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It has been a busy start to the new year in the Sydney investment property market as good quality properties are being sold quickly to eager buyers – sometimes at their full asking price.

I’m not yet sure whether this strong buyer demand will be maintained throughout the year – or whether the strong results from sales early in the year will induce others to list their properties for sale – providing some increased supply to keep prices more in balance.

As I have previously reported, the Australian residential property market has fared better than several other markets internationally over the last 20 months. Several local market watchers (professional and amateur) saw this as being in part due to the government’s housing stimulus for first home buyers – and predicted that the winding back of these subsidies would have a slowing effect on property markets – particularly the first home buyer belt, which in Sydney is the A$500,000 to A$650,000 segment. Read the full story

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We’re well past Christmas however Kevin Rudds Government continues with the handouts, announcing today that Low and middle-income earners will receive a $950 bonus as part of an extra $42 billion of spending in its latest bid to defy the economic gravity that is dragging down economies around the world.

The spending package, over the next four years, includes $28.8 billion for infrastructure, schools and housing, as well as $12.7 billion cash payments. The payments include one-off bonus payments of $950 each for low- and middle-income households and individuals through five bonuses, to be paid in March, 2009 Read the full story

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It’s been all of 2 weeks since I announced that we had taken the plunge and decided to buy our first bricks and mortar here in Australia.

Since then, things have progressed well. Firstly the Real Estate Agents were pretty insistent that we were able to deliver an ‘unconditional loan approval’ letter from the bank.

This is basically a letter that the bank provides you confirming that they are willing to loan you the dosh we need to buy the property.

After the issues we had when trying to sell our house in the UK this makes perfect sense. The implications of not delivering the Mortgage Promise within two weeks of signing the offer papers would have been the return of the house onto the market. The $5000 deposit we paid to the estate agents to secure the property would have also been in jeopardy. Read the full story

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Well since accepting the latest offer last week I’m really pleased to say that our new buyers are a breath of fresh air and things appear tp be progressing quite well.

Their mortgage has been approved, the survey fee’s have been paid and the surveyor comes to survey our house this Wednesday. We might even get our sold sign back this week.

The first full week spent unemployed has been pretty strange but I’m slowly but surely getting into the swing of sorting things out.

I’m assuming it’s just a bloke thing but its amazing how much crap you can accumulate over the years.

At this rate I wished I started the sort our process before we even sent the application forms off for the Visa’s. Still, I’m putting a pretty brave face on things if I do say so myself and the charity shops should be well sorted out with clothes, suits, shoes and other items for the next few months. I even packed my first case!

A skip arrives tomorrow so it’ll be time to chuck on the safty gear as I enter the dreaded and dangerous realm known as……….the loft!

Hopefully I’ll survive to write another entry!

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Well, in the last few days we have had three offers on the house from three different people and we have accepted the offer that was both the highest and appears to be the least risqué.

The only potential risk is that the couple buying our house are in a chain, still after the girl who couldn’t get a mortgage and the couple who messed us around for weeks before announcing that they were having marital issues this one should hopefully be the one that goes all the way through.

The person buying our buyers house (stick with me) is a first time buyer, the Halifax have confirmed with our buyers estate agent that their buyer has a mortgage in place and everything appears to have been confirmed OK

Let’s hope this is third time lucky for us.

I think it’s unlikely that we will be able to get everything sorted before we leave on the 24th of November but it would be really great if everything is good to go before we depart.

It’s strange that we don’t feel particulalrly excited, but we’ve been through this so many times now it’s pretty difficult to get that excited when we’ve been through the emotional lows when previous offers have fallen through.

We also popped into the Halifax on Saturday to give two weeks notice to terminate our contract.

We told them we will be going elsewhere unless of course we accept an offer within this two week period.

Looked like the threat brought with it some added luck. Lets just hope it continues.

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Well, the house has been back on the market now for a few weeks and we are getting lots of people through the door. Still no buyers though.

The chap who was really interested has decided that he won’t pay more then his initial offer (which wasn’t a satisfactory one) so we’ll leave him simmering for a while.

