joint mortgage with a friend - anyone done it?

aardvark said:
2 years! you barely know him - no way would i do this.
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d_brennen said:
Speaking of parents, can your's not be guarantors? This isn't uncommon for first time buyers iirc. You'd be in a better position with them as your security and renting a room/s as extra cash
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definetly not. i've 5 siblings.

NooBish AbbZ said:
I'd be very very reluctant to get a mortgage with a friend of 10+ years, never mind 2...
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it would seem getting a mortgage with anyone (other than perhaps a life partner) is just not for you then.

Reeve said:
I will probably face the same challenge when it comes to getting a mortgage, so I may have to do something similar. You can either pay a landlord an arm and a leg for rent or you can pay just as much and have something more to show for it.
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exactly. over the next 12 months alone we will spend approx £7k each on rent. yeah there will be costs but even if it falls through within 2 years (which it really wont as very very worst case is one of us moves out and then rents out their room) at least the money spent living there we will have something to show for it.
 
Fairly sure the answer is no said:
exactly. over the next 12 months alone we will spend approx £7k each on rent. yeah there will be costs but even if it falls through within 2 years (which it really wont as very very worst case is one of us moves out and then rents out their room) at least the money spent living there we will have something to show for it.
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Just remember you are taking on some risk in terms of falling house prices... you'll also want to take into account not just the interest portion of mortgage vs rent (where the interest portion of a mortgage, if not the whole repayment: interest + capital repayment, ought to be cheaper) but the up front costs too.... you'll take a hit intially in terms of solicitors fees, stamp duty, initial repairs... so will be down a few grand which might take the first year or so to get to the break even point where it has started making you savings vs renting.
You're also going to have another set of fees upon selling the property

With that in mind you probably do want to aim to hold onto it for a minimum period of time before you allow for either of you to automatically trigger a sale by deciding you're out. And that minimum period of time you'd probably want to be at least the break even point and then some... since you'll want to realise some actual savings(gains) from this venture rather than just breaking even after a year then calling it quits.
 
Just had a quick skim through this thread and it seems everyone is saying no way, don't do it!

Well I did it, and it worked amazingly well.

About 10 years ago I came back to the UK from working / studying overseas, I was 24. My younger brother was 21 and was just starting out in his career. We were both living at home and looking at options for renting / saving for a deposit when the obvious dawned, get a place together.

We bought a large 3 floor terrace which had ample space. We had a floor each which meant we were not living in each others pockets, with a communal ground floor.

We never had any problems regards bills etc, but then again we are very similar when it comes to that kind of stuff and always got on well.

After 6 years of this arrangement our partners had moved in, and space was becoming a bit tight, not to mention me and the Mrs had plans for kids, so we all parted ways.

Overall it worked brilliant. We both pooled our resources to get the deposit, had ridiculously low living costs as all bills including mortgage were split 50/50, and in the end I walked away with a large deposit for the place my family are now. The amount we saved on rent was insane and set us both up great for the future.

WIN WIN!
 
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dowie said:
well to be blunt, that is because they're idiots then really

they didn't really appreciate that they'd have to stick to the agreement because they actually didn't want to stick to it in the end...

if you can take the emotions out of it and treat it as more of a business partnership/deal then I don't see the issue, if you can't look at it in that way and want to hang onto the house for some irrational emotional reason or whatever then it is a bad move
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yea they're idiots :rolleyes:

You missed the point though....they did enter in the frame of mind that it were a deal/business partnership and were fully intending on sticking to it but something changed which could happen to anyone is my point. In this case 'the emotion' that was supposed to be left out of it was brought into the mix by a 3rd party (one of them got a g/f pregnant and she moved in). But like I said, things happen and while you have these initial intentions something can happen to change that. Whether it were written on paper is irrelevant as while it may have been sorted financially/legally, the friendship still may have been ruined (which is why most people are saying don't do it).
 
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yup they are idiots, they're already aware of the deal supposedly yet by their actions they didn't actually appreciate that

you have an agreement for when either party wants to end things/force a sale and/or for how to progress if one or both parties wants to buy the other share. Agree to this stuff in advance and understand what you're agreeing to and you don't need things to get silly... emotions don't even need to come into it if you appreciate and fully accept that it isn't 'your' house, it is supposed to be temporary but you've merely got a stake in it and some pre-set criteria re: how that stake investment will be disposed of or added to by buying the other half in future

it is like getting miffed at a landlord because he doesn't want to renew the lease on his flat that you've agreed to rent for a short period of time
 
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Wow ok, again you missed/ignored the point. I'm not even going to bother to try explain as I know you are known for liking a good argument :P

I should add that they sold the house as agreed, but isn't the point of this thread more about whether you would do this with friends etc?? Just a thought :)
 
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I'm not sure what the point was- your friends got all emotional and didn't really appreciate that it was only a temporary investment in the end?

That it didn't work out for them doesn't mean it can't for others - just make sure to do it with someone who actually appreciates what they're getting into. If you've got the agreement to cover various eventualities then there isn't really anything to argue about or cause delays/faffing.
 
dowie said:
That it didn't work out for them doesn't mean it can't for others
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Exactly, but that can also mean just because something is planned, doesn't mean it will turn out like that. That is the point myself and others who are saying don't do it are making. You are of course correct that it can quite easily work out for others, but we gave an opinion from our experience on it, which is what the OP asked for :)

There are many things in life which changes a persons plan or intentions, that doesn't make them an idiot though...
 
in general no, but buying a house together as a short term investment and planning for the exits etc.. then arguing over it probably does make them idiots. They didn't really appreciate what they were getting into
 
well not really, you haven't even outlined specifically how/where it went wrong, did one of them want to sell, did both of them want to buy it - what was the actual issue and what was the agreement/plan for dealing with that situation initially?

It was just a vague claim that it didn't work for your two friends due to emotions/girlfriends, nothing you've said so far seems to suggest much to counter the idea that they're a pair of idiots for falling out over this

I'm perfectly happy to change my view but without actually adding any additional information then it is only going to go round in circles
 
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