good to hear it went well - i felt for you!
so a 7% discount on asking price, but only a 3% discount on what you were realistically expecting.
not too bad - figures stack up. good job.
Thanks. Yeah, it's not too bad when you look at it in those percentage figures.
The upside is that we still managed to walk away with 'effectively' a $50k profit, which amazed me as we had totally overcapitalized with the fit-out of the place and we'd only been in it a year and a month when we settled.
'IF' the development wasn't going ahead...
'IF' we'd have stayed in the house for the 3-4 years we planned, then 'POTENTIALLY' we could have come out with more capital gain...
...but at the end of the day, the learning experience was priceless. We moved to Australia from the UK just over 3 years ago and after a short reccy trip before that, thought that the area we built in would fit the bill on cost & proximity to potential work for both of us. We always wanted to build a house in the UK but it's practically impossible unless you are loaded.
So, we bought the block and spent 12 months designing & almost 12 months building.
By the time we had been in the place 6 months, we kind of realized that estate living wasn't for us. We'd have stuck to the original plan though of 3-4 years, had it not been for the development proposals cropping up.
So, although it was very stressful trying to sell, at the end of the day, we had a great build experience from which we have learned a great deal about what to and what not to do when building your own home, it was the first house we have sold so that was an learning experience in itself, we've ended up living in an area we'd never have thought of before as the year spent in that house gave us time to really think about where we wanted to live etc, and we've ended up in a house that is a million miles away from what we imagined our dream house would be, but actually suits us better and we're stoked with it. All this, plus $50k in the pocket, (which was effectively canceled out by agents fees to sell and stamp duty on the new place), basically means financially we are exactly where we were at the start of the house build, but in a different house and area with a lot more experience and lessons learned under the belt, and arguably a house that has much more future potential for capital gain.
All up, it may not have been the greatest financial 'win' ever, but the experience of the whole build & sell process was priceless in terms of what Emma and I took from it.
So, from a brand new glass & stainless steel uber-modern 'box', we're now in a 108 year old leaky weatherboard with more character than you can shake a stick at, and absolutely loving it!
Cheers.