Monday, December 28, 2009

Landscaping Plan Complete

17th December 2009 - Landscaping Plan completed as part of documentation for DA approval via Design Panel


Monday, October 26, 2009

IMPORTANT DATES

STILL TO ADDRESS:

27th October 2009 - Meeting with Senior Estimator at Jandson, to finalise external variations to working drawings prior to Basix and Design Panel approval.

After DA is approved, we can provide the required documentation to our lender so they can authorise the commencement to construct by confirming the progress payment details

Oct/Nov 2009 - Consult and finalise internal colours with colour consultant and confirm internal working drawings with assigned Project Manager

Oct/Nov 2009 - Quotations for Granitgard (termite deterrance) and ceiling insulation

Nov/Dec 2009 - Finalise Landscape quotes. A minimum landscape plan will already have been drafted as part of the Basix and Design Panel approval process.

From Jan 2010 - Quotes for carpet, tiles, driveway

Early part of Build Process 2010 - Finalise electrician requirements and obtain quote



MILESTONES TO DATE


14th October 2009 - First Home Owners Grant application approved in writing by OSR

28th September 2009 - Construction Home Loan settled with RAMS

27th July 2009 - Land settled with Landcom

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Contracts Signed

On Wednesday 16th September, we met our solicitor to go over the building contracts and extension of loan documents. Notable points from this meeting were:

Regarding the builder

i) A 10% of contract penalty imposed by the builder if a progressive payment is not made within the agreed 5 working days from invoice receipt.

ii) A standard caveat exists as part of this HIA where if you reach two-thirds of the building process, you then change your mind about this builder, a lodgement can be filed by the builder where unless you can dispute otherwise, they will be deemed to be the possessor of this building

iii) Public Indemnity Insurance is recommended to be filed in addition to receiving the HIA Owners Warranty to safeguard against any unlawful entries onto the secured block of injury.

I asked our builder whether they had this particular insurance cover in their contract. They said, yes.

iv) Arrange with the builder during the build process to inspect the progress. This ensures any problems can be addressed quickly

v) We also have up to 6 months (standard contracts are normally 3 months) after we have moved in to notify the builder of any problem areas that need to be fixed at no cost. Our solicitor advised us to list EVERYTHING, however small in the 5th month and then hand it to the builder.

Regarding the extension of the loan agreement,

i) Further clarification was needed from the lender that a construction loan repayment increases incrementally when each of the 5xprogressive payments are drawn down. The wording is not clear in the contracts. This was cleared up during a phone call later in the day.

ii) Settlement date for a construction loan is at the time of the First Progressive Payment drawdown after the building slab is completed

The First Home Owners Grant will also be released into the loan after the First Progressive Payment is made and available to us as a redraw.


The loan extension agreements were signed and posted back to the settlement office the following day.


Unfortunately, the building contracts while signed at our solicitors office on Wednesday 23rd September and delivered in person to their office located in Homebush, were handed back to us at reception because we had 'failed' to initial every page of the 80 page documents as instructed in their cover letter.

Yes, we had read this instruction but as our solicitor thought this would not be necessary, we didn't do it. He was wrong and we were not....amused.


So, on Thursday 24th September 2009, we delivered once again in person the following signed and initialed contracts

- NSW Residential Building Contract for New Dwellings
- Site Plan
- HIA General Housing Specifications
- Tender Quotation


These were countersigned and couriered back to us on Friday 25th September.

To fulfil the requirements of the First Home Owners Application, our lender has to send a certified copy of the above documents along with the application.

After photocopying all four booklets and scanning a softcopy for ourselves, we took the photocopies and originals to our local library on Saturday so the local JP could certify them. He remarked that he had never certified so many pages (80 pages) from one person. It was painstaking to watch at first, he's a retired elderly gentleman, but after he agreed to my suggestion of helping him stamp all of the pages, he signed and dated each page.

Yesterday, Monday 28th September 2009, our lender picked up the certified copies of the building documents. He also left us with an Addendum Application for the NSW State Government Boost of $3,000 to sign and return today. We did.


So, after many weeks of visits to open homes of established properties when we first thought of buying an existing home, countless trips to HomeWorld, long drives to various display centres, to building centres, meetings with different lenders, different builders, the solicitor, and lots and lots of online researching, the contracts to build have been completed and delivered.


Our kids have been great during this process. They have put up with a lot...so far. In fact, they refuse to visit any more houses and get a little tense when we drive slowly along a street to look at what they think are more houses. ..We're actually looking at driveways, fences and gardens :)


So, what's next?

a) we will confirm with Austral and our builder the exact exterior colours the bricks will be colour treated.

b) discuss with the builders any final variations to the working drawings (nothing major here, only the positioning of an internal door and the size of the upstairs bedroom window), and then

b) meet with the internal colour consultant


Happy Days!


