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| hallway |
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| main bedroom |
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| bedroom 3 |
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| bedroom 4 |
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| laundry/toilet area |
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| living room |
2nd weekend of home ownership (18 & 19 Feb)
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Not really an eventful week. Still no electricity "connected" at the property didn't hinder the floor sanding getting done tho. So, we couldn't walk on the floors really until Friday 17 Feb so we stayed away from the house and concentrated on packing up our unit. The first time we saw the floors was the Sunday as we had to stay at the house so I could meet with Energex on the Monday to connect the electricity. The floors turned out amazingly.......
First weekend working on the new abode (11 & 12 Feb)
Sunday 26 February 2012
A very overdue update...
So, the weekend of settlement happened a little over 2 weeks ago now but this event will be etched on my memory forever!
The first hurdle of the weekend was NO POWER! Thanks to Energex being right on time for their 5 hour window between 1pm-5pm, I missed the crucial visit by them to test the power and switch it back on. This testing is only a requirement in Queensland - typical police state Queensland!
So our first night in our new house was rather eventful without power. What else were we to do but go down to Manly Hotel and celebrate with an old friend of Glen's who lives in the area and conveniently on the way from the Manly train station to the pub.
The next morning - ouch, I had a hangover... great first start to the weekend of work. After discovering a 24 hour bakery for breakfast it was on to working on the house.
First task - rip up all the carpets etc ready for the floor sanding to start on Monday.
The carpet was easy.
We decided to rip up the lino in the toilet and laundry area too - that was easy.
The lino floor in the kitchen was easy...... well the first layer was. Yes, we discovered a 2nd layer of lino tiles underneath the existing lino. We discovered this late Saturday when we were running out of light. This 2nd layer was actually stuck straight onto the wooden floorboards. Uuuurgh!!
The next morning, after a trip to Bunnings & after early breakfast at the 24 hour bakery we were back at the house to finish off. It took approximately 6 hours to get these lino tiles off. In the end the night came and we were saved by our fantastic new neighbour. He gave us a big flourescent light & smaller light on an extension lead from his place. He also gave us a big handled floor scraper that he sharpened for us. (He's a waterproofer so he had all the right tools - thank god!!)
Here's some pics of our massive task - ooooohh nasty
So, the weekend of settlement happened a little over 2 weeks ago now but this event will be etched on my memory forever!
The first hurdle of the weekend was NO POWER! Thanks to Energex being right on time for their 5 hour window between 1pm-5pm, I missed the crucial visit by them to test the power and switch it back on. This testing is only a requirement in Queensland - typical police state Queensland!
So our first night in our new house was rather eventful without power. What else were we to do but go down to Manly Hotel and celebrate with an old friend of Glen's who lives in the area and conveniently on the way from the Manly train station to the pub.
The next morning - ouch, I had a hangover... great first start to the weekend of work. After discovering a 24 hour bakery for breakfast it was on to working on the house.
First task - rip up all the carpets etc ready for the floor sanding to start on Monday.
The carpet was easy.
We decided to rip up the lino in the toilet and laundry area too - that was easy.
The lino floor in the kitchen was easy...... well the first layer was. Yes, we discovered a 2nd layer of lino tiles underneath the existing lino. We discovered this late Saturday when we were running out of light. This 2nd layer was actually stuck straight onto the wooden floorboards. Uuuurgh!!
The next morning, after a trip to Bunnings & after early breakfast at the 24 hour bakery we were back at the house to finish off. It took approximately 6 hours to get these lino tiles off. In the end the night came and we were saved by our fantastic new neighbour. He gave us a big flourescent light & smaller light on an extension lead from his place. He also gave us a big handled floor scraper that he sharpened for us. (He's a waterproofer so he had all the right tools - thank god!!)
Here's some pics of our massive task - ooooohh nasty
 |
| wow, pretty colours |
 |
| brown part shows part of the tiles off |
 |
| demolishing pantry cabinet to make way for oven microwave & pull out pantry instead :) |
D-Day!!!!
