Would you buy a house if you knew you'd outgrow it within 5 years?

[Liquidgold]

Finding the whole house buying thing a bit stressful to be honest.

Having rented for so many years it feels like a huge step ensuring I get it right for the whole family.

We have viewed a lovely period property that has been recently renovated but the rooms are on the smaller side and it does not have the kitchen/diner that up until now has been a dealbreaker for me. Also parking may be a bit of an issue as no drive and parking only on one side of street.

The plus points are that it has the right number of bedrooms, good sized garden and is in the right location, and feels more affordable as is priced accordingly). The thing is I know that it will soon feel small as children grow.

Should we stretch ourselves now/save up for longer for a larger property that we could stay in as the kids grow? wwyd? Argh.

Thankyou

Its tricky in this market. Usually I would say yes because you can then move, but I would also consider that with God only knows what is going to happen with the economy and housing market you might have to stay put for a good long while.

Having said that, the no. of rooms, location and garden are all biggies and if they are all good I can't see that you would HAVE to move, just want to. There are lots of clever storage and room designs that will get those small bedrooms working for you. A playhouse in the garden will house a lot of the DC's toys as an example.

The only real big problem for me would be the parking. Is there any option to make off street parking? How young are your Dc? I would not fancy trying to wrestle my DD across the road with my handbag, her bag, a couple of shopping bags etc. I have enough trouble getting her from car to house and I park at my front door .

In your shoes I think I would buy this house (if you are happy with the parking). The fact it is big enough and affordable is the main thing. You may well be able to move again in 5 years, but if you can't then if you fit now you will then. You just have to be ruthless and clever with storage.

I think you need to factor in the costs of buying/selling a home which can be high - if house prices remain the same or don't increase in 5 years then it will cost you to move again.However you then need to factor the costs of not buying over the same period i.e rental costs. In 5 years are your incomes likely to increase? How old are the dc's?

We bought a house a 2 years ago but it will cost too much to extend (as we had hoped) but we can't move as the buying/selling costs are prohibitive. The house in in a good location but it isn't the right size for us - in reflection I think I would have gone for the right house first. That's however is my priority as I like space and being able to have family/friends to stay over. I think you need to figure out what's the most important factor for you - space, parking.

your first sentance says it all for me, you do not want to be doing this again in 5 years time!

If you could stretch I would do that. You can get a 5yr fix if you want to be certain of your mortgage costs over that period.
The cost of moving, especially in this market where you can't assume you'll cover costs through rising values, is pretty significant.
Otherwise I would save for another 12months if that will have a significant effect as nobody is predicting price rises in that period. If it would take you many more years to save enough to make a difference then I wouldn't bother and would go for it now.
Have you tried looking at bigger houses over budget and making cheeky offers? You never know what you might get....

The parking would be the deal breaker for me.

(1) Are you sure that you are definitely staying in the same area in 5 yrs' time?
(2) Can you afford to stretch yourselves in the present climate to attain your potential 'forever' house? Imo, it's unwise to do so now when most indicators point to prices going down (except for central London and prime locations).
(3) If in doubt, it's a 'No!' is my mantra. There are lots of houses out there - good things come to those that wait!

I wouldn't buy a house with parking issues and if the rooms were too small for us. Carry on looking/waiting...there are plenty of houses to buy and prices are going down.

i am interested to see that others have not worried about house moving costs in the past as it has been covered by rising prices. however while a rising market might cover costs it does mean that you lose out on any rise.

anyway let's say you are looking at a small family home - that is maybe 300k where i am. basic move cost about 30k. if you only stay 5 years is 6k per annum. that is 500 per month. how does it compare to rent costs? you would also need to add the cost of "lost" interest from the money not being in the bank and the cost of interest on your mortgage. it probably works out about the same as rent!? probably not worth the risk in this market as you want somewhere that you can stay in if house prices drop.... god knows what effect the euro crisis is going to have.... :(

sorry to be gloomy!

tricot, I agree with your sentiment but jesus - 30k 'basic move cost' for a 300k house?
It last cost me half that with a bit of decorating thrown in! You shouldn't be spending more than 4-5k on moving, solicitor and mortgage arrangement - plus the 9k stamp.

the way the market is going, and family is growing, i would safe up for another year or two, and then see if you can afford something slightly better (long term option).

