Some logistics planning

I spent the day looking at a few more utes, private sales this time. Canberra used car buyers have the benefit of a great operation here. Around town on the weekend, various car parks in popular locations are set aside for the presentation of cars for sale. Anyone who has a car for sale may pay a fee, and would-be buyers are free to browse. It’s a very nice idea indeed. I spotted a couple of utes at a couple of these used car markets that took my interest and subsequently contacted the owners to arrange a test drive.

It’s been a while since I’ve been this close to newer utilities. Most of the newer utes I’ve looked at seem to be built with a lot more plastic that I’d like to have see on them. Constructing a commercial vehicle with a plastic tray seems darn silly to me. Sure it won’t rust, but will it be able to hold a load. Will you feel confident in throwing rocks and boulders into a plastic tray, as opposed to a steel tray? There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of choice whether you buy a Holden or Falcon.

I need the ute to transport a camper van that’s parked on the block at Warrandyte. This is the type of van that fits into the back of the ute – if you think of a caravan with no wheels, your half way to thinking of what it looks like.

Actually, there is a lot of transportation to be done in getting our stuff from Melbourne to Canberra, and not just our furniture and personal items. I got out a pencil and paper and began to go through the logistics. It may be difficult but not impossible. Here is one scenario. We’ll see what actually takes place when the time comes. Stuff has gone wrong all over the place so far. Anyway, the aim is to get our things to Canberra, and includes our:

• Stuff from Melbourne


• Ute from Melbourne


• EXA (which is in Canberra, with me)


• MR2 from Melbourne


• Camper from Melbourne


• Elsa and Squeak from Melbourne

So, here's my plan:

1. Assuming I buy a ute in Melbourne, I’ll drive the EXA to Melbourne on one of my trips from Canberra


2. Buy the ute, load the caravan on top of it, and drop it off in Canberra, and then drive back to Melbourne with the empty ute


3. Pack up the MR2 with as much stuff as it can carry, rent a truck and pack that up too, and both S and me will set off for Canberra together in separate vehicles


4. The MR2 gets left in Canberra, we unload the truck, and we both drive back to Melbourne in the empty truck, return the truck to the rental company, and drive back to Canberra with me in the EXA and S in the new ute with more stuff and our two pussy cats.

The problems will come with timing, bad timing, that is. If the lease of the ute can be worked out quickly and I get the caravan shifted early, that would help markedly. But if it takes ages, clashing with when we should be in the truck, then we will need to rethink everything. Or if I have difficulty getting the caravan on the ute that could be a problem too. If there are any problems such as this we may have to shift our stuff to one of the neighbours places for a few weeks. We don’t want to be renting this truck and getting in the way of the removalists.

I don’t have a photo of my own van, but here’s one I spotted on the web that gives an idea of what I have. These units are fabulous things. There’s no trouble carrying them really, except that they weight the vehicle down a bit. The only real hassle is getting them on and off the ute. They come with four heavy duty jacks that raise them to a suitable height to allow the ute to slip underneath. You then lower the jacks and the van sits flat on the floor of the ute, and you secure the van to anchor points that you have previously placed in suitable positions on the vehicle. And this is one of my problems in buying a ute. I will have to spend time fitting the anchors to the ute before I can attempt to move it.

I’ve done this work before on two other utes I’ve had, but manufacturers keep changing things. Each one has been a whole new experience each time, and it’s a very fiddly task. The last thing I want is to have hassles at the end.

Settlement is settled

S spent a couple of hours running some tutorials. She said she was tough on the students, and it worked: no talking in class, and the latecomers copped it.

I was at a planning day at work. I really don’t know why managers keep having planning days. I’ve seldom seen anything useful emerge from them. I think most of the people who were there saw it more of a social get together than anything constructive. Though, the talk by our leader was inspiring. It was during this meeting that Vickie, the conveyancer, rang. She is helping me purchase the Flynn property. There had been a development.

Vickie said she had some information. The vendor’s solicitor contacted her regarding settlement day. They wanted the 16th June. They wanted what? Hold on a bit. It was only yesterday we received advice that the contract was signed with the 19th June as settlement. It sounds as though someone is telling fibs or generally making a hash of things. They want to put the 16th on the contract and do nothing until the 19th June. That was Vickie’s plan, yesterday. So, that’s it. Done. Presumably. Both legal eagles came up with the same idea independently.

S was wondering if this meant we could move into the place on the 16th June. Perhaps we could rent it from them.

Vickie also mentioned that our contact from Virgin Home Loans rang to say the valuation was in and approval of the loan may be mid-next week.

A fuzzy deal

Something always happens. Just about every day in this epic some new issue crops up, and here was another event filled day. You could say it makes the day interesting. On the other hand it’s stress I would rather do without.

First up, B rang to see if I could push ahead with the contract exchange. Not that such things are up to me, but it seemed a reasonable request. It would be a gesture of good will. After all, our vendors had exchanged on their new house, and they may be feeling vulnerable living in limbo. I gather they bought their new property at auction, and of course there’s no backing away from an auction sale.

So, I rang Vickie, my Canberra conveyancer, to ask what the delay was on the exchange. We had a short conversation about the merits of organising this settlement before settlement in Melbourne was locked in and finance confirmed. But it’ll be a sure thing. Surely it will? She promised to do the exchange today.

I rang David, my contact at Virgin Home Loans. Actually, I’d been phoning him every hour and hanging up when the answering machine clicked in; I wanted to speak to him, not a machine. Anyway, I got him eventually, and passed on the concerns of B. He said all the valuer really focuses on with private houses is to see if the building seems structurally sound and they look for evidence of pest damage, but they don’t crawl around under the floor or in the attic. He will phone me and a letter will go out, possibly tomorrow or Monday, when the loan application has been approved. I also mentioned the surprise email I got from Virgin.

An email arrived from Virgin with the following message: “In your hunt for a home loan you stopped by Virgin Money to see what you could borrow, but as yet we haven’t heard back from you…” What? David put that down to administrative error of no consequence. It was a discouraging experience in the procedures used by Virgin.

Apparently all the documents I had faxed to Virgin were okay. David said there had only been one outstanding issue, but it had been resolved. He said they were interested to know whether we actually owned our Melbourne property, and then they came to a determination which resolved the matter. Curiously, they didn’t get in touch with me to provide any evidence of ownership, in their determination. Apart from me telling them, that is. But that’s hardly evidence. They must have their own source of information. Interesting.

I organised insurance cover, protecting the building only, using GIO again. The last thing you’d want to happen would be to buy a property, have it burn down, and not be insured. I’ll insure the contents when we get actual contents into it.

Late in the day Vicki rang saying she was, “… trying to do the exchange.” Now, that was an interesting expression, I thought. Trying. Without appearing to appear rude, I asked, “What does that mean?” The owners of the Flynn house, through their solicitor, a mate of the owner, she added, want to change settlement to the 16th June, rather than the 19th, to match the settlement of their new house. It also transpired that contracts had not yet been exchanged, as B had said. Can you trust real estate agents? I told Vickie we couldn’t do this, as it would leave little time for moving. Besides that, the new settlement date was just about to be set, and we don’t want to change it again. How much of an idiot are we expected to be while pandering to other people’s whims?

This news had put me on edge. It was frustrating. I was wondering how to deal with it, and was on the verge of calling Vickie back, and putting a few ideas to her. I was wondering if a compromise could be made that might benefit me, like having the vendors pick up the bill for having our removalist pack our things, or have them pay for our truck rental, but she got to the phone first with a solution.

She will write our settlement as the 16th as requested, but do nothing until the 19th. I don’t understand that. That arrangement sounded somewhat illegal, and I said as much to her. No, it’s fine, apparently. She went on to explain that there is a 7-day lapse period that banks allow, to cover situations where funds or cheques are sent to the wrong place. (What? That sounded strangely familiar!) She also said there isn’t a penalty clause in the contract, saying this as though it were a significant point. I was missing something in the conversation. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a good or a bad thing, but in this particular circumstance it seemed to please her. Because of the 7-day fuzzy period, no one will be confronted for funds that are not forthcoming. We won’t be asked to get a bridging loan. No one will. So I asked, “Why don’t you write 16-19th in the contract?” No, apparently you can’t do that; it has to be a specific date.

So, to confirm this conversation, I repeated: you write the 16th which means nothing, and we sit on our hands until the 19th when the money comes through, and then we do the deal. “That’s right,” she replied. I was surprised and perplexed.

