Buy my house? PLEASE!

good luck with your sale. unfortunately grice rd as you have said previously, seems it may become an arterial road and that may effect your sale price?

is the area to be rezoned? that can be a problem with new estates, no one knows how they be in the future in terms of roads/traffic etc.

it maybe perfect for someone so good luck with your sale.
 
The Donners:- Although Berwick may seem a long way out of the city, I'd ave to disagree about being over priced. My partner works on St Kilda Road, we used to rent a house in North Balwyn. When we lived in North Balwyn it would take Emma 40 minutes to get to work and an 1:15 to get home. That was 16km away. From our house in Berwick it take Emma 1:15 each way. So yes, her morning commute is longer but her home commute is the same even through we're further out.

The house we rented in North Balwyn was a tiny 3 bed unit. It was only 10 years old but was obviously built to a very tight budget. It was small, cold, drafty and had no usable outdoor space. The walls were cracking and the driveway was shared with 4 other units. That unit sold for $640k in August last year. Although we were technically closer to the city there, time wise there wasn't really a lot of difference. Where we are in Berwick we are a lot closer to all the things we like to do on a weekend, we're down the Peninsula in no time, or up the hills in no time and still only a 45 minute train ride from Flinders St yet for similar money as a city suburb unit you can have a very well specked modern house on a decent patch of dirt.

I know a lot of people would rather live in a smaller property closer to work & the city, but for us we'd rather enjoy where we live and put up with a longer commute than compromise on what we live in for the sake of where we work.

Pully:- Cheers for the luck, we could do with it. You've hit the nail on the head with the development I think. Grices Road is set to be remade further away from our house, the current Grices road becoming a private service road ending at our house, the new road being pushed about 20 meters away, in order to keep the current old oak trees in a new median. The new road isn't marked to become an arterial though, Thompson's, which is the next main road south, is earmarked to become the arterial and a new link from the end of O'Shea Rd to the Monash Freeway is on the cards which is one block North. The new Grices Rd is being laid to service the Clyde North development. It's definitely putting people off though, the fact that they can't envisage what the new development will ultimately look like, but once it's all complete it will be great for the immediate area as the new O'Shea freeway link will give very quick access to the freeway and the new development is set to have schools, shops and sports facilities.

If we could afford to do it, we'd love to keep our place and rent it out as once the developments are somewhere near complete it should have a good positive impact on the property values along Grices Road. In the mean time though, the 'unknown' aspect is definitely putting people off, along with the thought of living close to a building site once the works take off - whenever that might be, (can't blame them).

We had some interest again this Saturday, so another anxious week of waiting to see if an offer comes in.
 
The Donners:- Although Berwick may seem a long way out of the city, I'd ave to disagree about being over priced. My partner works on St Kilda Road, we used to rent a house in North Balwyn. When we lived in North Balwyn it would take Emma 40 minutes to get to work and an 1:15 to get home. That was 16km away. From our house in Berwick it take Emma 1:15 each way. So yes, her morning commute is longer but her home commute is the same even through we're further out.

The house we rented in North Balwyn was a tiny 3 bed unit. It was only 10 years old but was obviously built to a very tight budget. It was small, cold, drafty and had no usable outdoor space. The walls were cracking and the driveway was shared with 4 other units. That unit sold for $640k in August last year. Although we were technically closer to the city there, time wise there wasn't really a lot of difference. Where we are in Berwick we are a lot closer to all the things we like to do on a weekend, we're down the Peninsula in no time, or up the hills in no time and still only a 45 minute train ride from Flinders St yet for similar money as a city suburb unit you can have a very well specked modern house on a decent patch of dirt.

I know a lot of people would rather live in a smaller property closer to work & the city, but for us we'd rather enjoy where we live and put up with a longer commute than compromise on what we live in for the sake of where we work.

That's why we've been looking at Berwick ourselves. I don't disagree with you Propagate. It's just I thought rule 1 of property was closer to the city, the more expensive. I'm not sure how to describe this any other way but we're looking for a piece of country in the not too outer suburbs - acreage. We're on a 1/4 acre in Rowville which was recently valued (RE valuation - not bank) for approx. $500k-$535k as this had been the sales values for similar properties. For the same size block 15km further out we're potentially looking at an extra $100k-$200k (Berwick)... what the??? Ideally we'd want an acre minimum - wish us luck! :eek:

If anyone has any suggestions as to where I could find an acre for around $500k-$600k within 50km-60km of the city with an established home I'd be very appreciative. At least if someone could point me to a similar area to that I've described... for PPOR not IP. Also while I'm here, is it a good time to be looking at upgrading our PPOR or should we hold off a little?
 
