A new house

My house settled today.

I nearly forgot until I received an sms in the afternoon from my conveyancer after she'd attended settlement at 3pm saying 'Congratulations'.  Speaking of which, I don't remember last time paying so much for my conveyancer.  This one amounted to approx $1100.

I went for the settlement inspection last Friday and finally saw the inside of the house.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was meant to look for as this was the first settlement inspection that I had done.  Poked my head around, checked to see if the appliances were working, took photos.  Spoke to the vendor and found out it had been built around the 1950s, he had been living in it for 40 years and had done an extension.  Some of the kitchen cupboards were about to fall off, and the bedrooms didn't look too good.

Kitchen, dining area (extension)

Upstairs entering straight into the main bedroom

Rundown bedroom

Family room

Master Ensuite

Main bathroom

I don't think it will last too much longer... need to stop dragging feet...I guess I should slowly start the building process.

Thank God for - loan

Rather than always focusing on the stressors, I need to remember the blessings.

The blessing of being able to buy the house.

The timing of the purchases of the 2 houses according to God's perfect timing.  The house was auctioned at the right time before P's settlement so that he could put me down as a nominee for his purchase.

I finally decided to submit a loan application last week, not expecting anything.  I had to cancel my credit card to reduce my liabilities.  I also realised that my upcoming holiday was not covered by insurance as I hadn't spent the required $500 so I quickly had to add on a meal to my flight before cancelling my card.  Also had to check that I would still be covered even though I've cancelled my credit card, which I am.

Yesterday I got a call saying that I did have a loan approved - thank God!

Tighter lending policies

It didn't take long for stress to start.

Once again I'm going through the process of getting a loan.

This time round, I know what I need to do, however I've come up against a new frustrating barrier - I can't get a loan!  The government has changed the lending criteria, hence, it is now increasingly difficult to get a loan.  Some of the changes include rental income being discounted by 20%, interest rates are buffered at around 7% even though they are currently at an all time low, monthly expenses are determined according to income, so it assumes that the more you earn, the more you spend, even if that is not the case.  All this has led to a decrease in my borrow capacity due to my poor serviceability - ugh hate that word!  I can't help how little I earn!

So I've been going around to the different banks and it is a sad state.  I wouldn't even be able to borrow the amount I currently have!

Not quite sure how I can overcome this...

Another inadvertent purchase

I have a new house.

As follows the usual theme, it wasn't one I purchased.  I still haven't seen the inside.

The sequence of events were as followed.

P bought a 444sqm block last month.  It was in his ideal location, however the land was too small and after building a new house on it, there would not be enough backyard for the kid/s, so it was not going to be his long term house.

It so happened that next door was being sold at auction a month later.  This land was larger at 751sqm which would be ideal for P, however he couldn't afford it.

M then came up with the idea of buying this block so that she could stay next to her beloved P.  I have been wanting to buy something, but can't bear the thought of going through the whole building process again on my own.

It was then suggested that P, with M's help, buy the bigger block of land, and that I would take over his smaller block of land.

So the auction was last Saturday.  A nice sunny day - had a look at the house next door that could potentially be mine. Things started off extremely slow - so slow the auctioneer had to make 2 vendor bids.  It slowly crept up with 2 bidders.  After one dropped out P put in a bid.  After 35 mins it finally went on the market.  Don't know why but P signalled he was out before last minute putting in a bid on the 3rd call - we still had quite a lot of room to move.  Thinking long term about looking after M, we were willing to pay a premium.  It was quite nice bidding and knowing we were still far from our limit.  Finally after 40 minutes, we won the auction - and I inadvertently ended up with a new house.

Side by side

So the stress begins...!