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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Happening Now

Our solicitor has been given the mortgage documents for the construction loan extension.

We are now just waiting on the contract from the builder after providing the variations to them earlier this week. They called today to say we should expect it either tomorrow or this Monday.

Once we receive the building contract, we will hand this also to our solicitor. He will advise us on the terms of both documents prior to signing our agreement and then return the appropriate paperwork back to the lender and builder.

After the contract is counter-signed by the builder and the 5% deposit (minus the initial $3,000 commencement fee) is paid, we will provide a copy of this contract(showing a date prior to 30th September 2009) to our lender to submit with the First Home Owners Grant application they already received from us and stored on file.

We will then arrange a meeting with the builder to go through the working drawings and make any final variations to be signed off prior to submitting these to The Ponds Design Panel and Blacktown Council for DA approval. The expected timeframe on completion of this process and a DA approval provided is at the end of November.

We are not expecting the build to happen before this Christmas. I think the builders take the Christmas period off, so it will probably be mid-January 2010 we will see any activity. The estimated timeframe for entire completion (weather permitting) is around September/October 2010.

So, heads up everybody, we will be holding a Christmas 2010 House Warming at our place.


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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Deciding on the Exterior Colours

The following exterior colours will be confirmed.

Examples available when clicking on the slideshow below:

Bricks - Austral colourbrick

Brick colour - Colorbond Surfmist

Roof tiles - Bristle 'Classic' flat tiles - Luna Eclipse black

Gutters - Colorbond Monument black

Fascia - Colorbond Monument black

Eaves - Colorbond Surfmist.

Ceiling of Balcony and Portico a TAS Oak timber stain.

Downpipes - Colorbond Surfmist

Windows - Colorbond Monument black

Portico/Entrance - Boral Escuro Victorian Blue Brick with off-white flushed mortar

Verandah - Colorbond Dune (a darker grey to the light Surfmist).

Patio Balustrade - stainless steel rails

Entrance Door - Wattyl Red Stain Timber

Garage Doors - Caoboa Dawn


Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Our wishlist of House Additions

Consider this a fun posting of what we would like to install either during the build because it is easier and less costly or soon after because the budget has been blown...again :)

They range from the small upgrades, for example a larger shower head to the layout of a second patio to be located on the long side of the house facing Stream Place.

Many of the ideas and images are taken from the Home Renovation & Building site and various display home villages.

Enjoy the slideshow.

House Additions

Monday, August 24, 2009

Our decision on which Builder is now made...

and what a relief.

Still, we have a very long way to go, the least of which is addressing what we consider some minor alterations on the appearance and then making sure we stay involved throughout each phase as we head towards signing a contract prior to 30th September.

Until this is finalised, we will leave our decision, for now.....to ourselves :)

Friday, August 21, 2009

When will we decide?

Bellmarch mentioned to us yesterday that they will complete the draft of the design in approximately 7 days.

They will also try and provide the price given that this is a new design. At the end of 7 days we will discuss where things stand. They are aware of our urgency to meet the deadline for the First Home Owners Boost and have not promised anything.

Metricon have 2 more weeks before they complete a full tender and then require 2 weeks after to write the amended contract.

Pricing will vary slightly because we chose the 38sq instead of the 42sq Liberty and the low valuation.

However, we may know the outcome for the Metricon in a shorter amount of time, Once they find when drawing the site plan that the 38sq does not fit or comply with the RTA corner restrictions given the ill-placed road side tree bays, we will have no choice.

And, Jandson? Well, they are simply waiting for us to respond back to them. We have a tender and the colour pack.

So, we will build the Jandson home only if Metricon and Bellmarch are no longer in play.

So, how will we decide?

There are four possible scenarios.

(A) If Metricon is unable to fit the Liberty home on our land after conducting the site plan and Bellmarch cannot complete their documentation for us to sign before 30th September, we will build the Jandson Odyssey. This is because the Design Panel said it looked 'doable' in terms of receiving DA approval and really then is the only house we can build.

(B) If Bellmarch complete their documentation and we are satisfied, then we will build the Bellmarch house off-the plan. While risky, apparently 50% of people build houses like this and many more make changes to their choice of display homes.

(C) If the Metricon Liberty fits on our land but Bellmarch is able to complete the documentation, we will build the Bellmarch house because of the many reasons stated earlier.

We will forfeit our $1K deposit to Metricon for a tender but because the overall pricing for the Metricon is significantly higher than the Bellmarch home, even more-so when the valuation came in so low, we will still make significant savings.

(D) However, if Metricon fits on our land and Bellmarch is unable to complete the documentation, and the decision is between the Metricon and Jandson, we will build the Metricon.