Donners - can't comment on the Rowville/Berwick thing, I know nothing about Rowville. Guys Hill & Upper Beaconsfield should see you an on acre+ for that sort of money. Upper Beaconsfield is only 7 mins drive to Beaconsfield Station, direct line into the city from there. We looked at a cracking house on an acre in Upper Beaconsfield, it was $690k, but the house was brand new, in the woods, all timber, stunning STUNNING house wtih inset pool in a raised deck. The house really was straight out of a magazine, but we wanted more than an acre. Not many places come up around there, but it should suit your budget if you keep an eye open.
 
For the same size block 15km further out we're potentially looking at an extra $100k-$200k (Berwick)... what the??? Ideally we'd want an acre minimum - wish us luck! :eek:

If anyone has any suggestions as to where I could find an acre for around $500k-$600k within 50km-60km of the city with an established home I'd be very appreciative. At least if someone could point me to a similar area to that I've described... for PPOR not IP. Also while I'm here, is it a good time to be looking at upgrading our PPOR or should we hold off a little?

The Donners, I'm pretty sure you can still get something on the Peninsula - Maybe around Langwarrin or Pearcedale. Still lots of lovely countryside in Pearcedale. Good time to be looking around the peninsula right now as its quietened down a bit plus Peninsula Link is underway. If you have your have your ear to the ground you can still get 2/3 acre in Mt Eliza for about mid 600s, especially if you're willing to renovate an older established house. These are pretty much Frankston prices! 45 mins to the CBD via the freeway. (I am slightly biased about this area, BTW ;))
 
Oh, it certainly is still on RE.com - just with a different agent so the first link won't work.

We have sold it 3 times so far, not to mention the amount of times people have gone to the bank before making a formal offer to be told they can't borrow enough, the third sale fell over two weeks ago. You would not believe the run of bad luck we've had.

The first people that put an offer on contract spent 3 days in negotiations. They signed a contract at 9pm on a Monday night, before the agent could get the contract to us on Tuesday morning they called him at 8:00am and 'cooled off'. After 4 viewings over 10 days and 3 days of negotiations they suddenly shat themselves once they'd put pen to paper.

The second buyers came through 3 times, spent two days negotiating, agreed terms on a Friday afternoon but they were flying out of state on the Friday evening. they would pass the agents office on their way back from the airport on the Sunday afternoon, so agreed to sign contracts on their way home. Our agent gets a text on Sunday afternoon that simply said "may not be able to proceed". It was over a week before they had the courtesy of actually answering the agents phone calls to let us know what the hell was going on. Apparently, they had lost their buyer over that weekend so couldn't go ahead with ours. Fair enough, but what really REALLY wound me up was not having the courtesy to let us know. They were quick to call and respond to calls during the negotiations but would not return messages or texts to let us know what the hell was going on with the contract sign. It was only because our agent managed to call the guys company and get hold of him because he hadn't realized it was our agent calling.

The third buyers came through twice and put in a very low offer, which the agent hadn't even told us about. Then, out of the blue they came with a signed contract somewhere nearer what we would accept. The agent reckoned they'd be good for more, so we countersigned the offer but amended it with a higher price and the agent went back to them. That was another 2 days of back and forward before a final price and terms were finally agreed on a Monday morning. They arranged to sign the new contract on the Monday evening but didn't return the agents calls to arrange a time, so that smelled fishy again. They finally called him at 7pm on the Monday evening to say they had just seen their broker and had been told they would not be able to borrow anywhere near what they offered us!

What is it with people that don't have any idea what they would be able to borrow before they start throwing signed contracts around! What annoyed me was they had told our agent all the right things, finance no problem, good jobs, money in the bank blah blah blah. So, who knows if it was an excuse and they too had 'cooled' but were too 'embarrassed'? to admit it, or whether they genuinely couldn't get the finance. The end result is the same, no sale.

So, onwards and upwards. We'll see what todays open inspection brings.

We have 3 opens left before we market it as a rental as we settle on our new house on 5th November so wanted October to advertise this house for let.

It seems like there are a few more buyers around at the moment though, so we may decide that if we'd prefer to sell it, we'll advertise the new house as a short term let and stay in ours until it sells. At least that way, if we don't get a short term tenant, we can write off some of the losses. If we tenant this house and still decide to sell in 12 months time it will just be a headache trying to sell it with tenants, or sell it empty etc.

Cheers.
 
What is it with people that don't have any idea what they would be able to borrow before they start throwing signed contracts around!

It's not all their fault.

If buyers go on banks' websites to find their borrowing capacity and fill in all the details, out comes the result which is always astonishingly higher than the reality. The numbers used by those websites don't take into consideration real life expenses.

It's when the potential buyers actually go to get the real approval, having made an offer, that a different set of numbers is used and they find their borrowing power isn't anywhere near like the website says.

