HELP - housing dilemma

[Lott2606]

It’s a long one.
We are currently in the middle of potentially buying a new home, however we are unsure what to do. Advice/experience would be gratefully welcomed.

We are a family of 4, mum 31 and dad 35. 2 adults, 4 year old and a 9 month old. My husband works away most weeks. Basic monthly earnings are £5k however, husband does overtime most months.

We currently live in a 3 bed semi. We have a playroom for children, garage/utility, open kitchen diner and living space, downstairs toilet, large drive, however a small garden. SOME of our neighbours our lovely however, we do have some that are not, with that being said we don’t have any problems from them directly. Currently mortgage cost is £820p/m with 19 years left.

The property we have found…
Large 5 bed dorma bungalow that has large drive and large garden. Would need renovation works with a minimum to take an internal wall out, new kitchen, turn the garage (has no waste supply) into a utility/downstairs WC. Other works would include decoration, potentially turning one of the small bedrooms into an onsuite, flooring. This would take our mortgage to £1700p/m over 25 years.

Whats everyone’s thoughts.

1. Would you stay put and pay off current mortgage faster and be mortgage free. My husband has a very manual job which he can’t do for ever that’s for sure.
2. take the leap and move into the new property which with all good intentions we would have as our “forever home”.
3. await for our youngest to finish nursery age, and reconsider then.

Thank you so much for reading this far and look forward to people’s views and opinions.

Is the jump in mortgage to give funds for renovations or just to buy it?

my initial instinct is to do nothing for now, over pay mortgage where you can (or save for bigger deposit) and look to move in a few years. I suspect your criteria will change a bit once 2DC get a little older

what are schools like near the current and new house?

are both locations an easy walk to shops / cafes etc, or does one rely on a car?

I would not want to double the mortgage payments unless there is something seriously wrong with your current location.

so option 1 or 3.

That’s just for the mortgage. The renovations will be half funded by some of the equity in current property, savings and monies we are earning as we go.

The new house is a 5 minute walk from our current house. Our children’s school our in a different village.
both properties are within walking distance to shops.

There is a lot I don’t know about the properties involved and your living situation.
the work is probably around £50-60k unless you go high spec. You then have higher utility bills, maintenance and garden bills. I would suggest that equity is best used as a bigger deposit to lower your mortgage for now, then look at increasing your mortgage for funds to do some work once the economy has stabilised and interest rates have come right down.

Stay put

I would not feel comfortable with a mortgage of that amount on your incomes. I would maybe consider it if your career prospects were quickly increasing and promotions were almost guaranteed but otherwise I would not want the liability, especially when it is a want rather than a need

doing this only takes the monthly mortgage payment to £1500 a month. Which yes it £200 but not mass difference.

I totally understand where you coming from, unfortunately without the renovations we wouldn’t be happy there … the current lay out and kitchen is just not suitable for our lifestyle etc.

Typo - our basic is £6k a month. But most months it’s around £7/£8k depending on husbands over time. That being said I don’t want him working to live .. if that makes sense.

I think you keep house shopping. Something better for you will come along.

I think your right .. I feel like although this has a large garden and large drive which is what we ideally want and I think we are just panicking that this sort of property seems to be few and far between but we aren’t in any rush whatsoever.

There will be other houses so I'd keep looking. I'm now in a home I love but I will never do renovations again as everything takes a long time and it's really expensive.

But having somewhere detached is such a joy!

You have said why you want to move as you already have three bedrooms. If you stay put you can clear the mortgage sooner giving you more options financially if you or you husband wanted to go part time or retire sooner.

If your home is habitable and secure, I can't really see how you say "at minimum" you must renovate to add a utility room and extra toilet (presumably there is already at least one?), let alone an en suite. Kitchen and flooring maybe, but if it is serviceable and you just don't like it...? And even so, there are cheaper interim solutions you can do again in a few years.

Basically, are you looking at a big millstone for stuff you want rather than actually, actually, need? There is a lifetime ahead of you to do this stuff bit by bit, you may not need to front load all the debt right now.

If you overpaid your current mortgage by the same amount, you could be mortgage free in about 7 or 8 years. This is what I’d do.