Would you buy a compromise home or rent for a while?

[Sarahlou8]

Hi, I wondered if I could gather some thoughts?

We have been on the market for the past 8 months. We have been in no hurry to sell as there has just been nothing we want to buy. We were really hoping that spring time would have more coming up.
We are now under offer. We don't want to lose our sale, so we will definitely go, but the only house we like isn't much bigger than what we have, just with an all important extra bedroom. I am pg and due in October.
If I wasn't pregnant we wouldn't hesitate to go into rented, but we both would rather have a home than be in rented when the baby comes.
So what would you do? Rent - or move to a compromise and maybe have to move again in a few years time?
Thanks.

Rented without a doubt.

You will then be in a much better position to move when the house of your dreams does come on the market.

Definitely rented.

definitely rented. it is a real waste of money on stamp duty,legal costs etc to buy a house you dont really want

What everybody else has said...

Sounds like you'll be moving twice whatever you do so you may as well not lose money on it!

Rented. Don't pay stamp duty and all the other costs on a house you'll only live in for a couple of years. We bought a stop-gap house and wasted so much money.

Definitely rent.

If you dislike the house you will be buying then you will want to sell it in a few years. That will be an unecessary expense. Renting will be cheaper in the log run.

Rent.

Consider buying We have been in rented and our landlord served notice to quit. We are having to buy a compromise home now because we can't find anything else to rent. It has been v stressful. However we are reasonably happy with the house we are buying, it's not our forever home ( at least I don't think so but it would be great if it is) but it is under budget so we are a lot better off. Having said that it looks like property prices will drop - you might be better off waitingl. However don't discount the security that buying will give you versus renting.

We bought a compromise house - and it was fine. Didn't resent it, we moved out of it when we needed to relocate, and as it was comfortably in budget we were able to do more with it than we would have otherwise.

Do you think that you have perhaps been a bit ambitious in what you were looking for ? Sounds like perhaps you've wanted a much bigger house, but they aren't in your budget ? Could this house have a conservatory to give more living area ?

We are in the same position as yourself except I'm not pregant! Finished all my baby making days!

We have decided to go into rented for 18-24 months for a couple of reasons; 1, there is nothing we want to buy. 2, want the next home we own to be our forever home and it allows us to save up more money to put towards a deposit as we intend on renting somewhere with a rental payment much smaller than our mortgage payment.

I am in the same position as you! I am due DS2 in May and we are hoping to complete next Friday. We are getting a house with an extra bedroom, playroom, utility, and it's own drive! All these things will make life more comfortable, but the house is still nowhere near as spacious as others we looked at. It is significantly cheaper though and the selling points for us were not having to rent, having a nicer street to live on compared to the new large houses we looked at, having a smaller mortgage and some money left to do up the house. So it is not our dream house but I do think we'll be happy there. Being pregnant really added some urgency to the situation and to be honest we would probably have rented if not expecting again. We so nearly fell into the trap of wanting to stretch ourselves too, but in the end nothing was totally perfect so any house was some sort of a compromise. Can't wait to get in now! Good luck

Oh yes, forgot to say, we found our house by contacting all the agents of places up for let that we liked the look of, there were three, two were interested enough to get their houses valued and we have ended up doing a part exchange without an agent our end, so have saved cash. Maybe it is going against the norm but prices are shooting up here too!

We rented and actually it helped us get a great house. We had a 12 month tenancy but could end it at any time after 6 months. So when we put an offer to buy the house we said we would exchange straight away, and complete any time on or before the day our tenancy ended on a month's notice. This was what swung it for our seller - he was then effectively a chain free buyer, allowing him to get the house of his dreams.

No babies on the way though. I can see that would add a layer of complication.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Some of you have raised a valid point about stamp duty/costs of moving if the house isnt what we want. It's not a question of affording a bigger house, it is just that there is nothing coming up for sale in the area we are looking - literally, nothing for sale.
The house we were looking at was well under budget - and found out on Thursday that this has now also gone.
So it looks like the choice is taken away. I just hope to God we find somewhere we love before the baby is due, we really wanted to be settled into our 'forever' home by then.
Thanks all x