Thursday 9 February 2012
Settlement day today. (10 Feb 2012)
Still waiting to hear whether a broken panel of glass has been fixed. Hmm, I wonder what is going to happen if it isn't fixed. Maybe late adjustment of settlement figures perhaps?
So when 3:30 swings past today we will be new home owners. How fun!
Still waiting to hear whether a broken panel of glass has been fixed. Hmm, I wonder what is going to happen if it isn't fixed. Maybe late adjustment of settlement figures perhaps?
So when 3:30 swings past today we will be new home owners. How fun!
What to do, what to do
Sunday 5 February 2012
OK, so now we have a house with insurance and are able to pay for it with a mortgage...... now comes the fun part - deciding what renovations to do. Unfortunately our grand ideas of building a deck on the back or getting a new kitchen or bathroom were blown as we needed to hand over a 20% deposit to the bank. Lucky the kitchen and bathroom are quite liveable for the moment.
So we needed to look at the little things that could make a big enough impact for now.
We both loved the wooden floors so of course we were going to get these polished. The idea of white walls with dark wood floors appealed to us. We didn't realise how many people asked us if we were going to get the whole house done. Our idea was to carpet the bedrooms and polish the rest of the house. Others had different perspectives. After changing our minds about 3 times we thought to go with the majority... so polished floors throughout it is then. We thought it would be a good idea to keep the possibility of a higher resale value. (I had read that one of the major things to keep in main when renovating is resale value!)
Glen got the local paper and called around to get some quotes. Variety of people with a variety of experience. Some people said they wouldn't be able to do a dark brown stain with the natural oil polish we wanted. This was a bit worrying as we were wondering why. One person quoted above $3,500 for the job and another guessed about $2,500. The quote we settled on was $2,900 from someone that met Glen at the property and measured up. The guy doing the floors also wants to bring his father back with him this weekend after our settlement as his Dad has more experience. The guy also wants to show us the stain on a test area before we go ahead with it. This is because the floor is a mixed hardwood so it will be different brown colours when sanded back and may give a different finish after the stain goes on. I think the area of wooden floors is a bit under 80sqm. Here is what they look like now - picture of the hallway looking back towards the dining room (where I am standing) and on to the living room.
I am so lucky that Mum & Dad have a wardrobe business so they are going to install wardrobes in 3 of the 4 bedrooms. Thanks Barry & Jackie! Also thank you for paying for our polished floors. That is a great help for us at the moment. We can therefore concentrate on buying the other things we need - like an oven! (Can you believe there is no oven in there at the moment!)
Another plan we have is to make something of the outdoor area for now until we can afford to build a lovely deck on the back of the house.
I think we will dig up the concrete parts and put some white pebbles down. Perhaps, if we can afford to, put up a shade cloth above the area so you can sit underneath.
Here is what it looks like at the moment. The door at the top of the ramp is our back door. The double door at the bottom of the ramp leads into a studio room that use to be a carport. Glen has ideas of making this his bar. I think that's a good idea too!
It is going to be great to use these pictures to compare before and after.
Glen has notes on what needs to be done outside. After our building inspection some things were brought to our attention. Maybe he will get on and blog about what needs to be done.
4 days till settlement...... how exciting!!
We both loved the wooden floors so of course we were going to get these polished. The idea of white walls with dark wood floors appealed to us. We didn't realise how many people asked us if we were going to get the whole house done. Our idea was to carpet the bedrooms and polish the rest of the house. Others had different perspectives. After changing our minds about 3 times we thought to go with the majority... so polished floors throughout it is then. We thought it would be a good idea to keep the possibility of a higher resale value. (I had read that one of the major things to keep in main when renovating is resale value!)
