Owning your own home

Spending cuts/welfare, your own.

^^^ There is no such thing!

The trouble is that all of the above says very little.

People's finances depend on lifestyle / spending to a large extent.

More importantly two people on the same income could have completely different finances.

eg two people earn £25k. One is 22 with a huge student loan. One is 40 having bought their first home in 1995 and inherited £300k 5 years later. One is scraping by, one is loaded.

Eh?

do it. household income too. and % of income invested in chris king headsets/njs.

http://www.lfgss.com/thread115507.html

But the government are always going to push and brainwash the masses into buying property because it makes for law abiding citizens. Leave you guys too it.. enjoy your thread.

I fear it may be you that has been suckered in by the Tory government / daily paper hype.

Despite what they say the reason 95% want to own a property is to live in it with security and be able to make it their own.

Private renting is no fun because you can't be sure how long you will be able to live there. Renting from the local authority used to be the alternative but the majority of their houses were sold off and are now either privately rented or have been repossessed*

So anyone who wants to settle somewhere without the threat of being moved in with 2 months' notice really has to buy.

If you're happy renting then great, but you're wrong to believe what the Daily Mail tells you about the primary purpose of home ownership.

Thread title says it all really... Owning your own home.

If you're happy renting then great, but you're wrong to believe what the Daily Mail tells you about the primary purpose of home ownership.

Walking around in your pants?

...pants?

Yeah, it's coming up to winter now...

I think probably the government see home ownership in a very different way from people in what's historically been 'first time buyer demographic'. It's become so difficult to save enough for a deposit that it's stopped being a priority for a whole generation. I certainly had no intention of trying to buy before some inheritance money made a deposit feasible, and I don't know anyone from my non-forum friend group who's bought without inheritance (the forum is a bit different as apparently we have lots of people on six figure salaries).

Not that any of this is news: we know home ownership is going down and renting going up, but I think it's probably quite easy to forget, if you're a homeowner, that home ownership's just not going to be a priority for those who see it (usually quite rightly) as unachievable.

Or it could become something that happens later, if it happens at all- like having sprogs has become something that occurs much later in peoples lives.

Also true.

Obviously tommy's argument is cobblers, but I suspect he's about 15.

Or it could become something that happens later, if it happens at all- like having sprogs has become something that occurs much later in peoples lives.

This is true. Although, as we live longer, I like to think of it as having an extra few years slotted-in to your early 20s.

When I went to Uni a friend of mine bought a flat for 23k in Portsmouth, sold it for £125 (after a fair bit of work, to be fair- to my design, which was nice).

That's a fairly decent payday, but as has been said it ignores the fact that that was Karl's home first, and an investment second.

Also this (not that I have a clue about tax): http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/londons-great-exodus.html?smid=tw-share&

So I'm looking at part buy-part rent properties. As others have said on this thread not as an investment (not that you get that with social housing) but somewhere more secure/threat of being turfed out at short notice.

It'll take about 18 months to save the £8k for deposit/legal fees etc but I'm wondering now about mortgage lenders. I have a less than perfect credit file but have not had any defaults/issues in last 3 yrs, paid off credit cards & old debts. How far back do mortgage lenders look?

So I'm looking at part buy-part rent properties. As others have said on this thread not as an investment (not that you get that with social housing) but somewhere more secure/threat of being turfed out at short notice.

It'll take about 18 months to save the £8k for deposit/legal fees etc but I'm wondering now about mortgage lenders. I have a less than perfect credit file but have not had any defaults/issues in last 3 yrs, paid off credit cards & old debts. How far back do mortgage lenders look?

Not sure, but you've got 18 months to build up your rating. I think some people recommend that you get a credit card, make small purchases on it and pay it off in full each month. It's supposed to boost your rating. But I'd do some research on that rather than listening to me...

You can get an experian account for about £15 a month, which shows your credit rating and all details feeding into it.

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk

"Not sure, but you've got 18 months to build up your rating. I think some people recommend that you get a credit card, make small purchases on it and pay it off in full each month..."

This.

Providing you have the self-discipline to do so, while saving for the deposit make sure all purchases and payments are done by credit card when viable to do so i.e. when zero percent interest applies; shop around for the right card to to accommodate your needs and make sure to settle your bill in full every months. If applicable, even low interest financing and/or purpose orientated borrowing like a car loan would help your credit rating*. While I have never really been in dept myself (aside from dept to friends and family), hence a virtually non-existing credit history, despite assets and a comfortable income I have had lots of problems even changing banks.

To be honest, mortgage lenders will most likely look at your entire credit history, but needless to say your current situation when eventually applying for a mortgage and your "behaviour" over the past 3-5 years will carry more weight. In fact, presuming for the sake of argument that you get past the automated/computerised initial screening process, having been in deep shit, financially speaking, in the past and sorted yourself out might prove to work to your advantage when dealing with lenders face-to-face. In short banks and mortgage lenders like you to be in dept within your means and providing you meet your responsibilities.

You can get an experian account for about £15 a month, which shows your credit rating and all details feeding into it.

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk
This is an utterly ridiculous waste of money.

£2 is the maximum that a credit rating agency can charge for a statutory credit report.

It's worthwhile, periodically (once a year maybe) to obtain your report from the main credit agencies (Equifax, , Experian, Callcredit) to ensure that your credit report is accurate, and your name is not being connected with dodgy creditors.

Any other report is an entirely arbitrary interpretation of your credit report. Each lender will have their own credit scoring criteria, which is proprietary and secret, that they will use to determine whether or not they should lend to you.

There is lots of received wisdom as to what can be done to improve credit scores (in general, not with specific lenders) such as those ideas suggested above. These tend to be along the lines of using credit, but not over extending, not being at your overdraft limit all the time, paying more than the minimum amount, but less than the maximum etc...

It should be noted, however, that this is often no more than guesswork.

tl;dr Get your £2 statutory credit reports

noddle does me alright and thats free

When I went to Uni a friend of mine bought a flat for 23k in Portsmouth, sold it for £125

That's a fairly decent payday.

That's a fucking terrible payday if you ask me.
I make that a £22,875 loss.

noddle does me alright and thats free
Noddle = Callcredit

(I didn't know they did a free report though)

It's worth getting an Experian report and an Equifax report, as lenders use different agencies.

When applying for a mortgage I was told by two separate financial people that doing a credit check actually affects your credit rating- the fewer you do the better

Ta people...what I was trying to say "if you've got a good credit rating at the time for applying for a relatively small mortgage would older issues work against you?"...or does the fact that you've had defaults even 5 years earlier mean you won't get a good score?

Getting recent credit rating/file deffo 1st stop.