Doubts over house purchase - first time buyers

[Ditheringday]

I don’t know why I’m having a wobble over it. It’s a nice enough house, ex council house that has been rewired and done up to a high standard with a new kitchen put in.

We’re renters, with a baby on the way in November. Our rent is cheap and costs £600 a month. We have a two bed house which was newly built when we moved in. There isn’t a lot of space here, it’s a bit like a matchbox.

We will have a lot more storage space in the new house, a garage, a huge garden, baby will have a large bedroom and we’ll have a big kitchen/dining space with a dishwasher and integrated appliances.

It will, however, cost us £1000 a month, not to mention any of the repairs are our responsibility and ours only.

The area is ‘ok’ and has some advantages. It isn’t as nice as where we are now. It’s 15 minutes away and there are good local schools and walking distance to a big supermarket and lovely nature reserve. It’s not where I want to live forever - but maybe that’s the compromise we must make to get on the property ladder for now?

At the time we put an offer in, we did so because we were desperate to buy before baby as know it will be harder thereafter. We didn’t have long to think as we knew it would be popular. They had over ten offers but accepted ours.

I suppose I am mainly worried about taking on a huge cost at a time before I go on maternity leave. Some of those months I’ll be on SMP which will be doable with DHs wage but make things very tight.

Has anyone else felt like this before and is it normal?

It’s definitely normal to wobble! It’s hard to comment on the mortgage cost without knowing your income. £1k a month seems low to me but it’s so relative. Can you extend the mortgage term to keep payments lower? Will you have savings left after the house purchase, do you have money for furniture, and there is always stuff that needs sorting out however nice it seems. I personally never wanted to compromise on location but we bought our first place knowing we’d move on quickly which we did.

We’re already on 40 years. Combined income is about £4100 usually, can be as high as 4400.

I wobbled on a very similar sounding property a few years ago and ended up pulling out. I wish i hadn't as we're now paying more for a smaller, tho newer house in a nice area with higher interest rate.

I wish we had our original home we'd worked towards buying.
I think the wobble and pulling out now subsequent doubt over the wobble meant we pushed ahead with our current property as didn't want to pull out "again".

There are legit reasons to pull out, and just wobbles and it always ok to change your mind, a house is a big decision but wanted to share our experience of pulling out n wishing we hadn't and now buying something that actually doesn't suit us as well as the first property did.

Sounds like you can easily afford it and in fact may be able to overpay once you are back at work, unless you have high childcare costs. Do you have any savings? They would make the maternity leave months easier.

It's normal to feel a bit anxious about buying your first property. The house obviously has a lot going for it to get 10 offers, pretty unusual to have that much interest in the current market.

£3100 left over each month will surely cover the council tax, other bills and day to day living costs?

£1000k a month for a nice house in a nice area sounds like a no brainer!

Totally normal to wobble though, I've wobbled a lot over our new mortgage repayments (£2k a month).

Over 10 offers in today’s market means the house is very popular £1000 per month mortgage is only 25% of your income so you should be able to afford it. Ex council houses are very popular as well built. Wobbles are normal.

Do not underestimate how valuable extra storage space is when you have children. If your current house feels small now, you will feel much worse when you have to deal with all the baby paraphernalia.

A big increase in your housing costs sounds scary, but I would try and see the interest part of the mortgage payment as 'rent' and the repayment part as money you're putting into 'savings' because it's building equity.

The new house sounds good, I would go for it.

Long-term the benefit of owning will mean you haven't got the cost of renting in retirement. Obviously you'd need to have a survey, but it sounds in reasonably condition (probably better than most owned houses) which is a positive.

Fast forward to next years, who've got a baby, lots of baby equipment, then a few months on lots of toys for him/her. Can you cope with what you've got. Obviously that comment shouldn't panic you into moving, but it's something to consider. Financially it wouldn't be an issue for us, admittedly we're mortgage free, but what you'll be left with it roughly what we were living on before DH retired, it's now below that and we can pay all bills, have treats, breaks away, run a car etc.

A mortgage is an investment, as you're building up equity in the house. Rent is just for a roof over your head now, and when you move, you get zero back. It's a very different thing. And there is also the question of security in your home- if you own a house, even with a mortgage, you can't be given notice and have to end up maybe paying a lot more rent to rent another house.

Sounds like a great buy to me, especially being walkable to a nice nature reserve. Will there be other walkable things to do with baby? Coffee shops, community centres, libraries etc?

It sounds like a very reasonable thing to do. Bring yourself on a property ladder, settle down. Bring your baby home. It is another type of comfort to own your own place and treat the space as your own.
Wishing you good luck!