Excited…and a little anxious!

Can still remember the feeling when I stood in my own entry foyer of my first house I had bought. Had bought one with my (now) ex, but to buy my own, by myself was unbeliveably exciting. I stood in the foyer late that night after we (my daughter and I) had moved in and everyone had gone and just whirled around and thought – this is mine.
We settled at 2pm but started painting at 7am and by 5pm had painted the entire house inside (it wasnt big) with a lovely coat of pale grey (very fashionable then) over the lime green walls, yes every room in the house had lime green walls with gorgeous orange, red and brown large patterned curtains, ornate gold chandeliers lounge & dining room. All the rest of the house had circular neon lights
I had only seen this place once in the dark by flashlight, it had been on the market.6 mths, the price was right. I told the Agent I wanted to go through it next morning but he said he couldnt as he had auctions all day. I said 8am, he did, I bought.
I had the power put on the night before and went up to vacuum before we shifted in and it was soooo spookey. Every light in the house flashed on and off as all the fluoros needed replacing
I put in secondhand pale grey carpet, replaced the old curtains with pale grey slimline venetians and surprisingly the chandeliers didnt look that bad. Should have kept that place, but there you go

Fern

Emotion is a funny thing – it can push you over the edge and clinch the deal or get you completely frustrated as the dollar people drive you nuts with the “it’s just a deal, there are plenty more there”….that sort of makes sense, but then when you’re holding a thick manilla folder in your lap with about 40 bits of paper and research on a particular property, and everything checks out…..and you offer something and the vendors quite rightfully start playing “Ignore the Buyer and frustrate the hell out of you”, it’s not that easy to toss all of that research and time and work in the bin and merrily reach over, grab a new manilla folder and start all over again….knowing full well the next 7 might be complete dogs before you come across another good’n.

I can remember in April ’01 standing on a balcony of a beach house we were looking at with three other couples. It had glorious 180 degree uninterrupted ocean views, on a large green title block which satisfied all of our investment criteria, and more than all of our family getaway desires. The Vendors were fairly old solicitors / city councillors who’d owned the property since it was originally released back in ’67.

The asking price was $ 250K, and I was thinking that I might be smart and try a low offer of 230K and creep up from there. When the agent started taking other offers from the other couples lined up, we both thought, hell, it’s exactly what we what….and our research was thorough, and this opportunity might not arise for another 40 years. I scratched out the 3 and replaced it with a 5 – full asking price with only finance and building clauses.

The offer was accepted within 2 hours and subsequently we’ve had immense enjoyment out of the place over the last 5 years as a family holiday destination. We casually rent it out and it brings in about 11K of rent per year, with total costs of ~ 17K per year. 3K after tax – $ 10 per day.

So all up, over the 5 years it’s cost us 15K, but then the value has risen to 620K to 630K, so we aren’t too unhappy. Paying interest only, our equity has increased from 0% up to over 60%.

Every time we drive up the driveway on our holidays, we look at each other and both of us are always thinking the same thing – wasn’t that a wise move not haggling over the asking price. The difference between what we intended to pay and what we did pay, vs the growth achieved seems quite peurile in hindsight, that the other purchasers were prepared to let it go. Who knows, maybe they bought something for 230 that is now worth 800…we’ll never know….but we do know we are happy with our little deal.

Good luck everyone with their offers.