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

Don't panic yet. I think the comment about not having 10k leftover is way out of touch with reality . We are currently half way through saving for a deposit for our first house and I've obsessively read blogs and watched Vlogs to work out the process and nearly all of them have said they scraped every last penny they had into the deposit. Money Saving Expert says to put as much as you can possibly afford into the deposit. The difference here is, you are in the unusual circumstance of your new mortgage costing more than your current rent. For us, if will be a no brainer as a mortgage would be cheaper than rent.

In your circumstance, I wouldn't pull out yet, I'd just wait and see what happens. It could be ages before your seller finds a house in these circumstances. What you could do is contact them and say you are in no rush, given the current pandemic situation, for them to find somewhere. I imagine they'd welcome this news and it will give you time to keep saving if work doesn't dry up all together.

We’ve just had an offer accepted and are planning to complete mid-June. Honestly, I’d say it depends on your situation - only you know your outgoings and how much you can knuckle down and cut costs if you need to.
I’m worried too, but I’m a worrier by nature, and my DH and I are both self employed. It could all go tits up but at the moment no-one really knows, neither of us are in an industry which is likely to be impacted too badly, and - while it’s so important to have your eyes wide open when making a big purchase - I don’t want to put my life on hold.

Keep going, cut back your day-to-day expenses as much as you can to make savings, and plan for the worst but hope for the best. Good luck!

How are low income families ever be expected to buy if im unreasonable thinking we can manage atm?
Tbf they just do it before having more children if it's a priority for them...

10k is probably unreasonable, unless your outgoings are 3k a month. I agree with pp about having 3 month buffer. Last thing you want is not to have £300 quid to repair something and it will later become a 3k job. And things come in threes. They seriously do. You can't just call landlord to repair leaking roof...

Let me just add that you did very well by saving so much already.

I would usually say go for it. Buying is generally a much better bet than renting.

But what if you have major issues like the roof, the boiler, a car?

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?

Exactly this. The last couple of days have killed the housing market stone dead. I bet that house is still on the market in six months time, probably at a reduced price.

What happens if during the first month your dh is unwell, and off work. Then you become unwell, will he have to stay with the children? You could end up in a really bad situation very quickly. With no savings to help you. There will be other houses.

I should add that well done for changing the pattern of your family history and getting some savings, planning on buying a home etc.

You asked: How are low income families ever be expected to buy if I'm unreasonable thinking we can manage atm? To be blunt, most wouldn't have a 4th child if funds didn't allow!

I agree your finances are worryingly tight.
Also, I'd expect prices to collapse soon due to the CV.

@user1333796
The mortgage is about 80 more than rent and cpuncil tax is different band so slightly more expensive.
The 300 was factoring in the cost difference in local supermarket (no aldi in walking distamce but there is a sainsburies) and electricoty and gas. Plus public transport will be needed more. But none of that is essential so if worse came to worse we'd only be about a hundred worse off a month- essentials wise.

I thought you put in every extra penny intp the deposot as the interest on the mortgage is so much!

We definitely can afford it. We aren't stupid and wpuld just build up our savings again from scratch, which a few weeks ago didnt seem so daunting but at the moment with corona and brexit insecurities it feels scary!

Dh definitely will not lose his job but there are no promises for work right now- if anything serious happens and he is forced out of work for a bit then what?!
They have said he wpuld be paid for the 2 week isolation period but nothing about whether work is cancelled for everyone.
Should find out in the next few days but my god its frightening. Theres nothing about corona virus in his contract obviously so it feels like we are heading into the dark!

In 2008 our house was reasonably valued at £140k, overnight it fell in value to £115k, which was what it had been worth about 5 years previously. I think theres a very good chance that we're facing a recession as severe or worse than 2008. I'd only want to buy now if I had work that was secure and I didn't want to move for at least 5 years. Or if I had significant equity and was happy to potentially take the hit.

