Moving into first home questions.

You mention your GF will eventually move in. That'll mean your council tax will shoot up, along with your utility bills + food. Will she be contributing? Perhaps draw up a similar calculation when you've combined both wages together.
 
Sorry. Forgot to mention - having got quotes on contents insurance online, it was coming in at a measly £70 a year. So I'd just buy that outright.

TV - I rarely watch live TV, I watch a lot of series and movies using streaming apps, and I'm happy to live like that if it's saving me £60 a month over sky TV - I get free bt sport with my phone contract too so.

Car servicing and maintenance - I service it myself. Basic jobs like oil filters etc. I have a few mates that will do more serious work on it for peanuts. I use scrapyards a lot for parts so maintenance on the car isn't an issue for me.
As for breakdown. I have home recovery so I'd at least get home.

The area I live is Whitehaven. Average rental for a similar house I've looked at is around £450-500. The property im looking at is a mere 3 miles to where I work, so if my car were to die a death, I could cycle or get the bus to work, with a weekly bus ticket being £15 or so.

To be honest I wouldn't plan on doing this on my own for long, I'd expect the OH would be moved in and contributing within 6 months. Also, it is round the corner from numerous shops and takeaways that would be an easy opportunity for some cash in hand work to put me up to around £400 spare every month.
 
Sorry yes, GF and I have spoken about that, joint earnings is £2000pm, so maybe it is best to wait a bit longer and just get somewhere together, and be left with £1000pm to play with.
 
wait and save.
and seriously think about buying, on rightmove there's places in the 40-60k range.
that's 2-3k deposit, which if you're at home is easy to save in just a couple of months and even at the higher end is less than £300 a month in mortgage. would at least get you on the ladder and can upgrade to somewhere nicer in a few years. i regret not doing this. those of us who waited latter in life have missed out massively and cost ourself loads. buy early buy cheap, upgrade latter. everyone i know who has done that has come out ahead, not just ahead but massively ahead. even when taking into account ression, they were still far better off.

also do you need contents insurance, have you actually got stuff which is expensive to re-buy?
i haven't bothered with contents insurance after the first year, laptop, camera, phone is insured though premium bank account, which also covers things like breakdown cover through AA, world travel insurance
 
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squarehead94 said:
Sorry yes, GF and I have spoken about that, joint earnings is £2000pm, so maybe it is best to wait a bit longer and just get somewhere together, and be left with £1000pm to play with.
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I can't think of a single sensible reason why you wouldn't wait, rather than near-bankrupt yourself. Can you?
 
Yeah I could wait, I guess I just wanted the freedom of my own place.

Reason against buying is I don't want to live here forever. And I know how difficult it could be to sell a property (house in question is marketed at 69k but the lady offered me it for 53k) it's a decent house, but in 10 years if I've got 2 kids itd be cramped I feel. I was thinking of combining our two salaries and having a grand a month to play with, save half of that towards a house to buy in 5 years. Would have a fair few bob to put down up front that way.

Just with both parents being old fashioned I want my own place for freedom to do what I want. But happy enough to wait until we get somewhere as a couple.
 
squarehead94 said:
Yeah I could wait, I guess I just wanted the freedom of my own place.

Reason against buying is I don't want to live here forever. And I know how difficult it could be to sell a property (house in question is marketed at 69k but the lady offered me it for 53k) it's a decent house, but in 10 years if I've got 2 kids itd be cramped I feel. I was thinking of combining our two salaries and having a grand a month to play with, save half of that towards a house to buy in 5 years. Would have a fair few bob to put down up front that way.

Just with both parents being old fashioned I want my own place for freedom to do what I want. But happy enough to wait until we get somewhere as a couple.
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Wise choice, because otherwise you'd have scuppered your own plans.
 
Yeah, I would certainly want to rent with OH for a while before just commuting to buy - a break up would put me up a creek with no paddle - whereas renting you can walk away. However in 5 - 10 years I'd feel comfortable buying with my partner once we've lived together.

OH does work and she would be contributing, wed add the 2 salaries together and pay everything then split the rest down the middle.

I could sell it yes, but I don't want to be living at home anymore than I have to, so 12 more months or something would be bearable, but even at home I pay £200 lodge plus my daily bills so I haven't just got 1100 in my pocket every month lol

Thanks all by the way, appreciate the advice so far
 
Having two wages would make the situation much easier to manage, and would not double your costs. council tax would be a little higher, electric/gas etc would maybe be a bit higher, food would be higher of course, but a lot of the costs are fixed.

However being able to buy a house in your area for 40-60K is insane, basic 1 bed flats in this area are 120-130K! I definitely see value in sticking it out at home and then buying your own place outright if you can afford to do so.

