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HOW MUCH!?!?!?Posted on Tuesday 7 August 2007 at 08:56 - Post Comment
Welcome to the joys of trying to buy a house in New Zealand! So, as I mentioned in the last post, T and I have found a place that should do the job nicely. Not too big, not too small, close to town but not too close, nice garage for me, lounge facing the sun for T, all in all - a nice place.
Now here comes the fun bit because we want to know 'How much is it'? To you and me this is a pretty specific question, but to the Kiwi vendor it basically means 'How much can we get away with?'. So, rather than an actual price, they give a range instead - and in the case of this house the range is 'mid to high 200's' meaning to us between $250k and $300k'. So, we do our homework of the area, and see what other price ranges similar properties are in, and then put in an offer (subject to finance of course, as we still don't know if T's wage will be enough - still awaiting that SODDING reference from the UK!). Our offer is indeed well within the mid to high 200's bracket - as specified by the ad. The response? A counter offer of $295k. Eh? What? So by 'mid to high' you actually mean high don't you? Well if so THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL US THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU BLOODY IDIOTS?!
Well, T (who is dealing with all this as I am crap at negotiations when it's my own money!) lays it down that they are having a complete tin bath if they think we are going anywhere near their price. She also points out that they have had zero other offers, that we are giving them time (50 days - a very generous amount of time) to get rid of the current tenants (a fact which in itself I don't think is possible as tenant rights here seem pretty tight) and that we have no chain and can buy pretty much straight off. We've upped our offer by $2k, and have made it perfectly clear that if they don't wake up and move considerably, then they can get an independant valuation done which will show that our offer is generous, or they can shove it where the sun don't shine and we'll look elsewhere. We've got plenty of time after all!
It's just so INFURIATING as we could have saved 2 days of fart arsing around if they had just said 'we want $295k for it'. Grrrrrrrr.......!
That little rant aside, all else seems to be just fine. As it was our 2 year anniversary we gave (panties, a little sexy lingerie, flowers and a short denim skirt) and received (bike mud guard, pants (see a theme here?!) dress shirts and a smart shirt and tie set) gifts and then headed out on the town. We went to Liquidity and it was great - posh enough to be a treat, down to earth enough not to be hoity toity and intimidating. Food was good too! Shortness of skirt and attractiveness of wife led to us heading home soon after eating, so no late night carousing - well, not out of the flat anyway ;-)
My work still goes well, with the second team member starting today so we are now back up to strength and it's a good feeling to have a busy office. I'm really looking forward to getting to know them and helping to make them - and therefore the office - successful. Watch this <---> space!
T went in to a day of training today, for which she got paid (thank gawd - too much partying have left the coffers of O'Dell enterprises slightly depleted!) and the course was apparently really good. It will take a fair bit of effort on T's part to get the classroom as she wants it, not helped by the fact that it is being randomly used by other staff members, but as her start is in a week she should have things as they need to be by then.
I'll leave you with a pic of us before we headed out, and will report back with what the vendors say to our reviewed offer.
Nighty night!
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