So we've been pre-approved to borrow x amount of dollars. Right now I should be jumping for joy but I really just feel a little down about it all. This means we could possibly be about to take on a massive amount of debt and then the worry will really begin...if we ever find a house to buy that is.
Right now RE agents don't have to lift a finger. Properties in our price range are selling like price reduced beer. Houses in our range are on the market for only hours and they're being snapped up. Either people are buying site unseen or the agents are just calling their lists of potential buyers, their cousins, brothers, aunts...whatever and letting them know the second a property is listed for sale. In the last week I have made enquiries about two homes which had only just been listed and was told on both occasions that these homes could not be inspected prior to the open home. On both occasions these houses miraculously had offers in on them before inspection time.
Today I inspected a home whose contract had fallen over due to the negative building inspection. The RE agent told me he thought the building inspection was a crock and very unfair. I looked, just because I could, and while I agree, to the naked eye, it doesn't appear to have much wrong with it other than it is so small one would need to lose 15 kilos just to fit into the kitchen. It had potential for sure, if one had the money to build in underneath and add another house on. On the positive side it had a large yard and had been freshly painted but it was on a main road and I know we would have killed each other if we all had to live in such close proximity until such time we could afford to expand.
I like to think of myself as a realist and believe I can see past the imperfections and also tell myself to start off small and build from there but it's hard to do. The idea of going from this rental house which has been home for 7 or 8 years and has plenty of space for all of us, into a house almost small enough to be a large tent, is proving difficult to comprehend.
Most people says owning a home is everything and you should do it sooner rather than later because the interest rates will rise, the first home owners grant will disappear and the price of houses will go up but I don't want to push myself into buying something I'm not happy with just to own something. It goes against my belie not buying something until I need it. I don't NEED a home to call my own because let's face it, many people don't even have one to live in let alone one to call their own. I just WANT a home to call my own. Maybe I am too picky and maybe we could all live in something very small...I know we could if we had to but I don't have to so I'm having a hard time trying to convince myself that it's a better option than renting.
This afternoon I called about four properties that were listed on a real estate website with no indication that they were under contract. Four times I was disappointed. Four times the RE agents acted as though they had better things to do than talk to me - like calculating their commissions. So, I might let it rest for four days now because it's tiring and emotionally draining.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Heat Is On
Hunting for a house is painful and not at all exciting. Right now, because interest rates are so low any house in our price range is selling fast. I almost need to give up my job and make house hunting my full time job. One needs to be ready to pounce immediately. Almost call up on the phone and make an offer before it's even been seen. The amount of people showing up to open houses is astounding and the agents are getting several offers immediately after.
What might be in our favour though is that the lenders are tightening their belts - not many are borrowing any more than 90% of the purchase price. Our broker says that once that starts to filter through to those who haven't already organised pre-approval the prices will drop a little because there will still be people needing to sell their homes and they'll be more open to offers. Those without a deposit will be pushed out of the market. I guess then the greedy investors will still be hankering to get their hands on these properties but I hear that even they are having a hard time getting access to finance.
So, we have time up our sleeves to save a little more money and continue to look. The $14000 First Home Owners Grant is set to expire on June 30 when it will revert back to $7000. There's speculation about whether or not the $14000 will be continued or not. Hopefully for us it will be but it might also mean the prices of houses will drop because even more people will be pushed out of the market making room for us. It will mean however that we will need more savings.
Sometimes I wonder if it's really all worth it. Everyone keeps telling me it is so I'll have to believe them.
What might be in our favour though is that the lenders are tightening their belts - not many are borrowing any more than 90% of the purchase price. Our broker says that once that starts to filter through to those who haven't already organised pre-approval the prices will drop a little because there will still be people needing to sell their homes and they'll be more open to offers. Those without a deposit will be pushed out of the market. I guess then the greedy investors will still be hankering to get their hands on these properties but I hear that even they are having a hard time getting access to finance.