The house can be sold and used towards a new place in the future, so outgrowing it isn't something I would worry about massively, getting a foot on the ladder is the goal to aim for.
 
The area itself isn't even that bad, house prices tend to be low here due to lack of employment opportunities and it being a rarely quiet area compared to a city life.

I enjoy living here and to be honest if I lived in this property for a year or two with my partner, I'd be more than happy to buy it. I know 2 years rent would be lost, but with two salaries we could be saving 400 per month for 2 years for a 15-20% deposit. I'd rather lose 2 years rent and still have the chance to walk away if i need to though (eg if we split up)

My only concern with buying is being tied into it for 10-15 years (I've been looking at 10 year mortgages because with the two salaries a monthly mortgage payment of £500 is easily afforded)

I know right now my oh is hesitant to dive into a house together, but the lady I work with is happy to hold it (barring someone coming in buying it which is understandable) but it's been on the market for 18 months so I should be safe having it held until feb-march 17 and she won't rent it to anyone else.

Ive thought seriously of taking it on then, and just getting a Friday/Saturday night job to bring my spare cash after all bills to 500 per month.

Fwiw, I've easily managed on £150 per month after bills at home, adjusted my lifestyle to that budget so I couldn't see it being too big a deal. I have a credit card that will be kept in a safe for absolute emergencies such as car failure too.
 
You're not really tied in for 10-15 years though? One would assume if you moved to a new house you could just port your current mortgage as well and carry it on. Tbh I wouldn't do a 10 year mortgage atm anyway, interest rates are low, and they are talking about going even lower still.

£150 a month after bills is too low imo, there is not enough cushion there really. They say having 3 months worth of bills/expenses in savings is a good idea, you'd take over a year to save that much. You can't really cut much more fat out of what your bills are either, maybe drop tv license totally and go without live TV completely, and drop phone contract to Sim Only, stop smoking completely will save you a reasonable chunk of cash too.

If you want to move in to the new place to test the water, why can't you both just do it at the same time, why would you need 6 months before she could move in also?
 
Having checked my budgets again, made adjustments here and there, after all bills and everything covered I'd be left with £270. Would that be satisfactory? I would also be picking up an extra £200 from a side job too so just shy of £500 leftover if I were to do it alone.

Porting mortgages I understand, but not sure what happens on the old house.
 
It has to be acceptable to you, people here can only provide advice/opinions - you have to live with your choices! :)

I'd sum up pros/cons as follows:

Pros

You get to have some independence/freedom.
You get to see if you and the OH will actually get on living together before buying a house of your own.
Probably no minimum rental term, so if it isn't working out you can stop doing it?

Cons

You won't be able to save up as quickly for your own deposit, and you won't have as much spare cash each month.
If it's unfurnished, you'll need to buy appliances and things. If you move out you'd need to do something with these appliances.
What you do pay isn't going towards your own property.
 
Quick question, she's told me there would be some legal expenses I would need to be aware of I.e. contract for rental? Is this normal? I was under the impression a private renting is you'd have a contract drawn up and that would be that? Anyone shed some light on this? Thanks
 
squarehead94 said:
Quick question, she's told me there would be some legal expenses I would need to be aware of I.e. contract for rental? Is this normal? I was under the impression a private renting is you'd have a contract drawn up and that would be that? Anyone shed some light on this? Thanks
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Tenants fees.

Estate agents charge these basically to shaft you more money. I think they're illegal in Scotland. Ask them what the sum total of fees will be.

Are you renting privately? No idea then tbh

My current rental place was £400 in fees :(
 
I'll speak to her tomorrow about it. I know she wouldn't be going through the agent she's using to rent it to me, it would just be a private deal (to keep her costs down and mine) and the agent she's with has it listed to buy not rent so.

I was under the impression that there's no need for say a solicitor to handle a contract or any of the paperwork as such, and that it can just be done in a contract agreement. I don't know what legal and paperwork side of things would be required. Any light on this would be awesome. I wouldn't be where I am at the minute without the help of you guys on here so thanks a lot! Cannot wait, should be in my first home by Christmas :)
 
She may want you to sign a tenancy agreement or similar though, but I think you could probably just yoink one from the internet and sign that.

If you are renting it, is it staying up for sale? I'd hope not!
 
So who would keep the tenancy agreement?

It would be removed from sale, she's obviously paying monthly to keep it up, and she's not the type of person to just turn up and tell me to leave so she can sell up - I'd be a potential buyer and she's aware and happy with that.

Ive made it clear to her I won't be renting it in 10 years, I would have moved on or purchased it by then. So it's a safe bet in that respect.

So is the costs of a tenancy agreement just for a solicitor to knock one up or is it for them to keep hold of it? Thanks! :)
 
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