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

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

My Mum says: "Government shared equity."

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

We don't qualify.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

I presume the homebuyer's centre is more cautious than the banks about lending (as in estimating how much you can afford to borrow). Mind you banks might be more cautious than they were when I was looking to buy 6 years ago. They were willing to lend me much more than I was after.

[redmalice.livejournal.com]

we're in a similar situation with our house being up for sale and in the process of buying a house. although if it does sell then we have somewhere to stay at no cost in the interim which will make it ok.

if you can get that shared equity that would be good. we weren't elligable for it but maybe you and matt are?
otherwise, i'm still learning it all myself, but could you not use the 14k FHOG as the deposit for a house? as you don't get charged stamp duty. (As i said i could be wrong here as i'm getting my head around it all too :)). I also was under the impression of you used the 21k to build you have to have it built by June (i think!) next year or if not fill out forms to advise why you haven't (delays with builders etc) but someone else told me this was incorrect so i guess you'd need to research it.

for 350k you could get a house and land package.. my inlaws are. you could always do it that way?

good luck anyway!!

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Have you ever brought a house before? If not, I highly recommend you consider Homestart over the first Homebuyer's Centre, who will easily hook you up with a loan with $9000 worth of savings (we only had $3000 when we got our loan). That's who we've been going through, and they've been insanely good to us so far. It does mean you'll be on a higher, variable interest rate for a couple of years or so, but after that you can transfer your loan anyway.

The good thing we found with Homestart is that they already have blocks in certain suburbs, and after looking, you choose the one you want. So you don't need to independently scout out blocks of land. This means you don't need to 'put an offer in' either. But it does mean you need to wait to build. I don't think Homestart do established homes.

If you decide to build, and go through Homestart, you've got enough money in savings to start that process now - I'm pretty sure. But that means you'll need to find somewhere else to rent/live in the short term until it's built, which sucks. :(

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

We earn too much to qualify for shared equity.

[stephiepenguin.livejournal.com]

We got eight week's notice to be out of our apartment, a week and a half later we had put in an offer and accepted. We pushed for an early settlement which we got because we got finance - it's a bit of a broad term, but it basically means the bank approves you for a certain amount before you officially put in an offer for a house. It means the people selling know the finance won't fall through and the sale will actually occur. So in the end we were out of our apartment about five days before the eviction day. It felt a tiny bit rushed but it helped that my mum was our real estate agent, she was a++ awesome.

We didn't want to buy when we did, but we didn't want to reenter the rental market, and we both really, really like this place.

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

a friend of mine bought a block in carramar?.... wanneroo... anyway it was a cottage block and the builder have fucked her and her fiance around to the point where, the house which was meant to be finished by xmas, hasnt even started. now for the same money, she would get another 125 squares in the same area. busilding isnt great though due to time constraints and the likelyhood that you would have to breaklease when it is built and therefore incurr additional expenses.

meanwhile the lady who owns the scraborough place is a fvckwit for not checking the council regulations before buying the house. binky an steve can discuss that with you.

you could look at units for sale, though they have gone up stupid amounts as people 'downgrade' to something they can afford. rivervale is still cheap (and nasty) around $200k. $300k houses can be found in all the other classy areas like lockridge, armadale, rockingham, warnbro, orelia, ashby and maddington. buying though means going without. without the toys, without the mod cons, without the garnish and without the trips to adelaide without the entertainment.

the buying market is the one you want to be in atm, however, sadly, despite the fact that you and matt could get a mortgage together because i dont see you breaking up or anything stupid in the foreseeable future, you would want atleast 50-80k deposit inc first home buyers to have a good chance of making it through the first year. I know with the 35k I had (before helping dad) I was still only looking at about $165-185 for a place if I bought and that was if dad would act as guarenture (which he couldnt do anyway).

then there is the shit about renting atm. the best case senario is if across the alley is also still a rental and the tenants, like the old ones, are about to break lease. either that or flat/board with another couple until you can buy

goodluck

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

You do get charged stamp duty, but first home buyers can claim it back.

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

We went through Homebuyer's and was happy with everything. Mind you, we also got lucky and picked a good area with a local council that isn't terribly picky. My brother in law went for an area with a wanky council and it held up everything by 6 months.

Having been in a similar situation, you have our full sympathies.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

I know it sucks, but could you guys stay with your parents (or your brother or sister?) while you look? It'd be cramped I know, and you'd probably have to rent a space somewhere to store all your furniture, but for the short term so that you don't rush the biggest decision of your life it might be standable?

