Welcome back to What I Own – Metro’s property series where we speak to homeowners about getting on the ladder.
Last week, we were in London chatting to 39-year-old Rachael Smith, who bought a houseboat with her partner Euan for £125,000.
This week, we’re in Worthing with 39-year-old Erica, whose last home was featured in What I Own back in 2022.
Erica has since left her life in the Big Smoke behind in favour of a softer existence by the sea, and has gone from shared ownership to buying a place outright.
Here’s what she had to say about her property journey…
Tell us about yourself!
My name is Erica Vonderwall, I’m 39 (and a half!). I’m a freelance digital PR consultant and run my own consultancy called Colourful Comms, and I live in Worthing, West Sussex.
Whereabouts is your property? What do you think of the area?
I live just outside the town centre in a lovely, leafy neighbourhood called Broadwater. It’s nice and quiet, yet has brilliant access to everything I need.
We are about a 35-minute walk or five-minute drive down to the beach, and within five minute’s walk to three great dog-friendly parks for my rescue dog, Peanut.
The high street here has independent cafes and bakeries, and just the right amount of charity shops to scratch my itch of adding more bric-a-brac to my home!
When did you move in?
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I moved in at the end of October 2023 after one of the fastest exchanges and completions my mortgage advisor had ever seen (it was less than three months from viewing the property to moving in).
How much does your property cost?
The house was listed as ‘offers over £300,000’ but the final purchase price was £296,000.
How much was your deposit?
The deposit was £115,000.
How did you save up for your deposit?
I was very lucky to have been given some money from my parents to go towards my deposit, as I was living in a shared ownership property in London – paying both mortgage and rent there – and I wouldn’t have been able to save enough on my own otherwise.
As I’m an only child, the view was that the money would have come my way eventually anyway, and it was an amount my parents felt they could live without as they are both retired and own their own property (boomers, eh?).
I definitely would not have been able to purchase my house without their help, and for that, I am very transparent and eternally grateful!
What is the monthly cost of living here now, both mortgage and bills?
My monthly mortgage repayment is just over £1,000, with total costs coming to around £1,330 each month.
What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging?
It was the most stressful thing I have ever done, and I do not look forward to ever having to do it again. Thankfully, I had a wonderful mortgage advisor who kept me in the loop the whole time.
I found it really difficult to not be in control of things, or ever really know what was going on behind the scenes. My mental health was really struggling with the uncertainty of it all!
Where did you live before this – were you renting or living with family?
I was living in a one-bed flat in South East London which I had purchased through the shared ownership scheme. I had a mortgage on 25% of the property and paid rent on the remaining 75%.
In an ideal world, I would have liked to sell that flat and use the equity to help me buy the house, but unfortunately due to the ongoing cladding nightmare, I wasn’t able to.
Thankfully, I was able to get permission from the building association to be able to sublet my flat until the cladding issue and expected repairs are complete.
What made you want to buy rather than renting?
When I decided to move to Worthing, renting just wasn’t an option.
I wanted to have carte blanche over where and how I chose to live and decorate, and I especially wanted my new home to meet all of my needs, as well as those of Peanut.
How did you find this property? What made you choose it?
It all happened very quickly, which sort of made it feel like it was meant to be. I’d been thinking about leaving London for a while but without the means, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.
That is until my parents saw how unhappy Peanut and I were in London and stepped in with their generous offer to help me out.
From there, my ADHD hyperfocus kicked in and I narrowed down my search criteria to three seaside towns that I liked when I’d visited previously (Margate, Hastings/St Leonards and Worthing), and then planned to spend a week in each area looking at the options and making my decision on an area.
I started in Worthing as I had friends who had moved there six months earlier, and after viewing six wholly terrible properties, an estate agent suggested this one. It was slightly further out than I had set my radius so it hadn’t come up in any of my searches, but it ticked ALL of the boxes, if only a little bit further away from the town centre.
Because of that though, it meant it was more affordable, and so also came in under my top budget of £350,000.
How have you made the property feel like home?
By splashing colour and personality on every single wall, filling it with my favourite colours and textures, and giving in to every silly whim I have about what to do with the space.
When I bought the house, the garden was completely paved over, so I had my friend and trusted handyman pull up the pavers and lay grass so that Peanut had a garden to entertain him (we only had a balcony in London).
I’ve since added a small pebble path and a new rear fence to make the garden more secure, but the garden is very much a work in progress.
That’s been the biggest transformation so far, as the rest has mainly just been paint and furniture!
What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style?
When I first moved in I had this idea that I’d decorate the house with an art deco aesthetic, as the house was built in the 1930s.
However, previous owners have removed all of whatever charm there might have been from then, but as time went on I did away with restricting myself to one style and simply did what felt right for me in each room.
My bedroom was inspired by a single duvet cover that I fell in love with and then decorated the room around, whereas my kitchen was newly installed and fairly inoffensive so I just painted the walls and added some fun blinds instead.
The hallway is dark and small, and I originally thought painting it in a pastel shade would brighten it up, but instead I went with the most gorgeous shades of pink that make the area just POP. I also added some retro floor tiles in the entryway.
The bathroom was the second room I did, and I initially slapped some tile stickers on and called it a day. After living with it for a few months and watching all the other rooms come together so well, I decided I hated it and wanted to re-do it.
Now it’s more pink and has way nicer tile stickers.
What’s your favourite room and why?
My bedroom and living room are my equal favourites, as I made sure these two spaces had the right amount of stimulation for each room’s needs.
The living room is full of bright and colourful visual stims that make my brain so happy by just looking around the room at all the fun prints and colours that adorn the space.
My bedroom has a way more relaxing vibe – albeit still very bright and bold, but just more toned down in terms of visual stimuli.
Do you feel like you have enough space?
Yes and no. I obviously have more space than I did in my small flat, but it is still a very small house which has very limited storage, so a lot of the rooms are taken up by furniture storage which makes the spaces seem even smaller.
For just me and a small dog, though, we have all the space we need day to day!
Do you have plans to change the property?
My entryway is extremely small and getting in and out of the door prams or furniture is really hard, so I would very much like to extend that into a more practical porch area.
The loft is another empty space that could easily be transformed into an office or small room, so that’s something to think about if I ever win the lottery!
Are there any problems with the property that you have to deal with?
So far, all I have had to deal with is the repointing of my chimney, and eventually, I will need to replace the roof tiles too.
What do you want people to know about buying a home?
It’s the most stressful thing I have ever done.
What are your plans for the future, in terms of housing? Do you plan to stay here long-term?
This is probably not my forever home, but it’s going to be home for a long time. I have no plans to move back to London or away from Worthing, but you just can’t predict life, can you?!
Shall we take a look around?
How to get involved in What I Rent
What I Rent is Metro.co.uk’s weekly series that takes you inside the places people are renting, to give us all a better sense of what’s normal and how much we should be paying.
If you fancy taking part, please email whatirent@metro.co.uk. You’ll need to take pictures of your kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, plus a few photos of you in your bedroom or living area.
Make sure you get permission from your housemates! You’ll also need to be okay with sharing how much you’re paying for rent, as that’s pretty important.
We’re not just after the prettiest places out there, by the way. We want the reality of renting, so if you’re currently renting a place you hate, we’d love to see that too (and sympathise greatly!).
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