@Theresnobslikeshowb there is about a month allowance for that in his contract. He is young, fit and healthy- i know it could happen to anyone but he is most likely not going to be ill for a long enough period of time to affect us.

We could cut costs. No car and there is a brand new boiler in the house so we feel quite safe in that sense.
Isnt a leaky cauldron roof something the survey would bring up anyway?
Im pretty sure most people dont have extra thousands when buying a house but then again most people on mumsnet have cleaners, gardeners and seven thousand horses

the interest on the mortgage is so much!

Trust me, the interest at today’s rate is almost nothing. The only way it can go is up, it went up to 15% in the 90s. I remember nearly being sick on my shoes.

@wonderstuff
My head has been turned.
There was a house for sale near my parents hpuse about 6 years ago that was 105k and its recently been put back on for 150k - much nicer but still!
I wouldn't mind seeing if they go down near us. Maybe I will hold my horses. Although knowimg my luck theyll go up...

They won't go up soon, thousands of people in travel and hospitality are going to lose jobs, it'll take a couple of years for the economy to recover. I'd start looking in 6 months time.

@wonderstuff yeah. Following the market, I would be nervous buying now.

Op, yes, you put what you can into deposit, but you have 3 children and will have a house. Being without any money is frankly irresponsible. If it was just two of you, I would say "save up like 1k extra and you will be fine", but it's not just 2 of you...

He is young, fit and healthy- i know it could happen to anyone but he is most likely not going to be ill for a long enough period of time to affect us.
I don't know what he does but even I am nervous about our income with this virus and we are both earners here and no dependants... Putting both of us out of action for a month+ would be an issue...

the interest on the mortgage is so much!

Wait. How much would your interest be?

Every penny counts with mortgages because your borrowing for 25 years. Or however many years.
Everything i have ever read/ watched has said as big a deposit as you can manage and overpay as much as you can to shorten the length of the mortgage.

There are a few reasons why we want to move sooner rather than later.

@bodies
How would one follow the market?
Does checking right move every day cut it?

to shorten the length of your mortgage
And the overall cost if your mortgage

Im sure his job would be safe -
Its an essential like a nurse or teacher... always work to be done @BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser

I don't know- we managed with 2 kids living paycheck to paycheck- on half the income we are on now. Looking back it was tight as fuck but we never missed a rent payment or paid a bill late, we are in a better position now than we ever were. If now isnt a responsible time to buy a house then im afraid we will never be in a good position to buy a house. Excluding corona virus fears of course.

Yes, Op, everywhere says put as much as you can towards the mortgage, but it doesn't advise to leave yourself completely vulnerable. You should ALWAYS have something to tie you over a hurdle.

I meant financial market.

Why did you ask? 🤷

I most definitely wouldn’t be buying a house now (especially on a mortgage!) no matter how much I’d have left over afterwards. Even if Coronavirus wasn’t happening it would be really really stupid to wipe out your savings to take on a massive loan in order to acquire an asset which is not stable in value, difficult to dispose of and, expensive to maintain.

Never a good idea to max yourself out. My god-daughter did this buying a much bigger house when pregnant with her 1st baby. Due to complications at birth (breech but didn’t realise in time and without oxygen for over 10mins) she’s been in and out of hospital for the last 6 months, unable to return to her work (own business). They are having to rely on handouts from family. No-one can foresee things like this but really important why you shouldn’t max yourself out financially

You have already done well. Keep going with the saving. I can’t see house prices going up at the moment given the hit the economy is going to take. You might even be able to negotiate the price down a bit if the sellers take ages to find somewhere.
Keep looking too. You might well find another property where the sellers have to sell in a slow market so will price a bit more cheaply.
Work out your basic living expenses for a month including your mortgage and bills. Make that your saving goal. Once you have saved that try to add at least 1 week’s worth of expenses every month. Think long term buying a house and paying off the mortgage is a marathon not a sprint.