Glen got the local paper and called around to get some quotes. Variety of people with a variety of experience. Some people said they wouldn't be able to do a dark brown stain with the natural oil polish we wanted. This was a bit worrying as we were wondering why. One person quoted above $3,500 for the job and another guessed about $2,500. The quote we settled on was $2,900 from someone that met Glen at the property and measured up. The guy doing the floors also wants to bring his father back with him this weekend after our settlement as his Dad has more experience. The guy also wants to show us the stain on a test area before we go ahead with it. This is because the floor is a mixed hardwood so it will be different brown colours when sanded back and may give a different finish after the stain goes on. I think the area of wooden floors is a bit under 80sqm. Here is what they look like now - picture of the hallway looking back towards the dining room (where I am standing) and on to the living room.
Another plan we have is to make something of the outdoor area for now until we can afford to build a lovely deck on the back of the house.
I think we will dig up the concrete parts and put some white pebbles down. Perhaps, if we can afford to, put up a shade cloth above the area so you can sit underneath.
Here is what it looks like at the moment. The door at the top of the ramp is our back door. The double door at the bottom of the ramp leads into a studio room that use to be a carport. Glen has ideas of making this his bar. I think that's a good idea too!
We also want to either tile or lino the entry, the area near the backdoor/laundry and the toilet. It would be great to hear what other people like - lino or tiles. I wonder what is cheaper? Will need to start and research that soon.
Glen has notes on what needs to be done outside. After our building inspection some things were brought to our attention. Maybe he will get on and blog about what needs to be done.
4 days till settlement...... how exciting!!
Money money honey
Hopefully you would have already got a loan pre-approval from a bank
before making an offer on a property. I had previously had a mortgage
with ING so I had gone to their website to see if they would be willing
to give me money. There are loads of mortgage calculators on the web to
determine what you can afford to spend.
Once you know you can get the money to pay for a house you should go out and start to seriously look because once you find something you like you would really want to act straight away and make and offer and then sign a contract.
Now you have a signed contract then it's time to look at your mortgage options. I use Mortgage Choice because I have used them before and like the options they can give me. You could go directly to a bank but sometimes the mortgage broker can give you better packages that the bank doesn't give to the general public. There is a lot of information on the Mortgage Choice website too.
I use the Home Loan Calculators all the time. They came in very handy to try to work out our budget. After going over and over the figures we worked out that we were going to split our loan into part variable rate and part fixed rate. I had done some research and it looked like the prediction was that rates should stay around the same or continue to fall for the next 2 years. So we thought we would fix a part of our loan for 2 years. This would help us with our budget as we would know what the fixed loan repayments would be. The other part we would keep variable so we could have the option of putting as much money on the loan to help pay it off quicker but be able to have a redraw facility to take the extra money back.
When the mortgage broker gets back to you he will give you a table with a number of different lenders and information about each bank's products. I do not like paying any bank fees so asked the mortgage broker to include some of these as options for us. In the end we decided that ING had the simplest loan products as there are no fees and I was comfortable using ING as my previous mortgage was with them.
We were quoted 6.62% for the variable loan and 5.99% for the 2 year fixed loan and we were happy with that.
The first problem we came across was we were unable to get a 90% loan (with a 10% deposit). This was because the bank was unable to get mortgage insurance because Glen was still under probation on his job. It meant we would need to obtain a 80% loan (with a 20% deposit).
Normally this would mean we would have a problem and may have needed to pull out of the contract because we couldn't get finance. Luckily I had enough money from a previous sale that I could afford to hand over the 20% deposit. So so lucky but it would mean we wouldn't have extra money to do those bigger things we had in mind i.e. build a deck on the back of the house or put in a new kitchen or bathroom straight away. It did mean that our repayments were significantly less as our loan amount would be $276,000 instead of $310,500.
In the end we are paying an extra $100 a week on top of the rent we are currently paying. The mortgage should be easy to manage then. Mind you there are lots of extras that you need to pay when you own a property (rates, water, building insurance, maintenance).
