Wed 20th June
-yet more papers for the loan.
-followed up solicitorThanks everyone for responding. I am getting a lot of good ideas from you all.
In regards to the last few posts, the $25k reno that we are planning does not include much labor costs. Most work will be done ourselves. The $25k budget is based on prices that I can get "off the shelf" with minimum of shopping around. When I start buying materials I will be looking much harder to save $, looking at ebay, auctions etc.About the purchase price: This property previously sold for $250k, and fell through on finance. Our offer was $242k so I think we at least got a bit of a bargain. I mentioned our price to a different agent last weekend, and his response was "No way, thats too cheap. You got it way too cheap."
Keep it comingsounds like you have it sorted.
I used to shop around a lot, but in the end found it was better to get everything from Bunnings. get a trade card, saves you 5% on lots of things.
auctions are good, as long as you bid until you get everything you need, even if not the price you want. I used to go every week, winning one or two items. your time is valuable, and if you cant do the auction thing in one hit then dont bother.
ebay has great stuff, a lot of stuff is brand new.
Glad you bought cheap, but be wary of believing agents previous contract price and default reason. you may find it was actually 240k and fell thru on building & pest.
I went to one agency and was told 2 different stories about a house I inspected twice.
agent 1: contract was $257k, fell through on finance
agent 2: contract was $241k, fell through on building & pestagent 1 tried to convince me I needed to offer $255k, while agent 2 said try your luck, vendor is motivated.
Thurs 21st June
-got conditional approval on the loan!!! Yesssss!!! Very excited (or scared silly, not sure which!)
The conditions are a valuation and 2more group certificates as the ATO tax return printouts were apparently not good enough.
So we should have not probs on those 2 conditions.
-spoke to a painter about spray painting the roof. He said if I pressure hose it down and do the small amount of re-pointing needed, he will tell me what paint to buy (he said about $600) and he will spray sealer and 2 top coats for $500. So total including Gurnie hire should be well under $1500.congrats!
I remember being in exactly your position 2 yrs ago.
Dont hire a gurnie, you can buy one for $69 from Bunnings. trust me, you will use it plenty. you need to accumulate all the tools you can. You will find tool hire is between 33% and 50% of tool cost, an outrageous rip off. I was quoted $40 for a recipricating saw for one day. bought one on ebay (plus a drill and saw) for $50 and have used it so many times Ive lost count.
Fri 22nd June
-had another talk to my boss about getting the reno done. It seems we might be getting closer to a workable solution.I have some photos now to share, but not sure how to do it. If someone could tell me how to put the photos here on this post I will try to put some up very soon.
Crashy, I love tools. Got a whole van full. I probly will buy a gurnie, but I already wore out a $60 one so I might try to get one a bit better. It will do a lot of work.
Also, does anyone have experience with Wagner airless spayers? I was thinking it might save me lots of time to get a mid or low range model to help with the painting. Any ideas?Hi Jase & Flic, you need to upload the pictures to your own host and then use the insert image (it's one of the buttons in the reply to post field) where it provided an entry field where you put the URL to the photo in and then repeat this process for more photo's.
If you want send the photo's to [email protected] and I will put them all neatly into this post.
If you want somewhere online to host photos then I suggest http://www.flickr.com – it has a mix of photographers and "normal" people putting up their photo albums and stuff. Free and easy to use. It's the youtube of photos, if you want to look at it that way.
another good site is http://www.photobucket.com it has paid or free (paid just has more space)
Some Photos at last. Lets see if this works.
Front of House:Didn't work.
Just click on this link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9273576@N06/
Some inside photos will be up soonMon 25th June
-STILL NO unconditional loan approval!! And here is the reason why: after chasing up the mortgage broker a couple of time, and sending even more last minute forms to the lender, and after being told that "this is the last thing we need for full approval", I still had not heard by 4pm, so I called and 4:15pm heard back that the lender had not ordered the valuation to be done until this morning, so it has obviously not been done yet, so we have conditional approval subject to a valuation of the property.
What this means: We have to apply for another extension on the finance clause, and if the vendor decided not give us the extension they could sell the house to someone else. This would be bad because I really think we are going to make a profit here.
So I explained this to my solicitor, and he suggested to pay the deposit anyway, and he would explain to the vendors solicitor that we need more time but we have paid the deposit "in good faith". This should put the vendors mind at ease. And if something strange does happen with the valuation, we can still get the deposit back.
-so I also paid the deposit and asked agent about some other properties.Things I learned today:
-it ALWAYS pays to make a quick phone call to brokers, lenders, whoever and ask how things are going. This puts my file back to the top of the pile and gets it seen to a few minutes or hours earlier than it would have otherwise. These minutes and hours make a HUGE difference to how many days it takes to get things done. In short, I am the investor, so I need to maintain control of the entire investing process, and not just trust that others will be prompt.
-if I had not been standing in the agents office asking questions, I would not have heard about a potential development deal that he has not even listed yet.Some more photos are uploaded now, so have a look!
I have some more photos, so if you want to see more detail on something, ask me and I will try to upload more if I have the right ones.I had a dodgy mortgage broker once……………..ONCE. AFG.