It was all happening a bit faster than I could cope, but it was kind of exciting too. I asked about the 3-day delay in funds transfer we were being forced to go through and whether the 7-day fuzziness could have taken care of it. I asked her if we should have just not troubled ourselves, just adopting a casual attitude. “Perhaps,” she replied.

On a more mundane note, it seems as though Abo, the cat, is giving us some trouble. Abo is a lovely Abyssinian, and from time to time comes wandering over to our property in Warrandyte, in much the way cats do. Our block is a block or two distant from Pat’s place. Abo belongs to Pat, one of our neighbours. The cat normally lives in a cage in Pat’s house. No wonder it keeps escaping and visiting us. Why would a cat want to live in a cage when it can saunter over to our place, steal some of our cats’ food, and have a nap on our bed? Pat was gruff, rude, and off-hand when she approached S about the cat’s whereabouts. I think she thought S was attempting to steal her cat. And this is another good reason to be shot of Melbourne, with such horrible neighbours.

S was to do a stint of teaching on the next day. Class was scheduled to start at 8.00am which means a 5.30am rise if she is to get there on time. It’s the traffic chaos in Melbourne, you see. I drove her to this place once. That was enough. At one section on the Springvale Road during peak hour, we didn’t get out of first gear for about 20 minutes, and much of that time we were stationary, waiting for the car in front to move. And this too is yet another good reason to leave Melbourne.

Can legal people go any slower

B, the Canberra real estate agent, rang to hassle me. She wanted me to get on to my conveyancer. B could very easily become a pain in the neck. Anyway, she had a point: she asked if I could contact Vickie, from William Heague, and get the exchange of contracts pushed through. B is probably being pressured by the owners of the house in Flynn.

The settlement date change seemed to be known and agreed to by everyone except the legal people. Vickie won’t proceed with the exchange until all the paperwork is in order, and in particular, that Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer, confirms the settlement date with her, and Virgin Home Loans confirm the loan. There’s not much for me to do, really.

My contact at Virgin Home Loans is difficult to catch at times. He said the increase to $150k is okay. He asked about the documents I had faxed, as he hadn’t seen them as yet. I told him what I had sent and he seemed satisfied, and assumed they must be held up somewhere on his side. He also said he had “ordered” a valuation, but he was perplexed when I said no one has been contacted this end as yet about it. The person doing the valuation was supposed to contact the agent here in Canberra to set it up with the current owners, but no one has done that yet. Seems like Virgin haven’t quite got things worked out yet.

S called in at our Melbourne real estate agent’s office to present her thank you gifts that she had bought for them. She bought a gold pen, and she thinks he was pleased. Though by the sounds of what I heard, I gather he would rather have had a letter of commendation. Something for his portfolio, of course. While in the office, he asked if he could show Melody through. S doesn’t want to do this. I’ll do it. S is more enraged with Melody than me it would seem. Though I wasn’t impressed by her one little bit.

I have been spending some time checking out some more utes in the paper and on the web. There are a few possibilities here and there. I’ve also looking into Novated Lease. I wonder where it got that name from. I’m not sure if leasing is for us, but there really aren’t too many alternatives; this could be one.

S is feeling edgy about the contracts not being exchanged, concerned that the vendors may be anxious and leave the house in a poor condition when they vacate, because we don’t seem to be keeping our end of the bargain. She suggested I get Vickie to get a wriggle on, leaving the worry of settlement in Melbourne and the home loan in our hands.

Some maintenance

It’s true: credit cards work wonders in cleaning the frost off the car windscreen, and there was so much frost it looked like piles of fluffy snow at the edges of the screen. The poor little starter motor in my EXA is also sounding as though it has a sore throat or a cold.

It was just a sort of administrative day today.

Vickie, of Willian Heague our Canberra conveyancer: I dropped off the contract, checked that she would note that work needed to be done to the three wardrobes in the house, the garden shed was noted (I didn’t want it removed), got her to mark S and myself as joint tenants, and handed over the deposit bond certificate. She will contact Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer, and have her send a cheque to cover Stamp Duty, which has to be paid promptly (on or before settlement, I think). We should have a final inspection too.

Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer: I rang Fay to advise her of the changed date for settlement, but in her unique manner, she really wanted to know about the insurance details first. Melody is contacting her solicitor today, apparently. So this should (hopefully) work out! Fay said the normal cost of setting up a contract to rent would be about $180-$200, but not required as it is us who are renting. I don’t quite understand that.

Virgin Money, our home loan lender: I rang Virgin to check that everything was proceeding okay. It turned out that, despite someone phoning S and getting the credit card number from her, in case we “should we back out of the loan” after making arrangements to do a valuation, the number wasn’t recorded, and a valuation check hasn’t yet been organised. So, I gave them the credit card number again, and accepted their advice that a valuation will be organised. I must keep checking on them. It puts you on edge when people fail to do things that they should.

B, the real estate agent from Flynn: I emailed B her and subsequently spoke with her to keep her in the picture with developments. The developments being the new settlement date, valuation needing to be done, contract with Vickie, expected delivery of our belongings.

Mal, Westpac loans officer: He emailed me hoping I had a nice stay in Melbourne, which was nice of him, and he reminded me that his offer was still open. Well, that story has been put to bed now. It’ll be a Virgin home loan. I still remember his attitude and can’t get over it. Westpac will remain my bank; I wonder if he’ll remember me when I walk in there.

And S buys a few gifts for the helpful Melbourne real estate agents and their staff.

While all these house issues are going on things are building at work. I have a major deadline within a week and then when that’s done I want to shoot off to Melbourne straightaway afterwards. I also have a new task to come to gips with at work. I can’t focus on studying it. I find I’m filing, tidying up, and cleaning the desk. It’s avoidance behaviour.

When will the problems end?

I spent some time bringing some boxes and stuff down from the attic on Sunday. It’s surprising how much stuff was up there. I packed the car with some of it, and was off back to Canberra in the afternoon. It was a particularly cold trip without the heater. But the audio books were great, particularly the Bill Bryson tape of his book ‘Down Under’. Bryson has a fantastic view of the world and he has some really funny sections in the book, and I loved his views on Canberra. I have only positive memories of this book. It’s a must read, or in my case it’s a must listen.

I rang Virgin Home Loans to keep things on the boil. Yes, the materials I had faxed to them had been sufficient. The home loan application moved to the next phase, and a property inspection was required. So, when the property inspector gets in touch I will contact B, who will contact the owners to organise access, to get the evaluation. I don’t really know why they are bothering with a valuation. I’m sure they could recover their investment without too much effort.

I took this opportunity to enquire if the loan could be increased from $100k to $150k. I wanted access to some extra money, at home loan rates, should I need it. They didn’t think this would be a problem, but they had to do some internal checks to confirm it. Oh, they’re busy little bees.

Someone from Virgin also rang S to confirm this next phase, and to advise that it’d cost $490 to back out if we change our minds about using Virgin for a home loan, and to ask her for our credit card number.

A fax arrived for me at work from Deposit Power, to say that the bond certificate had been approved and the original was in the mail. This seemed to be one of the few things that had worked out with a minimum of fuss. There is a lot to be said for doing it yourself.

I rang Vickie, my Canberra conveyancer, and asked about settlement, and whether she knew about the 3-day hold up that banks impose on interstate funds transfers. Yes, she did know about it. I wonder why she didn’t tell me. I was tempted to unleash my rage at her, which might have made me feel good. I elected to keep quiet, not get her off side in the interests of good relations lest she deliberately put my file to the bottom of her priority list. This is exasperating. Aggh!

As we can’t change the Canberra settlement date we should try to change the Warrandyte settlement date, to alleviate this three-day funds hold up issue. S phoned Fay, our Melbourne conveyancer. She finds Fay grumpy, and they both get a bit short with each other. I rang Fay. I asked her not to write to Melody’s solicitor as she was planning to do. She agreed to put that on hold, at least until there was a plan that would work. Better to write to confirm something, than beg for something, or attempt to ‘press’ them into changing the settlement date. S tried to contact our Melbourne agent, but both agents were at a conference in Sydney until Wednesday. What next?

I email our Melbourne real estate agent with information I’d got from Vickie, our Canberra conveyancer, with information that indicates the date that would allow sufficient time to transfer the funds. That is, if Melody would change the settlement date, again. I would feel embarrassed about this, but as Melody stuffed us around with the deposit, I don’t really care. Anyway, this is the fault of the conveyancers in my opinion.