So, we have time up our sleeves to save a little more money and continue to look. The $14000 First Home Owners Grant is set to expire on June 30 when it will revert back to $7000. There's speculation about whether or not the $14000 will be continued or not. Hopefully for us it will be but it might also mean the prices of houses will drop because even more people will be pushed out of the market making room for us. It will mean however that we will need more savings.
Sometimes I wonder if it's really all worth it. Everyone keeps telling me it is so I'll have to believe them.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
I haven't had much of a chance to update this blog and there's not really been a lot to report. Life has been busy so searching for a possible new home has been limited to looking only at those that other people have found for me. It's almost a full time job in itself what with the internet searches, calling agents, arranging to view, making a list of the pros and cons of it, finding time to meet with the mortgage broker.
Right now I'm trying to search the real estate sites but it just gets too huge and too big and each time I find a house I think looks ok it seems that it has a contract slapped on it pretty quickly. I need to give up work in order to find a house to buy.
Right now I'm trying to search the real estate sites but it just gets too huge and too big and each time I find a house I think looks ok it seems that it has a contract slapped on it pretty quickly. I need to give up work in order to find a house to buy.
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Lay of the Land
Even though we had 4 properties lined up to view we only made it to two of them, the early one and the late one. We missed those in between because they fell during child ferrying time and we got caught in traffic due to road works.
The first one; lovely aspect, great entertaining area and yard, room downstairs for a teenage brat but not a lot of room upstairs. It was kind of cramped but definitely liveable and we could of course make it work. Many people live in much smaller homes quite happily. The backyard was raised and in a heavy downpour we imagine that the area downstairs gets a wee bit waterlogged. The house was currently rented to tenants who had moved in not knowing the place would be placed on the market the week after they signed the lease. I felt sorry for them - I've been in their situation and they've got two small children so moving again so soon would be a major pain in the rear.
The second one; This was a lovely home and we could definitely see ourselves living in it. The backyard was perfect - mango tree, pool, lush lawns etc. It had plenty of room downstairs and had been finished off quite nicely. Upstairs was smallish but a lot more roomy than the one we'd seen this morning. It had been nicely decorated but not quite perfectly finished. 3 bedrooms up, a rumpus and another room downstairs. Large garage and garden storage shed. This one was a possibility. It was also tenanted and the tenants told a similar story - they had moved in believing the house was for sale OR lease. They signed a lease believing it to be end of story but no, they've put up with open home inspections since they moved in in December. He wasn't above pointing out all the things that are wrong with it which was great but I suspect his motive was to put people off so they could at least see out their lease before it sold. This house had an asking price of about $40 000 more than the one mentioned above.
In both cases we wondered why the tenants themselves didn't offer to buy the homes. The rent they were paying would be slightly less than their repayments would be. I only asked this of the tenants in the second house. He and his wife were both in the army and were probably getting their rent heavily subsidised. They told us they couldn't afford to buy. They were in their late twenties and expecting their first baby. Maybe they were right and the timing just doesn't work for them. I ask myself over and over why I hadn't offered to buy some of the homes I've lived in that have been put up for sale while I've been renting them - I wasn't ready to take that leap in that point in my life. On all of those occasions though I was a single parent and it all seemed too frightening for me.
The same real estate agent was handling both these homes. He obviously doesn't need to be pushing to make sales at the moment. While he was very nice and polite he seemed a little indifferent to me. He answered our questions but usually with one word answers. The second house apparently had a few offers in on it and we're not ready to "get in quick" as he suggested so this one will slip through our fingers - unless of course none of the current offers come to anything and it remains on the market.
The first one; lovely aspect, great entertaining area and yard, room downstairs for a teenage brat but not a lot of room upstairs. It was kind of cramped but definitely liveable and we could of course make it work. Many people live in much smaller homes quite happily. The backyard was raised and in a heavy downpour we imagine that the area downstairs gets a wee bit waterlogged. The house was currently rented to tenants who had moved in not knowing the place would be placed on the market the week after they signed the lease. I felt sorry for them - I've been in their situation and they've got two small children so moving again so soon would be a major pain in the rear.