Not holding out much hope for this chap anyway. At the end of the day, I’ve asked him twice now to formally confirm his offer with the Halifax but still nothing.

Its also interesting how many people are trying to pull a fast one and trying to take advantage just because we are moving abroad.

We even had one chap saying to the missus last night..’You moving to Australia, you give us cheap price..yes?’

Err, no

We may be moving abroad but we aren’t going to sell the house for a pittance, were not that desperate (yet!) At the end of the day, if we don’t sell before we move out in just over a months time then we’ll have a mortgage and rent to pay at the same time.

It’s not a perfect situation but we’ve budgeted enough to be OK for a few months and I seriously think if it does come to that, an empty shell would be easier to sell. Hey that rhymes!

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Well, after becoming seriously vexed with the Crapifax yesterday, I’ve finally managed to compose myself enough to take a step back and see where we are after finally getting a call back.

The buyers who had their mortgage app refused at the last minute by the Halifax when their P60 couldn’t be obtained have now completed a second mortgage application with a broker which is going to be sent off this week.

They will also be instructing a survey (once they have paid the fee’s….again) which should take place within the next couple of weeks.

Hope of all hopes that they get the mortgage this time. If they do then great, we’ve only lost a couple of weeks.

If they don’t then arse! We’ve lost months.

The house has been under offer in one way or another for the last couple of months now. If this falls through then we really need to ask the question. Is there is any real value in remaining with the Halifax?

The answer to this is a pretty big no, unless of course we can avoid paying any fees due to the astronomically poor service we’ve received so far.

Back to the waiting game…

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Bollocks, B*stard and Sh*T!

Had a call from the Crapifax this morning (aka Halifax estate agents) to advise us that there is a problem with the mortgage.

The buyer has lost their P60 and even though the Halifax Head Office gave the buyer the go ahead to proceed with the survey, it now seems that unless they can find their P60 the Halifax isn’t willing to lend them the cash to buy our house.

So, they have now been passed onto a mortgage broker (the same broker that the girl used who couldn’t get a mortgage) to try and identify a lender who’s criteria for lending isn’t so strict!

I am totally and utterly dumfounded. I had a bit of a go at the girl who is looking after (using the term looking after loosely) the sale of our house, explaining that I have given my notice at work on the basis that things seemed to be progressing so well, but don’t worry. When you feel your down there’s always someone at the Halifax to make you feel even….worse!

Well, I wouldn’t go booking any flights says the advisor. We recently dealt with a customer who had booked his flights to Australia and he was in a chain of four buyers. When his house was surveyed he was told that he had over valued it by £20,000 so had to drop his price by £20k in order to catch his flights.

Great! At least its unlikely that we have over valued our property, however we need to get the house surveyed again! So its going to be a number of weeks before any thing positive happens.

We’ve gone from a high to a barrel scraping low! We should know in the next couple of days if our buyers can get a mortgage with another lender but in the meantime its legs,arms,toes and fingers crossed.

We’ll probably try and phone our buyers direct tonight to see if we can get any inside news on whats really happening.

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Well, dare I say it but things almost appear to be happening.

Spoke to the Halifax yesterday who are still beyond useless (not giving us the promised updates resulting in a number of ignored call-back requests). However it seems that we are now progressing with our latest buyers which is the best bit of positive news we’ve had from the Halifax for some time.

All of the mortgage paperwork has now been completed and the survey fee’s have been paid. The surveyors will not be instructed by the Halifax until the Mr of the buying party has his employees reference back. This is pretty standard practice apparently and is expected to be back by early next week.

The SOLD sign has been ordered and is expected any day. Daft though this may sound, this is probably one of the things we’ve been longing for the most.

I know getting the sold sign doesn’t make everything legally binding and it doesn’t mean the house is really going to see. Its just psychological I guess.