Here are the conveyancers details, should anyone be interested:

Melbourne
Canberra

I found it interesting that Vickie said to me that our Melbourne conveyancer said the date was “locked in to the 19th,” because Melody’s solicitor had said so. Nothing was ‘said’ in so far as I knew. I know this is a small point, perhaps on the verge of hair-splitting, but it turned out that Fay had a letter from Melody’s solicitor to say settlement would be on the 19th. Well, of course she did. It was me who asked our Melbourne real estate agent to ask Melody to set it to the 19th because B had asked me if the settlement date could be changed to the 19th. The lack of communication going on here is astounding.

Vickie also reported that she had received no information from the Flynn solicitor. I thought the owner was doing his own conveyancing. At least, that’s what the contract stated. I asked Vickie to keep me informed of any developments, and I said I’d keep her posted with anything I found out.

S rang Westpac to look into this 3-day delay that’s causing the current problem. Apparently, there was something called ‘portability’ that will allow the funds to be transferred. This sounded like a positive development, but I was sceptical. I don’t believe a word of it. I think this person is talking about transferring a home loan from one person to another. The home loan that we almost signed up for at Westpac boasts this very feature. It’s amazing the crap people will feed you instead of good advice.

S got in touch with our Melbourne real estate agent, who got in touch with Melody. That was a lucky break. No one could get hold of her before the deposit was paid. Maybe she was hiding. He asked her if the settlement date can be changed. Yes, no problem. Wow, something that worked.

I put the phone down after S’s call. A simple answer: “Yes,” and the problem had disappeared. I was stunned. She said, “Yes,” and the problem went away. Settlement date can be moved, yes. No need for bridging finance, yeah. We can relax, yes.

Nothing had been simple so far. I was staring at the empty cup in front of me. My eyes were focused somewhere about a mile below the cup on the desk in front of me. After a minute of so, I rang S again, and asked what she was doing. “Wandering about the house in a daze,” she said. So was I; in a daze that is, I said to her. S said, “This is awful. When will it end?”

Our gruff old real estate agent is well and truly a friend, now. And we have a new settlement date. That should do the trick. But we will have to rent our house from Melody for about a week. So, $350 plus set up costs will be a lot more pleasant that a bridging loan. Anyway, Virgin doesn’t do bridging loans.

A rest day

S and I had lunch at Montsalvat. Montsalvat is lovely artists retreat, that also caters for weddings, and is a nice venue for the occasional jazz festival, and of course it has a café. And we went along to the café for lunch and happened to be sharing the room with a wedding party. They seemed oblivious to us, which was okay.

We took a trip to the botanic gardens. Lovely blue sky but it was cold. Melbourne has a lovely botanical garden with a couple of cafés there. Yes, there are definitely some things in Melbourne and Victoria that I’m going to miss.

B rang while we were having lunch. She rang to say the owners of the Flynn property couldn’t move the settlement date as it would cost twelve thousand dollars. Did she mean twelve hundred dollars? I had a quote for about $1600 for my bridging money, should it be needed. Perhaps their estimate, or B’s memory, was a little out.

Problems. Problems. Problems.

A loan organised, settlement stuffed

We visited Westpac at Eltham to talk to their loans officer about home loans and I went over my recent experiences with Mal at Belconnen. Who knows, a new enquiry with someone different might put something new on the plate for us to consider.

The loans officer we spoke with was hesitant to ‘step on his toes’ as she said, “he had progressed the loan,” which was interesting because I never said we’d be going with Westpac. In fact I had been open with Mal saying how I was shopping around, and would let him know my decision when I returned from Melbourne. The Eltham loans officer was very helpful, and explained the various options and how they might benefit or disadvantage us.

She couldn’t better or match Virgin’s rate, but came up with an alternative – a Premium Option loan. This loan did not have an offset facility but the extra amount beyond what we paid remained available for redraw; I presume this was the ‘limit’ that was available with our previous home loan.

It’s as well to confirm things. It does no harm and you might regret not checking later. We got word from Virgin Home Loans.

There was a letter waiting for us when we got back home after visiting the bank. It was from Virgin advising that a Rocket Repay Home Loan application had been approved. It was good to get it. We’ll go with Virgin rather than Westpac.

Later in the day, we also visited our conveyancer who was assisting in the sale of our Warrandyte property. There was some paperwork to be taken care of. Fay, our conveyancer, worked from her home and had set up an office there. Whatever works, I guess. Her office was on the way to one of our shopping centres, so it was convenient to call in there on the way.

Fay was an unusual person. She was quite an experience to work with. She seemed to know her job in so far as she always had an answer whenever requested, but we both found conversing with her to be an unusual experience. Most communication with her seldom flowed as a conversation does. Possibly, with her being in this industry for so long she had come across all or most questions people put to her. She had a disconcerting habit of not waiting until you had finished asking the question and would interrupt and begin offering you the answer before you had finished putting the question. On most occasions this okay, but sometimes she should have waited until the question was out there.

We passed across the documents she needed and sat waiting while she completed her work. I thought, given this opportunity, with the three of us together that I might ask about settlement. I was curious as to the procedures that might happen at settlement. I had various assumptions about what happens during these transactions. To me, settlement was when the deal is completed: the buyer (through their conveyancer) provides the money, and the seller (through their conveyancer) hands over the title and keys of the property, or something similar. I have a semi romantic image of people seated around a large mahogany table in a wood panelled room, with them carefully and systematically checking their documents and passing cheques around.

It’s probably nothing like that, but because the public seldom get to see what happens it has always been both a mystery and a curiosity to me. However, I didn’t get too far in my enquiry when we got side tracked onto a particular aspect of settlement. I’m glad I asked, and thank my lucky stars to have asked. My innocent little question was quite an eye opener, as it happened. I wonder why no one mentioned the problem to us.

It turned out that there will be a delay in transferring funds following the sale of our Warrandyte property to when they become available for the Canberra property. It seems that banks have set things up so that there is a three day delay in the funds transfer process. It doesn’t matter whether you have the cash in the bank, the technicalities of which are not clear to me, but the funds from the settlement of our Warrandyte house will not be available to purchase the Canberra house until three business days have passed. The settlement date of the Canberra house is the 19th June. The settlement date of the Warrandyte house was a few days earlier; insufficient time for the funds to be transferred.

Fay said this is not a problem when buying and selling within the same state because the bank cheque can be exchanged on the same day, but there is no way we can get the funds interstate during business hours, on the same day. She also said the funds could be deposited directly into our Canberra solicitor’s trust account, but they still wouldn’t have access to the money for three business days.

Apparently, funds sometime go astray during interstate transactions. Three days was considered by banks to be an appropriate time to ensure the funds went to the correct locations. If the funds went missing it could be investigated before settlement was scheduled. There is a certain cautious logic in that arrangement, but I wonder who gets the interest during those three days: oh, don’t tell me it’s the banks.

You would have thought the solicitors and conveyancers who were organising the sale and purchase for me would have been aware of this and attempted to avoid the problem. It wasn’t so long ago that the Canberra agent had asked if our Warrandyte settlement date could be shifted to match the Flynn settlement date, and this was done. This was no doubt at the Flynn owner’s request, the owner of Flynn is a solicitor who was doing his own conveyancing. Why didn't he know? So, how is this dilemma to be resolved?

One solution might be getting the settlement of the Canberra house put back a few days – I will ask B, our agent to make some enquiries to see if this can be done. Another solution may be to change settlement of the Warrandyte house forward three days. I don’t really want bridging money for some restriction the banks had imposed.

And I thought our problems were over when Deposit Power rang saying the Bond Certificate was in the mail.

I would have thought that a pair of conveyancers working for the same client would get together and work these things out. I would have thought that this was part of the service that I was paying them; to alleviate problems. They both knew I was buying/selling interstate. So why didn’t they offer advice that would help with the transaction rather than potentially stuffing it up. Aggh!

The inspection

I called around to the Flynn house around 5.30pm as arranged to inspect the work that had been done, which was a bit pointless as the wardrobe doors had not yet been fitted. That was rather disappointing, as it was promised to be done. Some work had been done, but it was unfinished. People shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep.

I met K, one of the owners of the house, and she ran through a few things in the house. She showed me the laundry, which had had some work done and wasn’t quite finished. There were still a few tidy up things to do. She worked in a kitchen renovation company, and I presume she was able to use these contacts to get some work done on the house, and the laundry revamp was one of the renovations in progress, which was nice. And why wouldn’t you do that if you worked at a place like that. And of course, the kitchen itself had been renovated not long previously by the look of it. The kitchen floor looked better than it had done when I saw the place last during the inspection. Areas of the floor had been revarnished. It appeared as though there had been a few spillages of varnish on the floor that had been allowed to dry, as some areas of varnish on the floor looked to be much thicker in areas than in others. They didn’t do the entire floor for some reason. I wonder why they stopped part way through the dining room. Anyway, it’s something that can be done again later.

