Not yet confirmed

I emailed my solicitor this afternoon to see if she had heard anything yet about the settlement, she hadn't. She said she waited on hold to the bank for 45 minutes to be told that they have my signed docs but are yet to process them as they haven't had time. She tried to get it escalated but but they said that could only be done by the mortgage broker. So I then called my mortgage broker and sent her my solicitors email. She explained that with the workload, they would be dealing with the ones scheduled for tomorrow and Monday and then Tuesday... She replied a few hours later to say that its been escalated and should still be fine for Tuesday 05/05. Lets hope so :)

waiting for settlment time and date

On Tuesday when I dropped some paperwork off at my solicitors, she said that Thursday (today) I should know the definite date and time of my land settlement.... -waits-

In other news, my dad -finally- got the title to his land yesterday in Riverdale! I think they originally bought it in maybe July or something last year and have only now got the titles which were originally meant to come through in December! YaY! He can start building now and will hopefully be in by Christmas!

All signed... not yet delivered

Yesterday I went to the bank and signed my loan documents to accept their offer and signed the mortgage documents!! Wow! At the time I was just signing yet more doco's but this morning I am realising how big a moment it is to sign my first home loan and mortgage documents! :D :D Heh, cool!

How very adult of me... sure I'm 31 so I'm technically an adult, but this is a very adult type thing to do, the most adult type things I've done.

I'm also going to move all my banking over to Westpac as they can give me fee free accounts so I figure why not have it all in the one place. It's going to be a bit of a PITA moving all my direct debits, but if I am saving $5-10 a month in fees between two bank accounts then it will be worthwhile.

Possible start date

I just got onto N my CSC and she has been off sick for almost a week! Poor thing :( She didn't sound too good either.

She explained the process a bit more for me. They don't get the permits and the DA approval until about a week after land settlement and they don't order the final working drawings until they receive this, so me waiting for all this to be done sooner rather than later hasn't been worthwhile.

So I have more of an idea of time lines etc now. As settlement is on Tuesday 5th of May, once she has confirmation of that from my solicitor, she will send the file off to the construction area and from there they normally take two weeks to get onto site and their work weeks are Friday to Friday, so I could have a start date of May 22nd!

I've read my loan documents and have a few questions, so I called the bank to make a signing appointment but they told me I need to raise these questions with my mortgage broker - I hope this doesn't cause a delay. Things that are wrong are different LMI value to my original sheet, not the latest interest rate and stamp duty looks to have been calculated on the entire loan amount and not the land value which is a difference of about $12k!

I have the loan papers

It's real, I really have the bank approval for the whole amount - I have it in writing now! :D

I have unconditional approval!

Yes, that's right! I just got a call from my broker telling me that I have unconditional approval for the full amount!! :D :D :D

Settlement will be on May 5th

It hasn't sunk in yet, might not for a bit but I think I'm also still in shock my broker actually called me ;)

YaY!!!

I can stop being all negative about it all now!

I can't do this for much longer

As I mentioned in a comment here they still don't have an answer for me.

They just don't get what this kind of stress does to someone. I can't even eat or concentrate on my job properly and whenever I think about it I honestly feel like I am going to cry - THIS IS STUPID!! Oh and PMS probably isn't helping either.

I know that there are going to be a lot of stressful times during the build, but if the bank doesn't say yes then there is no build - FFS just hurry up

I hope today is better

Yesterday I emailed my mortgage broker to ask if she had heard anything... I didn't get a reply to my email so at about 3pm I decided to call her. She finished with the company on Friday. Why she didn't tell me this I don't know. Immediately a heap of negative thoughts started going through my head - what if the information about the valuation is wrong and she lied? What if it isn't up to where she has told me it's at? I hear all these stories about other people's mortgage brokers doing such a shitty job that I started to really panic and really stress about it - a lot! I waited on hold for over 30 minutes to speak to her supervisor who has taken over her customers until they get someone else in and she said 'according to your file....' well what if what's she's written on my file is wrong?

Gah!

Anyway, 'according to my file' they are expecting an answer today. So hopefully not much longer to worry and stress about everything finance related.

I also got attitude yesterday from my solicitor for requiring another extension on the finance clause on my land... well I'm sorry that the bank is taking its sweet time, but that's not my fault, please don't give me attitude :(

I also called my real estate agent yesterday to ask if the landlord would consider a increase of only $20 a week considering I plan to move out later in the year... I also didn't realise but I'm actually only (hah!) paying $280 p/w and not the $285 p/w which means that my increase is $40 p/w! My property manager wasn't in but I spoke to another one who said she would pass it on to him today - lets see what the outcome is

New valuation amount!

My mortgage broker just called me and informed me that the reason she didn't have any update yesterday is because the bank just called her this morning and they have re-evaluated my loan and they have now decided to give me the whole amount so my aircon is now fully included! :D

I still don't have my final unconditional approval go ahead thingy, but hopefully Monday! Unfortunately this means extending the finance on my land again, but that's ok!

Not yet

Still nothing from the bank....

Tomorrow hopefully!

I contacted my Mortgage Broker today and evidently tomorrow is the day I should find out from the bank! How exciting!

Although I also contacted my solicitor and the finance clause on my land is now 17th April, 2009 and as it would seem extremely unlikely that the Bank would manage to get everything arranged for the 24th April, 2009 she also requested an extension of the settlement date (which has been accepted) until the 5th May, 2009.

If it comes back as OK tomorrow I wonder if settlement can be brought back again?

