Help! Any creative ideas to obtain a family-sized house just out of budget

[spicydonut]

Hello! I was hoping there may be some creative ideas that I've not thought of that some of you may know about or done yourself to be able to obtain a property to raise a family that is slightly out of reach.

Our situation: we have been looking for ~5 years to relocate to a better area to raise our family in a nicer neighbourhood with better schools. We finally found that area 1 year ago and have been looking since then to find a workable house within the catchment of the good high school, which is one of the main drivers for choosing this location (although there are more). However, the house prices are premium level within the catchment. The house we require would be a 3-bed with office or 4-bed with one room being used as an office as I work from home.

We have seen a house that is 4-bed that is slightly over budget and just slightly out of the nearly guaranteed catchment for the school, but there is still a small chance they could get in.

The house is perfect for us and by the far the nicest we have seen in so long that could work for our family size wise and it is at a good price I think (although still slightly more than we want to pay - there is no negotiation on the price).

I freelance so my income is not guaranteed. However, I earn more than my partner so I figured it would make sense for me to work a bit more and he work part time so help with the school runs, which I currently do, so I won't be working every evening which has been hard. However, as we will be relocating his income is unknown at the moment. I know this sounds risky but I could alway go back to permanent if times got desperate but I would like to avoid this if at ALL possible.

We are hoping to create a better work-life balance without putting us under financial duress. I do not know if this would be possible for us. It seems as though we need to choose: either both work lots to give the children the nice family home, area, and good school OR work less but live on top of each other, no garden etc etc.

Puzzle: is there any way at all we can make this work?

I was thinking one way could be this, but I wanted to sense check if this would be a possibility and feasible/not against mortgage rules etc:

1. Could we secure the house with a 2 year mortgage, stay it in a year, probably eat into my pension savings a bit to pay some of the mortgage. Then could we rent it out for a year (changing the mortgage to a BTL? - how easy is that?) in which time we would rent a place for a year closer to the high school to ensure admission. Then after that year move back into the property and hopefully the mortgage rates would have come down and we would be more settled in terms of knowing what income we have and at that point know if we can afford it. If not I guess we would have to sell?
2. The other option is staying in the house for 2 years on a 2-year mortgage deal, use my pension savings to sub us, which would probably use most of it tbh :( if my partner won't earn enough, but when we resell we could maybe make it back as it seems a good price and needs a little work which we could do so maybe that could make a profit to pay back the pension pot?

Does anybody have any ideas or is there just no way around this?

Thank you so much for reading xx

@Nonewclothes2024 yeah that would definitely be better - is that easy to do? I’d need to do more research on the rentals

I assume you're working full-time hours. Not sure how many hours DH is looking at, but could he do two jobs, ie something that works mostly around school pick up and say a bar job/working in a shop the odd evening/at weekends. Do you have any leeway for cutting back on general spending, ie taking picnics instead of cafe/pub visits if out, making clothes last longer, cutting food budget and just being more careful with general spending, not using the car when something is within a 10/15 min walk etc?

Aw thank you so much everyone - I really appreciate your thoughts 💚

I feel stuck again. We really want to give the kids a better life but really struggling with the decision. The options are below -

1. Buy smaller house in catchment but this would only be £50k cheaper than the 4 bed - saving us £250 a month, so tbh I don’t think it would improve our work-life balance anymore than the slightly more expensive 4 bed — but they would have the ‘outstanding’ school
2. Buy the 4-bed, which I do think is a good buy for the price, so could make money in the future, but would cost us £250 more a month. And risk not getting in the preferred school but the other school is still ‘good’ and really highly rated so I don’t think it would be that bad - especially if they were happier in the bigger house with more space and garden
3. The only way I can see to improve work-life balance is buy a substantially cheaper house probably with a mortgage of £500 / month - but it would be a tiny terrace, no garden. We may have more time but would the kids and us parents be happier?
4. Look at a completely different area altogether with cheaper housing, a good enough school, but the area doesn’t have much going for it as much etc - I understand there’s a reason why some places are cheaper than others. This option would dishearten me as we have been looking for a ok e we think the kids would be happy for 4-5 years and been all over the U.K. using our holidays to find places

Decisions, decisions :(. I really just want to make the right one for them xxx

Rent a house that is definitely in the catchment you need. Buy later if an ideal property comes along.

Does the school have sibling policy for subsequent children that gives them priority?

Buy a 3-bed house in catchment, spend 50k less, rent a desk, workshop or office space for your work.

How much office space do you need?

Is it a case of just a computer or are there a lot of files etc you need to store?

I'd be looking at three beds more creatively and thinking about what is and isn't essential to you.

I'm in a three bed terrace. When we bought it there was a dark awkward middle room and an extension with kitchen and utility (well janitor's cupboard really as it was awful).
I don't really need a utility. We rearranged to put kitchen back in middle but opened up a bit and knocked the back into one with a big skylight. None of it structural so not massively expensive - we did a lot ourselves.

This has given us a proper extra living space with sofa and my desk is tucked in corner. Washing machine is in a built in cupboard.

For some people, a utility is essential (I get it with pets) but I line dry and put straight away and managed to put a tumble dryer in the shed just outside the back door.

So if you say don't need a utility you could convert to an office.

Or there might be landing space or under stairs area that could be opened up for a desk.

