Pulling out a house near to exchange

[HappyKite2067]

We are near to exchange of our new build house and I’m now having huge doubts about going ahead with it. I’ve had a bad gut feeling throughout but as it gets closer it’s getting stronger!

Reasons:

1. Estate management fees and people telling me to ‘run away’ as they are life ruining
2. The cost of the mortgage is so much higher than our rent, and I’m genuinely worried we can’t afford it- I’ll only have £200 disposable income after all bills, petrol and food, and other half £500. At the moment, we have around £1500 left over between us.

Reasons why I’ve talked myself into going:

1. I need to move for my new job
2. We’ve been renting for 2 years and have secured an okay fixed deal
3. There’s very little choice in the area we are moving to and new build is probably (even with mgt fees the most cost effective)
4. We are TTC (although how we can afford one I don’t know)
5. We are both going to have pay increases next year and the year after.

Am I being unreasonable to pull out and stay renting, and maybe choose to rent closer to work to have more disposable income and wait for an older new build which needs less work?

Thank you this does reassure me 🤣 I think if it wasn’t for the management fees I’d be a little less stressed but the overall costs of going from an apartment to a house is so worrying! I just don’t want money to be a stressor but we are also living an inbetween life at the moment- enjoying disposable income but no house and no family, so we have to make the jump at some point 🙈

I’ll only have £200 disposable income after all bills, petrol and food, and other half £500.

So £325 disposable income each? If you are planning to have a baby together I really recommend insisting on fair finances now, since your income will be the one taking the hit over mat leave and if you return to work part-time.

I am hearing a lot of “hopefully” in your posts and personally I don’t base financial decisions on hope. I base them on worst case, ie, one of us loses our job, you find you desperately want to be a SAHP after DC is born etc. Do you have 6-12 months expenses saved etc? How are you going to manage nursery costs if government funding doesn’t happen, you don’t get pay rises and you get pregnant right away etc. if that math doesn’t add up then I would not buy. I would buy something cheaper and suck it up.

Currently not living in our dream house and on paper could afford a way bigger mortgage but we don’t have the cash savings for 12 months expenses with that size mortgage and won’t compromise on long term pension savings rate etc so we’re staying put. I don’t want financial worry that keeps me up at night.

Yeah mine was £1500 eventually when I sold a flat in London in 1997. Started much less than less 4 years previously

On balance, buying is a fixed or 'known' cost.
Continuing to rent is out of your control, (rent rises/landlord could sell etc)

So much wrong with this.

If you're close enough to be buying a house and thinking of having a baby then money should be all joint.

Paying a mortgage is what you are doing now. Why not pay your own.

Nothing is guaranteed in life. Think about what you'd be more upset to lose.

Chances are you'll be stuck renting if you don't make the move now before you have a baby and give up work even if short term as then you'd have to prove you can afford a mortgage. Even though many people's mortgage is cheaper than their rent, banks still make it very difficult.

It's like people who say they can't afford to get married but have a child. How many ever marry. Really they mean they can't afford the big pointless tens of thousands wedding as a marriage can be achieved in a couple of hundred quid.

12 months? If that was necessary nobody would ever buy a house. Don't be so silly.
Better to buy than be at the mercy of a landlord and the fickle rental market! Renting with kids isn't much fun - can't decorate their room, hard to find new places near school when a landlord fucks you around.

Go with your gut - pull out now. My husband works in housing and wouldn't touch the newbuild with a barge pole.

Going against the grain (mostly) but if your gut feeling is negative I would pull out without hesitation. Never ignore your gut. It may not even be about the house.

You'll be paying a premium for a new house, which means it will decrease in value immediately. I'd bail out and find something else.

We couldn't afford where we are when we bought (few years ago now). Husband was asked for contribution to charity while at work and he said 'sorry, can't afford to' and turned his wallet upside down and out fell a farthing. Buying is always better otherwise you are just paying someone else's mortgage.

I'd go through with the house sale. Esp as its likely to increase in value if there are further phases

OP, why is money not pooled? if you're planning a family your DP shouldn't have more £ than you

Just do it. We’ve just done similar. Do I feel wobbly about it? Yep. But if not now then when? There won’t be a better time.

@Jaxhog that depends on the area. We just bought a 4 year old house that had increased in value 25% in that time

I mean our £700 a month disposable is worse case. We have progressive jobs, and jobs if we lost we’d walk into other ones relatively easily. Although doubtful we’d lose them as nobody wants to do what we do 😂

If we based it on one of our wages, we wouldn’t be able to afford anything in this climate but we probably have 2 years worth of savings if it we wanted to live off just one wage. But I don’t treat savings as something to dip into, which is why I don’t plan around those. We both pay into pensions and that’s factored in to our non disposable.

FWIW our new build sold for 60k more than we paid for it after 3 years!

It’s not pooled because at the moment we both have a lot of disposable so there’s not really a need to pool if this makes sense? We pool in our joint account for all our bills but keep disposable separate as we both spend on very different things, I’m a saver and he’s a spender, and I would be annoyed if he was spending what I’d usually save! He’s happy to pool when we move.

Yes this would be right, but very worst case scenario. We will pool once we move. We have a joint bill account just disposable is separate as we both earn enough now and haven’t thought too pool.

I've heard too many horror stories re new builds 😞

Just based on my own experience: never buy a house you don't really want. Trust your instinct. Backing out will cause a bit of inconvenience, but finding yourself in a house you don't really like is hugely depressing and causes major problems down the line. I pressed ahead when all my instincts were telling me no, just because of a sort of obstinacy ( the sunk cost fallacy). Ended up selling at a loss. All OK now, but I still kick myself for going ahead.

I know same! This is what’s making me want to pull out, but also there are horror stories with old builds they just aren’t publicized because you expect issues with old builds.

Oh but I love the house 🥹😂 I absolutely adore it!!! It’s not the sunk cost fallacy here, purely is it the right move financially and if we don’t do it will we be stuck renting!

Also we bought an older house and we wish we’d bought a new build. Similar interest rate to you. You will be fine, honest. Xx

Honestly you’re mad to discount them on this basis. You often get your stamp duty paid and other incentives. Anything that goes wrong in the first 2 years is the developers problem, not yours. Easy to maintain, clean and tidy. Energy efficient ( we are never cold!) ours is massive and well proportioned , has loads of bathrooms and a decent sized garden.

I’d love a Georgian house … but id hate the upkeep!