Which house to buy? First time buyer angst 😬

[OnTheJourneyOnwards]

We seem to have found the ‘perfect’ house for us. Not a single thing wrong with it, could just move in. All renovated about 5/6 years ago - new kitchen, new bathroom, new downstairs loo. Even the gardens front and back are nicely done (and low maintenance). Let’s just say my husband and I LOVE it 😍

But… it’s top of our budget. We’d be paying almost £1000 a month mortgage and our rent is less than that. Mostly because our clueless landlord hasn’t put our rent up in years (thankfully).

We technically could pay that much. But it doesn’t leave much disposable income.

However, we love it and think living there would make us feel happy.

The other option is to approach our landlord (who is 90) and ask to buy our rental house. It’s probably worth £20-30K less than the house we love… but it’s in need of some renovations. New downstairs loo, a mould/damp problem, a new upstairs bathroom, replastering the stairs and upstairs hallway…

We don’t know which to go for.

If we bought our rental we’d be paying about £850 mortgage.

But we don’t have savings to do renovations.

So what’s the best option here?

Thats what you’ve got a budget for! A thousand a month is dead cheap for a mortgage, one person on minimum wage could afford that.

buy the damn house and be happy 😊

I get it op. I bought my favourite house at the top of the market before the crash and I was worried sick about affording it. But like the house you like it was turn key and I loved it. I took out an interest only mortgage for 2 years because I had to buy all the white goods. Then repayment. I had 15 happy years there, chased lots of promotions and made money selling it.

You can never underestimate how much renovations cost in time and money. I've paid over £100 just for ordinary paint for 2 small rooms here.

Like others have said as you are chain free you might be able to negotiate the price. Also contact Town and Country to see what mortgage deal they can get you.