Moving house part two

I had intended to write an update earlier in the week but with one thing and another I didn't get round to it, apologies to anyone that cares :D

So here is a quick catch up and what has been happening regarding the moving house. On Monday evening I went to look again at the flat I was thinking of buying and took some pictures and tried to figure out how much space there is (or isn't in this case) and whether I could fit everything in. It would be VERY tight is the conclusion I came to, there really isn't alot of space in these flats, though to be fair, for a normal first time buyer with no accumulation of furniture and personal possessions they are probably ideal.

The other thing that was worrying me about these flats was the "Easi-buy" option (which I'd likely have to take) where they give you a 10year interest free loan for a portion of the total purchase price. I didn't like the idea of having this hanging over me, particularly with the way the house market is at the moment and the fact that the finances would be really stretched.

On top of all that they have a maintenance fee that covers lease, outside up-keep, repairs as well as all of your utility bills. The rather patronizing sales lady said that she thought that this amount was "competitive" and would not be likely to rise as soon as I moved in when asked about the possibility of changes due to fuel cost increases. She said all of those details were in the contract - hmmm, not liking the sound of this at all!

Anyway, within about 24hours I'd convinced myself (after comments from an online friend and lots of thinking) that buying was NOT the way to go and renting would be a much safer option for now AND from a little bit of searching it seemed that there are some nice places available within the sort of price I could afford.

My wife was NOT happy with this change of direction and accused me of being "selfish" and only going this route because it suited me. I did try and point out that the advice from C and H was to rent in the first place and that I only really went down the buying route because I didn't think I could afford to rent. Looks like I might be able to after all.

In the end things calmed down a little and my wife simply said I just had to make a decision about what I was doing an sort myself out. Hopefully I can do this next week when I'm on holiday and should have the time to go look at flats and sort out all the details.