a good time to look at moving house, I agree. And clearly lots of people think that too as there is very little coming onto the market now apart from new builds. And I agree the money will still be there in 12 months time but some of the work we’d look to do would be bigger than small maintenance jobs and it comes down to us making the decision to stay and do the jobs or put the house up for sale. It’s not a good use of our money to put £1000s in then sell.

If we stay, we will be absolutely fine here. But like someone else said, I worry this is an itch that won’t go away until I scratch it

I wonder if I’d feel like this if life was a bit more normal? In reality we have more money than ever but that’s also because we aren’t spending it on petrol for the commute to work, going out, holidays etc. So a bigger mortgage feels totally doable.

But we have always loved holidays and travelling and we can’t wait to be able to go away again and will want to make up for lost time. I might regret my ‘nicer’ house if it compromises my ability to do the things I really love...and that’s life isn’t it? You can’t have it all.