The primary reason being that the Metricon design complements our land better than the Jandson design.


We will simply practice delayed gratfication and over time, build in all that we wanted initially to the Metricon Liberty.

We find ourselves in an unbelievable situation

The kind of home we are going to build will be determined by the following

1. Can Bellmarch (remember them? they were the first builder we looked at) pull one out of the hat and we buy the corner designed house we saw yesterday, off-the-plan?
2. Can Metricon fit the Liberty house on our land?
3. While the Jandson home is still an impressive house and likely to pass the DA process because the Design Panel okayed it, it does not complement the size of our land as well as the Bellmarch design or Metricon Liberty offering good outdoor/indoor flow.


What is our deciding criteria?

It is up to whether Bellmarch can draft and price up their new 42sq corner house so we can sign a contract BEFORE 30th September?


Why did we revisit Bellmarch?

Way back in June, the representative we spoke to at Bellmarch mentioned he was also buying a corner lot at The Ponds. His lot was a standard rectangle size. However, at the time he was only just starting to design a house that would comply with the Design Guidelines and Bellmarch could use as a display home.

It was only when I called him yesterday about whether it was possible to modify the Manhattan plan we saw earlier, that he mentioned he had now finished his design and had given it to his drawers to draft. I drove in yesterday and saw these plans, and liked it.

As a builder/designer he shared our frustrations in trying to find a display home that would both fit and comply with the restrictions when building on the corner at The Ponds.

Some big pluses about his Bellmarch design:

1. Their standard base price is $70K less than Metricon. Of course, still to be confirmed.

This is significant given that our valuation based on a Estimate of the Metricon tender given to our lender came in very low. This meant we would have to fund many of the features ourselves. Bellmarch seems to be offering the opportunity to install a number of upgrades and enhancements while managing our cashflow.

2. This house design was drawn from a builder who would also be a resident of one of the corner lots at The Ponds. He already had direct discussions with the Design Panel and his design was ready to proceed for DA approval.

NOTE: If you drive around The Ponds, there is only one double-storey home currently being built on a corner lot. The corner houses in the Newbury area look okay but they also look very pricey and similar in design. They seemed to be designed for standard lots and simply have a corner facade tacked on so it looks 'interesting' on both sides. The Bellmarch house design has corner balconies, patios and living areas to go round the land.

While the Bellmarch designer had the option to build a single or double-storey home, he believes a double-storey house will add greater resale value down the track.

We do not have that choice according to our land contract. Our lot is also not a standard rectangle shape. The road tree bays on both corners of our lot forces the issue that any design would have to have the garage built for access near the boundary of Stream Place. This is my concern with the Metricon Liberty. They said they could only confirm this after a contour site plan. This was only possible if we paid $1K for the tender process. So we did.

Trying to find a display home or completed house design that could be built within these limitations has been exhausting and stressful.

Another plus with the Bellmarch, is that it is a unique design. If all goes well, only this house will be built first on the designers lot and then our own. No doubt as more land is released and more corner lots registered, people will go through the same process as ourselves as to what to build on their corner.

I will add a floor plan of this Bellmarch design as well as a site plan as soon as I'm able to scan these in.

Here are a few more exciting Bellmarch features

a. The Master Bedroom while similar to Metricon in facing Levy Crescent, has a long corner balcony extending from Levy to Stream. This will suit our corner because we have nature corridors on both sides.

b. Below this balcony is a corner shaped verandah patio which can be accessed from sliding doors of the downstairs Lounge area.

b. The ensuite of the Master Bedroom is superior to Metricon. Yes, there is a Presidential Spa in it also.

c. Bedrooms 2, 3 and 4 are larger than the Metricon

d. The main bathroom in the Bellmarch is larger and more superior than the Metricon.

e. Bedroom 4 (facing Stream Place) shares another separate balcony on Level 1 with the upstairs sitting room.

f. The garage is on the far right of Stream Place so no more tree bay hassles. The Jandson design had this also, and

g. we still have a large outdoor living area for a paved alfresco look extending from the Dining Room on the back left of the Ground Floor to the Family Room in the middle and the Study on the far right. Yes, with the house located closer to the setback on Stream Place we will get our backyard again.


The main thing in all of this is that we have secured an unconditional extension loan for a certain amount to cover the build.

All 3 houses when built will exceed this extension amount but the Bellmarch one is the only one offering true value for money.



Sunday, August 16, 2009

Our Third Builder

A lot has happened since settling our land. While we await a second valuation based on an initial 'ridiculous' valuation, we are looking at building the Liberty 38 from Metricon.

Click on picture to open slideshow.
















The difference to how our house will look to the picture above is that instead of the garage door entry seen here, the garage entrance is to the side. That is, from Stream Place.