K produced a letter while I was there to say the robe doors would be completed. She seemed concerned at their absence, and presumably this letter of commitment was to make me feel at ease. She was probably embarrassed. I was disappointed it hadn’t been done, but she seemed genuine enough.

We had a chat. She was very chatty, in fact. She promised to steam clean the carpets to remove the stains. She said the stains were just surface marks and would be easily removed.

I couldn’t stay. It was getting late. I was in a hurry to pick up some removalist cartons that I had arranged through work, and then I was off to Melbourne. I was aware the drive from Canberra to Melbourne was about eight hours for me. I didn’t want to be driving too far into the early hours. K seemed oblivious of my need to keep this visit short. It would have been nice to have spent time there studying the property and chatting to the owner; there could have been things that would have been useful to know about the property, but I had to go.

I made my second visit for the evening to someone’s house who worked in the place I work. They had some removalist cartons they no longer needed which I wanted. I loaded my little EXA brimful of folded cardboard boxes and was off arriving at Warrandyte at about 2.00am. What a day.

To Melbourne again

I picked up the contract for the purchase of our new house from my solicitor (conveyancer), and off to Melbourne later in the day.

Things are looking good. The house in Melbourne has been sold, and the deposit has been paid. We have a house in Canberra lined up. I’ve got a bond certificate application in the mail.

Hey. It’s a happening thing!

Conditional approval

I rang Virgin Home Loans to see how things were progressing with my loan application. They said it had been conditionally approved, and I was put through to someone else; to my customer relationships manager, and David from Virgin Home Loans was a very pleasant chap, and seemed good to work with. Actually, everyone I’d been dealing with at Virgin has been good. He wanted me to fax some documents before the approval was finalised; just some very simple tasks. He began to talk about getting a property valuation, but I asked for that to be put on hold for a few days, lest they charge me, and should I go with Westpac in the end. But, the loan seems to be in the bag. That’s a relief.

So, it was time to get the Bond Guarantee arranged. I rang Mal at Westpac. He apologised for not getting back to me. I asked if he’d read the material I sent that I got from Virgin. He said he had, but wouldn’t be able to beat their rate. It’s a different type of package, he said. Afterwards, I wondered what he had meant by that.

I asked him if I could have the Bond Guarantee back, as he had been holding it for me. I wanted to organise a replacement for the property I’m about to purchase. The bond has to indicate ‘Private Treaty’ instead of ‘Auction’ as on the current document. He was happy for me to call by.

So I called by at lunch time, and was invited into his office. I was expecting only the briefest meeting. Essentially, to be given the document and be on my way again, but he had prepared a letter for me. It was an offer of rate reduction. If I were to take up Westpac’s ‘Premier Advantage’ loan, which has an annual fee they offered a discount of 0.4% off the standard home loan rate. Mal’s deal was to offer me 0.5% off instead. And then while I was there in his office he made a call, presumably someone in the bank who was authorised to endorse special rates, and the word was that I can have the loan at a rate discounted by 0.6% below the standard rate. It was nice that he was actually doing things to encourage me to take out a loan with Westpac. But why so late in our relationship? Virgin’s rate was lower. No commitments were made.

I said to him that I would be going to Melbourne on the weekend and would be discussing the situation with S, but promised to get back to him. On the way out of the bank, with his letter, and bond certificate in hand, he said in parting that he only negotiates reduced rates only after the second knock back to try to keep a customer. I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that he said that with a boast in his voice. I only negotiate reduced rates only after the second knock back to try to keep a customer. Perhaps had he been negotiating rates with me a lot earlier I wouldn’t have tried so hard with Westpac’s opposition. His comment floored me. As I walked back to the car park I found myself repeating his comment over and over.

His comment surprised me to say the least. I made no response. But upon thinking about it my interpretation of his comment went as follows: I don’t give a stuff about you. I’m only interested in my own commission. I’m not going to bother with you until I see you back here sometime later. If I think I’ll loose you to another bank I’ll throw you a crumb.
I wasn’t feeling happy with Mal, despite his better offer. Not happy at all with Mal. I felt insulted.

I started to organise the new Bond Guarantee. I telephoned Deposit Power to confirm the documents I needed. The property title was not required; just the two contracts and the loan approval. But they need both of our signatures. This involved a rush job by S to print the appropriate form, sign it, and fax it back to me. Things are difficult with me in Canberra and S in Melbourne. Of course, the person faxing it at her local chemist in Eltham goofed, and it had to be faxed again, which is kind of funny as the fax didn’t come through properly. One of the tick boxes got left off the fax. And then while looking through the Contract for Sale document for the property I noticed the amount shown for the deposit was not the agreed amount. When we put our offer to the real estate agent, I said, or rather, asked if I could use the existing bond certificate that I had (ie. 5% of purchase price), and she said that would be okay. So, here I am about to send this stuff to Deposit Power, and they’ll see that the amounts don’t match. B must have forgotten that little bit. Happy that I caught it in time and fixed it. I bundled it all up in an express post envelope and it was in the post, and out my hair.

More finance discussions

Mal the Westpac banker rang. A friendly chap on the surface, but he came across as a bit of a trickster. He may be defending his commission; I think he was trying to stop me shifting to Virgin for a home loan. With the hours he works, I assume he’s on commission. Anyway, I had rung the Westpac home loan help line asking about the bank’s home loan interest rates. Now, that was an illuminating experience.

It was only the day before that Mal made his best offer and made it sound as though he was offering me a special rate. Well, it turned out that his best offer was just the every day fixed rate they give to anyone. So much for the best he can do. That’s not a deal, that’s the bank’s standard rate. Discoveries like this are not helpful to good relations. The reassuring handshake, the gentle hand on shoulder, and friendly smile now seemed like deceit. Anyway, he rang saying he’d try and work something out, and we spoke about Virgin.

With experiences like that you feel like telling them where to go and dumping them, and going somewhere else. Okay, I am considering going somewhere else, but I also want to keep my options open while I find the best deal. He asked what I’d been offered from Virgin. I said there was nothing in writing but I could email him the details, and I also sent him some information from the Virgin web site.

B, the agent, rang. The only time she can set up a time to see the house to inspect the work done to the wardrobes etc was Thursday at 5.30pm. So much for my early departure for Melbourne. I was planning to get away from work early on Thursday afternoon to drive to Melbourne. Vicki the conveyancer is still waiting for information from the vendor’s solicitor. I thought we’d be the hold up with all the trouble with our buyer in Melbourne no paying the deposit on time.

About bloody time!

A busy day, the biggest event that took place was that the deposit came through; about $36,400 of it according to the real estate agent.

But it was frantic day before that news came though. B, the Canberra real estate agent, had already written to me with a copy of the Instructions of Sale saying exchange of contracts was to be tomorrow. She also said I could inspect the property this week. Which was nice, but I wanted to ward her off. I suggested I take the contract to Melbourne, so that both S and I could study it properly. My actual reasoning was that, perhaps the deposit would be through by then. I was just trying to buy myself some extra time. Anyway, as it turned out she couldn’t tee up a time to see the work, and was to contact me later, possibly the following day. So there I was talking about various arrangements, trying to appear nonchalant, and all the while I was fretting that we might get caught out. The things I said and the manner I said them bore little relation to what I was thinking, most of the time.

I got a call from William Heague. This is the company who will be doing my conveyancing for the Flynn property. It appears that my previous contact Abby will no longer be doing this and I’ll be working with Vicki. She seems okay, and recommended having the work written into the contract, which sounds like a good idea to me. Though, you wonder about passing work from one person to the next. I hate picking up the threads of someone else’s work. It’s so hard to do. I also spoke to her about changing finance from Westpac to Virgin, which wasn’t a problem, she said. I just have to keep her posted. However, there was a problem on the vendor’s side with a change in solicitor. It seems that the owner, who is a lawyer, was going to do everything himself, will now only do his own property. This may have been the reason B said the contract exchange will be next week. That’s a relief. That was absolutely great timing on their part.