I can't help you with advice about homebuying because I am stuck in the rent rut too. However, once you have it sorted, you can help me with the benefit of your experience. :P

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

yeah, as with all good things, you have to not be able to afford to buy anything useful to be able to qualify for the shared equity. With no dependants, we'd have to be on less than 50k to qualify. given we both work full time, you can guess where we are with that :)

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

No space. My sister has two kids. My brother is unfortunately separated from his wife and living at my parent's again. And that's at least an hour commute to work for both of us if we were in Greenmount. Easier to find a closer rental.

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

Yeah, banks are a lot more cautious now than they were a year ago. I'm pretty sure it'll be a hard slog getting a loan of 105% of the property value like my brother managed last year.

I'm not sure how cautious the home buyers center is for its advise. They're a business that make money from selling houses. They're big so I've got to assume they don't do too bad a job of it. If they were ripping people off all over the place, you'd assume that they'd get a bad reputation pretty quickly. Having said that, the guy we have been talking with there has mentioned some stuff that makes me a bit concerned about going with them, and they seem to like to push towards building which we've said is out.

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

Yes, pretty sure you can use the FHOG as deposit. Initially you couldn't, but I think so many other places allowed you to that the govt relented on that condition.

The 21k is for comencing building prior to end of this financial year. However it includes already built places that have never been 'owned'. The homebuyer's center has built them, but noone has bought them for example, that's a 21k instead of 14k.

There is also a 2k state govt. refund on settlement for first home buyers if you buy an established home.

[firvulag.livejournal.com]

Ah, didn't know you got charged it and then claimed it back. All the documentation I've read so far just says there is no stamp duty for first home buyers for properties under $500k. Maybe it's changed since you bought? Maybe the govt is sneaky.

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

The rental market is reallly SHIT at the moment, we're looking and looking, have been turned down for 2 places, applying for 3 more on Monday, and our rental budget has gone up to $450 per week because I'm sick of being treated like an untrustworthy white trash tenant at the cheaper levels. If we get a big enough place and you want a short term place to stay we might be able to work something out though!

The problem is that the property market is still going down. We went to a home open in Belmont yesterday and the agent said that the prices being asked aren't what the houses are being sold for. He said there is alot going on in the $300,000 - $400,000 range at the moment, especially if you don't insist on living within 10ks of the city. It's a decision that you really don't want to rush. So I feel for you guys.

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

You can buy a 1 bedroom apartment in East Perth for $269,000 - to pay $200,000 in Rivervale may be unwise.

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

oh, I forgot! You don't necessarily have to build yourselves to get the $21,000 - you just have to buy a house that's never been lived in.

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

That's right. No SD under $500k. And over $500k its a sliding scale.

[jayed.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that the landlord has done this to you. We had something like that happen to us once. It was early December and we were told to be out by Boxing day! This was due to 'health and safety' due to building work going on down stairs.

I don't know anything about the housing market or laws where you both live, but buying is better than renting if you can afford it.

Good luck!

[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.

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

from what I understand of the contract of sale for east perth, I think i would rather try my luck at living in a house armadale at that price.

[shirazz.livejournal.com]

Man that sucks - it's the worst thing about renting. At least the owner here has said that she won't sell til it hits $1M cos she bought it pre capital gains tax. Good luck with it all

[lush-1984.livejournal.com]

I'm saying bite the bullet. Put the offer in. The more you stall, the longer the process will take.
I would recommend Mortgage Choice to handle the financial side of things, Sharon Brown is so fantastic, so nice and she comes out at night to sign things and gets things rushed through before the 21 days of settlement. I would recommend going with Keystart, Dean and I are in a similar financial position to you and we have just found it so easy (got our place for $352000) The good thing about Keystart is that they are government run and thus have to abide by the reserve bank- we therefore get the full reductions when it goes down. We also didn't need a deposit, but did need 4 grand in the bank to say that we can afford some payments. I'm here to help if you need me!

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

We have about $7000 in our savings accounts (and a little more in the "spendings" accounts).

[lush-1984.livejournal.com]

that should be plenty, Dean and I had a 15000 dollar debt and only 2800 in spendings when we started, it takes a bit of shufflingbut you guys can do it. And lets face it, it will be your own place and you will have a permanent home for your cats too! Your own piece of Australia...no rent inspections...