We've had a verbal acceptance of our offer on this house. The owner didn't want to sign anything without her solicitor being present, so we won't have a signed contract until Monday.
I'm excited but wary.
We have to get the building and pest inspector through too, to make sure there are no hidden nasties.
A new house, a new home, a new reason to go to Ikea!
BabyCakes has never had a mortgage before... an exciting but nerve wracking process.
Now to arrange the furniture....
We have received word, that we won't receive word on whether our offer is accepted until tomorrow.
What an awful wait!
The Nerd Test says I'm cool... does that make me cool? or just nerd-cool?
Today we put an offer in on a house. It is not the one that we spent a lot of time thinking about, but one we've had on our radar for a while.
This is a smaller house than the one up for auction in Nundah, but it is in a much quieter location and far more of a "just move in" proposition.
We will just have to wait and see if the owner accepts our offer - a nerve wracking time to be sure.
We made an offer that BabyCakes and I feel comfortable with, and I doubt we'll negotiate further. We made our offer significantly high enough that we do not expect that there will be negotiation, it's more of a yes/no proposition. I'm not sure if this is where the market is at at this time, or it is the culture of the real estate offices we have been dealing with recently, but it was like this when I sold the flat too.
The house does need some work - the guttering is holey, obviously damage wood work in places and tree stumps left in the ground. There is also a tenant in place until the 23rd of November. With any luck, given they won't be able to stay on after that date, they will want to move out sooner...
Hopefully we should know tomorrow if the offer is accepted. I hope it is, it would be very exciting.
Today the contract on the flat became unconditional :)
Now we get to go shopping for our new home.
The current forerunner is this "fixer upper". The fact that it is an auction is somewhat intimidating.
We spent the weekend at the Neurum Creek Acoustic Music Festival and had a fabbo time, forging some new friendships. BabyCakes and I both had our first taste of acupuncture, and BabyCakes especially had some fantastic results (his back responded very well).
The weekend was a lovely camping experience (despite the deflating air mattress that came with a patch kit that didn't actually come with enough glue to completely secure the patch....), mixed in with some great music and a low key vibe.
We really relaxed over the course of the weekend, and enjoyed socialising with our friends, new and old.
If step one in our plan to move into a house was to put the flat on the market, step two was signing a contract accepting an offer on it.
It was a busy weekend, our first open inspection (and hopefully our last one too). We had an offer on the flat on Saturday afternoon, after one person from the open inspection brought their partner back to look at the flat later in the day. They wanted me to make a decision within a couple of hours which was very stressful, and in the end they didn't get. The real estate agent went back to them on my behalf and told them I wouldn't accept any other offers or let anyone else see the property until I had made a decision on their contract. The called the agent the next day having "cooled off". It was our first big taste of the fact that a signed contract does not equate to sale.
On Monday the agent brought an interested buyer through, and they subsequently made an offer too. the contract offer and terms were very similar to the first one, so it was a much easier decision second time round to accept the offer. I actually got to sign this contract, so that was a step beyond where we got the first time. Now we just wait the 14 days until the contract is unconditional, and then we wait the next 16 days to make sure the money goes into the account! Realistically though, an unconditional contract is the next step.
The ad has been removed from realestate.com.au, so the property does not appear "stale" should there be a need to re-list it due to a contract crashing.
In two weeks, we could possibly be in a position to seriously hunt for our new home!
Sunday was a big day, trying to squeeze in some laundry on a day we could afford to leave it hanging on the line (not a good look when "showing" a home), more driving by houses, lunch with my family and dinner with BabyCakes' folks. Lunch was fun with three toddlers racing around trying to not let the others out do themselves, and another baby looking on. It certainly changes the dynamics of the group interaction.
Dinner at BabyCakes' parents place was much more low key (much needed at the end of the weekend), but equally as enjoyable. I wouldn't have thought that a crossword scratchie could be a group activity.... but it can!
Saturday night was an impromptu outing to the AFL. BabyCakes was offered the tickets on Saturday morning and so we invited Mr & Mrs C to join us, as they are the only friends I have who really mention AFL, and Mr C hails from Geelong, so I thought he might enjoy the nostalgia. Mrs C had to unfortunately leave early to make it to work, but it was a nice shared outing. We had to battle the crowds to get there (Riverfire plus Gabba event = busy Brisbane), and I accidentally spilled half a beer down the back of two chairs in front of me, and the occupants of them.... oops.
All up, a busy busy weekend, after a busy busy week... but it's been nice to have things to do. I'm just wondering if it will every calm back down to a mildly busy weekend...