If the school is the real driver for the move then being outside the catchment seems unwise. Better to try and find a way to make a smaller space work harder.

@Toomuch44 love these ideas thank you!

I work part time - I do 3-4 hours school time and end up working evenings to make it up. It’s quite stressful as it’s time pressured and working freelance I have to take the work when it’s there. My partner works full time. To improve our work balance I think it would be better for my partner to do the school runs so I can do my work in the day and spend time at night with the kids. So I think we could look in to him doing two jobs like you say if it would still be a good work-life balance!

The location is in walking distance to town so I was hoping my partner could walk to whatever work he does. We could try and cut back on spending a bit - it’s mainly food for convenience when we are tired :/.

BTW is this all for a primary school or secondary school?

@Pipsquiggle it is high school.

Another problem that I just found out yesterday is that the primary’s are full - they have space for the youngest but not the oldest so god knows what we’d about that 🤯

It will depend on your overall financial position. Lenders will have different rules. For example I was told one lender would allow a maximum mortgage size of ?8x income (can't remember if income included rent). For a new mortgage, they will look at affordability and they likely won't discount your existing mortgage unless you have a tenancy agreement in place, but it's tricky to sign up tenants until you know for definite your move is happening. It would probably be OK if either you earn enough they would be willing to lend you a second mortgage or you have the ability to live somewhere else during the move if timings don't quite work out. Or possibly you just manage the timings very well and sign up tenants in advance.

In terms of the LA, they do check council tax records. You would hopefully be OK if you are genuinely living in the new house, but some do have rules if you own another house in a reasonable commuting distance. You would need to check carefully and it could be a risk.

If you can manage more without dipping into pension, then I'd rule out option 3 - you might have a better work/life balance but not be able to enjoy it much - your home is your home where you spend a lot of hours - not saying you need anything massive but needs to be bit enough - also, even a small garden is precious - just somewhere for kids to be outside, drying clothes, sitting outside on a nice day.

How old are the children? If you're talking infant/early primary age, don't forget ratings can change - my DD went to an 'excellent' secondary, about four years after she left it was rated 'below average' and that's with the same Head Master.

Also, if you really like this house, you could try an offer within/on your budget with a view to walking away if your still concerned about money - no matter how much below, they might bite.

@Toomuch44 that’s what I was thinking about option 3. That then made me think it’s not much difference between option 1 and 2 for the sake of £250 a month. So maybe it’s a case of nice house and still good school or on 3-bed with great school - although I’m not sure how much the school is an issue they could be happy and do well at either. They’re both good schools with great reps. One is just outstanding. Just not sure which option the kids would be happier. The 4-bed has a fabulous garden they would love but then that’s only half the year realistically.

The 4-bed is going to sealed bids now there’s been that much interest. They want to move fast so we are good being chain free. We would love to offer less than asking but I doubt they’d accept with the level of interest, but I think we’d have a reasonable chance with offering asking and being chain free

Honestly op it’s not really logical. All this over 250 a month, this tells us money is tight and the pension pot not being a pension pot, but savings to invest then surely this is an investment,

@BendingSpoons thanks so much this. Sounds like it would def need a lot of planning :)

Only if someone else offers asking or not much over and isn’t chain free. Anyone goes several grand and most folks would pick the chain unless in a rush.

@Sunnyandsilly sorry please can you clarify? Do you think we’d need to offer over to have a chance? They are in a rush to sell

I've heard that people borrow more than needed and use the excess to pay the mortgage for the first few years.
But honestly, with sealed bids on a house that isn't even in catchment for the school you prefer, I wouldn't be going for it.
I think time with family and fewer money worries is more important than a larger house with a garden. Smaller house, smaller garden could mean more days out as a family, holidays and less scrimping plus the preferred school.

Less scrimping = less stress. Less stress = happier parents and happier kids.

It really sounds to me (every other detail aside) that you are trying to fudge it for a school place.

You'll get spotted for sure.

Only way to be certain of a space is to buy the best house you can definitely in the school catchment area.

Honestly it’s hard to tell. As it depends on the others, but if they are in a rush, it may help you yes.

If your priority is school catchment then I’d buy a smaller house within catchment with the intention to move once both kids are in school. Maybe look at a garden office or renting a small office space in the meantime.

You’ve clearly fallen in love with this house but it doesn’t really make sense, for finances or for schools.

For schools it’s fine, the kids can still go to the good school , and financially it also seems fine, as she has a savings pot just for investments.

op, you clearly love it. I’d go for it. Good luck. It’s 250 quid extra, 30 quid a week each you both need to earn more, and that seems doable.

This is the way, OP.

Why buy a house that needs money spending on it that’s at the very top of your affordability that isn’t even guaranteed to get your kids into the school you want? It’s not sensible.

I don't think this is an option for you at all, but just letting you know about it. Any derelict properties in the area?
4yrs ago, we bought a derelict property. At the time, we were unaware of a little known tax break. If the property has been empty 2yrs or more, you only pay 5% on goods/services to return it to a livable home. If its been empty 10yrs+, you pay 0% vat on those things.
DH and I lived in a caravan in the garden whilst doing the renovations. We both WFH full time. I have no idea how we coped, but we did.

Have you considered the cost of moving and what happens if one of your becomes ill or has an accident? Or unexpected large expenses? I assume you have friends/family in the area? Is there another good school in the area with a different catchment you could consider?