The second one; This was a lovely home and we could definitely see ourselves living in it. The backyard was perfect - mango tree, pool, lush lawns etc. It had plenty of room downstairs and had been finished off quite nicely. Upstairs was smallish but a lot more roomy than the one we'd seen this morning. It had been nicely decorated but not quite perfectly finished. 3 bedrooms up, a rumpus and another room downstairs. Large garage and garden storage shed. This one was a possibility. It was also tenanted and the tenants told a similar story - they had moved in believing the house was for sale OR lease. They signed a lease believing it to be end of story but no, they've put up with open home inspections since they moved in in December. He wasn't above pointing out all the things that are wrong with it which was great but I suspect his motive was to put people off so they could at least see out their lease before it sold. This house had an asking price of about $40 000 more than the one mentioned above.
In both cases we wondered why the tenants themselves didn't offer to buy the homes. The rent they were paying would be slightly less than their repayments would be. I only asked this of the tenants in the second house. He and his wife were both in the army and were probably getting their rent heavily subsidised. They told us they couldn't afford to buy. They were in their late twenties and expecting their first baby. Maybe they were right and the timing just doesn't work for them. I ask myself over and over why I hadn't offered to buy some of the homes I've lived in that have been put up for sale while I've been renting them - I wasn't ready to take that leap in that point in my life. On all of those occasions though I was a single parent and it all seemed too frightening for me.
The same real estate agent was handling both these homes. He obviously doesn't need to be pushing to make sales at the moment. While he was very nice and polite he seemed a little indifferent to me. He answered our questions but usually with one word answers. The second house apparently had a few offers in on it and we're not ready to "get in quick" as he suggested so this one will slip through our fingers - unless of course none of the current offers come to anything and it remains on the market.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Do I know anything yet?
Last night we met with the mortgage broker once again so she could explain all the different loan products available to us and what they would mean in terms of repayments, interest, up front costs etc. I can only say that I am still a little confused because the type of loan used can make a great difference to the repayment amounts. What is in our favour right now is that there has been an interest rate drop. If we'd taken a loan last week we would have been paying out $500 per month more than if we took one out tomorrow. We haven't yet applied for a loan but she recommends getting pre-approval to improve our negotiating power should we find a house we're interested in. She advised us to make sure we fully understood everything though before we even went ahead with pre-approval.
She explained how much of a difference to the market first home buyers with no deposit can make to the prices of homes. Those without a deposit have a greatly reduced borrowing capacity effectively driving them out of the market, at least here in Brisbane. But if everyone was to borrow without a deposit and they were the only buyers around the prices would be pushed back to a more realistic value. She does not recommend borrowing without any kind of deposit however.
I like this woman, she's gutsy and honest and has been in the business for many years. She's a single parent of four children and does not own her own home. She explained to us that she too did not want to be in a position of not being able to put food on the table for her children just to own a home. Her two eldest have now, just this year, left home meaning she could possibly afford to buy a home sometime this year because she wouldn't need something as large (and more expensive) with only two of them left at home. Apparently the fact that she does not own her own home puts a lot of people off because they don't believe she can understand how it works. As she explained, she doesn't need to own a home to understand it. She has advised many of her potential customers not to buy a home right when they've wanted to because she could see the kind of precarious situation they would be in if they did.
So, she's going to put a lot of information down on paper for us so we can see exactly how we would stand and what each different loan product would mean to us personally given our own unique circumstances. She didn't recommend to us the lenders that pay her the highest commission because in her opinion, they weren't right for us.
We gave her a glass of wine while she was here and we laughed a bit and shared our stories of raising teenage girls but what do I like most about her? Well, she doesn't wear power suits or make up, she uses a lap top that looks like it's seen better days, keys are missing and she has post it notes slapped all over it. Her reasoning - why dump something that still works just fine, it'll only take up precious land space. She's not at all pushy but knows her stuff inside out. She's the sort of person we could remain friends with even if we never buy a house.
So, we're still no closer to buying and we're still in no rush to do so. We'll do it if and when we feel we're completely ready. We'll continue to inspect homes so we can feel we have given ourselves an opportunity to know whether we're getting value for money. Tomorrow is Saturday and we have four homes lined up to inspect and already I'm exhausted by the prospect.