A window similar to the window on the left (the Guest Bedroom/Bedroom 5) will be installed to ensure this side is still 'interesting' according to the Design Guidelines when building at The Ponds.

The problem we have is whether we can comply with the RTA requirements of building a driveway within the required distance (at least 6m) from the corner when there is both a street tree and road tree bay in the way.

Hopefully, we will know in a week when the contour plans are drawn during the tender process. If we don't overcome this hurdle, we will build the Jandson Home mentioned earlier in this blog.

The MAIN attraction of the Metricon home is that it complements our land very well. It makes great use of the shape of our land for the outdoor/indoor flow enabling us to have a sizeable front yard acting as our backyard enclosed in the privacy of the surrounding 1.8m high fence.

Enjoy the slideshow and feel free to comment.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Land Settlement Today

The scheduled settlement time is 3pm.

I'm writing this after 3pm, I guess we are officially land-owners now. My mobile rings, its our solicitor -
Ok, you're all settled now, he says. You are now in the game!
Terrific! We are now the proud owners of an area of dirt we will be spending the rest of our lives paying off :) Isn't ownership a wonderful thing?

He will be sending us a report letter later this week confirming the settlment details.

Our first mortage payment, a partial payment is due next week. I hope the Reserve Bank is kind to us for the next 30 years. As long-term renters, we paid little attention to what happened with interest rates, how things change when you have a stake in something.

So, Phase 1 is complete.

I called my lender a few minutes ago. He said he will send our application to extend along with the tender for valuation tomorrow morning. Hopefully by the end of this week, at the latest, we should hear whether we have an unconditional approval for this phase. Once we receive the documentation confirming an unconditional approval, we will arrange a meeting with our builder.

I hope Phase 2 runs a little smoother than the first phase. Wishful thinking?

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Penultimate Event?

If it's not written on your settlement documents, it's not going to happen any differently. Our solicitor acts according to the documents. The agency responsible for writing the documents (a business unit administering this on behalf of WestPac), act on the instructions of what is agreed between RAMS and the mortgagee. So, if a point such as paying the administration fees separately, is not communicated to the agency by the rep, then no matter what the rep says afterwards, what is written in the document will be exactly how it happens.

I don't know why we would think otherwise.


Actually, our solicitor shared an interesting fact with us. Mortgage lenders receive a trailing commission from the finance company based on the size and duration of the mortgage? I'm not sure whether the broking company pass this on to the actual mortgage brokers, but trailing commissions for the next 30 years on average, based on a one-time sale sounds like a good deal.


So, after stepping out of the movie theatre when I received a call from the RAMS rep this morning, I asked whether there would be any fees on the second part of our loan, when we extend it to cover the build. He said there would be setup fee for the extension. The extension process would take place after the land is settled. I told him that because of his miscommunication, I expect RAMS to waive this fee. He was quick to say that he is unable to offer this.

I told him he should at least speak to someone who can and then come back to me. He agreed and said he would...I'm not holding my breath.

There was one positive from this, we were exempt from paying the mortgage duty fees.

So, on the eve of settlement, actually, our settlement is Monday the 27th July, our solicitor told our lender it is tomorrow just in case we have any last minute problems. If there is, we could address these on Monday without incurring a late penalty fee from Landcom. Clever guy. So our solicitor after booking in a time for the title of ownership exchange a few days ago, has assured us he has all the paperwork ready. Once he receives our cheque (to cover the low valuation) tomorrow, he will complete the process.

...nice!

Monday, July 20, 2009

5 Days to Land Settlement

My phone rang. The amended repayment schedule documents were ready. Our lender drove directly to my husbands work and then mine for the required signatures.

Because our solicitor had the remaining parts of these documents, he was waiting on the amended documents to be sent to him so he could hand in the complete paperwork. It took longer than expected to receive the amended documents, so this was not possible. Our solicitor expressed concern to us and our lender that he (our lender rep) ensures the lenders solicitors were able to match up the two parts before handing it to the finance company. Our solicitor was driving to the required location this afternoon. This paperwork had to be handed in today.

I'm not sure why these documents still have it written that the upfront fees would be deducted from the total loan approved. We are adamant and have stated a number of times that we will pay these fees separately at time of settlement. We do not want to pay what would be interest accumulating on the addition of these fees. Who does? Our lender reassured us this was standard practice with all their settlement documents. We still had the option of paying for these fees separately on the settlement date.

We will watch this carefully.

Now, call it curiosity, but we decided after 'visiting' our block to have a quick look at an alternate builders display homes yesterday? We were impressed by a few of their designs, in particular, the great use of indoor and outdoor rooms to open up the house and give it an interesting appeal.


