I've seen this house I want

[d000hg]

I suspect it's serious. I have much the same problem. There are no reasonably sized family homes in my area for less than 700 grand.

We may have different understandings of "reasonably sized" but even so, £700k doesn't sound unbelievable... but it is rather a lot less than £1m and under half the price he mentioned.

[doodab]

We may have different understandings of "reasonably sized" but even so, £700k doesn't sound unbelievable... but it is rather a lot less than £1m and under half the price he mentioned.

Well that would be a three bed terrace and a bit on the small side. If you want a four bed detached you're into million quid plus territory.

[ChimpMaster]

As a one-man-band you can only get so far; you run up against a glass ceiling and that's what happens to most of us. We make a good living but not a great one. In order to make that leap to the next level you have to do change the model.

Indeed and that's what I'm thinking. I'm running this contract into the ground, which will give me a good base of savings and I'm starting to look into business (non-IT) opportunities, ones that require investment i.e. up and running and generating profits already. Something that we can grow further.

Or I can not move home, go for a decent permie job (and perhaps contract again after learning new skills) and take it easy in life.

The idea of a massive mortgage - anything over £200k - also scares the cr@p out of me.

[psychocandy]

Scary. Talk of houses for £700K let alone £1.6M.....
You could literally buy a small village in Wales for that.

Honestly, some of you lot are mad. My 4 bed detached in wales worth about £220K now, cost me £120K.

I would rather shag sheep than pay £700K for the same house!!!!

[psychocandy]

Well that would be a three bed terrace and a bit on the small side. If you want a four bed detached you're into million quid plus territory.

**** me. Where do u live?

[SandyD]

OP, why not just send your kids to private schools, a lot cheaper than getting into such high debt.

This sounds cliche but a bigger house doesn't mean happier life.

My house is modest but still paid a high price as its London, at the end of the day I don't own the house, the house owns me.

[SantaClaus]

What the estate agents don't tell you is you have to be < 0.1 of a mile from the school gate to stand a chance of getting in, and the only reason it received an Ofsted "outstanding" (which doesn't mean much nowdays) is because all the pupils are from middle class families and receiving intensive private tutoring.

I think you need to do the maths, as the premium on house prices within reach of a half decent state school is sometimes more than putting your kids through the private system.

[ChimpMaster]

OP, why not just send your kids to private schools, a lot cheaper than getting into such high debt.

This sounds cliche but a bigger house doesn't mean happier life.

My house is modest but still paid a high price as its London, at the end of the day I don't own the house, the house owns me.

What the estate agents don't tell you is you have to be < 0.1 of a mile from the school gate to stand a chance of getting in, and the only reason it received an Ofsted "outstanding" (which doesn't mean much nowdays) is because all the pupils are from middle class families and receiving intensive private tutoring.

I think you need to do the maths, as the premium on house prices within reach of a half decent state school is sometimes more than putting your kids through the private system.

Have had this discussion in another thread already but the core of the issue depends on how many kids you have. We have 3, so putting them all through private schools is going to cost around £36k of post-tax income each year, pretty £500k in total then. And that's just for the average private schools!

[d000hg]

What the estate agents don't tell you is you have to be < 0.1 of a mile from the school gate to stand a chance of getting in,

true

and the only reason it received an Ofsted "outstanding" (which doesn't mean much nowdays) is because all the pupils are from middle class families and receiving intensive private tutoring.

Not true. Although even if it were, wouldn't you want your kids somewhere where the kids are well-educated and brought up with the idea that learning is acceptable?

I think you need to do the maths, as the premium on house prices within reach of a half decent state school is sometimes more than putting your kids through the private system.

Or just move somewhere less crazy!

Would the OP mind sharing the postcode/village/town/whatever or even the URL to the house in question?

[sasguru]

**** me. Where do u live?

Take a wild guess