buying a house

[ashleerose]

A newly introduced friend of mine is a single mum of one and just recently two foster children.

She is such an inspiration to me, not only is she paying of a house having left the security of her government housing house to do so but achieving something that quite possibly seems out of my reach.
I am in awe of the fact that she has done this on her own and she had no need to do so she just chose to do it and achieved it (well its hers when she is 50 not the banks).

Im hoping to follow in her footsteps one day but at the moment i am quite happy with the house that i am in and workwise although i have two jobs they are both on a casual basis and to me i would need to have at least a big enough deposit and a decent secure permanant job (which i have been trying to get in a variety of fields in the area that i am living in with no success, despite having a great deal of qualifications etc).

My mother has said that my aunt has offered to help me and the kids get a house and pay a deposit of fifty thousand towards it should i wish to try and get a house but despite the fact that a) i really couldnt and wouldnt take that from anyone as it just wouldnt be right and b) if i was going to achieve something i would like to say that i could do it on my own as well having a decent job for the long term repayments.

So, im wondering should i join the rest of the poor homebuyers and get into debt above my means (although i am lucky enough in the area i live in to get a decent house under $250,000) and sacrifice every thing that the kids and i have now or should i just continue as i am and if its meant to happen it will happen when it happens?

What would you do?

[justme77]

good for you for trying to get ahead on your own. Im very independant like yourself. but i would probably take her up on the offer.
If anything it offers security to yourself and your kids. she obviously can afford to give you the 50 or she wouldnt offer it. maybe she has actually noticed all your hard work and thinks you need to be rewarded and this is how she wants to help you.
im sure she thought long and hard about it before offering it.
maybe ask her the actual reason why she wants to help you? might helpyou make your decison easier.
and if you do take her up on it, consider the repayments so you dont get in too far and end up in a debt cycle. i dont know where you live but i know where i am private rental are just as much as mortgage payments anyhow.

[immy]

I would go for it. I am a single mum with no help from my baby's father. I went back to work fulltime in February this year and decided to buy my own place. I borrowed 100% and it is now very easy to do! Go to some brokers like Aussie, Wizard and Rams and they can tell you what is possible and realistic.
It can be done I am living proof.
Good luck.

[Jender]

I agree with checking with your aunt that she is doing this for reasons that you are both comfortable with. I would be cautious about what you buy - better to buy and allow a fair margin for interest range changes or changes in your own circumstances. Its slower but safer

[Shanaynay]

Hi, I have my own home. I am very lucky as when I was about 12 or 13 my parents bought me some shares which absolutely skyrocketed over the following 10 years so I was able to use that for a very decent deposit on my very own home :D
I did need my mother to co-sign a lot of stuff for the bank as my income is neither stable or high at the moment, and also a fair bit of extra paperwork with the solicitor (bank would only accept me with all the extra stuff) but I now have my own house :smiliedance:

So, I managed to have the deposit but that was the easy part - the hard part is the repayments each month. Really hard :o But it will get better when I am working full-time in a few years, and I am a really good budgeter so that helps too.

I don't really have any advice on how to get a deposit together in a decent amount of time, but to make sure you can make the repayments, figure out how much your repayments would be each week and start putting that away.
A good way to do it is to save that amount by paying extra tax of that amount, then you can't touch it till you get it back at the end of the financial year.
Every $5000 or so put it in a fixed term deposit to get a good amount of interest.

Obviously after several years you will have enough for a good sized deposit, and because you are used to parting with that amount of money each week, repayments will be no problem.

Maybe you could take your aunt up on that offer, and get her to open a special bank account in her name just for you to make deposits into, and you could make up a budget thing for paying her back over 10 years or something, seperately and on top of your repayments.

[ashleerose]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

I have decided that although i have two jobs (they are both casual and of course a) i dont earn enough and b) i could lose them at any time).

Because of this and the fact that as much as i would love to take her up on the offer i would prefer to at least have one decent, permanant, full time high paying job before i could even attempt to pay the repayments.

Apart from this its made me really look at what i need to do should i ever wish to own my own house.
My aunt has no hesitation in helping me out (she sees me as the daughter she never had) and after some discussion i have told her that i need to get a decent job and at least have half of what she is willing to give me on top of that saved.

So at the moment i am as always in pursuit of a better job and looking into saving term deposits trying to figure out which is the best way to save....

any ideas in regards to who what and where i should put my savings would be appreciated.