She explained how much of a difference to the market first home buyers with no deposit can make to the prices of homes. Those without a deposit have a greatly reduced borrowing capacity effectively driving them out of the market, at least here in Brisbane. But if everyone was to borrow without a deposit and they were the only buyers around the prices would be pushed back to a more realistic value. She does not recommend borrowing without any kind of deposit however.
I like this woman, she's gutsy and honest and has been in the business for many years. She's a single parent of four children and does not own her own home. She explained to us that she too did not want to be in a position of not being able to put food on the table for her children just to own a home. Her two eldest have now, just this year, left home meaning she could possibly afford to buy a home sometime this year because she wouldn't need something as large (and more expensive) with only two of them left at home. Apparently the fact that she does not own her own home puts a lot of people off because they don't believe she can understand how it works. As she explained, she doesn't need to own a home to understand it. She has advised many of her potential customers not to buy a home right when they've wanted to because she could see the kind of precarious situation they would be in if they did.
So, she's going to put a lot of information down on paper for us so we can see exactly how we would stand and what each different loan product would mean to us personally given our own unique circumstances. She didn't recommend to us the lenders that pay her the highest commission because in her opinion, they weren't right for us.
We gave her a glass of wine while she was here and we laughed a bit and shared our stories of raising teenage girls but what do I like most about her? Well, she doesn't wear power suits or make up, she uses a lap top that looks like it's seen better days, keys are missing and she has post it notes slapped all over it. Her reasoning - why dump something that still works just fine, it'll only take up precious land space. She's not at all pushy but knows her stuff inside out. She's the sort of person we could remain friends with even if we never buy a house.
So, we're still no closer to buying and we're still in no rush to do so. We'll do it if and when we feel we're completely ready. We'll continue to inspect homes so we can feel we have given ourselves an opportunity to know whether we're getting value for money. Tomorrow is Saturday and we have four homes lined up to inspect and already I'm exhausted by the prospect.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
How much will he make?
Today I realised I would have some spare time after finishing work and so called my new first best friend, Mr Real Estate Agent, to ask him if he could possibly arrange a viewing of the house with three offers on it. I told him I could make it there by 4.45PM. At first he said "oh no, there's no way I can make it there by then, I would be killing myself to get there". I told him that was fine, no big deal, I'd just try to make it to the open house Saturday then, even though the time clashes with my daughter's guitar lessons. Suddenly he backtracked - "let me just take another look at my diary".
There was a slight pause and then he came back and said "no, I can't make it by then but I could make it at 4.15PM". That didn't suit me and I said so. I had to pick up a kid from daycare and by the time I left work and did that there would be no way I'd make it to the house by then. He has such a knack of sounding so genuinely disappointed that I almost wanted to tell him that I would kill myself to make it there in time for him. I stopped myself from doing so and instead casually said that I'd just see him at open inspection. Of course he then told me that he would be able to meet me anytime Saturday if I couldn't make it to open inspection and all I had to do was call him and he'd come running. This man is so good I almost want to make him change his plans every day just to see how willing he really is to make a sale.
There was a slight pause and then he came back and said "no, I can't make it by then but I could make it at 4.15PM". That didn't suit me and I said so. I had to pick up a kid from daycare and by the time I left work and did that there would be no way I'd make it to the house by then. He has such a knack of sounding so genuinely disappointed that I almost wanted to tell him that I would kill myself to make it there in time for him. I stopped myself from doing so and instead casually said that I'd just see him at open inspection. Of course he then told me that he would be able to meet me anytime Saturday if I couldn't make it to open inspection and all I had to do was call him and he'd come running. This man is so good I almost want to make him change his plans every day just to see how willing he really is to make a sale.
My friend and I
Yesterday I had two calls from my new first best friend, Mr Real Estate Agent. The first time he left me a message while I was waiting in the ED to have the blood clot in my arm looked at - a result of a badly inserted cannula to deliver the IV anti-biotics I had a week ago.
