Tony and I signed the offer and acceptance for our first house today. We now have three weeks to get finance (we have a mortgage broker who is busy making our financial situation look less like that of 2 struggling students...) and then we are locked in.
And we'll have our first joint debt. How sweet - or something like that.
Edit: Update at the end of the thread
It's kind of scary but also very exciting. And we already have heaps of plans for what we're going to do with the place!
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Rivka... Yeah, it is cheap(ish). It needs renovating - repaint, carpets ripped up, a dodgy bricked up garage bashed down, floorboards sanded and polished.. but I think that will be fun. Real money indeed.
One of our favourite features is a shower recess someone added in the 70s. It's tiled to the ceiling, the drain put in - but no plumbing. No taps. No faucet. Just tiles.
We're thinking that might have to go.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Oh, really nice! Wide, tree-lined street; nicely laid-out neighborhood. Big windows, and what looks like a nice covered deck.
The scary thing is how much it looks like a couple properties on the market here, but I guess the climate is similar, so that makes sense.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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But Tony does have grand plans for a wooden deck extending out the front. The lake is accross the road, and so there is a beautiful view from that front little porch, which would be good to capitalise on.
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That's the carport? Wow, someone is good at taking pictures that look better than the reality. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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And in terms of the photo - it's not as deceptive as others we've seen. Some of them I don't know how they managed to make properties look like they did... vaguely impressive, in a deceitful kind of way.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Ok, that's true -- I mean, there are places on Earth that are farther.
And yeah, there are real-estate pics where I've been holding them, looking at the house, and thinking, "This is not the same place. This is the SAME place???"
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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So you paid about $156,000 USD for the house.
Not bad, considering it's concrete block. I'd seriously consider ditching the galley stove first off, though. I hate those things. Bah! you have to buy a fridge too!
/says I who notices kitchens first
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Congrats! Nothing like owning a home. And real estate is seldom a bad investment if you take care of it.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Primal Curve - actually, we quite like the kitchen. At least it's a decent size, unlike some of the shoebox kitchens we saw. We already have fridges, microwaves etc - but we plan on renovating the whole kitchen in a couple of years and making it nice.
And it should be a good investment - the property prices are rising in that suburb at 30% / annum at the moment - and set to continue to do so.
Edit: Ah! Rivka! I just scrolled down that page and saw the "deck". Definately not a carport. I was looking just at the main photo. No, that's out the back - quite nice but needs more plants and screening (at the moment you stand there and have a lovely view of the neighbour's roof).
The bank is not going to accept our savings as "genuine" as some of it is money Tony made from his books (royalties, advances etc) and therefore is business income not savings.
They will only give us the loan if we can get another $9000. We have $9000 as is so happens, but $5000 of that is ear marked to other, non-negotiable debts.
So we need to either produce $5000 from somewhere (ain't going to happen), or borrow it off parents (which I'm sort of loath to do as it is a lot of money).
Even if we do, things will be so tight. We were really budgeting on using some of the cash we have for well, living expenses. Food and the like.
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I would say that borrowing $5000 from your parents at the current interest rate is, at your age, one of the things parents are FOR.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Yeah, we've decided to borrow the money. A low (well, 0%) interest rate from Parentus Bankus is attractive. I just didn't want to borrow money that they couldn't afford to lend (especially having just paid for a wedding).
The thing about the non-genuine savings is the bank will take it but *only* if we put more cash upfront - at the moment we have 10% of the purchase price, but half of that is needed for settlement costs. So the bank will give us the money if we can cough up 15% of the purchase price - then we use 1 third of that for settlement, and the bank lends us 90% of the purchase price.
So the end scenario is we have no extra cash at hand, but instead of owing $195 000 to the bank, we owe $190 000 to the bank and $5000 to parents.
Stupid money.
And yes, we could go to another bank but the interest rates are almost double AND if we wanted to change providers in the furture we'd cop a 10% transfer fee. Our mortgage broker has advised against that. I tend to agree.
I think it's all sorted out now. Thanks for your help and kind words.
I'm feeling much better after a sleep and long talk (and budgeting session) with Tony.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I LOVE hardwood floors. I don't mean love as in When Harry Met Sally Love. I mean real love, the kind of love that hurts. Congrats!
Posts: 4116 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Well, we borrowed the money and we have our loan.
Settlement is Monday week.
In the meantime I am frantic, as Tony has gone interstate for two weeks on a book tour. That means I am the one picking up bank documents, seeing the settlement agents, express posting said documents over to him for his siganture (hope the package gets to Melbourne today, otherwise it will miss him...)and generally acting like a headless chicken.
We did get given a dual drawer Fisher & Paykel dishwasher the other day though. A family friend had a spare one and wondered if we'd like it.... Um, yes!
All good. Now I just have to pack. And move. Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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We've been living here for 8 days now. We have an unpacked kitchen/dining, bedroom and living room. We have a lot of boxes in the rest of the house.
It turns out that the dodgy extension off the main bedroom (was a garage - previous owner bricked it in and then bashed a door through to the bedroom) that we affectionately call the dungeon (it's kind of dank) is perfect for storing boxes and things we haven't found homes for yet. Who would have thought it... Every house needs a dungeon!
We even had our first dinner party on Friday night - it was a strictly bring-your-own-chair affair, but all worked out very well.
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P.S And thanks all for your interest and support. IF you ever come to Perth, we have a guest bed waiting for you.
(Technically, we have a guest bed in component parts in the dungeon. But I'm sure we'll put it together one of these days)
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Congratulations! I hope your new house is the source and container of many fine memories over the coming years.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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I just want to add my own thanks to everyone for their good wishes. Life in our own home is indeed a pleasant thing! And of course to add that international visitors will be most welcome...
Posts: 466 | Registered: Sep 2003
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