House prices are going down, and buying/selling a house costs a lot of money, so it is costly to move again after a few years unless you are in the middle of a housing boom....which we are not!

Thanks all for the advice.

To answer some questions,

dc's are small-3 and 6m.

No option to create off st parking I dont think as not much space in front of house.

I would like us to stay in the area yes as would rather not move schools....

I have had a look at houses over budget yes-but just as research really.

In 5 years I would hope that incomes would rise as I would like to return to Ft work when dc's are bit older.

I am feeling torn but I think the sensible thing to do is hold out for a bigger place that we can stay in forever if needs be. It would mean saving for another year (but paying out another £11k in rent....)

I think I am finding it hard to get my head round the fact that we may never move again once we buy-being serial renters we have been used to moving every 2 years or so-I don't know any different!

rcheshire
hmm you're right! my friend quoted me the 30k figure and i didnt question it! think it must be sale costs plus buying and a bigger place! woops

I bought a house in 2007 that was a 5-7 year house, we'd now be lucky to sell it for half of our purchase price, DC2 is on the way and I have a feeling that no matter how much clever storage we have our house is only going to get smaller. This is quite an extreme circumstance, but my point is that whilst our house is lovely, it has very small bedrooms I knew these are too small when we bought the house and that we'd need to move once we started having children, but we can't and it is very frustrating.

Is there potential to extend or alter the house to give you the kitchen diner you want? We looked for bigger houses for a while, but in the end have extended for little more than the stamp duty on a new house.

LiquidGold, I wouldn't give a hoot about off-street parking. We don't have off-street parking and it's never a problem. If you've got kids, you probably get home earlier than commuters so should have a choice of spaces. Unload shopping first, then kids - no big deal. Victorian terraces rarely have off-street parking so if you want a period property, you might have to forego this criterion.

As for the kitchen diner, this is a bigger problem. Our house sounds like the one you're looking at and we just have a small breakfast bar in the kitchen which is totally unsuitable for kids so we eat in the dining room which means traipsing back and forth from kitchen around to dining room with endless trays, worrying that DS is going to be choking or climbing out of his highchair while I'm in the kitchen fetching something and letting the toast burn while I'm in the dining room.

It's really making me hate our otherwise perfect house so we're looking at moving but have the same dilemma on the next move. To get a house in the right catchment area with a kitchen diner and a nice garden, we have to add about £100k on to our mortgage debt and I don't even think that next house will do us in six or seven years time when kids are have bicycles and scooters and computers and all that lark. So, if we move now, we'll still have to move again.

We're currently thinking of staying put and knocking through the kitchen to the dining room to make an L-shaped kitchen diner. Is this something you could do with the place you're looking at? Or, extend into your side-return especially if you have a big garden?

I would buy. Could you knock through to get your kitchen diner? You could always look at a potential extension later if the bedrooms are small.

ds2 and ds3 have bedrooms which are effectively box rooms but as we have 3 reception rooms and a massive garden, it has never been an issue - they just go up there to sleep.

We bought our first house in the 90s knowing that we would outgrow it fairly quickly once the dc appeared. We lasted 4.75yrs. It served its purpose well and gave us enough equity to put down a bigger deposit on this house meaning the mortgage repayments were well within budget

Thanks for all comments since my last post-very useful.

Good points re off street parking and period properties MissPollystrolleyed that is reassuring to know that you don't find it a problem.

We could knock some walls down yes...and loft already partially converted....

Now I am thinking that we should try and get this house.....

What I wish I knew is whether I would ever feel 100% about a house-I feel so indecisive! It's the pressure of such a huge decision I think.

twofurryones ouch! I hope that you can improve your situation at some point. Half the purchase price? Blimey.