I didn't bother to call him back, at least not immediately. I didn't get a chance to do it later either because he called me again about two hours after that first message. He wanted to know which night we had arranged to view this house that apparently already has three offers on it. I reminded him that we hadn't made any plans and that getting there weeknights was hard. He sounded genuinely upset, as though I had broken his heart because we wouldn't get to meet before the weekend. I almost wanted to give him a big hug through the phone and tell him it was all going to be ok. Poor baby!
What I did do however was tell him that if it looked like we'd be able to make it before the open house inspection on the weekend that we'd most certainly contact him. He seemed satisfied with this but somehow I still think I'll hear from him again before then. He's a man on a mission and he wants to make a sale ...soon!
Meanwhile, check out the beautiful decor in this home. My lovely friend Carla sent this link to me. I think she is just itching to get to something with a sledgehammer and she has her eyes on that bathroom!
I didn't bother to call him back, at least not immediately. I didn't get a chance to do it later either because he called me again about two hours after that first message. He wanted to know which night we had arranged to view this house that apparently already has three offers on it. I reminded him that we hadn't made any plans and that getting there weeknights was hard. He sounded genuinely upset, as though I had broken his heart because we wouldn't get to meet before the weekend. I almost wanted to give him a big hug through the phone and tell him it was all going to be ok. Poor baby!
What I did do however was tell him that if it looked like we'd be able to make it before the open house inspection on the weekend that we'd most certainly contact him. He seemed satisfied with this but somehow I still think I'll hear from him again before then. He's a man on a mission and he wants to make a sale ...soon!
Meanwhile, check out the beautiful decor in this home. My lovely friend Carla sent this link to me. I think she is just itching to get to something with a sledgehammer and she has her eyes on that bathroom!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Who are these people who sell property?
Now we have to learn how to deal with Real Estate agents and how to make the most of realestate.com.au. Right now there seem to be millions of houses for sale and if we were to try and look at each house that took our fancy or looked even slightly as though it fit our criteria we'd be doing nothing but looking at houses.
This morning, very early, before heading off to the gym prior to going to work I sat and trawled the real estate web site while sipping my cup of morning tea. I did what I always take as the easy option and just hit the "contact agent" link to ask when the next open house would be on three homes I was interested in seeing. Only one of the agents bothered to call me and he seemed very "enthusiastic". An American with a perfect explanation and response for everything. The house appears, by all the pictures, to be huge - five bedrooms, two bathrooms, 3 car garages, a brand new kitchen etc. I know by experience already that pictures can be deceiving so I'm not going to trust that the pictures tell the whole story. The agent informed me that there was indeed an open home this coming weekend. "Great" I said "see you there" believing that to be the end of the conversation. In his drawl he said oh so politely "Michelle, tell me what it is you're looking for in a house". I told him - we'd prefer it to be 3 bedrooms at least and with any luck, have a teenage retreat downstairs for a girl who likes to play several musical instruments very loudly. We also wanted it to be "ready to live in", decor unimportant but it had to need no immediate construction work done to it. That's something we have neither the time nor the money for right now. Functional and ugly we can live with and change as we go but falling down is not an option for us.
The agent, of course, quickly reminded me that the home I had enquired about had all of those features. This I already knew from it's description and I told him so. He kept me on the line by telling me he really prefers to do "private viewings" and just happened to have told the owner of the home "not to be home tonight" because he was showing some others through and asked me if I could make it then. Since weekday evenings are not good for us I politely declined. He kept pushing and then told me that the house already had three offers on it and it had only been on the market for three weeks and that with it being exactly what I want I'd have to be quick about getting in there and making an offer of at least "blah".
I agreed to try and meet him this evening and would call him later after I had spoken to my husband. I got busy with work and had not yet got around to calling Ben when the agent called me again only a couple of hours later. I almost had to tell him to shut up so I could hang up and call my husband as I had not yet had a chance to do so. Ben agreed to try to make it also but his work is unpredictable. I called the agent back and relayed this newest informatin to him. He sounded so pleased, as though it was the thing he'd been waiting to hear all his life.