As far as our Warrandyte real estate agent was concerned, in addition to asking him to contact the bank to check for possible hold ups, at S’s suggestion I pressed the idea that our buyer get a personal loan to cover the deposit, and that if the Canberra property fell foul because our buyer’s deposit wasn’t coming through that we cancel the sale and consider removing the property from the market. Within an hour he was on the phone saying he had the deposit in his trust account. At bloody last! Was that coincidence, or did my threat get him on the phone to his bank manager to hurry things along. Who knows.

I opened my little bottle of champagne, that I’d been keeping for the purpose. S didn’t want her’s. She was feeling so flat, and generally pissed off over the whole experience that she didn't have the appetite for it. I felt a bit like that too. The chance of revelling in the excitement of the purchase of our new house had been extinguished by the antics of our buyer. The worry she put us through was horrible. It just wasn’t fair.

I spent ages on the phone to Virgin Home Loans getting a loan application lodged. S didn’t like the experience either when she had to go through it with them too. Virgin have relatively low fees and their interest rate was better than Westpac could offer. I rang Mal at Westpac and told him of what Virgin could offer. I wanted to play one off against the other. He said he couldn’t better the rate, except to offer a fixed interest rate for 3 years, which was better than Virgin’s fixed 3-year rate.

I raised the issue of the Bond Certificate with Mal, and he said he was only doing that under the assumption the loan would be provided through Westpac. He implied that I’d have to go through a bank for another Bond Certificate. This was not true. I don’t think he likes Virgin. Well, it’s the opposition, and darned good competition too. I subsequently rang Deposit Power, and was advised that anyone with the appropriate documentation can apply for a certificate. However, they do make you run around gathering documentation: the Melbourne house contract for sale, the Melbourne house title, the Canberra house contract, finance approval or pre-approval statement.

Random musings

I wonder if B, the Flynn real estate agent, would have been so casual (no deposit requested, no contract signed) over the sale of the house, in this honour arrangement she seemed to have embarked upon, had we arrived at the property when we first inspected the place in my smoky old EXA rather than S’s sleek MR2 sports car (some refer to the MR2 as a baby Ferrari), and had she taken S’s name as Ms rather than Dr. Impressions can be influential.

Very early in our acquaintance B had asked if we were genuinely interested in buying, and I said yes. She confirmed again, orally I must emphasize, that if we might back out of the deal to say so, and I said we wouldn’t do that. From that point it was as though we were honour bound to go through with it.

I had checked out a few other lenders. Virgin seems better than Aussie. Virgin claims no fees, but there are some. They guy I had been speaking to at Westpac mentioned the annual fee, but didn’t say a word of the Application Fee. I only discovered this from the infochoice web site.

I find it difficult to compare the offerings as each institution tends to use different terminology. What is a ‘legal documentation fee’? Is this another name for an establishment fee? What’s the difference between an annual fee, a service fee, and a maintenance fee; all Westpac terms for different loan types. I’ll must talk to someone from Virgin tomorrow.

In Warrandyte, S noticed some dampness in one of the kitchen cabinets. Water from the skylight, not begin deflected by the plastic sheet we had removed from the top of the kitchen cupboards, had been running inside the cupboards. There was a sheet of plastic running along the top of the kitchen cabinets. It had been there since we bought the house, and not sure what it was there for. It was a bit untidy looking so we removed it.

It seems that the skylight above the kitchen leaks a little water. The plastic caught the occasional drip during rain storms, and allowing it to evaporate later. I guess the absence of the plastic sheet caused the water to get straight into the cabinets. It’s strange the things you discover about a place when you are about to leave.

Some light ($s) at the end of the tunnel

Our Melbourne real estate agent emailed me the document he said he got from the buyer’s solicitor. It was a note which could have been typed by anyone, on a plain sheet of paper, that stated our real estate agent “…is the beneficiary in a transmission from Burnt Britt Cardens – Walrod” of an amount of 15,000 in a currency type of GBP. It appeared legitimate, in so far as a few words on a piece of paper are concerned. It was a step forward.

I left a message on Mal’s answering service (Westpac) to say it had arrived. S is feeling lousy over this whole shemozzle.

There were two other properties in Flynn that we didn’t see properly last Saturday. One was in Jacobs Place and another in Rolland Place. We were at Rolland Place when B rang and we upped our offer to win the property. Rolland seemed like an ex-govie, was very ordinary and a bit depressing inside. Sure, the pool looked nice, the back garden was done up nicely but it was a sad little property, and advertised for the same price as the property I'm hoping will come through. Rolland didn’t seem worth the lower end of its advertised $340-$360k price tag. Jacobs Place on the other hand had fabulous views, and did seem a large place, but the property made no connection with me, which was just as well for the $420-$440k price tag. The agent at the property pointed me toward a property in Carandini Street for about $400k. It was an okay property, with huge windows but it overlooked the neighbours in an imposing sort of way. Little impressed me today.

I took a drive out to Fyshwick to check out the used car lots for a ute. I need a ute to be able to transport our camper van, that’s sitting in the driveway at Warrandyte, up here to Canberra. The old ute I used to have literally rusted away, and then the engine blew up, but that’s another story. There wasn’t much in the offing from the used car dealers; and they often seem so much like con-artists.

While I was at Fyshwick I spotted a branch of Avis, and wondered about truck rentals. I paid them a visit. Prices for trucks, that can be driven by people with only a car driver’s licence, though pricey are within my budget. The trucks were a very good size too. We have a lot of stuff that we don’t trust removalists with. This might be a solution.

Instructions of Sale

There was a letter waiting for me at home: Instructions of Sale. It documented the Exchange Date to take place in a few days, and Settlement Date to be on or before the 19th June. If only we had some money to help us out with this one.

La de da de da. Where’s the bloody deposit?

And still no deposit

S got a load of firewood delivered to our Warrandyte house. The wood supply was getting low and the weather becoming colder. The truck driver got panicked on how get up the drive, but it worked out. He must have been a new driver. It is an awful driveway, with the truck having to do a three-point turn in the wide section at the top (I should have said nine-point turn, on a slope).

I got into a pickle with that driveway once that had me frustrated. After a long drive from Adelaide with the ute loaded to capacity and a heavy trailer on the back we got to Melbourne at about 2.00am. I was concerned about the weight of everything, and was worried about being able to get the car and trailer up driveway, being as steep as it was.

I asked S to hop out before I attempted it. She was really tired and went to bed leaving me to park the car. The drive is almost impossible to drive into from the centre of the road, but is angled and is a breeze when making a left off the road. So, I drove down the street, made a u-turn, kept it in 2nd gear, and pulled into the drive doing about 40km/hr, or thereabouts. A speed I thought I was guaranteed to get me to the top of the hill.

The driveway is particularly steep as it comes off the road, and curves in a sweeping bend all the way up. My plan was simply to get the car to the top where the surface was relatively flat, park it and go to bed, and leave the unpacking until the next day. Approaching the drive at 40k was not a problem. I’d done this many times before, but I hadn’t realised how heavy my load was that night.

The car got about two-thirds the driveway and stopped. It got past the steepest section okay, but I could feel the power dropping, despite the throttle being wide open. I thought my initial speed might have compensated for the lack of power, but the engine was going to stall unless I stopped. I attempted to get it going again, putting it into 1st gear, but all that happened was that the clutch slipped.

My next plan was to pull the handbrake on, leave the car in gear, perhaps put a few chocks under the wheels, and go to bed. I’d deal with the problem in the morning. That didn’t work.

With the engine off, and the hand brake fully on, the weight of the car and trailer was pulling me down the hill. Of course, anyone familiar with the delights of driving with a trailer will know that reversing with a trailer takes some care. I was familiar with this experience. My problem was that with the car loaded as it was I couldn’t really see the trailer, plus the fact that the drive was curved. Curved drives and trailers aren’t a good mix; particularly when driving forward isn’t possible. A jack-knife situation would be inevitable.

I was stuck. I did not have a solution. If I had a mobile phone I could have rang for help. S was in bed. And I was sitting here with my foot on the brake, not knowing what to do. Bugger.

I began looking around. Not that there was much to see at night. There were a few large rocks nearby. Perhaps I could leap out the car, grab a rock and wedge it under one of the wheels before the car started to roll backwards. I doubted my changes, and had visions of being crushed. I remained where I was, and began to fret. My only option was to sit there and wait until S got up in the morning. But what if I fell asleep? I was thinking, let it jack knife. That would take some of the load of the car, but it would get damaged. I’d just have to sit and wait.

