Looks like we've bought a house!

Posted on Saturday 1 September 2007 at 08:03 - Post Comment

Well, this whole house buying/ mortgage applying/ financial wheeling and dealing certainly keeps life 'interesting', but after a week of ups and downs we had word on Friday that we really ARE going to buy the house.  Hoorah!

But I can tell you, the road to property ownership certainly hasn't run smooth!  Mostly down to our financial situation I have to say, but it looks like that is now all sorted out.  First off, when buying in NZ both parties sign an agreement that subject to certain conditions (such as finance on our part, and current tenancy agreements being broken on the vendors part in this case) a 'confirmation date' is set - usually 10 days from the offer acceptance date.  This sets the price, and allows the buyer to do a building inspection (as per our comedy inspection reported previously!), to get the LIM (similar to UK Searches) and PIM (no idea on this one - but I know we get charged for it!)  and gives the vendor time to sort their own side of things out.  This seems to be better than the UK as inthis period you can't get gazzumped.  Now pay attention as this is where it gets a bit tricky.  We signed up to 10 days for us to confirm.  The vendor asked for 13 days to confirm.  The real estate agent came to our house in a big rush on the day that the offer was accepted to get this 13 day thing all signed off.  The way she put it was as if it was just a very minor thing and perfectly standard.  Not knowing any better we signed.  Standard practice it is not!

On looking back we should have checked with our solicitor as it effectively meant that all the 'power' in the deal was now in the vendors hands.  We still were committed to spending over $1k in fees, within our 10 day period.  However, they could get to day 13 and say 'well actually we can't get the tenants out in the agreed period and so will have to withdraw'.  Needless to say, this would have left us bent over, bare bottomed, and Vaseline-less.

This clause was looking to be our undoing when on Wednesday, it looked as if our finance was going to take a little longer to sort out.  The vendor was obviously getting jittery and when we put in for an extension to our 10 days they said yes, but only if they add a clause that allows them to withdraw and accept  higher offer at any time.  This was Wednesday morning.  We said 'erm.... with $1k already down the swannee, you can stroll on!' 

You see, our problem was that Westpac would only lend us part of the amount and this was subject to:  us supplying the rest of the $$'s, to our section in Rolleston being valued at what we said it was, and that T and I had signed contracts for our started salaries.  All well and good, but at that time on Wednesday we did NOT have the $20k we needed, we did NOT have a land valuation, and neither T or I had signed contracts regarding our salaries as T had not had her salary confirmed and following my recent promotion I am yet to get my contract!  Sniffing trouble in the air, the vendor then chucked that old classic 'We've got another buyer interested who is prepared to offer us more money' into the mix.  It's a great line - and so old and dusty that it could have done with a bit of a wash before being trotted out.  I mean it's a line I use everyday for goodness sake, and I am a big believer in that phrase 'you can't bullshit a bullshitter'!  But when tied in with their previous wish to put a clause into any extension, it had a grain of truth.  So - we were in a bit of a pickle right now - with $1k spent and it looking like it was all going to fall apart.

So, ever the problem solver I hit the phones and got our mortgage broker to shop around and arrange a finance deal that offered us the full amount regardless of the cost and conditions.  He did a decent job as within 2 hours The National Bank came through with an offer to lend us the lot, however they wanted another load of conditions met.  Conditions were not the issue right then though - the only thing that mattered was that we'd got the finance (on paper anyway) and so could at last confirm.  Phew!

But wait!  It's not over yet!  The whole deal - regardless of who was lending us the money - relied on the section in Rolleston being valued at what we thought it was worth. Tapping into our network I contacted the guy who sold us the section - let's call him Mr X - and asked if he knew of any 'suggestable' land valuers who would offer the value we were looking for, and I gave him the figure.  He said he did, and would be in touch.  Result!  Erm... not.  Mr X didn't call me that day (Wednesday) and then promptly buggered off overseas for 2 days.  Arses!  So, I went to my boss who knows the score locally and she put forward another another 'suggestable' chap.  Now I'm not talking dodgy here - not like 'please value my land at $30k more than it really is worth' dodgy - I am talking 'if I give you a figure thats within the right ballpark area, please keep that original figure in mind when writing your report' suggestion. 

So - with the finance and confirmation mountains overcome, it was now the biggest one to get over.  Was our section value going to do the business? Now here is where it gets a bit freaky.  As you may now know, ChCh is a relatively small place.  Our land valuer dutifully went out and looked at the section, then looked at what other sections had sold for, then called around the local Real Estate agents to get their opinion.  I call the guy at 3pm on Friday as my heart is in my mouth because it all hinges on this result.  He says 'Sorry about the delay, I am waiting to hear from the guy who really deals with all the sales in that area, but he is currently overseas',  'Really?' says I 'Who might this chappy be?'.  Valuer man responds 'A guy by the name of...' yup - those still awake and paying attention may have already guessed - 'Mr X'!!!!!!

I tell you - I pretty much wet myself with joy.  I am 100% sure that Mr X's number has never been dialled so speedily, or he been asked so nicely, to give his thoughts on land value to the man doing our valuation, and I gave him the guy's number.

10 minutes later there's a voicemail on my phone - it's a whispered, guarded voice and simply says: 'Hi Andy - Mr X here.  A number you may be interested in is .. .'  I couldn't stop laughing on hearing the message, it was like something out of James Bond!  This was at 5pm Friday - almost on the dot.  That made it 3 days of ups, downs, we're buying it, we're not buying it nervous excitement, and more than a couple of sleepless nights.  But after all that, it looks like we will soon be the proud owners of our very own house in ChCh.  Yahoo!

To the people who have assisted with this - and they know who they are - a very big THANK YOU.  Nothing less than 5* service for you when you come to visit, as we could not have done it without you.

Friday then got better and better, as I met T in town after work who had just had the news from School Support that her UK teaching experience had been tested and verified, and her salary set at Level 9.  This is BRILLIANT news as it means that she is worth nearly double what she has been receiving to date, will be getting a big fat rebate on all work done so far, and we'll be pretty much matching each other for income now.  How cool is that!?!