I'll let you know whether they pass the first step, can they build on our corner lot?

Friday, July 17, 2009

Jandson Homes

I wish we could say we are totally confident with our decision.

Yes, we like the home we chose. We only hope that the project to completion is run more effectively than the process taken to receive the final tender.

I'm all for the Free Site Tender offers builders use to generate interest, but this should not be at the expense of not receiving a well-prepared and accurate tender in a timely manner. It took four weeks before we were able to provide a final tender to our lender. In those last stages, I had to contact the estimator director and plead for drawings they were not going to provide because they thought the home we wanted did not fit according to the DRP guidelines. It pays to be stern and insist on the drawings so that you can contact directly the DRP to pursue your case. How many calls do you think the DRP receive from builders?

Can you imagine how I felt when after receiving a favourable response from the DRP and passing this new information to Jandson Homes, they said that because they have some key people away on leave, I would not receive my final tender for another two weeks! My original request had been received two weeks prior. As I wrote, their first tender was inaccurate, their second amended tender suggested a custom styled home which was not what we were after.

I don't know why but when someone says 'custom' to me, I shiver and always think 'how much?'

Our solicitor had told us to be wary of who we choose to build. We all remember companies like Beechwood Homes who not too long ago left many families locked out of their unfinished homes. A good question he advised to ask your builder is whether the initial payment required for the contract is held in a Trust. The comfort from this is in knowing that the deposit you pay goes towards the cost of your house and not to finance the general operations of the company. We did not get the answer we wanted when we asked Jandson, but while we haven't committed ourselves financially to our final tender, we will probably go ahead.

It comes down to trust and faith in the end. We hope they won't let us down.

So, we'll keep a close eye on our build. I know we all do, that's what's good about writing a journal, it can be read by others.


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The Design Review Panel: Part 2 - Revisiting the setbacks.

After finally receiving a site plan with our first choice Jandson Home, the Odyssey 43, we contacted the DRP to re-discuss our dilemna.

Our excitement at buying a 740sqm block of land lost some of its shine when we found the choice of available homes to fit within the DRP guidelines was, limiting.

I'm not confident buying off-the-plan, I guess I'm more of a visual, touchy person. If a store dummy has on a complete outfit and my size is available, I will buy the entire ensemble. So too, when choosing a house. If I can visit and walk through a display home and we are both comfortable with it, then we are more confident to purchase what we see. It should be interesting when we go through the choosing colours and material phases, I simply like what I saw at Homeworld. My response when we reach this stage, "just build one that looks like that thanks, along with the front fence and the tall banana tree on the corner next to the dining room patio.



But our precious block of land was an odd-shaped block. So while we will have a decent backyard, we will have a sizeable front yard too because of the skewed front boundary. Trying to fit our first choice home within these setback guidelines was proving to be a real challenge.

After sending four emails to the Design Review Panel (DRP), one phone discussion with the DRP and a phone call to Blacktown City Council if they would consider moving the tree bay, I received three email replies re-stating guidelines, before I received a fourth email reply with the words


From the site plan and floor plans, I think this could be acceptable, subject to
all the other Guideline/DCP issues...


Of course, like many other home-builders at The Ponds, this is a balance of compromises between building a home we want that also fits in the guidelines. Add to this the pressure of completing the build and landscaping within the required two years to receive the $5K landscape rebate. A rebate already deducted from our lenders valuation on the land, so you can expect to see us on a daily basis out there in the yard wearing our new gumboots complete with new garden tools, digging and planting.

Sound like fun? We'll see.

8 Days to Land Settlement

I wrote below in the "Meeting our Solicitor" entry that we are waiting on an amendment to our settlement documents from the lender.

Our RAMS rep called to say this paperwork should be available this Monday. As we signed the bulk of the forms a few days ago in our solicitors office, we don't expect any dramas in simply signing this amendment to our repayment changes, and then handing it over to RAMS.

By the way, did I share with you that our RAMs rep happens to drive past our house when he goes to work and back? I'm not sure whether this is deliberate as our street is a good secondary street connecting Victoria Street and Carlingford Road. He mentioned this in his email response when I recontacted him two years after our initial meeting "he often thought of us over the two years when he drove past and wondered when we were going to be ready."

So we have taken advantage of this drive-by on occassions by using our mailbox as a pickup spot. If I want him to drop off anything like their free guide to Buying your First Home, which is not available in electronic form, or when he needs to pick up anything from us, our mailbox acts as the go-between. There is no need to schedule a suitable meeting time. Actually, this reminds me of the movie "The Lake House" where the characters played by Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves exchange messages via the same mailbox.

I wish I could say that my lender looks like Keanu.......I can't.

All I expect is that he is professional, honest and relatable. How will we know?

