I want to be a home owner!!!

[gem92x]

Hey I was wondering if I could get some advice

I'm a 26 year old single mum and after previously rented I have moved back to my family home with my son (6) in order to save for a mortgage.

Has anyone any good tips on how best to save for one and where they've saved?

Also would like to hear success stories as people are trying to put me off buying saying I won't get accepted etc etc but I am dying to own my own home

Thanks in advance

Unfortunately you may struggle due to the risk perceived by lenders. Single parent with 1 dependant . Do you work full time? Have a good income? Will you have a large deposit? Do you have a good credit score with no default payments?

NT53NJT yes I work full time as a dental nurse. I have a reasonable credit score which is rising so by the time I have saved a deposit it will be at a good level.

Yes I'm hoping to save a big deposit to give me the best possible chance as I feel renting is dead money and I hated it.

I've seen a few rent to buys though that have kind of caught my eye but unsure about them

Lenders care about affordability. It's a maths exercise.

No way? I don't believe it?

It will also depend where in the Cuntry (or World?) you are trying to buy.
MN tends to be disproportionately London centric.
There are loads and loads of places in the UK you will be able to save up to get a deposit and then apply for a mortage for a first home, particularly if your parents are kindly letting you live rent free for a while.

Go into some local building societies, or look on moneysavingexpert.com for some of the help to buy ISAs - where the interest rates are better than average and also the Gvmnt will give you free money at the end. Also the Government's Money Advice service gives clear, non-affiliated advice.

All the best.

*Country

unfortunate typo

We've bought a shared ownership house, meaning we have to pay a mortgage for half the house and rent for the other half. That may be a way to get on the housing ladder?
We've only been in the house a year, so haven't had to deal with any issues yet, although we've heard selling the house might be trickier than a normal full ownership.

I always thought you had to try and save for a 10% deposit, but the banks are only willing to lend a multiple of your wages, so even if you have 10%but the property is more than 4 times your salary (usually that's the max they'll lend) then you still won't be able to get a mortgage.

@BackforGood thanks for the info!! I'm actually in Northern Ireland so I'll be buying here. Houses are nowhere near as expensive here as they are in London etc thank goodness!

@Booksandpens thanks for the reply! Would you recommend the shared ownership? How did you go about getting into that? I was thinking of it but was unsure whether it would be right for me although I'll probably have to if I'm unable to get a mortgage by myself

You will be fine in northern Ireland. You should save a good deposit living at home

Can you raise extra income / bar work or anything while you are staying with family

Also cut out any spends that are not essential / hidden wasted money. Avail of free days our etc.

Best of luck to you .. you deserve it

DH put his name down on a list (I think he googled shared ownership schemes in our area) I'm not sure how if it works the same in NI. He had to fill in a form stating wages and deposit and then they sent us different options until we found this one.

It's an expensive and rather stressful way of buying a house as the housing association wanted a very tight deadline, and every time we want to buy more shares we have to pay fees and valuations.

If you can get an ordinary mortgage I'd recommend that, but we can't afford a normal mortgage in the area we live in, but the combined rent and mortgage is still much cheaper than just renting (I think we save £2/300 a month)

@Littlelambpeep I actually used to have two jobs. I'm a dental nurse full time but I also used to do casual shifts in the learning disability home I used to work full time in, however I stopped this because it wasn't worth the second job tax being took off me but you make a good point about the bar work even a few evening shifts a week or something!

Yes I'm going to take a look at my monthly expenses to see where I can cut back because I definitely know I can!

Thanks for your advice I really appreciate it!

@Booksandpens yeah I understand what you mean. I'm unsure of how that actually works here I may need to speak to someone to see how you go about it because that would be my next option if I am unable to obtain a mortgage by myself.

Sounds like it works for you though. Did you pick the area you wanted or do they just send you different ones?

They sent us adverts for places all around the region, but we ended viewing two close to where we were hoping to move. I'm not sure how many times they would have kept us on the list though, for us it happened quite quickly, so we didn't have to turn down many. I think (not sure though as DH was the one who did it ) we just had to reply to the ones we were interested in, not the ones we didn't want. We were lucky there's a lot of new builds in our area, some say too many, but it meant we had quite a lot of choice.

Once we decided to go through with it they sent us to an independent mortgage advisor, so it might be worth seeing what they say about your situation first.

The shared ownership I had for a 50% stake allowed me to pay less in theory than people renting for the same equivilant two bedroom property. You will also get the chance to buy more of the property as time goes by.

@Booksandpens there's quite a lot of new builds near us too which is hopeful. Think my next step should be to talk to a financial advisor of some sort and get info. It all confuses me!

Thank you so much for all your help though you've been great!!

@Moonshine86 is that easier to obtain than a mortgage? Is there any way they can try and take the house off you or anything?

I found it was my only option as my partner at the time was unable to get a mortgage. I did put a £20,000 deposit down which helped a great deal. I didn't have a chance to get a 100% mortgage myself.
I didn't hear from my HA I was left alone completely so it didn't feel like I only owned half iyswim?
No they can't take it off you. They sent me a letter each year asking if I wanted to increase my percentage in the house and gave me advice of how to proceed if I wanted to. Buying more is called stair asking. I could've owned 100% eventually if i wanted to but chose to sell up after a few years. Any equity remember will be split with HA so be wary of you did go down this path of adding too much value to it.

*Stair casing

On top of the deposit you will need to save for all or some of the following; solicitor fees, survey, moving costs, land registry, emergency funds, mortgage arrangement fee, other miscellaneous costs

Good for you OP! You can definitely do this on your own - don’t let other people put you off if this is your dream.
My sister has a SO place (lovely flat, great development), that was able to obtain on her own with a 5% deposit and a reasonable wage. You can do it!

Good luck.