If your mortgage broker isnt calling you OFTEN, even if its just to say "nothing to report, but we are on their backs every hour or so", get a new one. Its not your responsibility to manage the situation, thats what you pay the broker for (through trailing commissions the bank passes on to you).
you need to have a good broker and a good agent in this business, and keep using them. become a priority client.
I extended my settlement date 14x. think youre stressed yet?
Just a note on our mortgage broker. We have never had any easy loans, always complicated, usually by me (flic) being pregnant or on maternity leave. However our mortgage broker has been awesome. I fully believe in giving credit where credit is due. So i will always send thankyous (flowers, chocolates, fruit baskets) to those who help during aquisition of a property, establishing a relationship for next time.
For example:
I called our mortgage broker whilst on holidays in remote NT as we wanted to purchase a property there whilst we were away. He was able to organise this from victoria. By no means was this an easy loan due to the remoteness of the location (does anyone know where borroloola is?!?). He tried every avenue for us to find a way to make it work. He has persisted with our loans where most other mortgage brokers would have walked away from.
He is on the ball with this loan but although we are a valued customer, we realise we aren't his only customers.Wed 27th June
-went to solicitor to drop off some papers.A question for all who wish to answer: In the bathroom at this house we are thinking of putting a row of border tiles around the bath. We would like to choose a color/ style that makes the bathroom look less "peachy".
Any ideas on color of border tiles?
Or any better ideas for bathroom.
I will put up more photos of bathroom on the link below to give a better idea of the whole room.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9273576@N06/Thur 28th June
-called RE Agent to keep in the loop. He said he took the valuer through the house yesterday, so final loan approval should be close.
-Called mortgage broker to tell him valuer had been through.
-talked to boss again and reached a mutually satisfying agreementDoes anyone have an idea for what colour to repaint the deck????
Just on your broker have you told him that you will be renovating and then selling the house as soon as this has finished.
It is just that his commission he / she receives will be clawed back in its entirity so they may not be keen on doing your next deal for you. If it isnt then it is likely the lender will have a early repayment penalty or deferred establishment fee.
All too often i see clients who have not factored in the full finance costs when trying their hands at renovation.
Richard Taylor | Australia's leading private lender
Not green! I would go with a color set of three that blends well with the render. One color would be for the ceiling joists, railings, veranda posts that blends with the render color and a third color that also would blend with the deck itself. All three colors should compliment each other. So those three colors would blend with each other. The deck some sort of brown or fawn color something that looks more woody rather then the green it is now. Those three colors can be used around other parts of the outside of the house also.
Fri 29th June
-received word that the valuation came back ok, so just waiting on the rubber stamp for the loan.
-made a list of other houses to inspect tomorrow. Keeping a close eye on the market!Hi Richard
We have told our broker. There is a $1500 fee to end the loan in the first year, plus a loan startup fee, this fee, that fee…
We were a little surprised by how much all the fees came to, but still confident on a good overall result. The biggest loan cost is mortgage insurance. We applied for 95%lvr and the LMI is almost $5000. We were expecting about $2000. We are going to see how much it reduces if we only borrow 85% or 90%. We don't have quite enough to do 80%, but after learning how much LMI is, we will try to do future deals at 80%.Hi Jaffa
What, you don't like the green??!!!! I was thinking about a brown, or reddy brown timber color, but tossing around the idea of charcoal or grey. Render will probly be a classic cream color, fascia & gutter probly black, roof & driveway charcoal, pergola roof to match render, pergola posts black, window frames black.
Inside I'm thinking white ceilings, almost white walls, arcs & skirts & doors off-white gloss. Timber floors & dark grey carpet for contrast & color.
BUT….. I am a male and not naturally gifted in color selection, so quite open to advice!! My ideas have mostly come from looking at other modern looking houses and seeing what is popular in them. I am trying to do what is most popular, not what I personally like.Thanks for replies. Keep 'em coming.
Sat 30th June
-went to an auction for market research purposesJase and Flic wrote:BUT….. I am a male and not naturally gifted in color selection, so quite open to advice!! My ideas have mostly come from looking at other modern looking houses and seeing what is popular in them. I am trying to do what is most popular, not what I personally like.I've been reading a book titled Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things (Don Norman). It's quite an interesting read. One of the things it touches on is colour, although I am sure that there are texts that cover the points it makes in more depth. It mentions that childrens' playground equipment is often in highly saturated or primary colours (eg. bright reds and yellows) and that such colours appeal to something primal within us that is instinctively compelling, unlike the acquired tastes we all develop over the years. You could make use of that in your development – some bright red and yellow annuals in the front garden, perhaps during open inspections some bright (but tasteful) artwork hung in the living room which I assume will be otherwise coloured in safe, neutral colours. Maybe a small vase with some bright coloured flowers in the bathroom.
There's probably a heap of reading about this sort of thing out there on the web, if you're interested in looking at the problem from a different perspective than safe & neutral. I don't have any links to share, unfortunately.
Keep up the posts. I'm enjoying following your progress.
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