It would be great to hear about how others decided on what mortgage to get. I think it is a really daunting experience that a lot of people don't understand. Banks have so many loan products and so many hidden fees that it all gets so confusing.
Once you know you can get the money to pay for a house you should go out and start to seriously look because once you find something you like you would really want to act straight away and make and offer and then sign a contract.
Now you have a signed contract then it's time to look at your mortgage options. I use Mortgage Choice because I have used them before and like the options they can give me. You could go directly to a bank but sometimes the mortgage broker can give you better packages that the bank doesn't give to the general public. There is a lot of information on the Mortgage Choice website too.
I use the Home Loan Calculators all the time. They came in very handy to try to work out our budget. After going over and over the figures we worked out that we were going to split our loan into part variable rate and part fixed rate. I had done some research and it looked like the prediction was that rates should stay around the same or continue to fall for the next 2 years. So we thought we would fix a part of our loan for 2 years. This would help us with our budget as we would know what the fixed loan repayments would be. The other part we would keep variable so we could have the option of putting as much money on the loan to help pay it off quicker but be able to have a redraw facility to take the extra money back.
When the mortgage broker gets back to you he will give you a table with a number of different lenders and information about each bank's products. I do not like paying any bank fees so asked the mortgage broker to include some of these as options for us. In the end we decided that ING had the simplest loan products as there are no fees and I was comfortable using ING as my previous mortgage was with them.
We were quoted 6.62% for the variable loan and 5.99% for the 2 year fixed loan and we were happy with that.
The first problem we came across was we were unable to get a 90% loan (with a 10% deposit). This was because the bank was unable to get mortgage insurance because Glen was still under probation on his job. It meant we would need to obtain a 80% loan (with a 20% deposit).
Normally this would mean we would have a problem and may have needed to pull out of the contract because we couldn't get finance. Luckily I had enough money from a previous sale that I could afford to hand over the 20% deposit. So so lucky but it would mean we wouldn't have extra money to do those bigger things we had in mind i.e. build a deck on the back of the house or put in a new kitchen or bathroom straight away. It did mean that our repayments were significantly less as our loan amount would be $276,000 instead of $310,500.
In the end we are paying an extra $100 a week on top of the rent we are currently paying. The mortgage should be easy to manage then. Mind you there are lots of extras that you need to pay when you own a property (rates, water, building insurance, maintenance).
It would be great to hear about how others decided on what mortgage to get. I think it is a really daunting experience that a lot of people don't understand. Banks have so many loan products and so many hidden fees that it all gets so confusing.
What happens next?
So, now you have a signed contract what should you do?
The number 1 thing to do when buying a house is actually something you wouldn't think of doing... that is insure your property. Yes, that's right building insurance. Now you are in a contract to purchase you have an interest in the property. What would happen if it burnt down before you getting access after settlement? So that is the first thing to do.
You will also need to find a solicitor who can do the searches and attend at settlement for you. Unfortunately the law firm where I work would have been too expensive to use. I did some research and got some quotes. I found some solicitors were extremely cheap with legal fees around the $500 mark. I thought it would be better to pay a little bit more and have someone that just does conveyances. I came across OnLine Conveyancing Centre. Their quote was $599 plus search fees of $429 plus a settlement attendance fee of $60. All up it would cost $1,088. So we were happy with that.
Next, talk about money.
The number 1 thing to do when buying a house is actually something you wouldn't think of doing... that is insure your property. Yes, that's right building insurance. Now you are in a contract to purchase you have an interest in the property. What would happen if it burnt down before you getting access after settlement? So that is the first thing to do.
You will also need to find a solicitor who can do the searches and attend at settlement for you. Unfortunately the law firm where I work would have been too expensive to use. I did some research and got some quotes. I found some solicitors were extremely cheap with legal fees around the $500 mark. I thought it would be better to pay a little bit more and have someone that just does conveyances. I came across OnLine Conveyancing Centre. Their quote was $599 plus search fees of $429 plus a settlement attendance fee of $60. All up it would cost $1,088. So we were happy with that.