Later, after I had collected the small one from kindy and arrived home Ben called me to tell me he just didn't think he'd get out of work in time so I called the lovely agent back to apologise and tell him it just wasn't going to work out for us tonight. He's my long lost friend now and even pretended to care when I whined about how much of a brat my kid had been during the drive home from kindy. He kind of reminded me of a real estate agent handling the sale of a home I once rented. He wanted to bring some potential buyers through at 7AM and to butter me up offered to drive my then 7 year old daughter to school. I didn't know this guy from a bar of soap and there was no way I was going to allow him to drive her to school. I did allow him to show the people through but I did alter our routine to accommodate them.
So situation is - Saturday, three homes to inspect, one kid to get to guitar lessons in amongst all that and another visit with the mortgage broker (on her first visit I was struck down by the side effects of a terrible infection and took almost nothing in). Then Sunday I have to jet off to the far north for work so house hunting will, thankfully, be on hold for a week.
I'll report back on the events of Saturday when they get here.
Oh and a PS to this is that just today alone I received over $1000 worth of bills in the post. That puts us one step behind when it comes to saving anything in the next few weeks.
This morning, very early, before heading off to the gym prior to going to work I sat and trawled the real estate web site while sipping my cup of morning tea. I did what I always take as the easy option and just hit the "contact agent" link to ask when the next open house would be on three homes I was interested in seeing. Only one of the agents bothered to call me and he seemed very "enthusiastic". An American with a perfect explanation and response for everything. The house appears, by all the pictures, to be huge - five bedrooms, two bathrooms, 3 car garages, a brand new kitchen etc. I know by experience already that pictures can be deceiving so I'm not going to trust that the pictures tell the whole story. The agent informed me that there was indeed an open home this coming weekend. "Great" I said "see you there" believing that to be the end of the conversation. In his drawl he said oh so politely "Michelle, tell me what it is you're looking for in a house". I told him - we'd prefer it to be 3 bedrooms at least and with any luck, have a teenage retreat downstairs for a girl who likes to play several musical instruments very loudly. We also wanted it to be "ready to live in", decor unimportant but it had to need no immediate construction work done to it. That's something we have neither the time nor the money for right now. Functional and ugly we can live with and change as we go but falling down is not an option for us.
The agent, of course, quickly reminded me that the home I had enquired about had all of those features. This I already knew from it's description and I told him so. He kept me on the line by telling me he really prefers to do "private viewings" and just happened to have told the owner of the home "not to be home tonight" because he was showing some others through and asked me if I could make it then. Since weekday evenings are not good for us I politely declined. He kept pushing and then told me that the house already had three offers on it and it had only been on the market for three weeks and that with it being exactly what I want I'd have to be quick about getting in there and making an offer of at least "blah".
I agreed to try and meet him this evening and would call him later after I had spoken to my husband. I got busy with work and had not yet got around to calling Ben when the agent called me again only a couple of hours later. I almost had to tell him to shut up so I could hang up and call my husband as I had not yet had a chance to do so. Ben agreed to try to make it also but his work is unpredictable. I called the agent back and relayed this newest informatin to him. He sounded so pleased, as though it was the thing he'd been waiting to hear all his life.
Later, after I had collected the small one from kindy and arrived home Ben called me to tell me he just didn't think he'd get out of work in time so I called the lovely agent back to apologise and tell him it just wasn't going to work out for us tonight. He's my long lost friend now and even pretended to care when I whined about how much of a brat my kid had been during the drive home from kindy. He kind of reminded me of a real estate agent handling the sale of a home I once rented. He wanted to bring some potential buyers through at 7AM and to butter me up offered to drive my then 7 year old daughter to school. I didn't know this guy from a bar of soap and there was no way I was going to allow him to drive her to school. I did allow him to show the people through but I did alter our routine to accommodate them.
So situation is - Saturday, three homes to inspect, one kid to get to guitar lessons in amongst all that and another visit with the mortgage broker (on her first visit I was struck down by the side effects of a terrible infection and took almost nothing in). Then Sunday I have to jet off to the far north for work so house hunting will, thankfully, be on hold for a week.
I'll report back on the events of Saturday when they get here.
