... continues.
Well it was a long week as well last week, we didn't find out about the Americans on Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, in fact, there was no definitive comment either way from them and come Saturday I assumed they'd be flying home. I was down at the beach late Saturday afternoon and ran into another real estate agent friend and he told me that the same couple bought a house from them the night before, for WAY more than we were asking here (like $200,000 more.....) - go figure.
Our offer was accepted on the house we want, but we're subject to sale here, only 23 days left to get an offer here before that runs out.
We had another open here on Saturday, one couple may be promising - I'll believe it when I see a contract.
This real estate bizzo makes you jaded.....
Anyway, apart from that, the week has been okay. Hayden and I have been out and about, we had a fantastic improptu get together with a bunch of friends at the park last Sunday night, then on Friday night we had a great BBQ with some other friends and their kids, on Saturday Santa arrived at the local shopping centre so I took Hayden to witness that spectacle, we didn't try the sitting on knee thing yet tho, but he's so into Christmas and Santa this year I think he'll warm to it quickly. We've been doing more swimming too, down at the rivermouth at LaBalsa Park yesterday just on high tide Hayden was splashing around, it was fantastic, then he did some amazing swimming with Erin in the pool yesterday afternoon (on my you tube for those registered) considering he wouldn't swim with either of us in the pool until last week, yesterday's efforts were amazing.
Well, I'd best be off, have to get to the gym, 5.45am boxing class - bring it on!!!
Monday, November 27, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
A Week in Real Estate
is... as they say... a very long time!
Last Wednesday (hmmm, that should be Wednesday week ago - 8th Nov), we finally recieved an offer and a contract on our house - we were very excited. I immediately went into 'buyer' mode and hunted for what would be our next home. We knew what areas we wanted, I'd also been watching the market and we had a couple of homes in mind. I went through about fifteen of them in two days and narrowed it down to two. On the Friday (Nov 10) Erin came through both of the homes and we decided on one in Kawana Forest, we made an offer that night over our Indian take away!
Last Monday (Nov 13) my agent called to tell me that our sale contract had been withdrawn :-( The buyers were suffering from buyers remorse - they used the building inspection clause to get out of the deal and walked away. GRRRRR. That meant the domino effect happened with our purchase contract also falling over given that it was conditional upon the contract on our house going unconditional. The house was due to go to auction though on Saturday (Nov 18) so we still had a chance to put another contract on.
Tuesday (14th) and Wednesday (15th) we had more groups come through our house, the group on Wednesday looked promising, an Australian wife and an American husband (hmmm... sound familiar?!!!), the husband hadn't flown in yet, they were back to buy a house to move into, the husband was flying in on Friday, they wanted to wait over the weekend and then see it again (possibly) next week.
Mean while, we were working out our strategy to get the other house back. The best option for us would be for it to be passed in at auction and then we could put a conditional contract on it afterwards. Risky, but our only chance.
On Friday morning (17th) my agent called and advised me that the American couple wanted to come through again that afternoon - bearing in mind the husband only landed on Friday morning from the USA - I was very excited, they were obvioulsy keen. After the inspection my agent told me that she was basically sold on it but he, understandably, needed to see more options. They were going to check out some other houses on Saturday.
Saturday - Nov 18th. Auction day. The auction was at 2pm, Erin had jumps prior so I went down to it with Mum and Dad, and Hayden of course. There were quite a few people there, a few that looked interested but we learnt that there were no registered bidders at the auction, it progressed with only an opening bid by the auctioneer and then a vendors bid, also by the auctioneer. It was passed in and we then signed a contract with a 'subject to sale' condition. Yay.
Then... we found out that another family who were on holidays (in Thailand...!) also wanted to put a contract on the house. They wouldn't have any conditions and therefore would be more attractive to the seller. We spoke to our agent about the level of interest from the American couple but he hadn't spoken to them so he didn't know if they were ready to commit, we couldn't go unconditional so we thought we'd just wait and see how it played out, the holidaying couple didn't have anything down on paper yet.
Then... yesterday, Sunday we had another call from our agent asking if the American couple could come through for a THIRD look that afternoon! Yay! We naturally obliged. After the inspection my agent again said that the wife is sold, they were going to confer over night and let us know tomorrow morning (which is now today... timelines are so confusing when written retrospectively!). So we were still in with a shot - if we got a contract then we could go unconditional based on ours going unconditional which is much more solid than just based upon sale.
Then... not even an hour later, the agent we were buying from called and said the offer was in from the other couple and the vendor was asking for them to be faxed to him. Ours wasn't going to get a look in unless we either substantially raised our offer price or removed our conditions, neither of which we were prepared to do.
