Did you put every last penny into your deposit?

[user3274826]

If you saved the deposit yourself, not had a gift from family. How much money did you leave as emergency after deposit? Or did you not have any back up savings left?

Most of our savings, yes. Husband has a stable job, so thought we could live frugally for a while.

A little bit of savings we had went into redoing the electrics which we did not realise needed updating until we were in the middle of the process - we were intending on doing a bit of house stuff and buying furniture with that 😑

We have hardly done much to the house since moving two years ago, as finances haven’t recovered. We fixed a bay window roof, and replaced some times - that’s all we have done.

We are currently saving for a family car (second hand) as we haven’t been able to replace since it broke down - husband has a small car he uses for work.

We need the whole house doing, our extractor fan has also died, we have basic second hand furniture (which I prefer anyway! Vintage etc) and living a basic life.

Is it worth it? A big yes. ( for me).

We were sick of renting, and never feeling at ‘home’. I have a lovely garden which gives me joy, and I know that we can do things slowly.

Do I stress about living like this ? A lot, yes 🙂 but I talk myself out of it!

We went all in, only had 2k for legal. We have done bits to the house month by month

Yes! Every last penny. We didn't even have the legal fees saved for but had worked out a timeline with when payments would be required to match with paydays so that worked out well. We had planned to save for these extras after the deposit but then our landlord gave us notice to vacate as he was selling the flat. This an urgency on things.

We did however, get back our rent deposit of £2500 so that became the buffer. We bought a house that was already mainly done up so no urgent need to decorate. It was over our original top budget which at the time we just about managed to squeeze the bank to lend to us to the top of the maximum they could lend us. We scraped through the affordability checks. We were aiming for a 2 bedroom house but for a little bit more we worked out that we could just about get a 3 bedroom which turned our move from a 5 year house to at least 10+ years. It is now looking like it could be a 'forever' home. I love it here.

It was squeaky bum time though, we dreaded things breaking down especially in the first few months.

No, I would never put all my money into property. You never know why you’ll need emergency funds. E.g. boiler, legal fees, lender fees etc etc

We kept about £3k back to cover legal fees and for any unexpected costs.

Like the huge shopping trip we ended up doing. The guy we bought the house off gutted it (think taking the curtain rails and light fittings when he'd put in the documents he'd leave them)

Just to state - all our savings went towards the house buying process - so this included deposit and legal fees.

For those with £30k held back for renovations and emergencies, how long did it take you to save that amount? it would have taken us a long time to accumulate this amount on top of the deposit that had taken us years to save for.

If we are to move again, we are now in a position to hold back this £30k or more because of the equity we have now and the small savings aside but there is no way it would have been possible with our first home.

We put 30k towards our deposit. It took us 4 years to save 40k so we kept 10k back as an emergency fund. When we renewed our fixed rate mortgage we paid a lump sum off and kept another 10k back. Having the 10k incase we meet hardship is more important than the interest it accrues on the extra mortgage. We still have the 10k for peace of mind.

Yes. Every penny. Got an interest free credit card for emergencies. Did this twice. It meant initially that we could afford to.buy, not rent, and the second time, that we could move into a fabulous pretty much perfect (for us) home instead of a mediocre one! I'm a big saver not a spender, but it made long term economic sense. 3 years in we are finally able to get the bathroom done (financially able, lockdown brings it own challenges). We both have very secure jobs though, and being in a partnership makes things less risky.

Zero. I couldn’t have done it otherwise. I walked in there with 20k of work to do and an empty bank.

Difficult three years but well worth it now.

we kept £50k back to cover stamp duty (this was around 14k), plus fees etc, and renovations which we knew the property would need soon after we moved in

It would quite reckless to put every last penny down, what happens if the boiler breaks or your lose your job, your be facing repossession immediately

Some people are far more resilient than that! If I’d of lost my job I’d of gone to work in McDonald’s or any job not just give my house away!

Same for the boiler. I’d of lived uncomfortably for 3/4 months while I saved up for one!

We were lucky in the sense wed already lived in the house for 2 years and was a private sale from my uncle, about 5k less than market value. We had to rush it though before I went on maternity leave and back to part time work or wed never get accepted for a mortgage. We had exactly enough to pay deposit solicitors but the bank moved the goalposts at the last second and wanted 1300 more in deposit so i had to borrow 1k off from a relative and pay it back the month after. We carried on saving at the same rate though and got a decent amount tucked away again

Yes!

We did fixed price conveyancing so we'd already put that money aside, everything else went on the deposit. The place was a right state, DH was a builder so did almost all of the work himself, used a credit card for all materials and it's taken 4 years to pay that off but we couldn't have afforded to buy if we'd waited 4 more years.

I only kept back enough for legal fees, having the higher deposit made a significant difference in getting a low interest rate. I’m however in the lucky position of being a fairly high earner so after a few months I could have a new kitchen etc.

We had 25k, we put 20k down as deposit, legal fees and moving costs were around 700 and the remainder went straight on a new kitchen. Our house was fairly cheap though and we could easily cover all bills including mortgage on one salary so we weren't particularly bothered about keeping a safety net in the short term. It was more advantageous to get a better ltv

Kept 3 months mortgage payments back as an emergency fund but had been saving for 6 years and wanted to get on.

Stamp duty was cancelled the day before we exchanged, so that money became our money to spend on the house.

Already had furniture and house was in good nick

Oh yes and rental deposit comes back to you soonish which is another source of cash

first house i kept back 26k but 20k of that went back into overpaying a mortgage.

the other 6k - sofa/legal fees - very very slowly furnishing it

first house i kept back 26k but 20k of that went back into overpaying a mortgage.

the other 6k - sofa/legal fees - very very slowly furnishing it

My flat was bought in 2008 with a 100% mortgage. I didn't put any money down or hold any money back. Only bought the place because it was cheaper than renting.

I did for my first house, but I bought on my own and I didn't have anyone else to worry about. It scared me TBH.

For our first house we did, we put more down than planned actually as it put us in the lower % interest bracket. We both had secure jobs and earned good money though so very soon we started saving again plus very lucky we have family just in case.

A suggested emergency fund is 3-6months income in savings. I’d go with that regardless of putting down a deposit.

We moved into our first house and my DH was made redundant 6 months later.

First house (London, still own and rent out) got 100% mortgage (2003) and had to borrow fees etc from parents (paid them back each month).

Second house, used every penny I had plus mum and dad gave me the money I’d have been using towards my wedding (my then fiancé ran off with someone else 6 months before wedding!) so was stretched to limit and had no emergency funds

Third house (where currently living with DH), we had about 40k left over as we sold my second house to buy. About 18 months later we sold DH’s flat so that topped up the pot.

We’re just about to put third house on market but not yet sure how much new house will be.

If the house you’re buying doesn’t need loads of work then probs ok not to have a emergency fund if you can build it up again after - I’ve done it but it did make me worry