Home owners! Can you be honest with me?

[laetitia85]

Hi!

My husband and I are finding hard to save for a deposit. At the moment he is the only one working, but when I find a job, hopefully our joint salaries will be in the region of about 50k (probably more when I decide to go back full time).

What kind of mortgage (how much) do you think I can get with that kind of income?
How did you manage to save for a deposit?
Did you use your life savings? How much?
How much did your house cost? (if you don't mind telling me!)

Is it safe (and legal?) to consider getting a personal loan for a deposit?

Is it safe to consider one of those hard-to-get 100% mortgage loans?

Please help! We are really desperate to get on the property ladder.

 

[mary70]

our house was £64.000 and mortgage is £463 a month and we got a loan for our deposit because we wouldnt have been able to save it otherwise

 

[laetitia85]

our house was £64.000 and mortgage is £463 a month and we got a loan for our deposit because we wouldnt have been able to save it otherwise

OMG Are house prices in Sheffield that good?
We've been looking at houses in London and the prices for a decent 2-3 bedroom house range from £120,000-200,000

 

[Lola's Mummy]

We got a 100% mortgage but this was nearly 2 years ago when they wasn't as hard to get

Have a look here when you have some spare time as it might help you find out how much you can borrow etc.

http://msnmoney.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/

 

[mary70]

our house was £64.000 and mortgage is £463 a month and we got a loan for our deposit because we wouldnt have been able to save it otherwise

OMG Are house prices in Sheffield that good?
We've been looking at houses in London and the prices for a decent 2-3 bedroom house range from £120,000-200,000

mine is 3 bedroomed with a massive living room and garden to front and rear lol

 

[laetitia85]

our house was £64.000 and mortgage is £463 a month and we got a loan for our deposit because we wouldnt have been able to save it otherwise

OMG Are house prices in Sheffield that good?
We've been looking at houses in London and the prices for a decent 2-3 bedroom house range from £120,000-200,000

mine is 3 bedroomed with a massive living room and garden to front and rear lol

I am soooo not jealous







That is brilliant!

 

[mary70]

our house was £64.000 and mortgage is £463 a month and we got a loan for our deposit because we wouldnt have been able to save it otherwise

OMG Are house prices in Sheffield that good?
We've been looking at houses in London and the prices for a decent 2-3 bedroom house range from £120,000-200,000

mine is 3 bedroomed with a massive living room and garden to front and rear lol

I am soooo not jealous



dont know how people pay the mortages near to you the house prices are so silly




That is brilliant!

 

[laetitia85]

We got a 100% mortgage but this was nearly 2 years ago when they wasn't as hard to get

Have a look here when you have some spare time as it might help you find out how much you can borrow etc.

http://msnmoney.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/

Thanks... I have been on loads of different financial websites! all those numbers and financial linguo were a bit hard to understand at first but I'm getting there slowly! i think we should just speak to someone.

 

[Lola's Mummy]

Estate agents normally have mortgage advisers working for them who will give you advise for free

We did it all ourselves though cause OH's a bit of a geek and his Mum is an estate agent so we managed to get quite a good deal

 

[heles7]

i was extremely lucky, my first house was £37k - just 6 years ago and I put a 10% deposit down which I found a lot easier to save that I expected. I put away 30 quid every week that I could afford to so I didn't stop spending money totally but it did help me to think before I splashed the cash.

If you can find a 100% mortgage I don't see it should cause you any problems (my sis has one and so far as i know all is well).

I feel for you London folks, prices are crazy. My current house is a two up two down terrace in a good town in the peak district and was £145,000. Have you considered moving up north?!?!?! It isn't all grim!

Good luck x

 

[trixipaws]

i dont know much about it i am rubbish with money

our house was only about 60 or 70k back in 2003 it was around 90k last time we had it valued maybe 2 years ago- 25 grand profit not bad for sitting on our arses! hehe

the deposit i think my parents probably paid i certainly didnt and i doubt my boyf did either! we used to spend all our money on clothes and clubbing

erm the only figures i can pluck out for u are my salary (a meagre £8 or £9k lol i dont even kno! it was £14k on 33 hours now im 21 hours so whatever that is) and my boyf's salary i think just over £20k so we not rich lol- the mortgage including home and life insurance (i think!) is about £660 a month. 'tis a struggle IMO!

i dont think u can get 100% mortgages while this "credit crunch" (i hate using that stupid phrase ) is on, coz we're in recession so as soon as u buy a house atm it loses value straight away (i *think*)

if ur really good with money, a great way to pay mortgage without getting screwed for interest is to do it on multiple credit cards. u have to be VERY CAREFUL AND WISE tho and not forgetful like me or else ur buggered coz u gotta remember to switch when the 0% interest finishes. check out that money saving expert dude from philip and fern he will probably explain it properly.

good luck! must be exciting!

 

[kalia]

I bought my flat nearly 3 years ago. I took out student loans every year as a student and saved them and when I started working I was still living with my parents so I saved £500 a month. My flat was £100 000 but it was a complete state. I put down a £15 000 deposit and spent £10 000 doing it up (new bathroom, kitchen, carpets etc.) It's now worth about £200 000 (with £60 000 of that being the increases in market values). So used my life savings but then I think a house is something that savings should be spent on! I have 2 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and a garden not far from the city centre.

100% mortgage loan is perfectly safe for you - it's the bank who take the risk because if market prices fall and you can't pay your mortgage they get a house that is worth less than they gave you. However the flip side is that you will be charged more interest for this loan. You'd have to balance out the financial implications of paying more interest for a mortgage because you don't have much a deposit as opposed to spending (wasting ?) money on rent.

I don't think a personal loan would be the best way forward unless it was over a shorter term (no more than 6 years) at a good fixed rate. You will end up paying a lot of interest on a personal loan and have a lot of money going out each month to pay it.

How much you can save and how much you can afford to spend on a mortgage totally depends on how you live. In the last 3 years while paying £500 a month on my mortgage and £150 a month on student loans I have raised the £10 000 to do up the flat (all my saving up to then were put down as my deposit) and overpaid my mortgage by £10 000 (plus I have saved £4000 so I can still have money while on SMP). In this time my salary has risen from £20 000 to £25 000. I charge OH £250 a month in rent and we split the bills (so effectively I pay the mortgage and he pays all the bills including food). I saved at least £500 a month until I went on to SMP. So from my point of view I would expect with an income of £50 000 you could be saving at least £1000 a month and £1500 wouldn't be out of the question if you prioritised buying a house above spending money on things you don't need. That would mean in a year you could save £18 000 which would be a good start on a deposit

Good luck!!!