Can't get mortgage for 3 bed semi considering buying 2 bed terrace (family of 4)- advice pls!!!

[indiana7]

HI, dh & I have been renting in this area for years, rents are increasing & we want to buy before our landlord puts up the rent. We are first time buyers with 2 young girls (3&2), we applied for a mortgage today & based on income the most we will be able to afford is a 2 bed terrace house. We don't want to move from the area we are in as we are well settled but I don't know how we'll cope in a 2 bed, we have so much stuff & we are used to alot of space here in our 3 bed semi-d rental. Advice greatly appreciated.
If we go ahead & buy a 2 bed our mortgage will be alot less than the rent we are currently paying but I guess we always imaginged ourselves in a spacious 3 bed & now it is not going to happen...

Could you buy the 2 bed terrace and in the future extend it up and/ or out into garden?

In the short term the girls sharing should be fine until they are hitting their tweens I'd imagine (only have a 4yo myself!)?!

It's a no-brainer, surely?

You'll pay less each month for housing costs and be paying down a mortgage which will therefore mean that after 30 years (or whatever) you'll own your home mortgage free rest for when you retire.

And to be frank, most people get to buy nothing like the kind of house they'd like to live in with their first purchase.

But don't buy the nicest 2 bed - buy a dingy one with big rooms or space for a loft conversion and do a load of work on it. Time it right to sell it on once it's nicely decorated and use your profit to get the 3 bed you'd like. That's how people with bigger houses have mostly done it.

Oh and a final thing - when I had to downsize drastically at one stage (actually to go into a small rental as the house we'd bought needed too much work for us to live in it initially...) I made something of a game of it. I planned my interiors really carefully, then sold lots of my existing furniture and excess clothes and 9/10 of the stuff in our loft and used the profit to buy the perfect bits and pieces for the smaller place - great storage is always the key.

I wouldn't think twice about it, if you don't get on the property ladder now it's only going to get harder. I'd buy a two bed that has the potential to build a third in the future in the loft, extension, cellar etc. In a few years when your dc's are getting too old to share you'll have the choice to either extend or buy something bigger. You'll probably have more equity in the house and should be able to save or overpay on your mortgage as your housing costs will be less. If you leave it for five years what's going to change so that you'll be able to afford the 3 bed you'll need then?

Thanks a million for the replies, I guess the problem is we have so much stuff & the girls have so much toys books etc, we have gotten so used to our very spacious 3 bed rental, I wouldn't know where to start with the decluttering... I know its' a silly problem in the grand scheme of things.

The house we saw online looks nice needs a bit of work but I would love to decorate it really nicely & put our own stamp on it. I was very upset this morning but I'm slowly coming around to the idea..

Did you apply direct to a mortgage provider or use a broker? If it was the former, it could be worth you going to see an independent broker, as they can search the whole market and may find a lender who's willing to give you the higher mortgage.

This is one of those 'jam today or jam tomorrow' situations.

It would be much better for your long term security to buy the 2 bed house and make some sacrifices in the short term - and then in 5 years time after saving, paying down the mortgage and improving the house you will hopefully be able to trade up to a 3 bed.

If you wait and rent, you will likely never get a 3 bed.

Go for a house with a loft so you can at least put stuff up there. Give the girls the biggest room and be clever with the furniture you buy for max storage.

Yep, buy the two bed.

Stuff isn't an issue. Books, toys etc are easily sorted out and sold and presumably you will have loft space anyway. Its amazing how much you can get into a loft if you pack it away properly.

Is it a Victorian terrace, because it may well have a cellar that will give you extra space (ours does)...in time this could be converted into a play room or 'den'. Loft could be converted into a bedroom as the DC get older and you've had time to save. In the meantime, good storage is everything! IKEA is great for kids storage, but you'll get bags of ideas from Pinterest.

Try and get an older two bed, with the stairs in the right configuration to extend into the loft later. A bigger garden too if poss, for a garden room (playroom or office) or a kitchen/diner extension later.
No-one can afford what's ideal first time. Compromise, but not on location!

Definitely buy a 2 bed with extension/loft potential. And a book on decluttering- there are some really inspiring ones and it can become addictive :) Also remember the preschool years are peak 'stuff' years so in a couple of years time you can get rid off all the plastic tat!

Hi OP

I'd say definitely just get on and buy the 2 bed terrace if you can afford it!

We are in a similar situation, with one toddler- renting a 2 bed flat in SE London but we cannot even afford the 2 bed flats in our local area to get us into owning somewhere & start paying a mortgage!

Go for it, you will be so much better off in your own place/paying a mortgage in the meantime rather than continuing to rent.

Go for the two bed option and try to find one with the largest rooms possible. Sometimes a large front bedroom can be split and reconfigured into two rooms.
My two DGDs ( with a 4 yr gap )are happily sharing a large bedroom in a two bedroom house. The house was a better buy than the small 3 beds in the same area.

We sold our house about 15 yrs ago. We had a house with 2 large rooms upstairs, one of the rooms was long and narrow with 2 windows (we had another bed downstairs but didn't use it for small children). The couple who bought it were going to immediately partition the long room for two children. I saw it when it was done (we knew them) and both the DC had a perfectly good space.

I'd buy a two bed that has the potential to build a third in the future in the loft, extension, cellar etc.

Exactly. Be creative in what you buy and add value later.

Buy the two bedroom and give your children the biggest room. When they are a bit older you can divide it with a partition or storage furniture.

I think it's worth considering other areas. You need to think about where you would like to be over next 10 years as its harder to relocate with school age children as you are then limited by the availability of school places - or lack of!

Thanks for the replies, the 2 bed house was in an estate with a good reputation but unfortunately I rang the estate agent today & its gone sale agreed... However it did open up the possibility of a 2 bed house to us as before that we hadn't entertained the idea at all.
A 3 bed house has come up in the area but the estate hasn't as good a reputation as the other one. Nothing wrong with it just very built up with a combination of houses & apartments but it would be within budget...