Well, What better way to start by updating you from the beginning...sorry in advance for this long first blog!
Bernie and I started this process of attempting to build a house for us to live in back in August 2007. Saw a house and land package advertised through a property developer and enquired.
Lucky enough to succeed in that regard to next thing we know we are checking finances and then we sit down to sign up land contracts. The developer basically secured the land and provided quotes etc to put a finished house package on the block, but basically we were not locked into anything regarding his builder choice, etc.
The builder he chose was one that Bernie and I liked the look of anyway so things looked really good.
From there we signed the contract for the land with the land developer and paid our deposit! How exciting...
We then basically locked in the house by paying their deposit and organised our bank finance.
So from there we were all locked in, we basically sourced our own quoted for driveways, airconditioning, alfresco, turfing, the list goes on. All we had to do was wait until the land was registered. The expected date of registration was meant for late October.
Well being the eternally pessimestic one, I said to Bernie when we signed the land contract that "you watch, I bet you we will break the drought now that this is done". Obviously not believing it. Sure enough down came the rains for Brissie in September and October, which quite substantially delayed the project. Well after numerous calls to developer and checking their website to be told "a couple of weeks away", we eventually arrived into late March and was told that hey presto the land will be registered in early april and builders can do soil tests mid april...Woooo Hooooo.
Not five minutes later, we get a call from Mortgage Broker saying that the bank would like us to re-submit the loan because they had not drawn down on the loan for 6 months and of course interest rates had risen by 0.75% (bet they would not have made us re-apply if the rates had of decreased, they would have been happy to keep us on the higher rate - but I guess they are responsible ultimately to their shareholders!).
So then, wow what do we do, we have settlement booked in for 3 weeks time and now no finance...eek. Found another lender and after frantic back and forth, we delayed settlement by two weeks and got all of the paper work done and got it back to the bank's solicitors and settled two days later. I must make special mention to our broker, they did a fantastic job and we dont know where we would be withour them. If ever you need someone to help in that regard, give them a go... Access One based on the Gold Coast (if you want their details leave me a message and I'll give you the contact of the consultant I used...fantastic).
Well we are now settled on the land and look forward to getting knee deep into the muck to get the house started now!
