Buying a house - How much to offer!

[Hells_Belle]

Talk to the unfortunate people who are at their wits end trying to copy with a huge mortgage and praying that interest rates won''t rise.

Where did they get that huge mortgage? Oh wait - they applied for it. They went to a bank and begged the bank to give it to them. Did people not work out how much the payments were before they took the loan? Did they think the tooth fairy was going to sprinkle magical mortgage dust on their bank accounts? Or did they - God forbid - think they were going to pay for it with their marvellous and reliable end of year bonuses?

Praying that interest rates won't rise is a fool's game. Specifically, it is a game for fools who paid no attention in history class. Rates rose to 16% under Thatcher in the 80s. History, in case you haven't noticed, does tend to repeat itself.