Maybe we should just do a Harvey Dent and flip a coin

[gemfyre]

Right. So this house has been on the market since May. Still hasn't sold. We returned from Adelaide to find a notice on our kitchen table saying we had to be out by New Year's Eve. Apparently the place didn't sell, but the owner wants to renovate to try and get a better price. The place doesn't need renovations. It needs a lot of small repairs that we've been mentioning since we moved in over a year ago and she never did anything about. Grar.

I really, really, REALLY don't want to rent again. I don't want to MOVE again. Not for a long time. It's expensive and stressful and pain in the arse. We'd been considering buying, especially since the government grants went up, but not looking seriously just yet.

We visited a guy from the first Homebuyer's centre who was pretty confident we could afford around $350,000 at the moment. We have about $9000 of savings that could be used for a deposit - not much. We don't 'have finance' (whatever that means, all the complicated shit ties my head in knots).

So, our choice is - either find another rental (a pain in the bum itself seeing as (a) rentals seem to be open during work hours on weekdays - go figure and (b) I have two cats, and a lot of owners think they're gonna wreck the house or some shit and thus won't allow them. OR, we buy.

Problem with buying is that now it's complete rush job if we do so. We don't have time to look at LOTS of places. We don't have time to get the best, best deal. We need to see all these people that know stuff like, yesterday and put and offer in. Ugh. It's a BIG decision to make and we just WANT MORE GODDAMN TIME! *grars at owner of this house again* I so badly just wanted a summer here where I wasn't injured so I could enjoy the beach which is just 2km away. Seems now I'll never have that opportunity.

Agent here says if we can afford $400,000 we should make an offer to buy this place. That would massively convenient, but we can't afford it. Unless we find someone who wants to lend us bunches of money or win lotto.

There is a LOVELY place in Lockridge that we looked at yesterday. At a bargain price. It WILL sell this weekend. Do we put an offer in? There's not a huge amount we can do to the place to increase it's value. Will it increase in value? We don't know.

A friend is moving to Tasmania and selling his place in Kenwick. It's nice inside (recently renovated kitchen) but no gardens. Right there we can increase it's value by landscaping the place. It's also within our 'price range'.

But then, we'd rather take another year to save and maybe build and get the $21 grand the government is giving for that.

ARRGGHH!!!! I don't know what to do!! *pulls hair out* But we need to decide NOW so we can either buy a house or find a rental in time.

Merry Christmas!

Comments

[morningglorymlp.livejournal.com]

Could you work something out with the landlord where you could rent with the intent to buy? I've heard of places here in the US doing that. I think the premise is that you rent the place for a few years with some portion of your rent going towards paying off the house. Then in a year or three you officially buy it at the price minus the portion of your rent. It will probably increase the price of rent for a while, but at least you still have the option of moving out at any time before buying if you want.