When we get what we want,of course.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

First Home Plus - concession on duty for vacant land

The First Home Plus scheme provides eligible purchasers with concessions on how much stamp duty is owing when buying vacant land to build a home.

As we did not buy an existing home, a different stamp duty is calculated based on the value of the vacant land. In our case we saved a significant amount of money in paying duty on vacant land knowing that when we extend the loan to include the build of our home no further stamp duty is requred.

According to the OSR rules in NSW, there is no duty on vacant land valued up to $300,000. As our land purchase was higher than this, we had some concessions of duty to pay for vacant land purchased between $300,000 and $450,000.

Or solicitor sent us these forms to complete after exchanging on the contract. The forms can be found on the Office of State Revenue, NSW website htttp://www.osr.nsw.gov.au

We used the following formula found on the site to calculate the duty we would need to pay. Simply multiply your purchase price by 0.1049 and then subtract $31,470.

We handed this cheque made out to OSR to our solicitor to process on settlement. Settlement on Landcom properties are 30 days after exchanging the contract. This is a lot earlier than the normal 42 days.

The In-between Days

Also known as the calm-before-the-storm, or a 'breather' before the next lot of challenges.

Good time to review
  1. budgets
  2. updating calendar with important dates such as: settlement due date; tender expiry date; mortgage due dates etc.
  3. research and add to favourite list, forums for useful tips related to any step of the process
  4. update my blogs and
  5. general housekeeping {and I'm not talking about washing the dishes :)}

I think it's time for a cuppa....

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Preparing the application for the First Home Owners Grant

After completing a similar application for the Exemption of Stamp Duty, this was fairly straightforward.

As we were operating through an approved agent, RAMS, he only required the Category 1 proof of identity documents. Of course, just in case, we had certified copies for all the other categories.

For now, our lender has filed our application as he still needs from our solicitor the certified copy of the contract for the land signed by Landcom and the contract to build.

Of course, a contract to build will only happen after we receive an approval for the extension of the loan. We still have a valuation process on the tender to happen. I hope we don't have the problem we had when they valued the land for less than the purchase price!

We have 120 days to decide on the tender. As renters, we do not want to pay a mortgage on vacant land any longer than we need too.

So, we're waiting.


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Meeting our solicitor

We were fortunate. My sister in-law had worked with a competent and trustworthy solicitor in a firm for 12 years, so he came highly recommended. We didn't bother looking for another for comparison.

He's fairly old school, a man with years of experience who seems to still enjoy doing what he does without the frills and hype. This suits us just fine, we're not frilly and fancy people either.

He has a very methodical approach in our meetings and is well paced in explaining what each documentation is and why it is included. He did confirm that when he and the sister-in-law worked together, they were 'punctilious' in handling their cases. Nice word, consider this the word of the day.

So far, he has gone through the land sales contract with us, we completed the Exemption from Stamp Duty paperwork for the OSR, handed over a nominal cheque to cover Stamp duty because our land cost more than $300K, and signed the large documentation of settlement and mortgage paperwork delivered by our lender.

We are waiting on one amendment to the lender documents that will still need to be inserted and once our solicitor works out all the Landcom rate fees and the 'gap' we have to pay by Thursady 22nd July to cover the valuation coming in lower than the purchase price, everything at this stage, looks good.

Because we received the build tender later than we liked, we will settle on the land first. D-day for us is Friday 24th July 2007.

According to our lender, we should be able to extend this land loan to cover the cost of the build. Our lender should be confirming this increase any day now.

I hope so.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Valuing Land based on Gift Incentives

My phone rang.
Hi Berny, its X from RAMS, your valuation came in below the purchase price because of the gifts/rebates?
What!
Okay, but so what? So what if there was an incentive by Landcom or Blacktown Council for people to buy land at The Ponds?

So, while we would have bought land without the Woolworths Gift Card Incentive or Landscape and Build Rebate, Yes they were nice incentives that made us purchase earlier rather than later.
What we didn't expect is that RAMS (WestPac) would value this land by looking at the purchase price and then taking away the Woolworths gift value of $5K and the Landscape/Build rebate of $5K. They said that the purchase price would have taken into account these rebates. The Sales Office at The Ponds said that wasn't the case.

So, RAMS recognises Woolworths cards as liquid monetary forms?

We look forward to paying our mortgage payments with the Woolworths gift card. Would that be payment by VISA, Mastercard? No, Woolworths? Gail Kelly seems to think so.

So, we were ready to put up a case to have this valuation reassessed. We even spoke to our solicitor as to how we could do it. Funny, he didn't seem to think it was an issue and even saw it from the banks perspective.

Huh? I thought you were our solicitor, not RAMS. Don't worry, I'll write a post about choosing a solicitor, next.

