Dilemma - What would you do?

[dilbertina]

We are currently living abroad, due to return to UK in Summer. We are selling our UK house because it is too small for number of DC now. I have found my perfect "forever house", BUT to get it we would have to put pretty much all our savings into it. We would not then need a ridiculously huge mortgage, but would not have the level of back-up we are very fortunate to have at the moment.

Would you go for it, or lower your sights? (bearing in mind I REALLY love this house!) If you would go for it, any hints for persuading risk-averse DH appreciated!)

What a lovely problem to have!

It depends what you and DH do for a living and how secure your jobs are I think. How quickly can you build up some savings again?

What about an offset mortgage?

We have an offset mortgage. We chose to borrow a larger mortgage, and keep some savings, rather than using all the savings as a deposit. The advantage is that the savings are still available for a rainy day if we need them.

You'd think this would have the downside of larger mortgage payments. However in fact we can use the savings to offset against the mortgage, which means the amount of interest we pay is smaller (just as if we'd used all our savings as a deposit and had a smaller mortgage).

Would that help?

Do it!! Anything can happen. We live in the moment. Put it off, it falls to the hands of another buyer and you could never find a house like it again. Also property is a good investment. You won't be plundering your savings on a car or similar where it devalues quickly. Savings will be in the house instead of the bank.

Buying and selling houses is [very] expensive so it can be better to buy your forever house straight away rather than a series of houses. But on the other hand I have never known anyone who bought a forever house that really was forever. So three questions - How sure are you that it will be your forever house? Also - is it actually good value when compared to other houses in the area? In the end, it's all about price per square foot. If it's more expensive per square foot than the house next door, I wouldn't buy it. If it is a comparable price per square foot, then that's a good thing. Third and final question- can you start saving again once you are in the house, or will the running costs stop you from being able to save? If the running costs are reasonable, then that's a good factor too.

Do it. Your money is better off in property than anywhere else.

Hooray!, all yes so far, thankyou

Guess you can never be sure it's forever, but local primary and secondary both OFSTED outstanding which pretty unusual i imagine (if we can get in of course!). Mortgage would be based on DH job only, but I would plan to return to work at least part-time. DH job seems reasonably secure but of course you never know.... Commute to London, airports etc for DH job now and possible changes in future, is reasonable... House fantastic value/square footage, have not seen anything else coming vaguely close space-wise without a totally unachievable price tag.

To be honest, I'm already convinced - as long as a survey didn't come up with something really horrific. DH on the other hand loves the look of the house, but is understandably nervous of potentially putting everything in....