Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Fallen in love with a house. Would we be stupid to buy it?

113 replies

AngryFeet · 23/03/2013 17:23

DH and I have fallen head over heels with a house. It is 5 miles away from where we wanted to buy but is still a good location with good schools. But it is £5k over our budget. We could borrow off family and pay this £5k back with DHs bonus at the end of the year as long as we are careful with our spending but we have a good amount to live on to be honest we just wouldn't be able to go on holiday or do any house renovations for a year. The house is very nicely done and so I doubt we would need to spend money for a while but you never know. The mortgage payments are still less than a third of our income so we are not going crazy.

I don't know what to do! I don't want to make a hasty decision based on my heart and gut feeling and make a mistake. We have offered at £5k under the asking price but they aren't budging. We have said that it is all we can afford and to get back to us if they change their minds but I really don't want to lose this house. It is beautiful and has 50% more space than we can get around where we were first looking with our budget.

ARRGGGGHHH! Help!

OP posts:
Tortington · 23/03/2013 17:24

i couldnt possibly say without pics :)

BrianButterfield · 23/03/2013 17:26

£5k is nothing in the great scheme of house buying. We went slightly over our budget but got loads more house and we still love it 4 years on.

TomDudgeon · 23/03/2013 17:27

What the yellow viscose one said.

My gut would say yes or you would regret it

NaturalBlondeYeahRight · 23/03/2013 17:28

I would. Doesn't sound like any reason why you shouldn't go for it!! 5k isn't much in the grand scheme of things. And we'll be having a scorching summer this year Grin no need for a holiday.

ohforfoxsake · 23/03/2013 17:28

Buy it.

pictish · 23/03/2013 17:28

Linky please?

Original poster
AngryFeet · 23/03/2013 17:28

I am happy to PM you a link custy but I don't want to put it on here in case somebody steals it! ;) I know where you live and am guessing you are not planning on moving closer to London in the future?

OP posts:
NaturalBlondeYeahRight · 23/03/2013 17:28

Xposts BB

Tortington · 23/03/2013 17:29

" i know where you live" PMSL.

yes yes linky

AliceWChild · 23/03/2013 17:30

£5k is peanuts in the whole scheme of things. Do it! This is why the other one went wrong.

TomDudgeon · 23/03/2013 17:33

And me please

Am in norfolk and wouldn't move further south even if I could afford to buy

NotGoodNotBad · 23/03/2013 19:25

5k is nothing when you're house buying. As long as you can actually find the 5k, you won't regret it.

mum47 · 23/03/2013 19:30

Do not lose a house you love for the sake of £5k.This amount as a percentage of the overall value of the house is very small. You are in a position where you can afford to pay the amount, and you will kick yourself if you don't.

That said, you could see if the owners will meet you half way?

hatgirl · 23/03/2013 19:39

they probably think you are game playing and are holding out in a battle of wills. I can't see anyone else coming along is just going to offer the full asking price (unless they are silly) so its not likely you might gazumped in this financial climate. Make a point of going to the same estate agent and looking for other properties at around the price you want this one for whilst bemoaning the fact loudly that 'if only the house you want was within your budget'.

If the estate agent has any sense (although this depends on the relationship the estate agent has with the seller) they will feed this back to the seller that you are keen to buy but really can't put any more in. If they really won't budge then then they probably aren't desperate to sell. It might be worth finding out how long the property has been on the market for.

They have probably cottoned on how keen you are on the house and think you can be persuaded to part with an extra £5k of cash because of that. Perhaps see if you can meet them halfway so everyone wins?

Original poster
AngryFeet · 24/03/2013 06:05

Hmmm I installed property bee and foundout it has been on.the market a year. Was under offer 6 months after it went on.then fell through in Jan. No way am I paying the £5k after seeing that.

OP posts:
Coconutty · 24/03/2013 06:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

munchkinmaster · 24/03/2013 06:47

I don't think you should have said your offer still stands. Now they have a bird in hand and can keep you in reserve. I I think you're right it's not worth asking price here but in general 5k (if you've got it) is better to pay now for a house you love than to end up moving again which will cost more in the long run.

TheRealFellatio · 24/03/2013 06:49

If they've already lost one sale they'll be really fed up so just offer them less! In fact depending on the price (unless it is below about 125k) I would offer then 10k less anyway, and let them work you back up by 5k. don't ever offer the asking price unless you genuinely feel it's the bargain of the century and you know you are up against loads of other people for it. You clearly are not, in this case. Have confidence and play hard ball!

BecauseYourWorthIt · 24/03/2013 06:51

Go for it!!!

LIZS · 24/03/2013 07:46

Is the 5miles an issue , are we talking 5m rural , urban , city and what are the implications (schools, amenities etc). if it has been on market a while then I suspect you may just have tom submit your offer and wait . What made previous fall through ?

Jaynebxl · 24/03/2013 07:57

5k is hardly anything. Would be crazy to lose a house you have both fallen in love with for the sake of 5k.

Original poster
AngryFeet · 24/03/2013 11:22

5 miles is going from urban to semi rural LIZS.

The reason i am holding back now is firstly DH is getting a payrise announced in a few weeks. We are hoping it will be significant and his manager is pushing for it to be but we can't guarantee it will be what we want. If he doesn't get that it means we will have a tighter monthly budget if we have to allow for a bit more money for out commute and probably higher utility bills/council tax as it is much bigger than we were expecting to buy.

So the bonus he gets at the end of the year might be needed to cover a small amount of debt that might occur if anything goes wrong in the house as we will have little room for manuoevre.

Also if we go back now and say fine we will pay asking price after we gave an offer quickly after viewing (probably a mistake) will he think oh maybe I can get more?

I just don't know. We could wait till the payrise is announced so we know we are safe and risk losing the house. Or we can just go for it as we love it so much.

Feeling very low this morning as I am sure we have lost it.

Also we were offered a mortgage when we were buying a house at £295000. We had a 10% deposit so we were borrowing £265500. They upped that to borrowing £287500 when we ask which with a 10% deposit is £319500. Broker said we can top that deposit up to make the amount we want to spend. I think DH has misunderstood. If we want to spend £325000 we would have to top up the 10% deposit with another £5k making it an 11.5% deposit and still borrow the £287500 from the bank. Will they do this?

OP posts:
Original poster
AngryFeet · 24/03/2013 12:07

Bump

OP posts:
Original poster
AngryFeet · 24/03/2013 12:57

Bump

OP posts:
LIZS · 24/03/2013 13:28

If you need to commute for work/schools how much additional journey time is that for you and/or dc, how independent can they become and can you really afford the additional cost of travel as well as the stretch on mortgage/savings?