Oh and a PS to this is that just today alone I received over $1000 worth of bills in the post. That puts us one step behind when it comes to saving anything in the next few weeks.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The hunt begins
My husband and I have finally begun the daunting task of looking at buying a house. Neither of us have ever owned one before and we're both what could be considered middle age if one was to live until 80 or so.
I lived in a house once owned by my daughter's father. I had no legal or monetary interest in that home but still I got the feeling of what it is like to be a home owner. That was many years ago and he and I seperated about two years after he purchased that property. It was pretty spectacular though - 126 acres of land which had several natural creeks running through it and government owned, protected land behind it. My daughter was born into that home and on that property she was introduced to bush walks and the peace and quiet that living in such a place can bring. She's too young to remember it of course but aside from our rocky relationship and the people living nearby it was like living in our own private slice of paradise.
Problem is my husband and I have never been in a position to buy a home before and because of that we've pretty much ignored the real estate market. Our focus has been on rentals and what kind of bang you get for your buck there. We've been fortunate enough to stay in the one rental home for 8 years. Some may think that's a bit sad and unfortunate but for us it's provided a stable home with stable rent. Our landlord isn't always diligent about things but we have an unspoken, unwritten deal - we fix the things we can and only call him for the things we can't take care of. It works all around as far as business deals go which renting is. It's purely and simply a business deal. You pay for a service (where all the tax benefits go to the landlord) while the landlord sits on a property that continues to increase in value while someone pays it off for him. Later he might decide to sell it for a profit or he might decide never to sell and use the equity to fund further investments.
It's never particularly been my "dream" to own my own home - not like it has for others or in the usual sense one might consider when it comes to entering into a debt contract for pretty much the rest of your life. There are advantages to renting that never come with home ownership. For example if something goes terribly wrong you're not responsible, unless of course you were the one who caused the damage. If things get tough you can downsize pretty easily or if you decide you're sick of the house you live in you just move out and find somewhere else. There's no rates and no building insurance. Just one fixed rate each week.
A few years ago we could barely afford to pay our rent (which was well below market value) and wondered almost daily where we'd find the money to buy the food to feed our children. Things have improved since then; my husband has a better paying job; I've gone back to work but for less money than I was earning 4 years ago (them's the breaks) but we've managed to work hard at saving a little. Our savings have also been boosted by small amounts from my father's estate. Not a lot but enough to get us to the point where investing it in a home might be a reality.
We had no idea where to start really so we did it by asking direct questions of other people who had bought homes. We asked about the pitfalls and the positives; what to look for; how much is too much; what represents good value; what type of location should we look for etc. A work colleague of mine has been buying and selling property for years now and she has been an incredible source of information. She's willingly helped me by sending me lists of things to look for when inspecting a property for sale; how to negotiate on the price; what clauses to include in a contract. Still, even armed with all that information it's hard to know exactly where to begin. The more research one does the more daunting the task seems to be. I keep reminding myself that it can't be that difficult because everyone is buying a house these days and most of the time it seems to go quite smoothly.
We spoke to some people who specialise in investment properties. They seemed so positive and made it sound so simple but we were bamboozled by the information and decided to just push it to the back of our minds. We weren't sure if that was for us. We then spoke to a local mortgage broker and also my brother (who is a mortgage broker but not local). It was beginning to sound as if buying a place to live in might be feasible for us, especially given the current state of affairs in relation to interest rates etc.
So we began to seriously start looking at what was around for the money we could reasonably afford without starving at the same time. So far we've looked at four properties and I don't think it's any where near enough to give us any real indication of what represents real value. All four have been in the same price range and all four have been vastly different in what they have to offer for that price. One was too small and eaten out with white ants (one would never know about either of these things by looking at the photos), one needed so much repair work done to make it safe it was immediately wiped off the list, the other two could be moved right into but would need work later to make them more attractive/functional. One of those was just too far away and would make work and school more stressful than it already was. The plan is not to enter into anything that is going to make life unbearable and wish we'd never done it.
