Buying a House ...

So here's the thing...

My MIL is offering us to try and buy our first home. She wants me and DP to get a morgage around 98,000 and they will put a deposit or around 40,000 into it. We have worked out our budget and it seems ok to do and even cheaper then renting. We would make sure we have some money left over so we could start doing the house up

But....Im not sure if im ready to own our first home as im only 19 and DP is comming up 20 in October, We also have a 3 month old son DP really wants to do it but im quite unsure, Me and his MIL only get on sometimes as she is very stuck up and wants us to live our life like she does and if we do something she dosnt like hell breaks lose. I know this is the only opportunity we will ever get as this is a one time offer only.

But do we do it ?..With a MIL that i dont really get on with that will interfere all the time no matter what me and DP say, and she think she will have the right because she is lending us the deposit, (We will have to give it back once we decided to sell the house down the track) . .... She also told DP to tell me he's doing it no matter what i say . of course he's not but do i risk letting them be involved with it as they are lending the money knowing exactly what she is like ? I could tell her to back off abit but she never listens

If you do go ahead with it, I would get it written up in a legal agreement, especially regarding repayment of the deposit etc. It can save a lot of heartache. But you need to decide if you can live with your MIL there all the time. It is an awesome opportunity, and I would recommend home ownership to anyone, but not at the price of your happiness.

One thing I have learnt recently however, is that family and money don't always mix

AandCsmum- Because they are wanting us to own our own home and this age so when we do decided to move we have something behind us and have abit of money also .

minik8e- The MIL wouldn't be living with us, but she would always interfere.

Flake- Yeah we would get everything drawn up at the lawyers so it was all legal so now arguments could be caused. But the thing is....do i take an offer from a MIL that thinks so badly about me and hope that things dont get bad between us, or worse in that matter

Personally I would only do it if I had a fantastic relationship with my in-laws. It doesn't sound like you do and I fear it would cause a lot of problems.

A hard opportunityt to walk away from though I guess.

Will your MIL interfere anyways? Sounds like she will?
I'd say go for it, but do get everything written down and done through your lawyers.
It is a great opportunity and it means you have an investment and if you decide to sell down the line you'll have capital gains to get something better.

My Dad helped us with our deposit and all I had to do was sign an agreement with his solicitor that the money would be repaid when requested/on demand.

Your MIL sounds like PITA regardless, why not use her $$ to get yourselves ahead?

 

We did it. And my relationship with them was dodgy back then. Very dodgy. But it got us our first home and we paid the money back and it gave us the opportunity to have our foot in the door. Getting that first loan and the equity behind you is a big thing. We now have three houses and looking at a fourth. I grinned and beared it at first as deep down it was a generous offer and although they weren't doing it to help me as such they wanted a stable environment for their grandchildren. Now that I am older we get along much better and I am now grateful for what they did although at the time I felt like I was being bought and manipulated.

Ours was only 10,000 not 40,000(only needed that much 10 years ago) so that is a bit different. Also that first house was not a home. I never felt like it was ours so I was glad to sell it and move on. I would say go for it. Bite your tongue and look at it as a short term venture. When the market bounces back and you have enough equity to move on without the $40,000 you will then be able to enjoy your home. It is not often that 40000 dollars interest free gets offered to you. At least you won't be at a landlords mercy and have to move out when they decide to sell the house and wait for maintenance etc. (not that all landlords are bad as I am now one lol) Also my inlaws had to sign a document that it was a gift otherwise the banks calculated it as a loan and therefore it acted against your credit application. So although we paid it back and that was the informal arrangement they had to sign saying that it wasn't.

Hope that helps. As someone who has been in almost the exact situation (I was 21) and not knowing your run ins with the inlaws (however we had some pretty hairy moments) I would do it again.

MamaT wrote: I personally wouldn't. The relationship with your IL's doesn't sound great and something like this would probably only make it worse. She may forever make you feel like you are forever indebted to her because of it. She may feel like she can have a say in what/if you do anything to the property.   My relationship with the IL's sounds quite similar and if they were to offer us that kind of deal I would turn it down. Although with my MIL she tends to use money and gifts as leverage tools and measures love/caring with the price of a gift IYGWIM.   Tread carefully is all I'm saying really.

I agree with all of this.
I personally wouldnt do it...

Just looking at the ASB calculators (simply because I like those best), it's a $115 per fortnight difference between having a 98000 mortgage and the 40k deposit, and buying the 128000 home with no deposit. If you really dislike the MIL, I'd say no. If you think you can handle it, well hey it would be a great way to get ahead. God I wish we got help like that!