In the meantime, we are arguing with our RAMS rep. The gift and rebate are NOT gauranteed. If we exchanged after the Woolworths gift date expired, would they then be revaluing our land higher by $5K? If we don't build within 2 years of contract build date, we miss out on the landscape rebate? These are not guaranteed rebates. What the heck is this valuer thinking?

Blah blah blah. Stomp, stomp.

Well, I wish I could write that we were able to get another valuation that came in at either the purchase price or above. I can't.

We never pursued it in the end. We simply accepted that we were 'ripped off' and comforted ourselves with the knowledge that while we put pressure on ourselves to raise the difference by settlement, at least we will have a lower loan and some immediate equity.

I read a few days later on an online Australian Home Forum that some people who had experienced this valuation issue with their lenders at The Ponds were able to start a new application with another provider and achieved that higher valuation. Good on them I say.

Of course, I couldn't help but write an email to our RAMS Rep after reading the above post and chastise him for not thinking to do this. I dug the point in a little more when I said that the successful lender in the example was St George, who is owned by WestPac who also backs RAMS, so why the double standard?

Okay, enough said regarding our valuation experience.

While I read in this useful home forum that the Woolworths Gift card won't be available for collection until after settlement, we may still try and pay some of our future mortgages with our Woolworths card.

We'll let you know if we succeed or if in the end, whether we even bothered.

Choosing a lender

I had banked with CBA for 8 years and Bankwest for 2 years. My husband is a long-time customer of WestPac.

Yes, we asked what they could do. Two years ago most lenders seemed willing to lend up to 100% or in some cases 105%. We had no problem receiving an unconditional approval then.

Of course, things change. One guarantee, things always change.

We had also spoken back then with Aussie Home Loans, RAMS and an online lender, Rate Buster.

All of them had value.

It's funny how in the end, because I could only find an old email from the RAMS rep that I emailed this rep with a simple question, can we get a home loan? All he had to do was reply, confirming he was still working for RAMS and answer my question. Well, he did. And he said yes. After a few meetings in person and the fact he is on my speed dial, RAMS seemed as good as any to go through this home loan process all over again.

Of course, it was a comfort factor to hear after our decision was made that RAMS were named the Winner of the 2009 Money Magazines, Non-Bank Lender of the Year. We all remember a few years ago about the problem with low-doc loans and how RAMS were saved by WestPac when they were destined to become Australia's highest-profile casualties of the credit squeeze. A credit squeeze triggering what we are still experiencing today as another day during the 'worst global economic situation ever'.

So, what was next? After deciding to buy land, we requested a valuation. We weren't expecting any problems.

Choosing a Corner Designed House


Wow. We both liked instantly the look of the Jandson home on the corner at Homeworld.
Even better, they had house designs for either left or right access to the garage.

So, we accepted the free site tender offer a few weeks back by Jandson and because we weren't sure which of the Odyssey designs would fit on our Lot, we asked Jandson to recommend an Odyssey design that would best fit our piece of land. Of course, we did say our preference was for the Odyssey 43, advertised online as the 'flagship of the Jandson home design range'.

After two weeks, we picked up a hardcopy of the Odyssey 40 tender.

Flicking through the proposal, everything looked okay, so we looked at the site plan.

Hmmm.....why is the Odyssey 40 showing that the garage access is from Levy Crescent? And, where is the drawing of the tree bay which is shown in the contour plan on this tender site plan?

Obvious questions we thought.

Answer, Well the Odyssey 43 is too big and goes beyond the rear setback guideline. We also thought the tree bay could be removed?

I can feel a headache coming on.

The Design Review Panel - Part 1: Can you move the tree bay?

I wonder how many emails the Design Review Panel at The Ponds receive each day? Answer, far too many for them to handle and respond back to in a timely manner. I know.

So, after a nicely phrased response to my first email saying 'it is not possible' to relocate the tree bay, they did offer the following consideration....

"We would be willing to look at reducing "rear" setbacks, as there are really
two "sides" in this corner lot, as long as privacy, yard space, etc was all
ok."

Of course, prior to this statement, they had written earlier in the same email...

"It is often difficult to make a house designed for a standard lot "fit" successfully onto a corner. A good test is to look at the elevations that face each street and ask yourself if you would be happy if each was the "front" of your house. It must look interesting and be "articulated" with different elements to break up long flat walls. Unless the house is designed for a corner location, the outcome by 'tacking on' changes or additions can sometimes be not so good. The home you nominated will need some work to present well to the secondary frontage and express the corner".

So, while we were disappointed our Bellmarch home could not be built, we decided to go back to Homeworld and specifically look at corner designed homes. A corner home for a corner lot, sounds good.

