OMG! How slack have I been, I haven’t made a post since I bought my house.

Well heaps has happened.

I bought my house, things went fairly smoothly with no major hurdles.

I moved into the new house, again everything went smoothly and even the big fish tank made it unscathed.

Nathan and Ren moved in to my new place as well, they’re supposed to be doing the garden, but they haven’t really planned it out so it is progressing very slowly.

I’ve managed to organise a new waste-water management system, but this is yet to be installed.

I’ve started doing the building for my walk-through robes and ensuite, I will post photos of this soon.

I’ve also got a few ideas for other things I want to do to the house.

On a more personal note, over Christmas I thought I had got myself a girlfriend, but that crashed and burned pretty badly, so not much is happening on that front now.

I just got a call from the conveyancer saying that settlement has happened!

I was told settlement would be at 3:45pm today (as was the person I am dealing with at ANZ’s Mortgage Problem Resolution Centre) so we’re seeking confirmation from the ANZ’s Casino branch to confirm that everything has been finalised.

But for now I think I own a house!

Well the mortgage is nearly sorted, what a hassle it has been.

The saga to date has been rather taxing both mentally and emotionally.  I’ve had the highs and the lows, the convictions that I will and won’t get it and the stresses of the process.  But the end is almost in sight.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to make an unconditional offer on the house in Wiangaree.  Through some luck and having a very helpful father I was able to make the unconditional offer on October 23, 2008 and it was accepted.  I made the offer just minutes before someone else made an offer, and thankfully I got the house! Settlement was set to be on or before December 4.

A week later, on October 30, 2008 I received confirmation from the mortgage broker that I had been approved for the loan and that paperwork would be forthcoming.  Instantly the stresses that had built up (and the conviction that the loan would be refused) evaporated.  We decided to aim for settlement on November 7, 2008.

A quick call to the agent to confirm the date and the proposed settlement date was modified to November 10, 2008 as the vendors would be away until November 8, 2008.

No paperwork in the mail on Monday, November 3, 2008.

During the evening of Monday, November 3, 2008 the mortgage broker called me to say she had received a fax from the bank to say that the paperwork had been sent and that I would need to take it to the bank to complete it.  Everything was looking hopeful so far.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008, no mail.  I didn’t really expect anything to arrive, but I was hopeful.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008, no mail.  Strange, even from Melbourne the mail should have arrived.

Thursday, November 6, 2008, still no mail; but in the evening I got a call from the mortgage broker to say that the bank had sent her another fax and that the documents were sent via Express Post from Melbourne on Wednesday (I wish I ran a business that could fail to send important documents to a customer for two days).  We decided to change settlement to Friday, 14th November, 2008 as the bank would need 5 days to process the returned documents.

I arranged with a friend/neighbour that if the documents arrived on Friday they would bring them to me at work so I could finalise everything at the bank.  I also confirmed courier costs to ensure the documents were in Melbourne first thing Monday morning if required.

On Friday, November 7, 2008 I had the documents in my hands at around midday and had an appointment with the local branch to complete the documents at 4pm.  The local branch had also confirmed that, as long as the documents were completed by 5pm, they would definitely be in Melbourne on Monday morning.

By 4:45pm on Friday, November 7, 2008 the mortgage documents were signed and in the bank’s mail bag, ready to be sent to Melbourne.

During the morning of Monday, November 10, 2008 I closed one of my accounts at the building society and took a bank cheque to the bank so I would have enough funds for settlement.  I also banked a huge pile of coins that I had meaning to bank for a few months.  When I gave the teller the bank cheque I asked how long it would take to clear and was told it would take 3 days, leaving me a spare day before settlement.

Monday, November 10, 2008, no communication from anyone.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008, no communication from anyone.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008, no communication from anyone.

Thursday, November 13, 2008, I checked my bank balance and the bank cheque still hadn’t cleared.  I jumped on the phone and called the bank.  The person at the bank was quite helpful and told me the cheque wasn’t actually a bank cheque, it was just a cheque from a building society, as such it would require 5 days to clear.  I start stressing again!  I was then told they would transfer me to the “uncleared funds” section who should be able to help me.  The lady in the “uncleared funds” section was completely useless.  I explained the situation to her and she said “call us tomorrow and we might be able to do something”.  What the fuck?!? Settlement is tomorrow; “might” be able to do something tomorrow is not good enough.  I gave up on this line of questioning and asked to be transferred to the mortgage people.  My thoughts were that they could confirm that the loan was ready for settlement and that they may be able to assist me with gaining access to some of the funds from the cheque to complete settlement.  The guy I talked to was quite friendly about being completely unable to help.  As I had applied for my mortgage through a broker he was unable to access any details and could not tell me if it was ready to roll.  I started asking him about the cheque to see if he had encountered the situation before and just as we started talking about the cheque I heard an alarm in the background.  He apologised profusely and said they were being evacuated.  I think my comment to him was “that’s cool, I know you’re not shitting me, I can hear the siren”.