Then out of the shadows I saw S walking down the drive. The feeling of relief that came over me almost brought tears of joy to my eyes. I had to ask why she had come down. Oh, just to see how you were going, she said. Is there ESP between us? I explained my experience, but I don’t think she was interested. I got her to place some chocks under each wheel, which worked a treat and in addition to the handbrake the car was secure. I spent about half an hour unloading the heaviest items from the trailer, wheeled it aside to park it, and drove the ute up the hill. This was one very scary episode.

Squeak our cat had the cheek to use Elsa’s poo box, but left her bum hanging over the edge, peeing on the floor. Elsa was indignant. And then Squeak rolled on her back with feet in the air, and then darted to the door to get out. It’ll be tricky getting these naughty cats to Canberra. Though Elsa is a seasoned traveller; I used to drive between Launceston and Hobart and she came with me in the car, and she had to put up with a few Bass Strait crossings on the ferry.

The Melbourne real estate agent rang. He’s expecting the funds for our deposit to be paid into the office trust account, but the money isn’t through yet. He contacted the buyer’s solicitor in the UK again. At least he’s doing things on his own initiative now. He said they’ve sent the money, or some of it. He also said they would email him some documentation relating to the transaction. The document will be scanned and emailed to him. I asked him to forward it to me.

A sinking feeling

I had an early meeting with Mal from Westpac. He was the loans officer I had been talking to earlier. The bond certificate had to be reissued. The current certificate was for an auction only, and could not be used to buy a non-auction property. However, it will be replaced without charge. I must also demonstrate that there are sufficient funds to back it up; in other words, documentation that the deposit will be paid on the Warrandyte property to be provided before a new certificate is issued. This is unhappy news.

It seems that the current certificate had been issued in error. Mal had assumed we already had the deposit. We thought we might have had the deposit too, last week, but that’s another issue. It would seem that Mal didn’t ask the right questions or didn’t check into everything. I was upfront with everyone.

So, now the problem expands. We can’t get the bond certificate until we get our own deposit. A sinking feeling developed in my stomach.

S blew up at one of our real estate agents and doesn’t want to deal with him anymore. He was adopting a business manner with her. As a consequence S was thinking of withdrawing the house from this agent in favour of an Eltham real estate agent, one that draws a different client base.

Before we came to Warrandyte we had been living in Hurstbridge, and Eltham is one of the main centres which is reasonably close to Hurstbridge. It was through an Eltham agent that we purchased the Warrandyte property. It was advertised in the real estate section of the local rag, which seldom covered many Warrandyte properties, dealing mostly with Hurstbridge, Eltham, Greensborough. In fact, most Warrandyte properties for sale appear in their own local newspaper, which we seldom got. It’s possible that with our current real estate agent not targeting their newspaper ads to the region where we lived prior to buying the property they were missing out on potential punters. After all, that’s where we used to live. Advertising locally, is a bit like preaching to the converted.

I emailed our agent, asking if we can get the buyer’s solicitor’s phone number, with a view to contacting them, or getting our conveyancer to contact them. It’s all very well of the buyer reassuring us, but that carries little weight. They may be engaged in a shonky; making more than one offer, and just biding their time. Perhaps they are willing to loose their $1000 partial deposit in favour of a better property. He agreed to contact her solicitor. He got back to me latter, with advice from her solicitor who told him that the UK property had settled yesterday, and £15,000 would be transferred as our deposit, and it would take about 24hrs to transfer, and this was in process.

This was excellent news, though S was only slightly impressed. It’s only one step. It’s still only words. We still need to see the deposit. But I’m definitely feeling a lot happier. The next couple days are going to be excruciating until the deposit has been paid. We could get a personal loan to cover our own deposit if required, and who knows, perhaps a bridging loan if we end up with two properties.

Still no money

B, our Canberra real estate agent, delivered the contract to my solicitor today. S and I are both worried about the whole situation with the deposit. The deposit should have been paid ages ago, but little has been forthcoming.

I had a look for our buyer on the internet, to see if anyone had her listed as a problem person. There was nothing on the net, that I could find. I found her telephone number. Boy, I was tempted to ring, and confront her with a few issues. I resited the urge.

I searched on her address and found a listing of someone else at that address in the State Government Gazette, on a listing of people Telstra owes money. But that was all; which could be a good thing.

I rang our Warrandyte real estate agent about the buyer, but there was no news. And still no money for us. The deposit still hasn’t been paid. Then later in the day she made contact with our agent, apologised again, and according to our agent made positive noises about having been in contact with her solicitor in the UK. She said the deposit will be coming, but there may be a delay. Oh great!

Apparently, it takes some time for the funds to be transferred. You’d think the transfer of funds would be instantaneous. The time delay that exists between the UK and Australia was pointed out to me. I wasn’t quite sure how that fits with the issue. When you pick up the phone and talk to someone, it doesn’t really matter where you are, be that the house next door or UK. Surely, if you transfer funds electronically it’s just as fast.

According to our real estate agent, there is no problem in shifting the settlement date from the 16th to 19th June. Well, that’s good at least. Assuming the deal goes through, assuming the deposit is actually paid. Oh, I don’t like any of this. This is just so wrong. This should just not happen.

S got a quote for removalists – Dawkins (approx $9000). Boy, that’s a lot.

An early rise for me tomorrow – a 7.30am appointment with the bank.

Early developments

I called into the real estate office to see the documentation on the property. It seemed that the previous owners were considering building an extension to the house, as there were plans for an addition off to one side of the building. I gather they wanted to leave space in the back for a pool. The back yard would certainly have plenty of room for it.

I asked the real estate agent who she considered would be a good conveyancer. She provided a list of conveyancers, short listing a few, and of them all recommended William Heague.

The settlement dates didn’t match perfectly, with our Warrandyte property falling on 16th June and the Canberra house on the 19th June. Something might be able to be done there. They are very close. I can’t determine as yet as to whether we can shift the Warrandyte settlement date to the 19th June. We were both of the view to give the buyer of our house as little regard as she is us. She has not paid the deposit. With such disregard for protocol perhaps we might just stay in the place until we’re ready to quit.

Despite our real estate agent's attempts to contact Melody to see how things are progressing with the deposit, there has been no word. Both S and I have feelings of excitement and concern: looking forward to moving into our new house, and worry that it may not happen if our buyer does not come through with the money.

I keep reassuring myself that she signed contract, is locked it, and there’s nothing to worry about. The solicitor isn’t sure if the bond certificate will be appropriate, and asked me to check it with the bank.

The following day

Got S off on the road to Melbourne. Waved her off at 10.00am and then went off to work.

B, the agent, rang saying rather than writing the outstanding work into the contract that I should go to the house for a final inspection. The remaining work isn’t supposed to take long. The laundry needs some work and the bedroom wardrobes still have to be fitted and finished off. The work is expected to be completed within a week.

Bsaid the bond guarantee was acceptable. S was anxious to get signed up for it without delay.

B also made a point of saying we got a good deal. She said the vendors had purchased a property for $500k+ and were anxious to reduce their “110%” loan. Is this another way of saying they might have bridging finance on their new property? She also said a few people are ringing her, wondering why it has an “under offer” note on it when there have been no open days as yet. Perhaps, as she said, we have been lucky.

We’re off and running

The end of a busy weekend:

• Lost out on a property at an auction
• Too late to buy another property, and then
• Committed to buying a property
  

The property at Flynn advertised for $340k to $360k that we had spotted the day before and arranged to the see today turned out to be mostly okay. So we made an offer.

It was a small house. Though S said it looked bigger than expected during our walk through. It had a large block of land for Canberra standards. It was also situated close to a good sized nature reserve, which might be nice for occasional walks. We arrived a fraction late for the inspection. We had been looking at another property in the deep south of Canberra, and it took us ages to get to it. I drove into their driveway, and the agent welcomed us. We were in S’s flashy little MR2 sports car, rather than my old EXA.

Interestingly, there was another couple looking through the house. I thought the inspection was to be for us alone. The agent said that as there was interest, and as she was having an open inspection for us, she saw no reason not to allow the other couple through.

It was a nice looking place, with reasonable views from some areas. Being on the high side of the road helped with the view of the sprawling Canberra suburbs to the Brindabella ranges in the distance. The property had a very nice curving driveway, rather than the traditional boring straight drive to a garage, but there was no garage, just a carport. The house was older that I would have liked, with three small bedrooms, and one small bathroom. The kitchen had been done up with a large stove and stone bench tops which looked good, and there was some renovations going on in the laundry. In my mind this was a borderline property. The property had some good points, with the size of the land being one of them, but I think we needed a larger house. The price wasn’t bad, so it was definitely a contender.

