House Buying at this Crazy Time?!

[Notacelebrity]

Since starting to save for a deposit on a house, I have felt the comfort of having a safety net.
Now the time has come where we have enough for a deposit, but after fees we will have £00.00 left in the savings. The thought of having no safety net when we have a mortgage to pay and whole we are getting to grips with new payments for bills, council tax and mortgage (it will cost us about £200/300 extra a month) is really daunting.

We currently have an offer accepted on a house but the sellers haven't secured their new house yet so we haven't signed anything or put down any money at the moment.
We are still saving but DH's work has gone slow due to CoronaVirus. He has had 2 weeks off already and things are looking less and less secure.

There is talk of stopping any work which needs lots of people working together. It isn't a job where they can wash their hands often or at all really as it is manual labour, outdoors, all over the country. Sometimes 4/5 hour journeys to really rural locations. No washing facilities for miles.
Sometimes working away using hotels (which obviously is a concern due to travellers)

I am just really freaking out about money.
He does have a contract but we haven't had any news on whether or not he will be paid if work is cancelled.
He is putting on a brave face but I can see he js worried about work too.
Would we be mad to buy at the minute? Should we wait for this all to blow over? (But lose our dream home in the process? And also we have no idea how things will be after the cv stuff all blows over?)
Or should we be saving saving saving and hope that the sellers don't find anywhere for a few months so we can get an extra couple of grand behind us?

This wasn't going to be a corona virus thread- it was going to be a 'do you use yojr entire savings for a deposit?' Thread but while writing down my worries I realised I am actually really really worried about buying at this crazy scary time!

I am a sahm with 3 under 6 and due my 4th in a month so I can't even get a part time job to help save at the moment. Really worried.

Yabu- buy your house as usual
Yanbu - delay for a while until this blows over

I was totally prepared to say you were being unreasonable and panicking etc, but having seen that after fees you will have zero I don't actually think you can afford this particular house.

And it's a daft time to be without a safety net.

Withdraw.

At any time, having zero after fees when one of the key household incomes is insecure, would be unwise.
Under the current circumstances I don't think you should proceed.

I would not buy. We bought last year and now I am terrified of losing my job and not making mortgage payment. Currently saving for a rainy day fund

Well after our talk to the mortgage broker / advisor when we were getting our mortgage in principal we were told about all the fees and extra expenses and came up with an estimate of fees to save for before putting an offer on a house.
So we saved all the fees and had an extra 800 left over for savings after the fees but when we called up the broker person after puttimg in the offer he went through the fees and process etc with us and the estimate came up to an extra £1800. So we spoke to the sellers and as they were still looking, we decided that we would be able to save the extra £1000 we needed in a month or so (took 5 weeks so not too bad). The extra 1800 really knocked us as we hadn't expected it and we were clear at the begining of the process that we have no knowledge (didn't even know about surveys back then!)

We thought £800 was enough to get by (plus we would be adding to it all the time- still are).

What is a good idea to aim for savings then?
As I said the sellers haven't even found a place yet so I wasn't worried about savings because we were saving approx 200 a week. Now with work going slow and possibly not even having anywork for a while I'm not sure we will even be able to add to the savings and may even need to take some out.
We are not idiots and we will obviously explain this to the seller when things are more clear for us but what is a good amount?

(We are getting a 5% deposit on a 140k house. Cheapest around this area so not loads of money and it has taken us a good few years to get this much saved- although now dh has changed his habbits amd recently got a promotion we are in a better position than we ever have been)

You would be insane to buy a house in your situation. Who the hell voted for yes but the house? I'd love to hear their reasons.

You're possibly going to struggle for money soon and your husband might be out of work entirely. You need to back out while you can.

There will always be another house. I know it doesn’t feel like it. Who knows, the housing market may crash and you might get way more for your money in a few months or years.

We have 6 months expenses saved and I’m wondering if it’s enough!

@welshladywhois40 did you have any savings after paying for the deposit?

Having savings isn't a common thing for people like us. We are the first in the family to buy privately (everyone else rents or they didn't need a deposit as they were buying council)
All friends and family live paycheck to paycheck, lending money to cover bills till payday etc, as did we until we started saving for a house and we were met with "you cant buy a house"
So we have no frame of reference- my parents regularly borrow money off us to pay the mortgage. They have no savings amd havent lost the house. It isnt the done thing

It might not be the done thing but you have three kids! If you were both to be unemployed you will not get housing benefit for a mortgage. Have you seen the new guidance? Self isolation for 14 days for the full family for any symptoms whatsoever. What happens if the boiler breaks or the oven packs in or the roof needs redone?

You would be nuts to go ahead with this with no safety net. There will be other houses, other opportunities. You're not ready yet.

