Moving On, Moving Out

[coalescent]

I started looking at rent prices this weekend. I went through the local paper, and I visited all the estate agents in the town centre and picked up their lists of properties to rent.

It was a somewhat depressing experience.

The lowest rent for one-bedroom flats or apartments or bedsits around these parts seems to be UKP500 a month. More commonly, it's UKP600 or higher. The nice, in-town properties are another couple of hundred pounds again. On my current salary, allowing for food, bills and the monthly car payment, I think I could just about afford UKP500 a month, if I was really careful. The trouble is, I don't want to be really careful, and I'm not even sure I quite trust myself to be able to be really careful.

Obviously, sharing is cheaper. For a two-person flat, you're looking more in the range UKP700-800 a month. I don't know many other people looking for a place to live, but there are a couple - Gary, for instance. The problem with this option is that I'm not sure I want to share. I've grown quite attached to the idea of having my own space (and anyway, I'm not sure I'd be such a great housemate).

So now I'm back to waiting for my three month contract at Healthworld to finish, to see whether they want to keep me and how much more they'll be willing to pay me if I'm a permanent employee. On the upside, I'm cautiously optimistic that they'll want to keep me around; my first month review seemed to go well enough.

The other thought I had was to investigate mortgages. I know next to nothing about how they work, or what sort of amount I could expect to pay on a monthly basis, or how much I'd have to be able to put down as a deposit.

Maybe there's some kind of local property listings that I'm missing. I'll have to investigate that further, as well.

Comments

[pikelet.livejournal.com]

Dude, you claimed you were going to bed over an hour ago. You suck.

Mortgages, generally, are calculated thusly:

Annual Salary x 3.25 = maximum value of mortgage any given lender will grant you.

Any greater multiplier than that, and you're going to be paying more interest for a cowboy lender in all likelihood. And, of course, maximum value of mortgage != maximum value of property, so long as you have some way of making up the difference.

See? Dead simple. Monthly payments, inevitably, depend on the overall value of the mortgage, which is why you should get quotations if you're actually looking at a specific price range. Deposit varies depending on the difference between price of house and mortgage, but may well be a fixed percentage depending on the vendor's preference.

If you need any proper help, let me know. I work for the biggest mortgage lender in the UK, remember, so I have a modicum of knowledge - though not enough to give you anything which would qualify as 'professional advice' on which you could rely. Obviously. 'Cause you need to take exams for that, an' everything.

[tizzle-b.livejournal.com]

Annual Salary x 3.25 = maximum value of mortgage any given lender will grant you.

Sweet.

I, in potential, could go buy myself a 58k house.

I'd be as poor as a church mouse after, however, but still.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Many people, and you may be one of them, find that even 3-3.5 times their annual salary won't get them a one-bedroom flat in the south east of England. £20k x 3.5 = £70k, which is not a lot.

One thing you want to look into ASAP is your credit history. If you send £2 to Experian (google for them) they will send you back a summary of your rating. Anything, however trivial, on your record can slash the multiple of your salary you can borrow. I got caught by a £20 bill on a Burtons credit card that went to a previous address where I never saw it.

The credit hit on debts goes away about 6 years after you incurred it if you don't pay. If, like me, you *do* pay, the clock restarts and you have to wait 6 years again. Grrr! So there is little point in paying the debt once it's gone on your credit rating, best to just let it work its way off.

But the thing which kept me from getting a mortgage for so long wasn't the multiple of salary thing, but the deposit. You usually want a 95% mortgage, which means £4,500 on a £90k flat. People kept saying to me "if the deposit is your problem, why don't you get a 100% mortgage".

The twin answers were "100% mortgages don't usually give you as good a deal", and "Dude! three times my salary won't *get* me 100% of anything I could find." I went for a 10% deposit in the end, simply because I couldn't borrow 95% the value of the cheapest flat available.

For you, a deposit on a 90% mortgage would be £9,000 on a £90k flat, leaving £81k on the mortgage, which is 3x a £27k salary or about 3.5x a £23k salary. Plus you need a few hundred extra to pay for the solicitors and the removal van.

The good news is once you've got the mortgage, the repayments are much less than the rent on an equivalent flat, at least for the first couple of years when the interest rate is reduced for first time buyers.

Lots of people down the Reading SF Group tonight can talk your ear off about mortgages, but

a) they mostly earn more than me and thee, and
b) they mostly bought their houses in the nineties, when the prices were merely deranged and not homicidal.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Dude, you claimed you were going to bed over an hour ago.

No, I said I was going to bed via the South Bank Show. Which was great, by the way. Philip Pullman always good value for money.

And I had to finish off those episode reviews, or Taf would never have let me hear the last of it...

If you need any proper help, let me know.

Thanks.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

One thing you want to look into ASAP is your credit history.

Well, as far as I know it's pretty good. When I was sorting out insurance for my car, they ran a credit check on me. The guy was going through his whole spiel: "this may take up to forty-eight hours, we'll call you back...oh. It's just come back approved."

wasn't the multiple of salary thing, but the deposit.

The good news is I do have some money I can use as a deposit if I have to.

Reading SF Group tonight

Erk. I think I've arranged to go and see Solaris instead.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as I know it's pretty good. When I was sorting out insurance for my car, they ran a credit check on me. The guy was going through his whole spiel: "this may take up to forty-eight hours, we'll call you back...oh. It's just come back approved."

That just means they thought you were good for a car. They might think you're good for a 3.25x mortgage but not a 3.5x, for instance, and that could make all the difference to the house you want to buy.

Seriously, get a look at it, it's only two quid, and I see you can get it done on-line now (I had to write a letter with a £2 cheque in).

Word

[applez.livejournal.com]

'Professional Couple Only'

:-)

lol!

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[brassyn.livejournal.com]

we should all move in together.
like the waltons, except not.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

That'd be a hell of a commute for at least one of us...

[snowking.livejournal.com]

We'll start a commune and grow our own food. When I say we, I mean you guys.