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?

Flats and repossession. Not even a bit the same as a house that hasn’t been! The bank will just be needing rid of it asap with as much as they can get.

also where in the universe can you buy a flat so cheap?? A new build flat here starts at £349k!

You were "astounded" at £80k? How long ago was this?

1990 ish. Just before the price crashes that bunged millions into negative equity. I was earning about 9.5k per year at the time

What will the management company be looking after? Are the roads and drains adopted? If they are adopted by the council then it is unlikely that you will receive a huge increase in fees.

You sound like you won’t be happy because your disposable income will be lower which you just have for clothes etc.

what advice do you actually want? Your landlord could sell next week and then you have to find a home.

you can ditch the management agency and set up your own with your own T&C and neighbours if the fees start to increase.

your house will go up in value

you can get a professional snagging company in to find all the faults in new build and get them fixed by builder.

Respectfully with £700 after all your bills, pension, food, gym you’re not living outside your means. Honestly I’d go for it personally!

I just wanted to make sure we weren’t be silly getting a house with that disposable income! I didn’t want to get washed away with the excitement of house if we were then going to be ‘house poor’ if you know what I mean. Just making sure we get other people’s thoughts who have been there or live with that much a month!

Amazing thank you! Very reassuring!

I understand your nervousness but your answers seem to show you have thought this through and going ahead is a good option for you at the moment.

No decision is ever risk free. Things change but from what you say I think.you might regret it if you pulled out. Good luck.

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic haha but genuinely I’d go for it. I have £700 left after bills but before food/discretionary spending (although I have 2 children in childcare!) and live in a new build and honestly even that is doable. I don’t want to be at the whim of a landlord if I have the option to own my own house and have that security (especially as you do objectively have a very decent level of disposable income and savings)
ps I love my new build, so much better than the Victorian house we had before and the management charges are also £150 a year and haven’t changed (yet!)

No I’m so sorry, I was being very serious!!! Now I read it back it does read sarcastic ha! It’s really so helpful and reassuring to know others think it’s more than doable. I just don’t want to be buying something we can’t sustainably afford and I think because I only originally moved out of my parents with OH a year before Covid- we have no benchmark as things have just continuously gone up and up. We also spent 2 years not doing much because of restrictions so we don’t really know how much wider life things will cost!

I'd suggest you start living on that £700 now - and make sure you have conversations about an even split etc (not you left with £200).
I understand it'll be a shock as it's not what you're used to, but honestly £700 after all bills/gym/food etc is not bad at all. It means getting on the ladder - which is unlikely to get easier even without kids.
Try a month where you buy nothing!

You're used to a certain life, a lot of us are - but things you see as essential aren't actually essential. E.g. if your rent suddenly went up but your wages stayed the same you could cut gym membership if you had to.

I also spend a lot less on alcohol and going out than I used to pre-kids 😆

I completely understand why it feels nerve wracking, but my opinion (fwiw) is that it’s all good based on what you’ve said - good luck with whatever you decide! X

Run for the hills if you can't afford £1500 per month for childcare once you have a baby and have to return to work full time. Are you planning on using family for free childcare? Of so are you 100% sure that's what you want as it's very common for families to choose paid childcare after a stint of help from family for lots and lots of reasons.

Biggest issue I foresee here is you’re actively TTC. Do you already have some savings for this? For the pram, cot, car seats etc. Or would this all be funded by your current disposable income.
I had some savings for my maternity leave which helped a bit. Do you have anything set aside?

The crippling part with kids is the childcare. I couldn’t afford to be a SAHM but I had twins (there’s something you can’t plan for!) and nursery fees were unreal. I believe there’s more funded hours available now though, but absolutely worth thinking about. Especially if a child would need nursery / childcare for a good bulk of the week (or do you have grandparents who could help?)

Only saying this as the costs really did floor us, we ended up in debt just trying to stay afloat.

OP we had a freehold house that we paid an estate charge for. It started at £180 a year and by the time we moved off the estate to an older house we were paying £250 per year (we lived there for 5 years and moved just as we were about to remortgage). This was a manageable increase for us. The only thing that did piss us off was the fact that the company did bugger all for their money and as they bill you a forecasted invoice, sometimes at year end they would send a letter for an extra amount for their 'overspend'. This was often between £80-150. You have to pay it or they threaten you with all and sundry and I just couldn't be bothered with the aggro.

Of you ever want to move house, they will also charge you an admin fee of about £200-300 for the privilege of changing the names on the account 🙄

We loved our new build. The rooms were spacious, we had maybe 2 or 3 minor snags which the builders sorted within a reasonable time frame. We had an issue with the sales people as they were discriminatory towards us as a young military couple but thats by the by. We also had to have our carpets replaced as they wore through within a year! So don't let people put you off new builds completely.

In relation to your disposable income, if the drop to £700 is temporary for your maternity leave then go for it. If that's how you're also going to afford nursery fees then I would definitely reconsider.

I went back to work full time and for my son to have 30hrs nursery that was about £900 (with NHS discount and using the tax free childcare). Now, we have a mixture of split shifts between my husband and I, family and using the tax free childcare account.

Our monthly bill for 40 hours per month is £500.

There is a website that calculates whether ypu are better off rentinf or buying in the market. Google rent or buy calculator. Its very insightful and calculates fees, interest, savings ability etc. Financial advise like this eill be really helpful.

It really is a luxury to have disposable income for clothes and going out. The fact you have £700 between you is very generous.

It is your choice but I would get on the property market and not lose the money you have already invested in the purchase.

I haven’t read the whole thread so apologies if this has been mentioned. I’m guessing this is your first house purchase and if so it’s absolutely normal to be nervous you are doing the right thing.

My advice would be to take a deep breath and go for it!

We have lived on less that that for disposable income, you just adapt! Don’t throw any more money down the drain renting! I think you’d be absolutely bonkers to pull out of the sale!

You need to do the math on combined finances, is the left over money weekly, fortnightly ot monthly? If weekly that’s more than our household income BEFORE we pay our mortgage and all our bills. So that sounds like a pretty sweet disposable income to me (even fortnightly)

owning your home takes sacrifices in the short term but pays off massively in the long term.

No it’s monthly.

If you love it then go for it. It actually sounds like you can afford it. And what seems like a lot of money right now won’t seem as bad in five years.

Personally I’d not have fixed for 5 years at 5% either

I know we were torn! The 2 years were higher and just made it a bit more unaffordable, and if we know we can afford it, at least it’s the same price for 5 years.