After much discussion, we rang the agent later in the afternoon and offered $350k. The agent responded immediately saying she didn’t think they’d take that, but she would put it to them. (Wasn’t the offer within the advertised price range? Oh, the games we play.) She said that since the property had never had a real open day, they might wait.

S was very tense as we waited for a return call. There’s no doubt I was anxious too. I had just rang Manual to tell him we were interested in the other property we had seen yesterday; the one that the finance fell though with some other punter on the previous week. We had spent a good deal of time considering how to renovate it. We’d been thinking of lifting the carpets, sanding and polishing the floor, renovating the kitchen and bathroom. One of the good things about that place would be the ability to buy it without the need of a loan. Anyway, it sold about 20 minutes after we had left the real estate agent’s office. It was sold by one of his colleagues, for the asking price. So this is why S was tense. Our plan B had evaporated.

S was also tense because I offered $350,000 rather than their top asking price. It seemed to me that they may have come back with a counter offer, as they did. But there was also the chance they may have accepted $350k, and if you don’t try you’ll never know.

We took a drive out to see another property in Flynn. The house was empty and no inspection was possible at that time. So, we walked around and peered in the windows. This property was advertised for exactly the same price, boasting manicured gardens, and a pool. This was all true, but the place was not a patch on the other one that we’d made an offer, which was kind of reassuring. The agent rang while we were at this property.

The agent said the other people who were inspecting the property yesterday at the same time as us had also put in an offer, but as we were first to make contact with her we got first option. (Can you believe any of this?) I wouldn’t be half surprised if the other people where friends of the agent. Anyway, the agent said if we can come up with $360,000 it’d be taken off the market. So that was easy, and I said, “yes.” S was almost jumping up and down, and had wanted me to offer that figure from the beginning. So that’s it. We have a house.

The agent ran through some details on the phone. Seven to ten days for exchange of contracts. I said I had a bond certificate that I had arranged for the auction – a 5% deposit of a possible $410k purchase. She said that would be fine, and then later said I’d need a new certificate, and later again said that it would be okay. We wondered if she had a memory problem or something. I loved the way she referred to how she holds property open house “expeditions.”

Mid-June for settlement also seemed to be fine. With all that done the agent began selling the suburb. Perhaps she lives in Flynn, which she described as a much better suburb than Macgregor. So both of us feeling greatly relieved and quite happy went off to the movies by way of celebration, and afterwards to Gus’s Cafe for dinner, which I gather is a Canberra institution. Hopefully, we’ll get our deposit for our own house in Warrandyte on Thursday, then we’ll really be happy.





This is my blog, but here are some of S’s comments

Reflections of a blurry weekend in May

Drove up from Melbourne leaving the petrol station in Eltham at 11.30am. Phone rings in Greensborough. Our agent is on the other end telling me that buyer is very apologetic but the deposit won’t be paid that day, but instead, the following week – Wednesday or Thursday. What to do now? Turn back or continue? I feel that the place in Macgregor is totally lost now. I continue on, but feel heavy and flat.

Arrive in Canberra around 8.30pm, stiff as all hell. We sit and talk and then go to bed.

Saturday up early so we drive around a bit. Arrive at house early, and it is a smaller yard than I imagine. The agent arrives and we tell him our dilemma, but he’s matter of fact about it being an unconditional auction. He phones our agent anyway and the situation crystallises for us that it is our risk alone, and we decide to take it.

The auction begins and R says start at $300k. This seems a game I’m disinclined to play and so I throw out a bid of $330k. We’re off and running.

The Macgregor auction

The Bond Certificate had arrived in the mail the day before.

We were both up bright and early. This was the property we couldn’t bid on because we didn’t get the deposit for our Warrandyte property. But we did bid at the auction. Not because the agent selling this property was going to do anything special for us, like make the sale of our Warrandyte property a condition of purchase. A last reassuring phone call to our agent in Melbourne returned the message that he had good faith in the honesty of our buyer, and the fact that the contract had been signed; despite the fact we were let down rather badly in the deposit part of the deal.

We had arrived early, and were one of the first on the property. It gave us time to wander around the house and yard. I found more things wrong with this property as we were walking around. There were some nasty holes and other damages, and a major structural beam was very badly warped. It looked unsightly even if it happened to be sound, but how do you know, and I don't recall it being mentioned in the building report. There was a general roughness about the place, particularly in the kitchen. The noise from the roadway was also much louder than expected. No doubt from the increased Saturday morning traffic that I hadn’t noticed during the week.

We registered to bid, and went outside to wait. We lingered in the courtyard between the two wings of the building, eventually sitting on the grass in a corner of the garden. I think our sitting on the ground might have confused the auctioneer’s assistants; they like to badger bidders before and during the auction. It’s harassment. We were immune from that, as they probably didn't want to scuff their shoes or crease their suits by bending down to talk to us.

S wanted to bid for the place. I suggested $375,000 be our maximum offer. I found out after the auction that S had $380,000 as her guide as a maximum bid. I also suggested she not open the bidding, but if she did, suggested opening at $300,000. I took a note of the bidding, and this is how it went:

S: $330
other person: $340
S: $350
other person: $355
S: $360
other person: $365
S: $366
other person: $367
S: $368
other person: $369
S: $370
other person: $371
S: $372
other person: $373
S: $374
other person: $375
S: $376
other person: $377
S: $378
other person: $380
S: $381
other person: $382
S: $383
other person: $384
S: $385
other person: $385 and a half
S: $386
other person: $386 and a half

The auctioneer called for more bids, but we were done. So that was it. The other guy got it for $386,500.

The final bid seemed much too high. S crossed the yard to congratulate the guy and shook his hand. He said, “Sorry.” Afterwards, we were both wondering if he would be feeling sorrier for himself than for us. S thought she had gone too high herself, and was carried away by the excitement of it.

S was wondering if the guy didn’t want to lose to a woman (S was the only other bidder). I had been wondering if he was showing off in front of his son. We both felt happy to have lost it at that price, and were wondering if it wasn’t such a bad thing that we’d failed to take the winning bid. There was a lot wrong with the place and the bidding did go rather high. I feel so glad he put in that last bid. Mind you, if he hadn’t shown up we might have got it for a lot less, as we would (likely) have been the only bidder. So we spent the rest of the day looking at other properties. But in the mean time we took a break in a coffee shop.

With a coffee in front of us, I was flicking through the real estate pages and spotted a property advertised for $340k to $360k. The ad in the newspaper had a very nice photograph of the place. So, I flicked the page around to S and asked what she thought of it. She liked it but thought it looked small. It had a Queensland, on stilts look, to it. S thought it had a bit of a colonial look to it. I rang the real estate agent, and arranged to see the place, which wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined.

The agent said the house had been advertised too early. She said the owners were finishing renovations, and weren’t allowing inspections until the following week. I had explained that S was in Canberra from Melbourne and would only have the weekend here. Anyway, an inspection was arranged. (It must be difficult for an agent to knock back punters.)

I also rang Manuel, another real estate agent who had a property for sale not far from the Macgregor auction. This property had been advertised for $325k. It was a 4br dump with a reasonable sized lounge, but most everything else was on the small side. This property was supposed to have sold last weekend, but there was trouble with finance, and the deal fell through. It was put back on the market, but missed getting into the newspaper. Manuel said it sold for the advertised price. He may have been fibbing. There would be a lot of renovating to do with this one, but it had potential. We were considering making an offer.

Credit cards

We got an increase on one of our credit cards. This was a really bizarre experience.

Given that things were tight financially, I thought I’d try for an increase in the amount of credit. I have two cards and it was so easy to arrange an increase for the other one; I simply made a phone call, asked, and it was approved.

So, I rang GE, the other credit card company to sound them out. No, an increase couldn’t be authorised by phone. I’d have to complete an application form, it would be sent in the post, and I’d have to post it back to them. Within a few days the application form arrived. I completed the form and returned it. However, given my somewhat unusual situation of selling up and purchasing another property I found it difficult to complete the form accurately or honestly. It’s just that the series of questions relating to assets gave me trouble. For example, the questions relating to whether I owned property proved difficult. Well, yes, I do own property, but where is it: was it in Melbourne or Canberra. As my property was on the market, it might be sold/not sold, in which case I’ll be swimming in cash or have a valuable asset. And that asset might be in Melbourne or Canberra, depending upon what property I have at the time. I attempted to communicate that in the application form. It wasn’t easy, and I made notes in the margins of their application form.