Driving around the corner every day when I get home from work to be confronted by our ‘For Sale’ really gets you down after a while. Being presented by a nice SOLD sign will really give us the boost we need to get us to the next level

The fact that the survey fees have already been paid is a good sign as this represents quite a big sum of money. As our home is just under 10 years old I hope that the survey doesn’t show anything up. If it does we’ll need to fork out the cash to get everything sorted. If its structural it should still be covered by our NHBC certificate but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

In other news, we’ve had a quote from a company (which appears quite reputable) called airpets for our two cats. It looks like all in all its going to cost us just over £2k to fly the cats out to Perth and house them for the 30 days they’ll need to remain in quarantine. Its a lot of money but we couldn’t leave the boys in Blighty, they are part of the family after all.

Anyway, fingers crossed and lets see what the next few days bring.

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Ahh the delights of selling a property or should that be AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The lady who was supposed to go into the Halifax yesterday to finalise the mortgage details and pay the surveyors fee’s was unable to make her appointment because she was to tired after working a night shift.

So, we’ve been shunted back to Saturday now. She did come back with her family for a second viewing last night though. They are a really nice family with a baby so our house is spot on with the pre-made nursery, fully enclosed back gardens etc.

We’ve taken the opportunity to swap numbers this time and it’s obvious that she really likes the property to!

Anyway, we’ll need to wait until Saturday now so we’ll see what this weekend brings…again!

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Remember when I posted in this update that there was a second offer on the table for slightly more money from a nice couple, but they had a house to sell.

Well, as promised they went into the Halifax to see if they could take out a second mortgage to buy our property. I wasn’t particularly hopeful as they would have had to be earning a half decent salary (or have some hefty savings as a deposit) to qualify for a second mortgage.

Anyway, to cut a long story short. Yesterday we got a call from the Halifax to tell us that the mortgage application had been ‘qualified’ and they are able to purchase our property without having to put us all in a chain!

This is excellent news for us but we’re still not opening the bubbly (again) just yet. Having said this, things are looking more positive then they have for a very long time.

The wanna be buyers (who offered more then the initial offer) are going back into the Halifax today to complete the mortgage application and to pay the fees to instruct the surveyor.

As the survey costs can be quite high, its seen as the best sign that the buyer isn’t going to mess you around. On this basis, if they pay the fees when they pop into the branch this morning our house will be marked as Sold and we’ll be able to replace that damn ‘for sale’ sign in our front garden with a nice red SOLD sign.

Fingers crossed……again! This would be a great situation for us as it means that the house has gone for a decent price, and we should hopefully be able to get things moving pretty quickly!

Here’s hoping.

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OK, I had a bit of a moan the other day about a family who basically said they were really interested and they would make an offer the following day and yet, alas, everything went quiet.

I’d thought about what could possibly happen to make this family change their mind.

Well, something did happen. It transpires that the buyer was rushed into hospital on friday night which is why they didn’t call on the Saturday.

Thankfully, they are OK and the lasy is due out of hospital today. The ladies sister-in-law has confirmed they are still interested and will contact us when she comes out of hospital so lets see what this week brings.

In other news, a family who saw the property last Thursday have made an offer which beats the current one on the table.

However they have a property to sell and it’s only been on the market for one week.

Still, they are not using the Halifax to sell it so they could get a quick sale.

They are actually popping into the Halifax to see if they can get a second mortgage to act as a bridging loan. Unless they are megga loaded I think it’ll be unlikely.

Don’t feel to bad right now, 2 offers on the table and another potential in the pipeline.

Lets see eh?!

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Well. We are still here

Our ‘buyer’ is still to sort a mortgage out so we continue to market our property as best as we can.

The Little house company hasn’t generated eny enquiries (although their hit counter is showing that over 40 people have looked at the property via their site) and the Halifax Estate agency folks continue to be beyond terrible when it comes to their lack of appreciation for proactive customer service.

We’ve been through the old emotional rollacoaster again this weekend. As we continue to market our house, we had a couple of viewings last Friday and one of these looked really positive!

The viewing was actually under quite sad circumstances for the family looking at our house. The lady who booked the appointment was here with her family and sister-in-law who had recently become widowed following the death of her husband.

