Owning your own home

Depending on people's circumstances they may not be able to obtain a repayment mortgage at the end of their interest-only one I guess.
If your house has doubled in value you're going to need a sizeable deposit and if you're already 50 they probably won't give you a 25 year term to pay it off.
So, you're looking at finding a large deposit and needing a high income in order to pay the large repayments.

You should only put cash aside though if you can make a spread on it over your mortgage rate. Otherwise just partly prepay the mortgage...

Why would you need a deposit? If mortgage was 70% LTV at origination it would now be 35% LTV so you'd just refinance, no pay down necessary, obviously subject to your income. Your interest rate would come down with LTV so affordability will be helped slightly.

:)

Hmm, sounds reasonable

It's only going to get worse with interest-only mortgages when the rates rise (they won't stay this low forever) and the people who could only just afford the interest payments (and no capital repayment) can't even afford those payments. Ouch.

We went for interest-only for maximum flexibility (and partly because it was calculated on my salary alone and the computer said we couldn't afford a repayment mortgage), but it also meant that Mrs GB could take more time off having MiniGB and we'd only be paying £600 instead of £1900 a month. Now that she's back to work, the money that used to go to pay SW London nursery fees (ouch) now goes out as capital repayments on the mortgage (via overpayments).

When I last remortgaged I was able to keep it interest-only, which suits me. I just set up a standing order to make the capital repayments/over-payments. At some point (2019 according to the spreadsheet of doom) I'll need to do something different as the total over-payments each year will creep over 10% of the outstanding sum which incurs an extra charge (2%?). Ideally we'll then find a suitable low rate interest-only offset mortgage and switch to that and look forward to the day that the money in the offset account equals the outstanding mortgage amount.

No need for us to move again, and no aspirations to own a bigger/better home, our current flat will suit us fine. 13 years left on the mortgage. Tick tock.

If your house has doubled in value you're going to need a sizeable deposit

You're only remortgaging the original value, not the new value - So your loan-to-value will be far lower. You may not even need a deposit at all.

[Edit] Already been written above. #latetotheparty

Just had an offer accepted on a flat. Boom.

mother fucking solicitors...

God damn sellers solicitor is fucking us around.

"ive sent the docs on the 27th"

IF MY SOLICITOR SAYS HE DOESNT HAVE THEM, RESEND THE FUCKERS!!! PLZ STAHP!!!

£100 says it's in your solicitor's junk mail folder?

£150 says they sent it second class and it hasn't arrived.

£200 says one of them is on holiday.

£150 says they sent it second class and it hasn't arrived.

£150 is what they'll charge you for all that second class post.

£300 says they haven't really posted it and are stalling for some reason

^ This

... Definitely fucking this

we have a share of freehold, us being upstairs in a VC - the downstairs neighbour has been reliably informed by our neighbour alongside us that she has detected signs of subsidence. hardly surprising considering the age of the property. As far as i understand it, yer man downstairs is responsible for downstairs-y goings on and we are responsible for upstairs-y goings on, like the roof. In the event of structural work needing to be performed, am i correct in my understanding that we are not liable for any costs incurred should this require any immediate attention, or am i being laughably naive?

Knight of Light?

Despite what anyone says, rats can't chew through metal, so the chicken wire should do, although the best thing to use is wire wool as they can't chew it at all. Bear in mind they can get through absolutely tiny gaps if they want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4

I'd check the freehold agreement, but its my understanding that costs for any work are usually shared equally.

bugger. does this mean i hit the fucker up for the 3 grand i spent fixing the roof this time last year?

#rentasumo

The moment they comes knocking with the underpinning quote.

Interesting about the rats not chewing metal. Their teeth are approx 5.5 on the mons hardness scale so Lead and Aluminium are within their range. It does seem that steel would not be possible.

My bad for passing on an urban myth. Probably still stick with glass in the cement though, it's easy to mix in a bucket.

After much faffing CYOAette and I are a bit closer to that first time buy. Both being self employed hasn't made it easy and the fact that she only has one years books adds to that. Halifax are basically the only high street lender that we or any of the brokers/advisors we've spoken to that can help. We have about 35k deposit plus 5k for costs (surveys/legal/stamp etc). Unfortunately because they aggregate my three years and her one year to come up with a loan amount our budget shrinks to about 230k which doesn't get you much in central Brighton. We've looked at dozens of 1 bed flats and they're all tiny leaseholds which for two people, a cat and incoming baby isn't doable. Instead we're looking at 2 bed houses a bit further out in places I've never been like Whitehawk and Hollingbury. Not ideal but it's a step.

Question:

If we bought somewhere for 225k. Spent 10k refurb. Waited a couple of years for it to appreciate. If we then wanted to move to somewhere in the 300k mark closer to town presumably we would need to save up cash to make up the difference unless our earnings increased and lenders were more willing? Or once you have X mortgage is it easier to stretch it for more? On that note would we need to sustain income at current or higher level or could we expense a lot of things so we're less susceptible to big tax bills? Or do they need to check your income when you get a mortgage on a new place?

Yep (caveat the Freehold Agreement).

We have to pay for the trees to be crowned every 3 years (although none are in our share of the garden), a share of the recent roof fixes (despite us being the middle floor).

Luckily, so far, all of the recent work has been done out of the freehold slush fund (which we all pay into each month) or the buildings insurance (for a roof leak).