At this point I was panicing about settlement and so I tried calling the “Feedback” line to let them know how my experience with the ANZ was going.  After a brief recorded announcement to make sure I had the right department, the phone was promptly answered by Tran.  She was VERY helpful and said she would follow up on the status of the mortgage and try to organise access to some of the uncleared funds to enable settlement to happen.  Finally, someone was being helpful.

I then called the conveyancer to let them know what was happening.  They told me the mortgage was ready and they had booked in for settlement tomorrow.  I called the feedback line back and asked for Tran and told her exactly how much I required of the uncleared funds and that the mortgage was ready to roll.

I am now sitting here, stressing, waiting for Tran to call me back to confirm my access to the funds so settlement can proceed tomorrow.

Here’s a quick list of who I’ve dealt with in this process and how I would rate their level of assistance:

• Aussie Home Loans, Lynette – Friendly and helpful, I’ll use her services again.
• ANZ Mortgages - Useless and slow, I will use another bank next time, even if it costs me more.
• ANZ Branch, Lismore – Either friendly and helpful or very stand-off-ish, I’ll happily bank there again, but wont expect much service.
• ANZ Enquiries Centre – Either friendly and useless or completely failed to understand my position, I will avoid calling them again and will go to a branch instead.
• ANZ Feedback Line, Tran - Very helpful – at least someone at that place seems to have a clue.
• Neilen’s Conveyancers – Stephanie – Very helpful, I’ll use her services again.
• Kyogle Real Estate, Terry Winkler – Relaxed and helpful, the least pushy agent I have ever met, but very friendly and great customer service, I’ll buy a house through him again.
• Greater Building Society – Friendly and helpful, If they’d approved my mortgage application I would be less stressed than I am now!

I got a call from my mortgage broker to tell me the bank has approved my loan and that I should receive some paperwork in the next couple of days.

We’ve decided to aim for settlement on the 10th of November, which means I should have the keys that evening!

I’m so stoked!

I kinda forgot to get images of my house while I was out there yesterday, so I figured while the property is still on the Internet I should download the images and put them on my blog.  Here they are…

Front of the house

Front of the house

The garage

The garage

Kitchen

Kitchen

Outdoor Entertaining Area

Outdoor Entertaining Area

BBQ in the Entertaining Area

Lounge Room

The Wood Fire

Enclosed Verandah

Backyard

I’ve had a few communications with my mortgage broker about the house.  The bank has decided not to perform its own valuation on the property and is happy to accept the purchase price as the valuation.

I also received my notice of assessment from the tax office and the bank just requires a certified copy of the first page of the contract and of my birth certificate.  Looks like I’ll hopefully have the whole mortgage finalised this week; once I’ve got the mortgage finalised I’m going to try and bring the date of settlement forward as far as possible so I can start moving everything.

Ok, so on Thursday I bought a house, I have no idea how I managed to get it all done, but it happened!

I called the agent in the morning to organise taking my Dad and step-Mum to see the house; shortly after we hung-up he called back to say that the owners had dropped the price and that they were waiting for a contract to come back from South Australia to sell the house.  This freaked me out because I wanted the house and was just waiting until I could finalise the mortgage aspect of it.

Anyway, I called my Dad to see if he would back-up my house purchase if something went wrong with the mortgage; I also called my mortgage broker to find out how quickly we could push my mortgage through.  Anyway, Dad came good with backing up the purchase so I made a formal offer on the house at midday and it was accepted.

The agent then pulled out all stops and rushed around to pick-up the contract from the vendor’s solicitor; organised the vendor to meet us at my conveyancer’s and he then came to my conveyancer’s premises.  At the conveyancer’s I signed the contract and the vendor’s signed theirs and by five past 4 the agent was on his way back to the vendor’s solicitor to exchange the contracts.

We agreed on a 42 day (6 week) settlement, but the vendors are happy to reduce this if possible.

Now I’m stressing about organising moving house and all the associated tasks.

I took my parents out to see my new house this morning.  There’s so much potential.  My step-mum seemed mainly interested in the garden where she found pineapples, onions, tomatoes and peaches or nectarines or something.  I’m going to have to do some research on gardening so I can keep the things alive.

I BOUGHT A HOUSE!

I went and looked at the house in Wiangaree today and it looks pretty good.  Now I have to try and get my finances sorted.