She was looking for a smaller property close to her immiediate family and by the looks of things our house certainly appeared to hit all the right buttons, so much so that we started having the discussion about money and what we were considering.

I mentioned that the house was already under offer so their offer would need to be pretty near the asking price as our buyer was a first time buyer which for us, not being in a chain and all, was a very good thing.

For this family though, being a first time buyer was nothing. They ‘had cash’ so no mortage was required. They loved the house and could have everything finalised inside two weeks. In fact they liked the house so much they would be ring the estate agent, first thing on Saturday to make an offer.

Woohoo! great news, after the recent dissapointment, this was a really positive sigh.

I called the Halifax first thing to give them a quick heads up that they were going to get a call and to advise them that I’d have my mobile swicthed on all day.

I also wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t divulge the current offer price to ensure that a counter-offer could be as competative as possible.

I was assured that the only time they would detail anything around offers made would be if the asking price had been met. Otherwise, no specific info would be given.

So, we waited, and waited and waited. Nothing!

Its Monday as I type this, I’ve not long got off the phone with the Halifax and they have still to hear from this family!

I’ve asked them to chase them up for feedback but its not looking hopefull! It begs the question though. Why say your so interested and that your going to make an offer if you have no intention of doing so..

One small glimmer of positivity is that one of the other couples who saw the house on Thursday are interested in making an offer. At time of typing though, I won’t be packing just yet.

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Oh joy of joys

Things are never as simple as you’d like them to be are they?

Following the utopia of this weekend nothing has really progressed.

It seems our buyer is now having issues getting a mortgage so although solicitors details have been exchanged the Halifax still haven’t had the ‘mortgage promise’ they need before they can mark the property as sold and give us our sought after sold sign.

The buyer has now apparently increased her deposit and is now going to apply for a ‘buy to let’ mortgage which takes into account the potential rental income when calculating the mortgage.

No surprise to you guys that we are still marketing the property and we have two viewings tomorrow. After the joy and jubilation this weekend it’s a serious low for us all right now and it begs the question again, why the hell do people even make an offer on a house before they have done their bloody homework!

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As I mentioned on Friday, we were waiting for a formal offer to be made on our house.

It was supposed to be made at around 4pm so I made sure my diary was free for the latter part of Friday afternoon.

At 4pm – nothing! Diddly-squat, so I waited, checking through my e-mails, conscious of the fact that I needed to pick junior up from nursery before 5:30.

Then, at about 4:20pm, we got the call.

The chap from Halifax estates pipes up with something on the lines of ‘well, we have an offer and its a little lower then we were expecting’.

My stomach sunk to the floor when he confirms that the offer will be £12,000 under the asking price.

Prior to taking today’s call, myself and the missus had agreed the minimum we would accept, in fact we’d agreed and stuck to this figure from the day we were awarded our Visa’s and it’s formed a pretty key part of our ‘plan’ I.e. If we don’t get this much for the house we don’t move.

With this key point in mind, the declined the offer.

The chap from the Halifax remained upbeat saying he thought it was just a ’shot across the bow’ to test the water. He also asked what the minimum figure we would accept for the property, which I told him.

I also give him an idea of what kind of figure we would accept. Most importantly I told him not to disclose any of these figures to the buyer.

He confirmed that he would go back to the buyer and advise we were looking for something nearer the asking price and happy with this, he went on his merry way.

It was about 4:25pm by this point; I hung around for another 25 minutes without another update. At 4:50pm I tried to call the branch.

Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring, ring ring, ring ring…no answer (very often the case with this branch).

So, off to pick junior up from nursery, 5:20 still no updates so back on the phone again…

Ring ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring, ring ring, ring ring, ring…you get the idea….

The buggers had gone home for the night and I was livid.

To me this is basic customer service. I couldn’t believe that they had decided to go home for the night without giving us a formal update. Even if the update was that there was no update, this would be better then nothing.

What was the buyers reaction to our decline? Were they going to make another offer? Had they decided it was out of their price range?