There are still many first time home buyers who think that getting pre-approval is doing that stupid website thing.

Good luck with it.
 
Hey OP, I hope it wasn't approved because of the valuation.
But from the sounds of it, your buyers didn't get that far in the finance process. I hope it sells soon!
 
I've seen clients with pre approved loans only find the bank say no once a contract was signed?!?!?!

I'm guessing the valuation didn't stack up......
 
Good luck Propagate. I have been in your position, only 18 months ago. We had 6 months to sell our newish home as we had put down a sizeable deposit on an acreage. There was no backing our for us and there was no "subject to finance clause". We went through two agents to sell, but we held out for our price and the second agent made a huge difference and got the price we needed within a few weeks.

All the best!
 
HI,

Sorry, I forgot all about this thread.

The house sold not long after my last post. An older couple had just sold there house and were due to settle around the same time we were to settle on our new place. They had about 5 houses to go and see through our agent and loved ours. They viewed it on a Friday morning, then again on the afternoon & put in an offer the next day.

We accepted and agreed settlement for the week after we were due to settle on our new house.

We settled on our new house with no problems, and then it was a nail biting week whilst we waited for the old place to settle.

Settlement was booked in for 2:30, I got a call at 2:45 & answered, expecting it to be our conveyancer calling to say all was done. It was the conveyencer, but not with good news. We bank with a credit union whose main office is out in the sticks somewhere. Turns out the settlement paperwork didn’t turn up and nobody thought to check prior to everyone being sat around ready to sign it all off at settlement time! Idiots.

Meanwhile, our purchasers were sat outside our house with a full removal van full of gear as their place had settled and they had nowhere to go.

There was no way we could settle that day.

We had a license drawn up so we could at least let our purchasers in, but then it turned out the purchasers hadn’t started their insurance on our house until a week later….unbelievable. So, we would not be granting them license if the house was not insured in their name. Anyway, after a lot of running around by them, the agent and our conveyencer, they managed to re-arrange their insurance and at 4:55 we granted them a license to occupy the property.

I was a bit miffed as it meant they were in our house, but had all the monies. We could not request their deposit prior as the way our loans were split over the two houses meant we couldn’t satisfy the criteria for release of deposit to us before settlement, (effectively we owed more than 80% of the house we were selling).

So, it was a stressful weekend.

We signed a second set of papers on Saturday morning in case the first lot didn’t turn up for the new settlement appointment on the Monday. They were going to express post the new docs off so it the first lot didn’t arrive on the Monday, they could re-book AGAIN for the Tuesday when the replacement docs would arrive. I booked in a day off work and said that if the original docs hadn’t turned up by 10am on the Monday I would take the 3 hour drive to credit union offices and hand deliver the replacement docs.

Anyway, about 9:30 on Monday I get a call to say the first lot of docs had arrived and by 2:30 we were finally all settled.

We’re loving the new house, it’s awesome and such a relief that the old place sold in the end, with only a week overlap.

Cheers.
 
propagate
Did you have to discount the price by much?
cheers

We had 3 different RE valuations at the outset.

$680k
$650k
$625k

We knew $680k was ridiculous, we thought $650k was very optimistic and we thought $625k was pretty much on the money and was what we thought the minimum we would achieve would be.

The bank also valued it at $625k

We started with an advertised price of $650k and got some interest.

We had a bite at around $640 early on, but the the new road development & precinct plan ultimately put them off.

We had an offer of $620 fall over on finance.

We had an offer of $618 fall over on finance.

We had a couple of verbals at $590 and $600 which we refused and they never countered.

We sold for $606k but removed and kept all the home theater equipment at that price, (projector, electric screen etc).

All in all, would have been nice to get the $625, but at the end of the day it's all done and dusted now. We're 4-5 months in our new place, back on track and loving where we are living again.

We didn't have a huge pool of people to pull from as, although it was a big house, we designed & built it in a very modern style and removed one of the bedrooms. So, we were pitching a modern house with lots of open space, glass & stainless steel with only 3 beds in an area of predominantly families with young kids.

We weren't thinking of the future sale when we built it, we built what we wanted, for us. We never anticipated wanting to sell and move on so quickly, and if the Growth Areas Authority hadn't decided to create a precinct plan for 5000 homes, 3 school and 2 shopping centers on the paddocks directly opposite us, and upgrade our dirt road access road that we fronted onto into a 6 lane arterial, (work commencing this year), and then build a trading estate/business area at the end of the road, then we wouldn't have sold.

We figured that we'd better sell and move on now whilst the place was quiet, rather than wait until the start of the 15 year build phase and major MAJOR arterial roadworks began, as we'd never have been able to sell it.
 
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.
 
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