I am currently buying my first home and thought I would share something that is important to me!
The house/home I am purchasing is in the adjacent picture. The large building in the center of the picture is the internode enabled ADSL2+ exchange. I should get a real nice connection speed here!
The whole process (so far) has been reasonably painless (except for the initial motivation!)
About 3 weeks ago I get a phone call while I was intra-state from my landlord “You have 60 days to get out!”. Now, I don’t know about where you are form, but currently in Sydney, Australia, there is a critical rental shortage. Rents have been going up at HUMUNGOUS rates. Mine included. I was not interested in playing the “Let’s find a place to rent” game anymore. I mean, what’s the point? You line up at inspection with 30 other hopeful expectant/wood-be renters and have to prove to the real estate and the landlord why I am better than everyone else; which often turns into a bidding war! all this coupled with the fact that 60 days finishes on Boxing Day!! I have to move out and there’s not even a real estate open for several weeks either side of the date in question.
So after looking on http://realestate.com.au for about 10 minutes I decided that maybe NOW was the time to buy
I humoured myself and went to my credit union and they said they would give me money. Knowing I could do better I saw a broker. On my first day of looking I saw 5 places (the last one was a last minute fluke) which is the one I am looking to buy now. I did spend the next few days looking, but in my minds eye, #5 was the one I was returning to. My initial viewing was on a Saturday (12 days ago). I rang the real estate the following Wednesday and made an offer. The vendor made a counter offer and a compromise was reached between mine and theirs (ie, their counter offer). Special condition: Short settlement… Suits me!
I rang my broker and she said I was good to go. Contacted real estate once more and offer confirmed. Now I am sitting here just waiting for the loan approval (which I am expecting today or tomorrow), and the whole decision making process from deciding to buy, to contracts exchanged is going to be less than 2 weeks!
more to follow…