A journey to our new Eden Brae Windsor 46 home.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Current house on the market!
We've listed our existing home prior to the christmas/new year close off. Hits were great, an average of 100 per day! Amazing! Agent opened our home for the first time on second saturday of January.. again, attendance was great - 27 groups came in and about 7 more missed out so the agents decided to open it once more the following day. Yey! Sold in 2 open days!! I thought it's all going pretty well until I got a called from the agent (72 hours later) saying that the couple who bought our property found out they're expecting and is no longer proceeding. :( Great! Thanks! Now we're back to square 1... No buyer, no interest, no nothing! At least we still have the house. Anyway, 4 more open homes done since the first 2 and no buyer still. They all think it's pretty small - well, I'm blaming myself for that cause I picked huge furnitures for a 28 square home. We've sent out the massive coffee table to my in-laws' place so hopefully they won't think it's small anymore... This saturday they're gonna open it again and hopefully our dear homey will find it's new owner! Fingers crossed! :)
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tough decision! Sometimes, a home really does find you!
It has been quite a while since my husband and I started looking at building a new home. Being just a couple of minutes drive from home, we used to regularly spend about half an hour or so looking at Clarendon display homes at Parklea.
Looking at the new Crestmead design inspired us a lot and made us wanna get a new home. Explored our options, and ended up putting a non-refundable deposit on a block of land at the Ponds. We thought that was it, we're going to have our dream home built! We had our finance conditionally approved (subject to property valuation), and the deposit ready. To our surprise, the property valuation came back $15000 lower than the purchase price and the bank suggested not to go ahead with it. For obvious reason, we're losing $15000 the moment we sign up to buy it!
We kept looking... found a block at Kellyville ridge, and again, valuation came back $20000 lower this time. Same advise from the homeloan manager. Found another block, at Braemont this time. Again, valuation came back lower - $10000 this time. Same advise from the homeloan manager. The bank reckoned vendors are over pricing because of the first home buyer grant, since we are not first home buyers, we are at the losing end.
Anyway, we've decided to give it a couple of months till we try to find for another block hoping that things will be different then. This time, we found an off-the-plan house and land package at the Ponds. Put a deposit, and waited for the valuation. And yet again failed, this time $30000 lower. Home loan manager advised to try once more, found an existing Eden Brae Madison 40 house at just a few streets away from ours. Loved it! Put a non-refundable .025% deposit and waited patiently for the valuation. This time $35000 lower in value. I was so heart broken, and decided not to look at anymore properties at all!
After about 3 months, my husband and I decided to just drive around Homeworld in Kellyville and saw the beautiful All Worth Homes (Meridian design). We were inspired once more to build our new home and started searching for a new block. This time, we went to a different bank with the help of a trusted broker. I just had this idea of dealing with the same people who helped me with my first and second home, so I rang them all to see if they can assist us in building our new home - with a promise that this is going to be the last one! :) A trusted broker, a trusted real estate agent, a trusted solicitor! We've decided to deal with exact same people!
Finally, with the help of the "trusted real estate agent" we found a block that we really like. Perfect location in the Hills district, overlooking the Blue Mountains. Now it's our "trusted broker's" turn to do his bit. UNCONDITIONAL APPROVAL in 3 weeks!! I should have not thought of looking somewhere else in the first place when I have all these good people around me!
Anyway, now that we have the block, we decided to go back to Homeworld to check on the Meridian House that we liked (loved actually!) but I asked my husband to go check Eden Brae Homes first - besides, we loved the Madison that we almost bought before. We went there and checked if we can fit a Madison house on our block - fits perfectly with triple garage! Loved it! Again, I thought I'd ask my husband to check on those 2 double storey homes they have on display. Liked the entertainer.. but loved the Windsor 46! Ok, on this day we forgot to go back to what we originally went there for (the Allworthhomes Meridian house). We went back to look at Windsor 46 about 4 times, then decided to go back to the Meridian house and see if the "spark" was still there. But it's gone.. :( We went back to Eden Brae, and told the representative to give us a siting of the Windsor 46 instead of the Madison and see if it fits. Yey!!! It does, only 2 garage but! 3 without the eaves, but I love eaves! So yeah, double garage will be ok. :)
We got the fixed price quotation- which is actually just around what we've expected so we've decided to let go of the $750 that we've been holding on to for months! :) Windsor 46 it is! :)
Looking at the new Crestmead design inspired us a lot and made us wanna get a new home. Explored our options, and ended up putting a non-refundable deposit on a block of land at the Ponds. We thought that was it, we're going to have our dream home built! We had our finance conditionally approved (subject to property valuation), and the deposit ready. To our surprise, the property valuation came back $15000 lower than the purchase price and the bank suggested not to go ahead with it. For obvious reason, we're losing $15000 the moment we sign up to buy it!
We kept looking... found a block at Kellyville ridge, and again, valuation came back $20000 lower this time. Same advise from the homeloan manager. Found another block, at Braemont this time. Again, valuation came back lower - $10000 this time. Same advise from the homeloan manager. The bank reckoned vendors are over pricing because of the first home buyer grant, since we are not first home buyers, we are at the losing end.
Anyway, we've decided to give it a couple of months till we try to find for another block hoping that things will be different then. This time, we found an off-the-plan house and land package at the Ponds. Put a deposit, and waited for the valuation. And yet again failed, this time $30000 lower. Home loan manager advised to try once more, found an existing Eden Brae Madison 40 house at just a few streets away from ours. Loved it! Put a non-refundable .025% deposit and waited patiently for the valuation. This time $35000 lower in value. I was so heart broken, and decided not to look at anymore properties at all!
After about 3 months, my husband and I decided to just drive around Homeworld in Kellyville and saw the beautiful All Worth Homes (Meridian design). We were inspired once more to build our new home and started searching for a new block. This time, we went to a different bank with the help of a trusted broker. I just had this idea of dealing with the same people who helped me with my first and second home, so I rang them all to see if they can assist us in building our new home - with a promise that this is going to be the last one! :) A trusted broker, a trusted real estate agent, a trusted solicitor! We've decided to deal with exact same people!
Finally, with the help of the "trusted real estate agent" we found a block that we really like. Perfect location in the Hills district, overlooking the Blue Mountains. Now it's our "trusted broker's" turn to do his bit. UNCONDITIONAL APPROVAL in 3 weeks!! I should have not thought of looking somewhere else in the first place when I have all these good people around me!
Anyway, now that we have the block, we decided to go back to Homeworld to check on the Meridian House that we liked (loved actually!) but I asked my husband to go check Eden Brae Homes first - besides, we loved the Madison that we almost bought before. We went there and checked if we can fit a Madison house on our block - fits perfectly with triple garage! Loved it! Again, I thought I'd ask my husband to check on those 2 double storey homes they have on display. Liked the entertainer.. but loved the Windsor 46! Ok, on this day we forgot to go back to what we originally went there for (the Allworthhomes Meridian house). We went back to look at Windsor 46 about 4 times, then decided to go back to the Meridian house and see if the "spark" was still there. But it's gone.. :( We went back to Eden Brae, and told the representative to give us a siting of the Windsor 46 instead of the Madison and see if it fits. Yey!!! It does, only 2 garage but! 3 without the eaves, but I love eaves! So yeah, double garage will be ok. :)
We got the fixed price quotation- which is actually just around what we've expected so we've decided to let go of the $750 that we've been holding on to for months! :) Windsor 46 it is! :)
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