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Buying and selling houses

Started by Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle, February 03, 2020, 12:31:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Quote from: icehaven on February 03, 2020, 10:51:47 PM
Can I ask, how common is it to have saved a deposit entirely without any help (e.g. not living in a parent's house for nothing or peppercorn rent, and not having any inheritance or any other kind of windfall)? Because if you earn an average or even slightly above average wage and have rent and bills to pay I just don't see how it's possible.

Edit: I'm talking about one person btw, not a couple. In a right world it should be perfectly realistic for an average wage to afford you a home of your own but that's just nonsense now isn't it?

It's almost impossible. We had to borrow most of our deposit from my partner's sister and I don't know a single person with their own home who hasn't done similar.

Met with our neighbours before we moved out and they shared their house buying story. They got married 64 years ago, aged 18, bought a house with a 25 year mortgage after saving for a year. Then they started ranting on about how the kids today waste their money on phones and holidays. That's the entire point of those articles, like that one from the Mirror. To convince the older population that the system they benefited from isn't broken, we're just feckless and irresponsible and looking for handouts. They were genuinely stunned when we told them how much we were paying in rent, how much agencies charge just to renew a contract, how much it costs every time a landlord decides they want to chuck you out, how much it costs to travel to work, how little companies pay their staff, etc.

kittens

friends of mine recently bought a house, and had a period of moaning about how poor they now were as a result of this and having to pay people to do it up, before jetting off on a month long holiday to vietnam. i try not to be bitter.

touchingcloth

Quote from: Thomas on February 03, 2020, 08:01:35 PM
Well, I think you'll find this 20-year-old couple managed to save up and buy their own house in only six months! Get off your arses! Comment on the Mirror's Facebook page about the value of hard work and the youth of today!

Couple, 20, explain how they saved £13,000 in just 6 months to buy first home

Disclaimer: you must be in a position to work 16+ hour days, live rent- and bill-free, and not go mental for those six months.

The property is stunning inside.

We bought our house with no help. I saved 1000 a month for 3 years (my average take-home salary was about 2000 a month), my partner saved 500 a month (hers was 1200). 54,000. We lived very frugally for those 3 years, in a small, cheap flat. Now we have a nice house and a 20 year mortgage that we should pay off in half that time. We live where property is cheap, I guess that helps.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Poisson Du Jour on February 04, 2020, 10:01:18 AM
We bought our house with no help. I saved 1000 a month for 3 years (my average take-home salary was about 2000 a month), my partner saved 500 a month (hers was 1200). 54,000. We lived very frugally for those 3 years, in a small, cheap flat. Now we have a nice house and a 20 year mortgage that we should pay off in half that time. We live where property is cheap, I guess that helps.

I don't know how old you are, but this is more to do with the newspaper articles about token young people saving for a home- doing this in your early-mid 20's seems like madness to me. You're basically abandoning most of your social lives for a at least third of your 20's probably over half  by the time you've had work done and bought shit to go inside of it and by the time you're coming through the other side your friends will be boring settled hermits as well.

Non Stop Dancer

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 04, 2020, 10:23:01 AM
I don't know how old you are, but this is more to do with the newspaper articles about token young people saving for a home- doing this in your early-mid 20's seems like madness to me. You're basically abandoning most of your social lives for a at least third of your 20's probably over half  by the time you've had work done and bought shit to go inside of it and by the time you're coming through the other side your friends will be boring settled hermits as well.
Not everyone prizes a lively social life, which is pretty much a euphemism for getting pissed all the time isn't it. You sound a bit judgmental mate.

imitationleather

Quote from: thenoise on February 04, 2020, 05:59:20 AM
My Dad's hot take is that our generation are lucky to be lifelong renters because it's so much more 'convenient'. And, no doubt, we can help his new old Tory mates down the C of E church to get rich and fat while we work hard to pay off their debts.

Also, a lot of people appreciate the flexibility that a zero hours contract offers.

Our generation has got it made.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Non Stop Dancer on February 04, 2020, 10:50:26 AM
Not everyone prizes a lively social life, which is pretty much a euphemism for getting pissed all the time isn't it.

Not necessarily. Staying in and being miserly doesn't exactly scream social contact. And maintaining such gets harder as you get older.


Icehaven

Quote from: Poisson Du Jour on February 04, 2020, 10:01:18 AM
We bought our house with no help. I saved 1000 a month for 3 years (my average take-home salary was about 2000 a month), my partner saved 500 a month (hers was 1200). 54,000. We lived very frugally for those 3 years, in a small, cheap flat. Now we have a nice house and a 20 year mortgage that we should pay off in half that time. We live where property is cheap, I guess that helps.

Again though, that's two incomes. And even though you were saving more than your partner it still would have taken you a lot longer again on your own as you wouldn't have been splitting your bills on the flat either.

kittens

i think we can all at least agree that, with no exceptions, every single homeowner is a rich evil cunt.

Icehaven

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on February 04, 2020, 08:04:30 AM
Met with our neighbours before we moved out and they shared their house buying story. They got married 64 years ago, aged 18, bought a house with a 25 year mortgage after saving for a year. Then they started ranting on about how the kids today waste their money on phones and holidays. That's the entire point of those articles, like that one from the Mirror. To convince the older population that the system they benefited from isn't broken, we're just feckless and irresponsible and looking for handouts. They were genuinely stunned when we told them how much we were paying in rent, how much agencies charge just to renew a contract, how much it costs every time a landlord decides they want to chuck you out, how much it costs to travel to work, how little companies pay their staff, etc.

