To buy a house with my sister?

[WeirdEgg]

I’m 26 and she is 24, we are both single and in unfavourable renting situations currently. We each have half a house deposit saved and have been thinking about buying somewhere to live together. We don’t have anyone to ask for advice as we are NC with our family for a number of reasons. Could anyone give us any advice? What would happen when one of us wants to move out etc?

When 1 of you wanted to move out the house would need to be sold or 1 of you would need to buy the other out basically.
The other things that you'd need to think about is what if 1 of you want to move a partner in, how would bills or rent be split, or what if 1 of you can't pay their share of the mortgage due to illness or loss of job.
It's not something that I would ever consider as it would only ever be a short term solution that will undoubtedly cause jealousy and resentment when 1 of you is ready to move on but the other isn't or can't afford to

See a solicitor for advice first before you get too excited about a house!
Ask about “Tenants in Common”.
Think about everything others tell you on here.
Exciting for you both but go into it with eyes wide open.

You need to discuss and agree what if one of you loses job, gets long term sick, dies, meets someone they want to move in or move out to live with him/her and any other events you can think of

You also need to reach agreement on "House rules" and consequences of rule breaking. The best of friends can become strained in close proximity let alone having a shared financial investment.

Overall I think it's a great idea, but you both need to really REALLY think through all the potential pitfalls.

Good luck!

I did this with my sister over 25 years ago - we were 28 and 30 at the time. Neither of us could afford to buy on our own so we got together. We were lucky in that 1 1/2 years later she was getting married and wanted me to buy her out which I did and thankfully was able to. If the same had happened 5/6 years later the amount would have been phenomenal and we would probably had to have sold the house.

My Dad was added on as a guarantor but that was only for 3 years and once I had proved I could pay my own way and those 3 years were up, my Dad was then taken off as a guarantor.

Looking back I think I was lucky in that it was the right time and place etc.

Thank you so much for your advice, we really only have each other (other than friends ofc). We lived together for a long time before separating and have now realised it was silly to move away from each other due to cost of living. The kind of properties we are looking at, one of us would be able to afford the payments alone if the other was sick for whatever reason as they are around the same amount as we each pay in rent now. It’s just the thought of having to stay where we are and save for even longer to get a deposit that puts us off each buying a property individually. Ideally, we would start saving again once we had the house and be able to buy somewhere each and keep this house as a stream of income but obviously that is far down the line as we don’t even know if this is a good idea yet. You’ve all been super helpful so far though!

I know two sisters who did this about 20 years ago. They talked through possible scenarios and checked all the legal implications before buying. A few years later one of them met their partner, the house was sold and the other one had enough money to buy a flat with an affordable mortgage (and then she met someone too).

My colleague bought a flat with her sister. They agreed that neither would request to sell in first three years, and they’re still there six years later.

You sound quite sensible! I would go for it