Page 2 | To move house and pay off mortgage at 31 years old?

Hales02 · 2023-11-06T18:30:16+00:00

So our house is currently on the market, We brought it 10 years ago and it was a wreck, spent the last 10 years renovating it and building extension (while raising our children) We now have a beautiful family home, it is now worth nearly 4x what we brought it for. This has ment we have a lot of equity in the house around £235,000. A house has come up for sale, for £210,000 in the same village that we would love to stay in, it's comparable in size, has a large garden and drive. It's liveable, but would need a lot of work to get it how we like it but he house is less disarable overall, semi detached, not much curb appeal. Basically, we can sell our house, buy this new house, pay the fees and pay off debts and be able to buy it outright. We are only in our early 30's, and we initially went on the market with a view to moving up the ladder, (bigger, detached) But the draw off being mortgage free is now really tempting. We currently have £140,000 left to pay over 28 years. What would you do?

PinkRoses1245 · 07/11/2023 10:51

Just see if you can overpay a bit

Fooksticks · 07/11/2023 11:08

I know it's tempting, we were mortgage free for 5 years and the freedom was great. But our house was too small, I knew we'd have to up-size at some point.

We've just bought a much bigger house and have a mortgage again. My plan is to have it paid off in 5 years, and enjoy finally living in a house with some room.

I think you'd be crazy to do this at 31 with dc unless your current mortgage is unmanageable.

Laurdo · 07/11/2023 11:17

Sell your current house and buy this other house, do the work and increase it's value. Put away the money you would be paying towards a mortgage into savings. Then when the right detached house somes along you'll be in a better position than any other bidders as a cash buyer.

DrySherry · 07/11/2023 16:26

I can't recommend the mortgage free option enough. It's a life changing freedom. Try it and if you find it's less satisfying than you imagined after a couple of years - you can always look to take on another project. Your young enough to change direction later.

Original poster

Hales02 · 07/11/2023 16:40

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

To edit,
The new house for sale is the same size as our current house, in the same village.
Our current house is semi detached and so is the new one.
We wanted to move to get a detached house as have issues with the current neighbours 😒

The referb would mainly be taken on by my husband, he is able to do 90% of the work himself.
We could potentially add a fair bit a value to the new house in the process.
By being mortgage free it would free up more disposal income to allow us to potentially buy a 2nd house/flat to rent out, so more income.
It would also allow me to not have to go back to work full time while the children are little.

One comment made that has made me think is about the time a referb takes, my poor husband would be so busy again with full time work and then doing up the house, he would miss out on valuable time with the children... so this could be a big factor.

Thanks for all your input, it's super helpful to see other people's perspectives.

OP posts:

XVGN · 07/11/2023 16:56

Hales02 · 07/11/2023 16:40

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

To edit,
The new house for sale is the same size as our current house, in the same village.
Our current house is semi detached and so is the new one.
We wanted to move to get a detached house as have issues with the current neighbours 😒

The referb would mainly be taken on by my husband, he is able to do 90% of the work himself.
We could potentially add a fair bit a value to the new house in the process.
By being mortgage free it would free up more disposal income to allow us to potentially buy a 2nd house/flat to rent out, so more income.
It would also allow me to not have to go back to work full time while the children are little.

One comment made that has made me think is about the time a referb takes, my poor husband would be so busy again with full time work and then doing up the house, he would miss out on valuable time with the children... so this could be a big factor.

Thanks for all your input, it's super helpful to see other people's perspectives.

Please think very very carefully about getting into LL'ording. There are far easier and safer ways to invest with none of the liquidity and legal issues

Laurdo · 07/11/2023 17:56

Hales02 · 07/11/2023 16:40

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

To edit,
The new house for sale is the same size as our current house, in the same village.
Our current house is semi detached and so is the new one.
We wanted to move to get a detached house as have issues with the current neighbours 😒

The referb would mainly be taken on by my husband, he is able to do 90% of the work himself.
We could potentially add a fair bit a value to the new house in the process.
By being mortgage free it would free up more disposal income to allow us to potentially buy a 2nd house/flat to rent out, so more income.
It would also allow me to not have to go back to work full time while the children are little.

One comment made that has made me think is about the time a referb takes, my poor husband would be so busy again with full time work and then doing up the house, he would miss out on valuable time with the children... so this could be a big factor.

Thanks for all your input, it's super helpful to see other people's perspectives.

It would depend on the condition of the house. If it's currently livable and just needing updated he could just take his time with it, chip away one room at a time. We've been in our house for 2 years. It was badly needing updated but totally liveable. We did the easy stuff first; paint, wallpaper, new carpets. We've converted the garage and plan on doing the kitchen next. Then the bathrooms could be doing with an upgrade too. We'd also like to turn the conservatory into a sun room with a proper roof. We're in no rush though as we plan on living here a while. I mean, I'd love for my DH to be in slightly more of a rush than he currently is but we'll get there eventually.

FromAnotherPlace · 07/11/2023 18:09

I can see the appeal but as it is pretty much all landing on your Dh's shoulders I think you need to seriously consider paying people to do some stuff. Dh and I are both capable of DIY (installing bathrooms, tiling, decorating) but leave some stuff like plastering, electrics to the experts. Don't forget the head space time it takes too ie deciding and shopping for items.

Just consider how long each job will take. In our previous house we worked Saturdays on the house and had Sundays free but we swapped who was doing DIY on Saturdays so it wasn't always Dh or always me. We did this mainly because we wanted to renovate it and get out as it was a stepping stone house.

This house we have taken a long time doing it up because you blink and the children are grown or teens off doing their own thing. I think being mortgage free would be fantastic obviously but you have to weigh up how much time it will take to renovate too.

pastaandpesto · 07/11/2023 18:12

XVGN · 07/11/2023 16:56

Please think very very carefully about getting into LL'ording. There are far easier and safer ways to invest with none of the liquidity and legal issues

Show quote history

This!! Madness how often you see BTL casually recommended on here.

DrySherry · 07/11/2023 18:35

pastaandpesto · 07/11/2023 18:12

This!! Madness how often you see BTL casually recommended on here.

Show quote history

To be fair I think it's only those with vested interests that are recommending it these days.
If you can afford to buy outright then it's still a good option. "Borrow to Let" though is on life support for new entrants. That ship sailed, thankfully imo