Anyone maxed on a house?

[ChubSeedsYorkie]

We looked at a house yesterday that is top of budget. It has been on a few weeks and I was hoping it would sell quickly so I could forget about it but it didn’t so I booked a viewing.

We viewed it and I thought the price would put me off and I’d decide it wasn’t worth it, but very much just wanted to get it out my system as it’s in our dream location.

My husband loved it and said it’s got everything we need. Lovely garden which is important to us, two reception rooms and utility room. Plus 5 bedrooms (we’d be happy with a 3/4 bed).

It was a bit more tatty than the photos let on but it’s perfectly liveable, a family of 6 currently very happily live in it.
If it was a 4 bed and 50k cheaper I’d be all for it. But the price is really worrying me.

Its on at £635k.

Our mortgage would be £480k. Hopefully a bit less if we offered under asking. I’m going £610-£620k given it’s not been on a little while now and the vendors have found an onward purchase.

We also have a little one starting nursery in January and would love one more child. Still doable on this house but we’d be quite stretched.

Mortgage would be about £2200 a month based on porting our current mortgage and borrowing a bit more. Our income is about £6k a month. Nursery fees once 30 hours come in is £500ish. I do take some salary as shares so if we were really struggling I have about £300 extra a month I could take as cash.

Wed also wipe out our savings on fees and stamp duty. I’ve calculated to have about £5k left over.

Has anyone over extended themselves for a house? Did you regret it? Or is it the best thing you’ve ever done?

Im such a risk averse person that I think it’s maybe too much but the house is ideal in that wee never have to change the layout etc. it is all cosmetic work we can do over 10 years to get it to our taste.

Edit: just to add someone else viewed the house yesterday and I’m hoping they put an offer in that gets accepted just so we don’t have to make this decision. I do wonder if that a sign it’s not the one for us.

I would go for it.
Sometimes you just know it is 'the one'.

You have FAR more money each month than we've had at any point in our lives until we paid the mortgage off.
Yes, as £2200 pm mortgage payment sounds a lot to me, but a net income of £6K is beyond my wildest dreams too. It is all relative. You still have over £k a month after mortgage and Nursery.

Each of the 3 times I have bought property, we had nothing left. Indeed, the last time, we lived off our credit cards for 2 months. You say you'll have a £5k cushion - that sounds like a luxury to me.

Go for it! With your incomes to miss out on your dream home because it's £50k more than you'd ideally pay is a false economy.

I did for the first three properties that I owned, didn't cause a problem and because of doing that I can afford to live how and where I do now

I find these sorts of posts so baffling. My DP and I bring home 4.7k a month, have 5 kids and a 1.5k mortgage, but we manage fine on the 1.5k a month left over after we have paid the mortgage, household bills and food shops. Our life isn’t overly luxurious by some standards, but we think we’re pretty lucky and can afford many things that others can’t with that sort of surplus income.

Everyone is different, some like to ensure a regular monthly saving, then there are holidays and house reno etc.

It depends on individual circumstances. Some people need to spend well over 1.5k a month just on childcare. Others have free childcare from family. Some spend masses on discretionary goods for themselves. Others are relatively frugal on these things but stretch for a mortgage.

My childcare is £2200/month for a start, just to give you an idea!

We maxed out our budget 4 years ago and I still don't love my house. It's beautiful, in a beautiful area.
We earn more than you, children are older so no childcare and mortgage is smaller but I still resent the cost of living here. It's not just the mortgage payment, it's the other costs- high council tax band, maintenance, living costs etc.
We will likely downsize in a couple of years

From what you have said you have 3300 left over after mortgage and school fees. If that is true you are putting yourself into ridiculous pressure and will be miserable. It isn’t just the fees it is everything else that goes with it- all the trips/ weekly birthday parties/ mums nights out/ weekend play dates.
If that truly is all you have then I would rethink.

Has the house appreciated in value during those four years though, possibly more than if you had invested the extra money elsewhere?

When I used to go to the top of my budget to buy a house I would look at that extra mortgage payment as an investment rather than a drain. The house I currently live in has doubled in value over the last decade so paying a few hundred more each month and getting to live somewhere great rather than investing the money elsewhere like a savings account has worked out really well.

Property is still a really sound investment if you buy well in a good area.

What would happen if one of you lost your jobs, had illness etc. would you be able to comfortably afford your mortgage on one persons salary plus all the additional costs that comes with having a family?

It’s only £50k more expensive than the OP was planning to spend. Odds are if one of them lost their job they wouldn’t be able to afford the mortgage on a property that is £50k cheaper either.

It would be nice if most families could get by on one income but that is not the reality for the vast vast majority of families in this country. If the shit hit the fan then OP would have to sell, but that’s likely to be the case whatever she buys.

But the OP states hers is £500ish. Ours is £600 total for all of our pre-school and primary age children.

Either way, I was talking about the disposable income after bills are paid. The OP and her partner have about 2k or more left after mortgage, bills, nursery and food shops. That sounds like plenty to me. 50k less on the mortgage would really only give them £250 a month more, so isn’t going to make much difference when they already have several thousand a month for fun expenditure.

We maxed out on a property (to the extent we had to borrow 5k from family to get over the line!) but it was on the basis that my salary would get a significant pay bump in the near future, so it would ease off the financial pressure.

From a skim of your posts it sounds like that is possible, so why not go for it if it ticks all your boxes and can see yourself settled there long term? Obviously factor in future expenses with a second child compared to your salary increases, but if it's doable, then why not?

I've never regretted going for our current house. Our first house we bought because logically, it was the right thing to do as it was good value, but I never loved it. This house, despite being far from a mega mansion, I absolutely love and got 'the feeling' that it was our home when we first viewed it. I still have that feeling that this is 'home' and it has been over six years of living here. Still needs improvements and bits doing to it, but it's my home and I love it.

Maybe book a second viewing, see how you feel after that.

We are cautious people but have maxed ourselves out for our current house. It needed work so we put in a low ball, take it or leave it offer, and to our surprise they took it! We knocked 40k off.

If you still like it after your second viewing then offer 600k and use all the work it needs as bargaining power. New kitchen? New bathrooms? Flooring? Etc ….

Ask the agent how much it would be worth if it was modernised.

Yes, we absolutely maxed on our current house but it worked out well. Had some other assets which did amazingly well so we were able to pay off huge chunks of the mortgage when our fixed deal ended. Now mortgage payments are relatively tiny compared to current income and house prices around here have increased massively thanks to improvements in the area. Nothing was guaranteed and it might not have worked out so well, but I'm not risk averse and I've often landed on my feet financially.

Totally agree @Tiredtiredtired100