What I plan to do on this blog is to record my account of our search for a house and the things we've learned along the way. Hopefully I'll find the time to update it regularly and with a bit of luck this information may be read by someone else doing the same things as us - learning about an industry which can suck dry the uneducated.
I lived in a house once owned by my daughter's father. I had no legal or monetary interest in that home but still I got the feeling of what it is like to be a home owner. That was many years ago and he and I seperated about two years after he purchased that property. It was pretty spectacular though - 126 acres of land which had several natural creeks running through it and government owned, protected land behind it. My daughter was born into that home and on that property she was introduced to bush walks and the peace and quiet that living in such a place can bring. She's too young to remember it of course but aside from our rocky relationship and the people living nearby it was like living in our own private slice of paradise.
Problem is my husband and I have never been in a position to buy a home before and because of that we've pretty much ignored the real estate market. Our focus has been on rentals and what kind of bang you get for your buck there. We've been fortunate enough to stay in the one rental home for 8 years. Some may think that's a bit sad and unfortunate but for us it's provided a stable home with stable rent. Our landlord isn't always diligent about things but we have an unspoken, unwritten deal - we fix the things we can and only call him for the things we can't take care of. It works all around as far as business deals go which renting is. It's purely and simply a business deal. You pay for a service (where all the tax benefits go to the landlord) while the landlord sits on a property that continues to increase in value while someone pays it off for him. Later he might decide to sell it for a profit or he might decide never to sell and use the equity to fund further investments.
It's never particularly been my "dream" to own my own home - not like it has for others or in the usual sense one might consider when it comes to entering into a debt contract for pretty much the rest of your life. There are advantages to renting that never come with home ownership. For example if something goes terribly wrong you're not responsible, unless of course you were the one who caused the damage. If things get tough you can downsize pretty easily or if you decide you're sick of the house you live in you just move out and find somewhere else. There's no rates and no building insurance. Just one fixed rate each week.
A few years ago we could barely afford to pay our rent (which was well below market value) and wondered almost daily where we'd find the money to buy the food to feed our children. Things have improved since then; my husband has a better paying job; I've gone back to work but for less money than I was earning 4 years ago (them's the breaks) but we've managed to work hard at saving a little. Our savings have also been boosted by small amounts from my father's estate. Not a lot but enough to get us to the point where investing it in a home might be a reality.
We had no idea where to start really so we did it by asking direct questions of other people who had bought homes. We asked about the pitfalls and the positives; what to look for; how much is too much; what represents good value; what type of location should we look for etc. A work colleague of mine has been buying and selling property for years now and she has been an incredible source of information. She's willingly helped me by sending me lists of things to look for when inspecting a property for sale; how to negotiate on the price; what clauses to include in a contract. Still, even armed with all that information it's hard to know exactly where to begin. The more research one does the more daunting the task seems to be. I keep reminding myself that it can't be that difficult because everyone is buying a house these days and most of the time it seems to go quite smoothly.
We spoke to some people who specialise in investment properties. They seemed so positive and made it sound so simple but we were bamboozled by the information and decided to just push it to the back of our minds. We weren't sure if that was for us. We then spoke to a local mortgage broker and also my brother (who is a mortgage broker but not local). It was beginning to sound as if buying a place to live in might be feasible for us, especially given the current state of affairs in relation to interest rates etc.
So we began to seriously start looking at what was around for the money we could reasonably afford without starving at the same time. So far we've looked at four properties and I don't think it's any where near enough to give us any real indication of what represents real value. All four have been in the same price range and all four have been vastly different in what they have to offer for that price. One was too small and eaten out with white ants (one would never know about either of these things by looking at the photos), one needed so much repair work done to make it safe it was immediately wiped off the list, the other two could be moved right into but would need work later to make them more attractive/functional. One of those was just too far away and would make work and school more stressful than it already was. The plan is not to enter into anything that is going to make life unbearable and wish we'd never done it.
What I plan to do on this blog is to record my account of our search for a house and the things we've learned along the way. Hopefully I'll find the time to update it regularly and with a bit of luck this information may be read by someone else doing the same things as us - learning about an industry which can suck dry the uneducated.
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