In a week or so the form was returned with a note saying my application had been unsuccessful because I had not completed the application appropriately, or some such thing. I realised my mistake: I had attempted to provide too much information. I was feeling annoyed, but before I could rework the form in a manner I knew they would accept; that is, lie to them, I received a letter from the same finance company offering me an increase in my credit. All I had to do was tick a box and sign a very simple form and return it. I did this, and within a few days my application to increase my limit was approved.

This is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

A problem

S was on her way to Canberra to join me for the auction of the Macgregor property on Saturday. Then I got a surprise telephone call from her. She explained that she had barely got on the road to come here, when her phone rings. Our real estate agent was on the phone to her. He had a call from Melody, the person who wanted to buy our house. There was a problem.

The deposit our buyer had committed to pay today won’t be paid. This buyer was the person our real estate agent described a dream buyer. I presume he’d used that description of her because she had told him she had the money in the bank from the sale of a property in England. If that was what she said, it was a lie. Whatever it was she said had misled him. What she should have said was that she was in the process of selling a property in England, and would have funds shortly. It turned out she had made a mistake in the settlement date. The consequence of this was that the funds transfer was not going to take place on the date she had expected.

We had $1000 in part deposit, a signature on a contract, but as far as we were concerned she was a punter who could walk away from the deal if the mood struck her. Payment of her deposit was the basis by which we would be able to bid at the auction. This new situation presented a dilemma: do we have a buyer for our house or not? Do we have a deposit or not? We may have a buyer; we certainly don’t have a worthwhile deposit.

So, does S continue to drive to Canberra or not. Will it be a worthwhile trip? A few days earlier it seemed as though the sale of our property was a done deal. After this news we are uncertain as to whether a sale has taken place, might take place, or will not take place.

It seems that the settlement day of her house in England was not the day she thought, but turned out to be late in the following week. There appeared to be some sort of trouble in not allowing the tenants that were renting her UK house sufficient time to quit. Consequently, the settlement date was put back. It seems that her solicitor may have provided poor advice.

According to our real estate agent, our buyer was very apologetic and embarrassed over the issue. Not too embarrassed as to organise a personal loan to cover our deposit, not sufficiently apologetic to fund her UK tenants a week’s accommodation somewhere else. When I bought the house in Warrandyte, it was purchased prior to selling our existing property, but that’s another story I’ve told before, I took out a personal loan to cover the deposit. When you buy a property, you don’t buy it without financial backing, you don’t buy in the hope that you might come into some money, and you don’t lie about these things. This put us in a terribly nasty situation.

I suspect she may well complete the sale, but until the full deposit has been paid, we can’t buy anything with confidence. All she has put up is $1000, and if she wanted could back out of the deal. And because of this we may miss out on the house in Macgregor. Our real estate agent suggested we speak to the Canberra agent, explaining the situation, and depending upon the interest in the property we may be able to get it conditionally on the sale of our property.

Both us felt winded, betrayed, and angry. Anyway, it will be super to have S here.

Bond Certificate

Another visit to Westpac, this time at 7.30am. The hours of banking operations seem to have changed since I was last involved! This visit was to organise the bond, or in its correct terminology, a Deposit Power Guarantee (that’s the company that offers this service). I thought it was a service the bank offered. I had no idea, but then no one explained the details to me.

So, for the cost of $246 an insurance company would guarantee me defaulting on the deal – 5% deposit on a maximum purchase price of $410,000. All that remains after organising it was to wait for the certificate to arrive in the mail, and pay the credit card bill.

I suppose if the postie lets me down I could present the fax of the original certificate. What will the auctioneer do? Call everyone back and re-auction the property. I emailed the real estate agent advising him of my guarantee, and of it being 5 percent, just in case they got difficult over the amount for the deposit, should I win at the auction. I also enquired about extending the settlement date. Both arrangements were acceptable. It’s interesting how flexible people can be if you ask.

We’re almost set. I need a cup of tea. I feel tense.

Finance

I paid a visit to my local Belconnen shopping centre. I was in search of a Westpac bank, for no other reason than because the house in Warrandyte was financed though Westpac and I thought it might have made the finance easier to organise. With the auction coming up very shortly, I thought this might be a prudent measure. That’s an understatement. Had I any idea I would have been attending an auction I would have done this earlier; a lot earlier. It’s not a good idea to leave finances until the last moment, like me.

In auction sales you generally have to put up 10% of the selling price at the fall of the hammer. When I was looking through the Macgregor property the agent had mentioned the availability of a bond guarantee that can be used to cover the deposit. I’d never heard of this. Apparently, this method is commonly used, particularly in the eastern states, and used in some states more than others. It is used in place of a cash or cheque deposit. It sounded interesting. So, I enquired about it with the Westpac loans manager. He said he was familiar with the service and would be happy to arrange it for me. I also earlier expressed my interest in the property with the agent and whether a 5% deposit would suffice. He said yes, which was good.

There seemed to be a lot of fees required for home loans this time around, that I don’t recall from my previous experience. Perhaps I’d just forgotten. I seem to suppress the worst issues. The Westpac loans officer also made reference to a draw down facility that can be built into a home loan from the loan’s inception. Westpac had made reference to an offset account some years ago when they were financing my Warrandyte property, but I didn’t like it; in fact it seemed like a waste of money in the way it was structured. In so far as I recall, you deposited your spare cash in the loan offset, and the interest generated was deducted from the loan. The exact details escape me, but it seemed pointless. It quickly occurred to me that if you have spare cash, make extra payments to reduce the principal. Anyway, this new arrangement was different and seemed okay to me. You borrow more than you need for the purchase with the difference remaining in the offset and available as cash whenever you needed it, you make repayments against the borrowed amount, but interest is calculated on the outstanding amount minus anything that’s in the offset.

I explained my interest in the Macgregor property to the loans manager, and I explained my situation in having a buyer for my Warrandyte property. I put to him the question of the possibility of being able to purchase the Macgregor property. And his response: yes, it could be done. It would require the bank needing the title of the Warrandyte property for the duration of a bridging loan. That would involve some set up fees ($200 - $500 based on the value of the property), then there would be about $680 in interest, and $750 establishment fee. All this just to cover a period of 10 days when technically I would own two properties.

I suggested we attempt to match the settlement dates. Matching the settlement dates would avoid the need for a bridging loan. He said that would be good. I wonder why he didn’t offer this suggestion himself.

Another look at Macgregor

I arranged to see the property at Macgregor. I took the camera with me and took a swag of photos to send to S. The house had become smaller since I was last there, and the block had become larger. It’s strange how your memory plays tricks like that.

A more careful inspection revealed things that were wrong with it that I hadn’t noticed earlier. Various things had been damaged and were not cared for. Doors had banged against objects and had dents in them. There was a roughness about the place. The garden seems to have died. I still quite liked the place despite this. Canberra doesn’t seem to have much more than conventional house design, unless you start to get very expensive. So, here is one that may be within my price range and a bit different to boot.

I had earlier studied a few of the brochures I had collected from properties in the vicinity during my travels. Following each open inspection I would note my impressions and other details. It’s good as a memory jog.

From what I’ve seen in the area, it seemed to me that this property might sell for $390 to $400k. However, having seen it again today, and seen the roughness of the property I wonder that perhaps $380 to $390k would be a better price.

The Macgregor property

I got a copy of the building report for the Macgregor property. There was nothing particularly horrible in the report that I noticed. It was a larger block of land than I’d thought, and there might be advantages to it being a corner block. The previous owner had plans for an extension that still fell within the time limit; which could be useful. The building report showed it as being one of the larger blocks of land in the vicinity, with an area of 951 sq m. Could this be our new home?

The real estate agent in Melbourne is faxing me documents to sign as part of our sale. It’s all a bit cumbersome with S and the house in Melbourne and me in Canberra.

Sold

An offer of $355,000 was made. This was the figure S and I discussed when considering what would be acceptable. So, that’s it. Sold! According to our real estate agent our buyer is a nurse, she liked the garden, and also liked the property because of its proximity to her work.

She paid $1000 in cash on signing the contract, promising the remainder of the deposit on Friday, with Settlement set to be on the 16th June. So, that’s it. At last. Home and hosed. What a relief. No more fretting. No more house cleaning for inspections. All we need now is place to live, and shift our stuff.

S had a look on the web at the house I’d spotted in Macgregor, and liked it. I rang the agent to arrange another inspection for me, and if I still liked it I’d check out the building report. If the building report was mostly okay, S would drive up to Canberra for the auction on Saturday.

Things are getting exciting!