My brother in law and his wife are the last in my immediate family to get on the property ladder and become a home buyer.  At the moment he is renting and the rent of his one bed flat is quite high.  I think it is a good idea with house prices low and set to rise but his parents are not very impressed with his plans.

 The reason they don’t approve is because of his timing, he decided 1 week before his contract on his flat that he wanted to buy a house.  I think he thought that a home buyer was like someone buying a pint of milk.  You go to the estate agent, point to the one you want and move in.  That was three weeks ago and he is still in his flat having made one offer on a house, he offered £25,000 below the £120,000 asking price and was instantly rejected and as his limit is £95,000 he can’t go much higher.

They are in the same lucky position as us, his parents are willing to buy £75,000 of the house themselves and charge rent until he can pay them back.  The rest comes from the £20,000 deposit they have raised.  Originally they were going to take the money from his parents and get a mortgage but with the current difficulties in the mortgage market he was dissuaded, and I would hate for him to become one of the people under the threat of repossession have to sell his home quickly for cash.  I think he would end up being caught out as mortgage rates increased he could easily find himself quickly getting out of his depth.