How can we buy a house? Please tell us your experiences of buying your first home............

[LoveMyGirls]

Dh really wants us to get on the property ladder as we will both be 30 this year, we have 2 dd's who will be 12 and 6 this year. We have wasted 40k on rent so far in the time we have been together and we would like to have our own home but we're a bit stuck.

Dh earns 28k and I'm SE and can earn between 8-12k per year but before expenses it's more like 18k if that makes any difference. (how do you go about self certifying anyway? as a side question)
BUT
We owe 9k on a bank loan due to end in 2014, we are paying that off at £260 per month and also owe just under 2k on credit cards due to be paid off by May at the latest, hopefully earlier, currently paying it off at £370 per month.

Once credit cards are paid we are going to start saving like mad and hope to get a deposit together.

We are looking into the shared ownership scheme and also the deals where you only need a 70% mortgage but I'm really unsure about it tbh, would we be better off waiting until our loan is paid off and we have a deposit or will the house prices have gone up to more than we can afford by then and is homebuy our only option?

I'm really confused! We have a financial advisor coming round next week to talk to us.

Any advice, stories, experiences would be most welcome!

Good idea LovemyGirls to have a date in mind. The Dealing with Debt forum on www.fool.co.uk is a useful source of info and support.

gin, if I have a pound for every home owner who talks about how much money they made on their houses before going on to say "I don't really understand the obsession with owning - my Mum/the French/the Germans etc are all happy renting" I'd have bought my own house outright by now.

Are you really sure you don't understand it?

sorry But yes, I am really sure I don't understand it.

Interest rates are going up this year. Fix the rate that you pay your debts and get them clear.

Well gin, for a start there is knowing that your landlord could kick you and your family out of your home at any time with six months' notice, then the fact that you might be paying half of your net income to pay someone else's mortgage making it impossible to save any significant amount for your children's future or your own old age, and then again there is not being able to make your own decisions about how your home is laid out or even decorated. Do you need more?

Obviously if there were a lot more social housing and the tenancy laws were different it would be another story...

lovemygirls, I'll put this frankly. You have a low and insecure income and high unsecure debt in a volatile economy and housing market. Unless you can persuade a relative to gift or lend you enough interest free to clear your debts, cover legal, survey costs etc and provide a small deposit (because without one your mortgage will be much more expensive than renting) your absolute priorities are to 1) clear debts and 2) save.

Please please call a charity like National Debtline, Payplan or the Consumer Credit Counselling service to discuss your options with an expert and work through a budget sheet - they can help you sort out your debts and start to save. They can also tell you about the consequences of unaffordable home ownership.

Renting is not dead money, just as line rental for a landline, food and clothes purchase, utility bills are not dead money but essential life expenditure. While there are aspects of renting, such as the insecurity, which are less than ideal, it is a much better option for you at the moment. Say it takes you ten years to clear debts and save - you'll still have 25 years (ie the standard term) to clear a mortgage before you reach retirement age.