Buying a property when pregnant or stay renting?!

[Gingerbreadpixie]

Hi all. I'm in a bit of a pickle. DH and I currently both work full-time and rent in a really lovely part of London but have been property hunting for the past 6-7 months to buy our first property. It's not produced many/any results, mostly due to my complete indecision, inability to commit to any of the areas we can afford and getting cold feet as soon as DH mentions "ripping out this staircase" or "knocking these walls down"! ( hate the upheaval of moving at the best of times).

I'm now 10 weeks pregnant with our first baby and facing maternity leave at some point in the not-too-distant future which will halve our joint income. We're still property hunting as the rent on our current flat would leave things extremely tight financially once baby is here (potentially having to go into savings) and it's likely we're due for a rent increase on top of that. We have a decent deposit and a mortgage would actually be cheaper than our rent.

We have found properties that suit our budget in a particular area but I just feel paralysed with fear at the thought of buying in this area while pg. I'm nervous about being further away from my family (who are an hour's journey on buses as it is) i have a high-risk pg and having to change from a doctor I trust to having to start again at a new surgery. I'd also be further away from the hospital I'm due to give birth in, don't drive,and I'm there every week-2 weeks due to various health complications and tons of appointments.

Another issue is the schools. We can't stay in the area we are now long-term because all the decent schools are either private or you have to live in a million pound house to be in the catchment area of the decent state schools. Then what's left is really rough neighbouring areas. It's too expensive for us to buy here and soon it will be too expensive for us to rent here too! So we have to move at some point regardless. The schools in the area we're considering moving to are not great but we have found a property close to the one good one. If the catchment shrinks there's not much else.

I suppose after all that my question is, do we bite the bullet and just buy a flat we can afford in a cheaper area, insist DH buys a car and worry about the schools when the time comes (nearly 4 years away!), rent in said cheaper area for a year to trial it without too much commitment, or stay where we are, let money get very tight and just concentrate on getting through this high-risk preg with all my family, doctors and medical people I trust on hand?

Blimey that was a long post!!!!

Thank you Twitchy. I really appreciate your advice, as usual :)

I think I need to focus on keeping my health up, stress down and not add any more complications. the only thing that could throw a spanner in the works is if our landlord decides not to renew our lease next month. but then we have a variety of OK areas to rent in. We have modest savings and our own furniture. It's not the end if the world!

I've never been concerned about living in "good" and "bad" areas in my life before! Im from one of the roughest parts of SE London! Maybe that's why though...?!

I have to say I would consider buying, purely from the point of view that you will be on one income for quite a time after pregnancy so will be in rented accommodation for much longer and if you have to dip into savings that may start chipping away at that deposit. We recently bought a house whilst TTC and although there were some stresses, your hubby could deal with any issues that come up, keeping you stress free as much as poss. You can also use a bit of your savings to employ movers that come in and do ALL the packing for you then move everything and unpack it again. Yes it's pricey but probably not much more than you would spend on moving to a new place with cleaning costs, deposits etc.

Many would probably disagree but if we had got pregnant quicker I definitely would have pushed ahead with buying whilst pregnant. A new Dr isn't too bad but being further from your family would be hard. Ultimately only you know if this would be the right thing for you but that's my opinion :)

Your landlord would have served you with 60 day notice already if he wasn't planning on renewing the lease, so you are ok on that front.

I'm of the view that their is never a 'right' time to do anything, and if you keep waiting for that elusive moment in time you will never do anything. Moving is stressful, time consuming, expensive and one great big pain in the butt, but I would much rather do it when pregnant than with a baby or toddler in tow. Having lived in London for 10 years myself, I also think the travel issue is a non-issue, as public transport is very very good and in an emergency cabs can be hailed on the street. If you didn't live in London I'd say stay near your hospital etc

If it were me I'd move. I speak as someone who is currently due any day, and living amidst major building works on the house. Again, not perfect timing, but I'd much rather deal with the stress and hassle when pregnant than with a baby to consider.

Appreciate your opinion afrikat. And I agree, on paper, it makes so much financial sense to buy. I could take my time returning to work. Its why I'm so torn.

I probably do sound a but OTT with not wanting to switch doctors but I have T1 diabetes, under active thyroid, a possible weakened cervix due to a previous operation and have developed prenatal anxiety and OCD. I'm a disaster area basically! And I've had some terrible doctors in the past - unsympathetic, out-of-touch, difficult to communicate with. This one I have now is superb. It doesn't help that looking at GP reviews in the area we're looking at is putting the fear of god in me too!

My DH is threatening to cut off the Internet so I stop giving myself reasons to worry!

Is there any way your current dr could refer you to someone specific in the new area? Totally understand why you would be so worried but if you could at least get some reassurance from your current dr that could give you some piece of mind?

DH and I moved into our (bought) house when I was 20 weeks into my last pregnancy. I was able to stay with my own doctors, despite being out of area. My pg wasn't 'high risk' until later however.
DH did most of the moving stuff and I just helped with the easy stuff. It was tough but manageable. It meant we were settled before DD arrived and weren't moving with a baby/toddler.

If I were you, I'd move (if you find the right property). Especially if it'll work out cheaper than rent and you'll avoid dipping into your savings.

Do you know what - I'm in a nearly identical position.

I'll be watching this thread with interest.

Thanks

One point that could be in favour of moving now:
If you apply for a mortgage agreement-in-principal now, you could do so without telling the mortgage provider you're pg (it's still early days anyway, presumably you aren't showing yet) and you can get a mortgage offer based on your normal salary.

If you leave it any later, you may find the amount you can borrow will get massively reduced, restricting where you can buy even further - during mat leave you may only be able to use your SMP income in the calcs, and after you go back to work find that many (but not all) mortgage providers will deduct your childcare costs from your salary and use the remaining pittance as the income in their calcs, rather than your gross salary.

If your DP earns a lot more than you it may not make enough of a difference, and anyway you may find that you can find a mortgage provider that doesn't do either of these, but in our case it meant we couldn't afford what we thought we could and had to limit our aspirations.

Personally, I would prefer to buy and move noe - that way you would be settled in before the baby arrives, and won't be moving with a little one. Is there any way you could stay with your current Doc?

Also adrift makes a very good point re mortgage.

Now, not noe - sorry!

I would bite the bullet and buy now - its never a good time, there will always be good reasons not to move and things will only get more difficult with a baby/toddler in tow. As others have said you can get a better mortgage now, and you currently have your weekends free to sort out house stuff together - we bought and did up a house when I was pg and would rather have done it this way round than with dd around - our productivity is now massively reduced and jobs around the house are taking a lot longer to do - dh wants to spend his weekends with dd rather than putting up shelves.

You can spend time choosing your dr too - join a big reputable practice and then work your way through the different drs until you find your favourite.

Good luck!!