I only hope these level of controls from the Design Review Panel are consistent and continue throughout the development of what is supposedly going to be a community of 3000 households.
Come to think of it, we hadn't seen any two-storey homes built or being constructed on corner lots at The Ponds? We saw the 'sold' signs on these corner lots, but very few had any activity.

I wonder, is there anything else we don't know?

Building on a Corner Lot at The Ponds

We paid the deposit for a site inspection and tender to Bellmarch.

Our email was filling up quite nicely with all this documentation from The Ponds. The contours, the inline plans showing that the land was expected to be registered anyday now. We noted some kind of comment about a tree bay on Levy Crescent which meant the garage would have to be on Stream Place, so we dutifully passed this onto Bellmarch.

Of course, we were curious as to why this fairly large lot (740sqm) was not sold already. We were told there was a deposit on the land but the finances fell through so the land was available again.

We didnt' think too much about it. We just thought we were 'lucky'.

Okay, so after a week (fairly fast turnaround), we received the tender from Bellmarch. It looked okay and then we looked at the drawings and wondered. Why is the house located with garage access from Levy Crescent? Didn't Bellmarch read my email about the tree bay being right in front what looks like a natural access to a garage?

Short answer, no. Their suggestion when it was pointed out to them. Well, it is a fairly odd shaped lot you have there, our home is primarily for a standard shaped lot. I know, how about we detach the garage?

We didn't let them continue. We want internal access to the garage. We do not want to carry bags, shopping etc. in the rain from the car to the house. Then came the question we began asking ourselves and to anyone and everyone with any contact to The Ponds.

Why were the trees planted on the streets before house plans are drawn? Why was there no consideration of where the trees were actually planted when it is obvious to everyone that it was blocking the natural access for a driveway? Why? Why? Why?

So after a rant to ourselves and The Ponds sales office, I thought it was time I wrote to the Design Review Panel. I had a simple request. I was simply going to ask them to relocate the tree bay a few meters......



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Buy established? Buy to invest? Build? What?

We first looked at buying a house in 2007. Unconditional loans were quickly approved back then. With two strong, steady incomes, everything you could say was 'sweet' (as they say in NZ). We made a few attempts at viewing open homes on the weekends but couldn't find anything we both liked. However, we had visited Homeworld during our travels and agreed that IF we were to build, we would start with the Bellmarch 'Manhattan' home.





But, complacency set in, whether our 'do nothing' two years ago was a blessing in disguise, we're not sure, but we were surprised that even with my redundancy in late 2008, we were still in a position where we could buy a reasonable house according to our RAMs broker. Thanks to my husbands career.

So, we looked. We looked for 4 months. I went first and then dragged Mal and the kids with me all over Northern Suburbs, Northern beaches and as far as Berowra. After renting in Epping for 5 years we thought living nearer the Hornsby area would be a welcome relief to not paying the daily tolls for the M2 and Lane Cove tunnel when driving to North Sydney. Why is driving to work so expensive when you live on the Northern side?

Anyway, during one of our occasional visits to Homeworld, the rep at Bellmarch mentioned that if we wanted to build the Manhattan we should look at buying land at The Ponds.

Our instant reaction, 'Great! Now we can add the M7 tolls to the daily expenses'. We weren't too enthusiastic about living in the North West but we decided to drive to The Ponds, for a look.

We drove through Newbury and I remember seeing this as a new land development area a few years back. After driving in circles trying to find The Ponds Sales office, we didn't find it on that day. We did smile however when we drove past some newly built houses and saw couples with shovels in hand, spending their weekends planting, or laying new dirt in preparation for paving etc. I looked at Mal and said, that will be us if we decide to build here. Being a North Queenslander, he said he was more than ready to roll up his sleeves on what would be our 'own' piece of land. He was more curious as to whether I was up for it. I'm still wondering.

Okay, now I'm waffling.

After finally giving up the idea on buying an established home or a small unit in Dee Why...aahh the beach, I registered our interest to receive email updates from The Ponds office on the 22nd May.

On the 26th May I received my first update. The prices for the size of land blocks looked great. After looking at land and house options for a good 4 to 5 months now I felt comfortable with the asking price. Of course you would need to add the toll prices and travel time to the cost of living out west when you are working in North Sydney and the older son high school next year near Hyde Park in the city.

On the 28th May we put a deposit for a block of land in the IRIS release. Silly me, I thought they were like any sales office and open to negotiation. Why would they? There were dozens lined up behind you that wouldn't even ask. So, we paid the deposit and sent an email to Bellmarch to 'get ready' we were interested in a quote to build on our lot.


Oh dear!

What is all this stuff we received in the email from The Ponds about a Design Review Panel and certain guidelines and restrictions when building on corner lots?

What the heck is this?



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