Next, talk about money.
The endless search and decisions
Saturday 4 February 2012
We had decided that our next move was going to be to a house. On Saturday 3 December 2011 we planned to have a look at properties around the Wynnum Manly area which is located about 16km east of Brisbane.
Nat had made a list of sales and a few rentals as well. We still weren't sure whether we could afford to buy.
After looking at some rental houses we had made up our mind that our next move was going to last a while and not for just a year or two. So we concentrated on what was for sale. We saw a mix of new and old houses but loved the character and features in the older houses. There were some houses that we just could not afford so settled on looking at properties under $400,000. Nat had already done a lot of research on properties in the area so we knew it was possible to get a house under this price.
It was quite funny as the house we have ended up buying was in fact the first one we looked at!
Here it is.
It was listed for an asking price of $370,000. So it was in our price range. The best bits about the property were:
We were lucky as it was the first opening of the property. No one else had turned up to the opening while we were there. We were actually there from the beginning to the end of the opening so we knew no one else had looked at it then. So we were first in to make an offer.
On Monday Nat got in touch with the real estate agent to get a copy of the contract. It was for sale by The Public Trustee. A lot of people said this was a good thing because you can pick up a great bargain as they just want properties sold. With this in mind, the next day, we put in an offer of $330,000. This was of course rejected. You must start lower otherwise you have nothing to work with.
Our next offer was what we thought the property was worth. We made the offer of $345,000 which was accepted with a 60 day settlement term. The longer settlement term worked well for us as we still had a rental unit till mid-March.
We met with the agent and signed the contract. SOLD!!!!!!
Nat had made a list of sales and a few rentals as well. We still weren't sure whether we could afford to buy.
After looking at some rental houses we had made up our mind that our next move was going to last a while and not for just a year or two. So we concentrated on what was for sale. We saw a mix of new and old houses but loved the character and features in the older houses. There were some houses that we just could not afford so settled on looking at properties under $400,000. Nat had already done a lot of research on properties in the area so we knew it was possible to get a house under this price.
It was quite funny as the house we have ended up buying was in fact the first one we looked at!
Here it is.
It was listed for an asking price of $370,000. So it was in our price range. The best bits about the property were:
- it was a 4 bedroom house - so lots of space
- the trees in the backyard
- had character
- had a unique style
- we could make it our own
We were lucky as it was the first opening of the property. No one else had turned up to the opening while we were there. We were actually there from the beginning to the end of the opening so we knew no one else had looked at it then. So we were first in to make an offer.
On Monday Nat got in touch with the real estate agent to get a copy of the contract. It was for sale by The Public Trustee. A lot of people said this was a good thing because you can pick up a great bargain as they just want properties sold. With this in mind, the next day, we put in an offer of $330,000. This was of course rejected. You must start lower otherwise you have nothing to work with.
Our next offer was what we thought the property was worth. We made the offer of $345,000 which was accepted with a 60 day settlement term. The longer settlement term worked well for us as we still had a rental unit till mid-March.
We met with the agent and signed the contract. SOLD!!!!!!
Our new house
Welcome!
To fill you in, towards the end of December 2011 we made an offer on a 4 bedroom house in Wynnum, Qld and it was accepted!!
The purpose of this blog is to record the struggles faced and achievements made. I think it will also be a good place to get advice from others (I hope we have followers).
I had better get cracking as there is lots to fill in since we made our offer ... only 5 days till settlement now.
To fill you in, towards the end of December 2011 we made an offer on a 4 bedroom house in Wynnum, Qld and it was accepted!!
The purpose of this blog is to record the struggles faced and achievements made. I think it will also be a good place to get advice from others (I hope we have followers).
I had better get cracking as there is lots to fill in since we made our offer ... only 5 days till settlement now.
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