In normal circumstances i would agree with you to use all your savings for deposit especially if you have what 8k saved? But at this moment i wouldnt risk it.

@geepipe we origionally said that even if we had an extra 5000 yhen we wpuld still only put 800 back for the first month and use every other penny for the deposit but corona virus juat got real for us about 6 hours ago and we have been freaking out ever since. It hasn't affected us but now it looks like it could potentially lead to a few weeks off, maybe longer. We are having doubts. And doubts and more doubts.

Sympathies, but I'd really wait it out. I'm looking to buy a house where the seller hasn't found and am thinking

1. will some sellers be self isolating?
2. will removal men still be working when I come to exchange/complete?
3. will house prices be going down over the year?

Can you also explain why the mortgage broker said £800 initially and then £1800? How did s/he explain the extra?

And why you are lending money to your parents to pay their mortgage? That sounds topsy turvey. If I lent sums to my parents or they to me I would expect either party to put a charge over the property so if they or I sold I would get the loan back.

This virus situation is going to get worse before it gets better. People are going to start losing their jobs. It’s best to keep hold of what you’ve got and not commit to anything right now

@crosstalk
No no they just borrow a little extra to tide them over until payday and pay us back on payday. Not every month but at least 4 times a uear if work gets slow ( self emplyed)

He just acted like it was us misunderstanding the full costs involved . Instead of them misrepresenting the costs. We did explain we are ftb and didnt know squat. Considering going elsewhere to be honest but that by the by.

I am worried about all that too suddenly. I honestly thought corona virus was a hyped up flu that the media jumped on but im recondiering my views now

I think buying a house is always the best idea UNLESS your jobs aren't safe.
DH and I are both in jobs we just won't lose, he will definitely keep his. I could be made redundant (unlikely though) but I would get a new job very easily. We could also survive on DH's income.

We are about to exchange on a house that leaves us with £0 after, but we then get paid, we will build it up. It's risky but it's just what you've got to do!

In your position, as long as you could always get an income, then fine. otherwise YABU.

We are moving next week Crosstalk! We have already exchanged so legally bound to complete next week. Our solicitor thinks all will be ok as it is next week not the week after, when things may step up re action.

Our removal company assures us that they will be ok and have plans to draft in extra staff from other branches if necessary, we are moving on a 'quiet' day of the week.

Our agents assure us that parties on both sides are good to go at the moment and have similar assurances from their removal company.

Of course it could all go wrong but hopeful all will be ok,.

Not the best time to move house though

also a house takes 3 months to go through, in 3 months you'll know a bit more of what is going on.
Find a solicitor that doesn't take a fee until completion (i.e. if it falls through you don't lose anything) they are common place.

At worst, in 2 months you can't afford it, then you pull out. You'll probably lose the £250 search fee but not much else.

But lose our dream home in the process?

Considering the main earner now has barely any income, this would happen few months after moving in anyway...

Absolutely no way in hell I would buy and was left with 0 savings. Things go wrong on a house all the time.

We have been looking for a few months now, but putting things on hold for the moment. Given the economic uncertainty, you might find house prices drop. I too wouldnt be putting everything into a deposit with no savings left- esp with 3.5 kids!!!

If you're not going to have £10k left in emergency savings after purchasing then you're in no position to buy.

I have to say that even without CV I think your finances were too tight to buy somewhere just yet. The downside of owning is that all the bills are yours. Every house I have bought the boiler has packed up within a year and something else unforeseen has happened.

I'd suggest you plan to have a reserve of three months mortgage payments pus another £3000. Any less than that and I think things are too risky. Others may disagree of course.

Keep saving, house prices are not going up in the next couple of years, probably longer.

@Slith 10k is more than our deposit and fees combine

This dream house could soon turn into a nightmare. You're over-stretching yourselves, with or without Coronavirus or pregnancy.

General advice would be to calculate what 6 months outgoings would be and keep that back in your savings.

Then reconsider what you can afford. If this house is actually the cheapest in the area that meets your needs, then you can't afford to buy yet.

We are in the same boat as you, but had just started looking. since DH work is insecure we can't feel safe with liquidating most of our savings. It sucks, I feel your pain.

Gosh we will never be in a position to buy with loads of davings behind us
One month just incase but any more than that os crazy talk
How are low income families ever be expected to buy if im unreasonable thinking we can manage atm?
I thought we were doing well for ourselves but now i feel like a silly little girl with an unreachable dream

Hpuse prices rpund here have gone up by approx 30-50k depending on the exact area over the last 5 years. So when we started saving we were looking at 90-110k hpuses and now they are more like 130+
So i am worried about waiting. We've always been a few steps behind our local area