That's my Mum and her generation exactly. For years she's kept telling me I should try and get on the property ladder and feels guilty because she can't help me herself but thinks it should still be possible somehow, despite the sharp intake of breath she takes when I tell her how much even the lower end rents are round my way (and I live in a fairly dingy part of the West Midlands.) I've heard similar from friends, one who's Gran thought her kind £2000 gift would set her grandson and his girlfriend up for their deposit and then some, and was totally staggered to discover they needed about 6 times that. Fair enough things have changed enormously since they were young but they don't constantly faint in supermarkets because a loaf of bread isn't 5p anymore do they? They still live in the world, so it's hard to see it as anything other than guilty denial* and a misunderstanding that while one average wage could support a whole family 50 years ago it can barely support a whole person now.

*Not that they necessarily should feel guilty, it's not all of their faults how things have changed but a lot of them do anyway because really they know how much easier they had it.

Ferris

In my experience, pointing out how much easier boomers had it only irritates them. I've had two insist to my face that I should just borrow a million quid and buy a big house because their houses have all tripled in value in 30+ years or whatever so that cycle will definitely continue forever and anyone who complains just hasn't worked that simple fact out yet.

None so blind as those who won't see.

Pink Gregory

We were doing alright, have somewhere around 11-12k saved.

But currently m'partner's out of a job with not much around, also she"s 40 this year so we're kind of running out of time a bit.  So it could all disappear.

Is how it is I suppose.

Blumf


mippy

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on February 04, 2020, 08:04:30 AM
It's almost impossible. We had to borrow most of our deposit from my partner's sister and I don't know a single person with their own home who hasn't done similar.

Met with our neighbours before we moved out and they shared their house buying story. They got married 64 years ago, aged 18, bought a house with a 25 year mortgage after saving for a year. Then they started ranting on about how the kids today waste their money on phones and holidays. That's the entire point of those articles, like that one from the Mirror. To convince the older population that the system they benefited from isn't broken, we're just feckless and irresponsible and looking for handouts. They were genuinely stunned when we told them how much we were paying in rent, how much agencies charge just to renew a contract, how much it costs every time a landlord decides they want to chuck you out, how much it costs to travel to work, how little companies pay their staff, etc.

We pay £1050 a month for a two bed flat. My friends (admittedly they had a big deposit, and freely admit that it was mostly dead rich relatives rather than eating out of bins for several years) paid £400 per month on the mortgage for their house, plus, as it's a different borough, less in council tax than we do. Even ignoring the issue of them ending up with an asset, more stability etc, that is fucked up, isn't it?

mippy

Mind you, if their experience has taught me anything it's that inheriting someone's estate is an absolute ballache and at least they managed to get something out of all that stress.

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: icehaven on February 03, 2020, 10:51:47 PM
Because if you earn an average or even slightly above average wage and have rent and bills to pay I just don't see how it's possible.

By living in Burnley. A quick look suggests that you can get a two bed terrace for 60k, and rent a 1 bed place for about 400 per calendar month. Average wage is about 30k, which is about 2k take home for month, so you could probably save 250 a month and have a 6k deposit saved in two years.

You have to live in Burnley though. And this assumes that you're coming into this with no debt, which if you've just been to University won't be the case.

imitationleather

The average wage in Burnley is £30k?

Icehaven

Quote from: imitationleather on February 04, 2020, 07:19:11 PM
The average wage in Burnley is £30k?

Yeah I thought that. That's a lot more than I earn.

Noonling

Mortgages are for losers. Just buy your house outright!

The Culture Bunker

Presumably the playing squad of Burnley FC pushes up the average, given the percentage they make up of the town's working population?

Zetetic

#81
It's absolutely ridiculous that mortgages aren't non-recourse debt.

"You mean if I can't keep up payments, you'll take the house?"

"Yes."

"That seems sort of fair, I guess. The loan is secured against it after all."

"And then all of your money, possessions and organs."

Zetetic

Quote from: imitationleather on February 04, 2020, 07:19:11 PM
The average wage in Burnley is £30k?
Median pre-tax earnings in Burnley are about £22.6k, so no.

(Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, provisional estimates, 2019)

Sebastian Cobb

I was going to do a thread on this at the time but forgot. If you thought being a basic renter was bad enough check out this co-living, especially podshare.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/podshare-sharing-economy-startup

They're basically a shit photocopy of a homeless shelter, the people living there probably have no fixed address, but because the people there are paying loads to an entrepreneur it's suddenly a bastion of ultra modern disruptive markets rather than vagrancy.

Grown adults should not have to live like this.

imitationleather

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 04, 2020, 08:11:33 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/podshare-sharing-economy-startup

Well that's made me depressed.

I would do pretty much anything to avoid living in one of these. Yes, even prostitution.

Society is broken.

Consignia

QuotePodShare rules:


  • Share (Don't take.)
  • STFU (Quiet hours: 10pm – 10am.)
  • No Privacy (Do not build a tent, fort or clothesline – we're an open community space on purpose.)
  • Friends (Make new ones – visitors may wait in the lobby for 20 minutes. Anyone staying longer should purchase a day pass for $15.)

I think some dystopian fiction looks cheerier than that.

bgmnts

Can't imagine making friends in conditions like that, no more than cellmates would be considered mates. The only shared interest you have is the hatred of your environment and the desire to mass murder the cunts who thought this was a good idea and not something cooked up by a cattle farmer trying his hand at house designing.

Consignia


bgmnts

Everywhere else in the world they are called hostels.

American culture really brings out the most annoying traits in people fair play.

imitationleather

Quote from: Consignia on February 04, 2020, 08:47:42 PM
Found a lovely picture of a pod share on Twitter:


https://twitter.com/IncolaEgoSum/status/1177400675497590790
You're not fooling me. I've seen enough ropey documentaries to recognise a US jail when I see one!