Storage solutions needed

I don't know how to setup a house. I know where I want furniture, but I don't know how to do things like storage and organisation... seriously! I've always lived in share houses and even though I currently live alone I moved in here with someone else and never really re-arranged anything after she moved out.

It's hard to explain what I mean but I spose I just mean that I'm not good at storage solutions - where do people store old magazines they want to keep? Where do people put things that I normally just leave on the coffee table, things that I like to have on hand but really should put away somewhere so my lounge room doesn't look so messy!?!? Maybe I'm just lazy or maybe it jsut comes down to the fact that the rental properties I've always lived in just don't have any real storage. I am going to have to become very familiar with the Store storage shop in Epping and Ikea's storage solutions to avoid having this clutter and mess around the place.

A good place for me to start will be to have a cork board somewhere that I can pin stuff up instead of having bits of paper all over the place... I'm actually thinking of maybe making half my pantry door cork and the other half black board - who knows if I will though!

Unofficial

I've had to apply for a 5 day extension to my finance clause for my land as the file is back with credit to get all the boxes ticked. My broker has all the results and was telling me that it's all fine but they just don't have the actual official approval yet and it's going to be about 4 days.

My valuation came back short by about $3k which while frustrating, can be for the heater/aircon and not a major issue, I can get a cheaper one if I want (I put in the higher quote) OR I can use my savings which more than covers it, so while good to have that answer, it's a bit frustrating.

I also got a registered letter notification in the snail mail today... my rent is being increased from June 12th to $1387 from $1214 which is almost a 15% increase.... decision time has come - challenge it or move.

Still no word

So the finance clause expires today and as of yesterday the valuation had been done but it had to go back to credit to finalise everything. I don't know the outcome of the valuation as yet, hopefully I find out today.
My broker assured me that to organise an extension on the finance is as easy as making a phone call or sending an email/letter and that it wont be a problem to do if we don't have the answer today.

I really hope I find out today though, I don't want to have any delays and I just want to know! But to be honest, between work and cycling club commitments, I'm really exhausted and almost don't have the brain bandwidth to even worry think about this today.

Unimpressed

No word from my mortgage broker today. I called her at 3pm for an update and she said she was yet to get to my file in her pile to get to today but would call me. No call, no email NOT impressed.

I will be sending her an email first thing in the morning and sending another one to my solicitor to let her know the current status. Thankfully I worded my solicitor up last week about a possible delay.

-sigh-

It could be all fine but I just don't know that!

Getting close now

Today I should find out if I need to extend the finance clause on my land beyond the 8th April (Wednesday) So in theory, today I could find out if the valuation has come back as OK!

Getting nervous now!

Really looking forward to it

The more I think about it the more excited I get about moving out to Mernda. Sure, it will be the furthest from the city I have ever lived, but I love that part of the world. Growing up in Greensborough/Montmorency area's I always loved the country of Whittlesea, Diamond Creek and Hurstbridge area's and as a kid we used to have picnics at the Yan Yean Reservoir and soon I will be living about 5km's from it! :D

The other good thing is that while I am moving out there and I'm going to love it, I will still be heading towards the city for work (Richmond) which makes it the best of both worlds really, city and country :D I'm also _really_ happy about the location of my block in the estate. I am pretty much on the edge and so while it will be suburbia I will also still be surrounded by farm land :D

Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show

Today I headed into the city to go to the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show to try to get some idea's for my future garden - sooo much to see and I pretty much just browsed my way through w/out spending a lot of time looking at product stalls and I was there for 2 hrs. I didn't want to buy anything now as I don't really know what I want/need and why buy stuff that I will just have to move!

Photo time!!

Lots of these on show:


I like the little sunflowers and the rows in a round container:


A combination of the above two:


I liked how full this looked with all the veges but I think they are all in their own pots :(




I thought this one (as pictured by someone else too) looked great with the rocks


Lots of places were selling these tank garden beds


I really liked how the rocks bordered the path and the garden




I liked the colour combination of this one:


Another kind of pathway option


Another pathway and tyres being used to put plants in


Veges surrounded by hay or sugar cane bales


I really liked this plant


I liked this idea for putting plants on a wall


I liked this path combined with the tank beds


I wonder how long it would take me to drink enough to build my own wall like this? ;)

Bank needs more information

I just got a call from my Mortgage Broker and the bank requires a letter from my real estate agent stating when I started renting the property I am currently in and how much I currently pay. Evidently the 12 month statement I organised wasn't enough - what a PITA. I hope this doesn't delay anything too much as D-Day is Wednesday!

I did panic at first when she called as my first thoughts were that the valuation had come back under what I need.

At least I know that they are working on it :)

Bugger!

I currently live in the rear unit of a block of 3 units which are all owned by the same people. My unit is a VERY small 3 bedroom unit which was freshly painted when I moved in and a brand new kitchen and split system airconditioner. My rent is currently $285 p/w.
Unit 2 is an even smaller unit which is only 2 bedrooms, old original kitchen and old aircon. Unit 2 is currently up for rent at the whopping price of $320 p/w - yes, a massive $35 a week MORE for a crappier smaller unit! I seriously can't see how anyone would pay that amount for that unit!

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

I would say that there are very good odds of my rent going up soon by the looks which really sucks when soon I am also going to be paying off a mortgage and paying rent :( If my rent went up to $320 p/w that would increase my rent by $250 a month which is almost a 25% increase - can they even do that?

And again, FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!