Did you stretch to buy and regret it?

[Misty9]

We've seen a grand total of three houses so far - and absolutely love the first one we saw. It's our dream house in fantastic location. But, and it's a big one, it's the very top end of our budget - and the stamp duty is eye watering over the £250k threshold.

We could stretch to it, but if interest rates go up massively it would be a struggle... It's pretty much done - and beautifully at that - and we could just move straight in (neither of us are DIY savvy in the remotest) but can't see how much more value could be added if the market slumps.

Has anyone stretched to get 'the one' - and did you regret it? Or, have people not done so and always wondered about the one that got away?

We haven't even offered yet and it's stressful!

Are you also thinking about other "what ifs" like if you or your DH loses their job or there's an unexpected problem with the house or the the boiler packs up within weeks of you moving in at the same time as there's a leak which is somehow carved out of the buildings insurance etc? We have spent at least £12k that we hadn't planned on spending since we moved into this house two years ago and also accelerated another £10k or so of spend (ie we knew when we bought the place that we'd need to do various things to it and thought we could live with it as it was for a while but they irritated us a lot more than we expected) and then DH lost his job. Now he's got a job, its (somewhat belatedly) dawning on us that even though DC1 will be in school rather than nursery in just over a year's time, we're still going to have to spend £££ on her childcare if she's not to become a latch key kid at the age of 4.9 and look after herself during the holidays!

We stretched and bought our last house when int rates were 11% and they then went to 15%! I was so scared I vowed to never do that again.

Then we had the whole school catchment thing (local school has since closed down was that bad) so looked to move and went WAY over our budget, but this is our "forever home" and mortgage will actually be cleared this summer, which means we can start on the list of refurbishments that are long overdue. DH has been unemployed twice since we moved in, and it has been tough, but I don't regret it and would do it agian.

We stretched 3 years ago and it is all under control although I wasn't sure we'd actually get a mortgage! After we bought we rented it for a year which helped get things under control. Since then work has gone well and we have overpaid. The house is now valued about 15% more than we paid so it was the right decision.

I ended up in a situation where I was at my absolute max.

It was horrible knowing that there was something wrong with the electrics, the drains needed looking at and the windows needing re-varnished and I couldn't even find 20 quid for a pot of varnish.

I lived in constant fear of the boiler breaking.

That is "on the edge", not house price inflation.

I did stretch a bit. Started looking at flats (150k+) and ended up buying a house (190k+). Don?t regret stretching at all, especially this resulting in a house rather than a flat. But then my stretching was quite cautious, i.e. my current mortgage is 35% of my income and 20% of household income.

My only regret is that it was meant to be my forever house, but it turned out to be not.