A bind.
So... last night we called the agent of the house that was #2 on the list - a very close #2 mind you, it was in our first choice estate and had a seperate room for an office, and didn't need any immediate work like the fencing we would have done at the other one. The agent said he'd come over, we explained our situation (both houses are listed with the same agency, just with different agents) and then withdrew our offer on house #1.
Then we made an offer on house #2!
Photos can be found at this link, which were taken in pretty bad weather so are a bit dark, but you'll get the idea.
So now the wait is still on. We'll find out today whether a) the Americans are going to make us an offer and b) if our offer price on the above house is accepted or if we are going to get into price negotiations... we'll see.
So for now, that's what I'm devoting my time to. House selling and buying and then I hope, a removal.
Stay tuned!
Last Wednesday (hmmm, that should be Wednesday week ago - 8th Nov), we finally recieved an offer and a contract on our house - we were very excited. I immediately went into 'buyer' mode and hunted for what would be our next home. We knew what areas we wanted, I'd also been watching the market and we had a couple of homes in mind. I went through about fifteen of them in two days and narrowed it down to two. On the Friday (Nov 10) Erin came through both of the homes and we decided on one in Kawana Forest, we made an offer that night over our Indian take away!
Last Monday (Nov 13) my agent called to tell me that our sale contract had been withdrawn :-( The buyers were suffering from buyers remorse - they used the building inspection clause to get out of the deal and walked away. GRRRRR. That meant the domino effect happened with our purchase contract also falling over given that it was conditional upon the contract on our house going unconditional. The house was due to go to auction though on Saturday (Nov 18) so we still had a chance to put another contract on.
Tuesday (14th) and Wednesday (15th) we had more groups come through our house, the group on Wednesday looked promising, an Australian wife and an American husband (hmmm... sound familiar?!!!), the husband hadn't flown in yet, they were back to buy a house to move into, the husband was flying in on Friday, they wanted to wait over the weekend and then see it again (possibly) next week.
Mean while, we were working out our strategy to get the other house back. The best option for us would be for it to be passed in at auction and then we could put a conditional contract on it afterwards. Risky, but our only chance.
On Friday morning (17th) my agent called and advised me that the American couple wanted to come through again that afternoon - bearing in mind the husband only landed on Friday morning from the USA - I was very excited, they were obvioulsy keen. After the inspection my agent told me that she was basically sold on it but he, understandably, needed to see more options. They were going to check out some other houses on Saturday.
Saturday - Nov 18th. Auction day. The auction was at 2pm, Erin had jumps prior so I went down to it with Mum and Dad, and Hayden of course. There were quite a few people there, a few that looked interested but we learnt that there were no registered bidders at the auction, it progressed with only an opening bid by the auctioneer and then a vendors bid, also by the auctioneer. It was passed in and we then signed a contract with a 'subject to sale' condition. Yay.
Then... we found out that another family who were on holidays (in Thailand...!) also wanted to put a contract on the house. They wouldn't have any conditions and therefore would be more attractive to the seller. We spoke to our agent about the level of interest from the American couple but he hadn't spoken to them so he didn't know if they were ready to commit, we couldn't go unconditional so we thought we'd just wait and see how it played out, the holidaying couple didn't have anything down on paper yet.
Then... yesterday, Sunday we had another call from our agent asking if the American couple could come through for a THIRD look that afternoon! Yay! We naturally obliged. After the inspection my agent again said that the wife is sold, they were going to confer over night and let us know tomorrow morning (which is now today... timelines are so confusing when written retrospectively!). So we were still in with a shot - if we got a contract then we could go unconditional based on ours going unconditional which is much more solid than just based upon sale.
Then... not even an hour later, the agent we were buying from called and said the offer was in from the other couple and the vendor was asking for them to be faxed to him. Ours wasn't going to get a look in unless we either substantially raised our offer price or removed our conditions, neither of which we were prepared to do.
A bind.
So... last night we called the agent of the house that was #2 on the list - a very close #2 mind you, it was in our first choice estate and had a seperate room for an office, and didn't need any immediate work like the fencing we would have done at the other one. The agent said he'd come over, we explained our situation (both houses are listed with the same agency, just with different agents) and then withdrew our offer on house #1.
Then we made an offer on house #2!
Photos can be found at this link, which were taken in pretty bad weather so are a bit dark, but you'll get the idea.
So now the wait is still on. We'll find out today whether a) the Americans are going to make us an offer and b) if our offer price on the above house is accepted or if we are going to get into price negotiations... we'll see.
So for now, that's what I'm devoting my time to. House selling and buying and then I hope, a removal.
Stay tuned!
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