Buying a house

[ciphergoth]

I've decided to buy a house. Somewhere on the southern end of the Northern line, with two double bedrooms and gas central heating.

Flood me with advice!

For "house", read "living accommodation of some sort", by the way; in Edinburgh I'd write "flat" without thinking.

I was going to rent, so that spikeylady could get out of her Wimbledon place and to make sure we can live together happily before buying. But she is now moving in with ergotia and lilithmagna, so we're in no rush; and the mortgage payments would be something I could afford by myself if need be, so in the unlikely event that we can't live together happily it won't be a disaster. And it seems wisest to get out of paying rent to someone else and start paying it to myself as soon as possible. Plus it means we can choose our own fridge and suchlike - I really enjoyed that flexibility when we lived in Mir.

To forestall some advice:

• Yes, I'll go to a FIMBRA-regulated financial adviser
• Yes, I'll get a capital-and-interest repayment mortgage, not an endowment or interest-only

Comments

[narnee.livejournal.com]

Very, very interesting. I believe I will be pondering that for some time to come. Thanks so much for spending the time to respond.

One more question -- in your estimation, when you do believe will be the right time to buy again? Obviously you wouldn't be able to give me an exact timespan; what I mean is whether you think the conditions will be good again in one year, two years, five years, etc.

Thanks again! :>

[babysimon]

when you do believe will be the right time to buy again

Pick one of:

* When you can afford the property you want to live in, or

* When the accepted wisdom is that you'd be crazy to do so - don't you know how many people are in negative equity?

The first point is probably still on the downward slope but hopefully you won't care.

The second point is probably the bottom of the market.