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Flip

Original poster

affording your house

10 replies

LoveMyGirls · 16/02/2006 11:36

how many of you actually wrote down on paper your income outgoing etc and it worked out that you could afford it?

my friend says her's never worked out on paper but now she's done it anywayand is finding it easy to pay the mortgage. is this true for most people?

OP posts:

blueshoes · 16/02/2006 11:50

Errr, I am a bit of a mad planner. So worked out income, outgoings, long term savings, mortgage repayments and based on that, the highest price I could afford (or prepared to pay) for a house.

Then again, if you use mortgage brokers, I think they are required by law (Financial Services Act) to go through all this with you before recommending a mortgage.

Bugsy2 · 16/02/2006 11:54

I worked mine out because I have control freak tendencies and don't like nasty surprises.
I'm glad it is working out for your friend, but surely it is better to take an hour to think about your income and outgoings - it is very easy - and then you know exactly where you stand.

acnebride · 16/02/2006 11:58

i do all this because i'm so useless with money - every time i stop looking at my finances pretty much daily, disaster ensures.

If i stick to my budget everything is fine - and it's not that hard to stick to. but that only became the case when i added a 10% contingency fund (shades of Property Ladder) each month to cover little tiny bits I otherwise forget - bank charges being the classic.

jalopy · 16/02/2006 20:09

Definitely. We have all our expenses on a spreadsheet on the computer. Used it to work out how much we could afford on a mortgage. It's really useful to have this info at hand.

Mirage · 16/02/2006 20:28

Definately-wouldn't have bought the house or slept at night if we hadn't.

Hulababy · 16/02/2006 20:29

We didn't, but we do have a very good IFA who made sure we could afford our new house.

Passionflower · 16/02/2006 21:01

When we had our first mortgage the bank (RBS) sat down with us and went through it with us. They wanted to be sure we could afford it.

Didn't do it for second house and have survived.

Flossam · 16/02/2006 21:03

The mortgage company assessed whether we could or not, the mortgage, council tax and water bills could not account for more than 60% of our combined wages.

CountessDracula · 16/02/2006 21:10

60%!!

I thought affordable was meant to be about 25% of take home for mortgage

Am amazed, I think that is a bit irresponsible lending tbh

Is that take home or gross?

Flossam · 16/02/2006 23:29

Take home. Perhaps it is, but that is based on our earnings up here, when I go back full time we'll be around 7k better off, so I am not worried.

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