Escaping the mortgage trap with Jess
Donation protected
Hi, it's Jess (@frideswyth) and I'm fundraising for a house in rural Wales.
I've discovered a lovely area/village in North Wales with beautiful views & nature and I want to relocate there. Though rural, it also has reasonable public transport. I've found an extremely well priced house with 3/4 bedrooms. There are other reasonably-priced houses around the area too. For some reason, there are no properties for rent anywhere nearby, which is why I'm even considering buying.
However, I do not want to get a mortgage. My self-employed financial history somewhat blocks me from getting a good deal, but more than that mortgages have serious downsides.
I wrote a thread about why mortgages are so expensive and also come with excessive restrictions here:
By fundraising the capital upfront from your generous donations, I will have significantly more freedom to use the house as I see fit and share it with the community. I will have some spare rooms so that two other people can come and live with me, long or short term. I will also have the benefit of housing security for the first time.
The house will be a warm stopping point for anyone to come visit. The house is on the edge of a National Park, within walking distance of the highest and most famous mountain in the country. I will keep a spare room ready for anyone who wants to come visit for a holiday or a respite, for free. There are also hippie friends who own a chapel nearby, who I'm sure I can convince to hold some bigger parties in the summer ;-)
Also, in return for your generous donation, *I pledge to treat this situation as if I DID have a mortgage* and I will earn back the amount that is donated here and place it into a high interest savings account with the intention of gifting it forward.
I pledge to place at least 10k per year of my income into the account, all of my rental income (approx 5k per year[??]) and any more that I can spare thanks to working an extra job. I think I can achieve "repayment" after 4-5 years.
Once the gift amount is reached, I will then give that amount forward to the next people in our community who need a property but do not have the upfront capital. I will ask them to do the same; to treat this gift as a mortgage, earn the amount back over a few years and gift it forward again to the next house. In this way your initial donation will move forward through time liberating people and houses as it goes.
With this pledge from me, your one-time gift will go not only to me and the two other people I share the space with, and the visitors coming for holidays, but also many more people into the future, across the world.
I have already made an account to put the money into, once I have the house, and I will share my updates on Twitter so you can see how it is going. I will choose who the money goes to, based on modesty of house price, number of people helped and chances that they will also gift money forward to the next house.
Further, I pledge that after the 4-5 years is over and the money has been gifted forward, the spare bedrooms in my house will become rent free. In this way three people in our community will become housing secure and free of banks & landlords, and people from the community can come over for a holiday for free, forever.
I will of course continue my work to hold beneficial community events like JessCamp for as many people as possible in the years going forward, and can charge about 35% less for tickets thanks to my reduced living costs.
If I only partially meet the goal, I hope to borrow the final amount from friends and pay it back over 5-8 years, however the less I have to borrow, the better.
The village is near Bangor, North Wales, which is connected by road and rail to the rest of the country, including a designated "large" international airport. The house price is over £100k, but I am adding 5k of my own money to the process and more if I don't have to pay rent in the near future.
Gofundme takes 3% of donations to process transactions, so if you are able to, please send me a direct bank transfer instead, I can DM you the details.
One of my followers has already sent me £50 for which I am already so, so grateful. I know the amount is high, but if two thirds of my 3k followers could donate £50, we would already have reached the goal.
And you can hit me up for a £50 donation to any of YOUR fundraisers that are going on over the coming years, and I will donate!!
Thank you so much for reading and for giving whatever amount you can. May you all be well & happy! With much love,
Jess
Organizer
Jessica Burton
Organizer