I don't know what to do...

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

I bought a house 2.5 years ago. It's in the right town, but not in a very desirable street. It was affordable! I bought it by myself, but I've since married.

Last week, a lovely house that's been for sale since last year, was reduced again and is now in our price range.

We've viewed it twice and I LOVE it. It's the perfect size for us. Current house has only one reception room, which is somewhat limiting when you've got 2 adults and 2 kids. The new house has got 3 reception rooms, plus big bedrooms, a nice garden. Plus it's detached and on a really lovely street.

I saw our mortgage broker and he's found us a joint mortgage.

The estate agent contacted the owners and they've accepted our offer (£5k under asking price) and given us 5 weeks' grace to find a buyer for our current place.

All good, right?

Apparently not! DH has some reservations.

1. To secure mortgage, we'd need to clear our credit cards. That's about £5k. We don't actually know how we'd do that (except we could borrow from my Dad then repay later.)

2. The new mortgage would be about 50% more than we pay now, each month. DH is worried we'd struggle as we always run out of money each month as it is. We bring in £4K a month, current mortgage is £700 and new mortgage would be £1100. He thinks that's too tight.

3. DH is still in the mortgage from his first relationship as his ex won't sell. So we'd pay the higher stamp duty - £22k (!!!) rather than £10k. The mortgage broker had factored that in but it's still obviously a LOT. The ex won't sell and we can't take her to court for another 6 years, when the kids are 18.

DH says we should stay here, get our finances in order, clear debts, etc, then save up and buy something when we're more "ready".

I think, this house is perfect, and a bargain, so just GRAB it now and sort everything out afterwards. We don't be buying it for about 10% under its value.

Your thoughts?

We bring in 4K and our mortgage is £1400 per month (South East), so twice what yours is.

The estate agent is talking out of his arse in order to get 2 sales- he can't decide what someone else will pay for your house.

Is the the estate agents mortgage broker you've seen?

I'd do it in a heartbeat. Some people are so risk adverse it's untrue.

You bring in 4k, 1.1k is a small outgoing. Only just over 25%.

A 5k credit card is nothing either. As long as it's interest free then don't sweat over it.

I can't understand the mentality of some. You can't spend money once you're dead. You can't buy houses when you're dead. You can't live when you're dead. And we are all dead a loooooong long time.

Please consider that if your already stretched you have to find an additional £400 a month for mortgage alone! A bigger house is likely to mean bigger bills especially council tax and most probably gas and electric.

This is before adding in the having to pay off your credit cards and moving costs. Also consider as interest rates increase so will your mortgage. Interest rates will go up is a when not if!

monkeyface have you read the part about them not having any money left at the end of the month even with the lower mortgage and the fact they can't pay the credit card off without borrowing from parents

£1,100 mortgage on a £4,000 income should be doable but, in this isntsance it's clearly not without some massive changes.

Why hasn't the house sold?

I put down a £134k deposit on our current house, and the mortgage was £141k. The mortgage is now £126k, with 17 years left.

I bought it for £275k. If we could get £320k for it, which I think is realistic, looking at nearby properties, we'd have almost £200k for the deposit.

We're in the SE.

DH is due a backdated raise at work. If he could get his ex to remove him from the mortgage within the next 3 years, he could get the extra £12k stamp duty refunded.

Couldn't we just try? The estate agent has got us 5 weeks to find a buyer. Would it be daft to have a go at this? Put our place on the market, scrabble around to earn extra (I'm freelance), sell stuff, clear the debts..?

Isn't it worth a try? I think we have nothing to lose.

I think you should have done the maths and decided before putting in an offer which has been accepted, albeit on generous terms. It's never fair to mess people about, moving is stressful enough as it is (Coming from someone who has been moving since feb and still yet to exchange).

Your income to new mortgage sounds ok to me but the fact you're already overspending every month is worrying. And £22k SD aka tax...I personally couldn't justify that. Spending an additional £22k to save £5k doesn't sound much of a deal.

BUT I do know once you've got it in your head you want to move its hard to rethink! But maybe your partner is right in this case and an even better house might come up when you are ready 😊

Tinnie88,

You're right! I waited to speak to mortgage broker, send over all our money paperwork and have a proper mortgage offer before I put our offer in, because I didn't want to mess anyone around.

TBH, I thought it was nailed on, until DH started going very quiet and it turned out he was having second thoughts.

I'm sorry you've been waiting 6 months to exchange. I was put through 10 months of stress when we bought this place, so I completely empathise.

DH didvtingbthe agent today to withdraw our offer, but the agent is like a dog with a bone.

We put our offer in on Thursday last week, and they accepted it on Saturday, so we haven't strung this out for more than a few days. Not like the bloke who messed my vendors around for SIX MONTHS.

OP, no one can really give you advice here tbh because it depends on your specific financial situation.

£1100 mortgage with a £4,000 salary is perfectly doable in theory but the fact you have debts and no savings means there are some large outgoings at the moment.

A mortgage lender isn't going to allow you to get into more of a mess if you can't afford it.

If you have an actual agreement in principle following a hard credit check on you both then your chances are increased and, with a lot of cutting back this could be possible.

If the broker you've spoken to has just said he can find you a deal without actually doing the application then you're not really in a position to be making offers anyway.

You do seem to be being rather optimistic though - aside from anything else, even at £320k for your house you're not going to have a £200k deposit; £320k less £126k mortgage is £194k, less the £22k stamp duty and £3k redemption fees is £169k even before any other costs.

Couldn't we just try?

Op - you don't need to make a final decision yet.

Have a go - you only live once. If anything getting an extra 12K will motivate your ex to get removed from his previous mortgage. Maybe you need this to motivate yourself to sort out your finances.

Give your agent a free rein and see what happens next.

Why hasn't it sold?
It's overpriced.
It has structural problems that have frightened potential purchasers off (but could work as a bargaining point for you )
It has legal restrictions on what you can do with it.

Of course the agent won't take no for an answer, he's trying to make money and probably couldn't care less about where all of this would land you in the long term.

It doesn't sound like it's the right timing for you. It's a great idea to use this as motivation to get some more of your financial house in order and be in a better position the next time an opportunity appears. This isn't your last chance.

I think you need to work on reducing outgoings. The new mortgage is a perfectly acceptable proportion of your income but if already you are struggling to live within your means that's not a good sign and makes me think you need to work on your spending before making a big jump.