Who knows, we didn’t and after over 24 hours of emotion and anticipation there was nothing we could do until the branch opened on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning came. One of our son’s nursery chums had a birthday party at one of these wacky warehouse type places so we were all out of the door on the way to ‘Geronimos’ at about 9:45am

Shoes off and away he went with all of his little buddies. Time for a cuppa and a call back into the Halifax.
The chap who I had spoken to the previous night was on the phone but thankfully became available just a few seconds after his colleague answered our call.

He came on the phone… So what’s happened?

‘Hello sir, well we tried to call the buyer to advise that her initial offer had been declined but were unable to get in contact with her. We’ll be giving her a call later today’.

Phew! OK, the service was still crap (he could have phoned me on Friday night to let me know this) but not being able to contact the buyer was a reasonable enough reason for things not to have progressed at the kind of pace that we wanted to on Friday night. At least the buyer hadn’t been scared off!

Another plus point was the Halifax chap also confirmed that the buyer had referred to her initial offer as being a ‘provisional offer’ which indicated she might have a little more cash to come.

Relatively content with the update, I let the Halifax chap go on his way and I updated the missus.

Time went on, the kids played (I never knew a three year old could sweat so much) and hotdogs/chicken nuggets were eaten.

Back home for Saturday brunch (Sausage sarnies) and back to the waiting game.

Then, at 2:28pm on Saturday the 29th of July we got the call. It was a revised offer! More importantly it was at the bottom of the range that we’ve always said we’d accept!

Now lets just take a few seconds out here. When we planned to sell the house we always had the original asking price at one end of our scale and the lowest price we’d accept if desperate at the other.

Between these two prices would be multiple reductions over a period of weeks to enable those who had shown an interest but couldn’t afford the full asking price to have renewed interest at a slightly lower price.

Only if we were still here at Christmas would we make the final reduction to the lowest possible price we’d accept.

Since putting this faultless plan into action, we’d noticed that the housing market wasn’t as buoyant as we’d expected. Offers that had been made previously were massively under the minimum we’d ever consider selling for.

So here we were, still with a house being advertised at the same price it was advertised for on day one. With a house that hadn’t been re-advertised at one of our incremental reductions.

Here we were at the end of July with an offer we originally said we would only consider if we were still here at Christmas.

What did we do? We bloody bit their hand off, that’s what!

At the end of the day, if we were selling our house for millions then the difference in the top of our range and the bottom could be into the tens of thousands.

With our little home the difference in the top and bottom of the range was into the thousands and we’ve had enough hanging around now. The buyer was also a first time buyer (with a lot of financial assistance from her folks) so no chain = more control over when we need to vacate.

So we accepted their offer with a smile and toasted our new buyers with a glass of champers that very night.

There are still a few more hurdles that we need to get over before we can fully relax. The buyer needs to get a mortgage sorted and then we need to exchange contracts.

Once contracts are exchanged then we can fully relax and I can hand my notice in at work.

Oh yes. I’m sure the Halifax disclosed to the buyer the minimum figure we’d accept just so they could get the sale. Nothing to prove this but just a thought!

Anyway, mustn’t dwell on this. Things are finally starting to happen again so bring it on.

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Well, yesterday I posted about the exciting prospect of receiving our first offer and what a let down!

Nearly 20% below the asking price. I wouldn’t mind but the house has only been on the market for four weeks.

Some folks are just to cheeky. It won’t surprise anyone when I say we turned the offer down straight away.

Halifax (god bless em) have taken the opportunity to offer to view his house to see if they could offer him a mortgage to make up some of the short fall but a shortfall of 20% will take a lot of filling. I think they’ll need to start doing some more serious vetting of potential candidates if the property is well below their price range.

Had another viewing last night (went ok) but no vibes from the viewers. The missus is doing a viewing this afternoon.

The fact that that house is getting interest is keeping our spirits up and at least the sun is shining (its a balmy 73 degree’s as I type this).

We’ll see how the next few weeks pan out.

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