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Today was Settlement day. So, the past two months, one property at a time.
1. Gladson
We got the house decluttered and professionally cleaned, plus $2k of work on the grounds including a gravel path out to the unit, and on the market, and had an offer the week after the first open home, sight unseen from an Auckland investor. He was apparently going to come in low (and lower than we would have accepted) but the real estate agent talked him up to the best we could reasonably expect.
There were several inspections; the most important being the builders report after which the offer was dropped by $5000 or "fix everything in the builders report" in a move my solicitor described as "cheeky" and just trying to pull the price back down. The real estate agent was quite clear that we should avoid the sale falling through on account of a building report "at any cost" so we pushed only back a little, dropping the price by $4000.
The new owner apparently intends to complete the work / consents necessary to split off the unit into a separate dwelling, to maximise income. Good luck to them.
The weekend before last we moved (property #3, see below). Trucked all the big stuff with help from friends on the Saturday and I packed and moved most of the remaining stuff by car on the Sunday and started cleaning.
The weekend just been I cleaned, strenuously, and then brought the last carload of items to our current residence. We (and by we I mean my parents) purchased the house furnished, so it probably hasn't been this empty since it was built. I discovered various areas of housekeeping in which I need to improve going forward. It would not have been possible to achieve a satisfactory level of clean myself without the professional going over I mentioned earlier. Nevertheless it was utterly exhausting both physically and emotionally.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the new property manager conducted her pre-settlement inspection (all good) and I locked up, left behind all the keys except the one being held by the real estate and reluctantly pulled the front door closed for the last time, which is when the feels really hit me. I sat on the car and cried for a little while before driving back to work, and then again before going up to the office. There isn't a specific feeling of loss or anything, it just was.
As I cleaned through I tried to think about my memories of each room, and "thank" them individually "for their service", along with a final farewell to the whole house. I have surprisingly few specific memories, and many of them are deeply personal and not things I would be inclined to share with anyone, but the ones I found were mostly good. My life at Gladson, while often angst-ridden, was very good in all important respects.
2. Deepest Dalwood
The original plan was to buy ourselves over the selling period, but properties which suited well enough weren't coming up. Suiting includes being built in an insurable location (there a lot of very nice, very affordable properties in Burwood and adjoining suburbs which survived the quakes well enough to be rebuilt, surrounded by the green space left by the demolished neighbourhoods) and near a school where we think E will thrive. After missing out on a 4-bedroom which (still will be) in the process of being built out in Rolleston (other offers went in on it well before we had a chance of sorting finance) D. decided to contact some of the companies building out there. One came back to us, and suggested if we could get to the point of signing a build contract quickly enough they could have it done in time for the next school year.
Naturally we didn't get to that point quickly enough, over a month later and we have just signed a contract conditional on finance. Finance is a difficult issue; even with the smallest build on the smallest section, and > 50% deposit we're still going to need more debt than I am confident we will be able to service (in fact I have a great deal of fear that we won't, and what the consequences of that could be), and more than 2 out of 3 mainstream lenders are (rightly) willing to lend us. One pre-approved an amount which would do it, just, but the person responsible is going on leave for a week ....
But Rolleston has a brand new secondary school and aquatic centre and is in the process of getting a brand new library. It is just the other end of a brand motorway from my work. The section we have been offered (and confirmed today after money came in) is walking distance (500m - 1000m) from the established intermediate (mixed?) school and not much farther from the town centre. And although we can't afford as much floor space as we would like, by building and
- cutting the garage down to a single and putting D's quilting workshop in the other half
- in particularly the kitchen/bathroom prioritising both accessibility and future-proofing to leave space for some of the things we can't afford now
... we at least know we are getting a space which will suit our needs.
In retrospect our expectations were set too high by that first 4-bedroom property, which looking at the prices vs space of other properties in the same range since was a real bargain. It has taken a lot of compromise and hard decisions about what we actually need and want to get to the point we are now.
If I had made some other hard decisions earlier we might be farther along, and in a better position as well.
3. Renting
So having sold one house and not having another to move into until next year sometime we find ourselves renting. We didn't have a long time to look, but were lucky enough to find someone breaking a lease which was due to expire about the time we hoped to be moving into our new home. It is closer to my work, right handy to the Mall, a 3-bedroom unit in a block of four. It is shaded and draughty, I would not want to be living here in winter but apparently bringing it up to the new legal requirements (which kick in next year) is to be done when this lease ends.
Three bedrooms mean D has her quilting room and there is a spare room where I can set up an office and E can stay when she comes down for a pre-enrolment school visit. The kitchen (one corner of the living area) is small but adequate. The bathroom\laundry and toilet are a bit claustrophobic. My big desk would not fit through the little hallway into the spare room so that has also had to be retired earlier than planned :( (There is an office nook in the new build but we measured and the desk would be too wide).
LBTC Gytha has settled in quickly and seems to have accepted that outside is now a place to experience in small more-or-less supervised doses and without straying too far from the doorsteps.
We are burning through capital going this route (which doesn't help the getting finance situation) but that's just one of the costs we'll have to bear.
When we signed the lease we still (foolishly, optimistically) expected to be moving to our final destination about the beginning of January. Now that is looking to be April/May. So the current plan is to start looking soon for a place opening up in Rolleston or Templeton about February which can take us through with a minimal commute to E's school in Rolleston.
~~~
And that is only a summary of only the property-juggling dramas in our lives the past two months; but I'm not going to write any more in this post. It's getting late and I still have to pop back to Gladson this evening [listens - in the rain..] to put out the big green bin for collection; and tomorrow to put away the standard size green bin which will have replaced it.
1. Gladson
We got the house decluttered and professionally cleaned, plus $2k of work on the grounds including a gravel path out to the unit, and on the market, and had an offer the week after the first open home, sight unseen from an Auckland investor. He was apparently going to come in low (and lower than we would have accepted) but the real estate agent talked him up to the best we could reasonably expect.
There were several inspections; the most important being the builders report after which the offer was dropped by $5000 or "fix everything in the builders report" in a move my solicitor described as "cheeky" and just trying to pull the price back down. The real estate agent was quite clear that we should avoid the sale falling through on account of a building report "at any cost" so we pushed only back a little, dropping the price by $4000.
The new owner apparently intends to complete the work / consents necessary to split off the unit into a separate dwelling, to maximise income. Good luck to them.
The weekend before last we moved (property #3, see below). Trucked all the big stuff with help from friends on the Saturday and I packed and moved most of the remaining stuff by car on the Sunday and started cleaning.
The weekend just been I cleaned, strenuously, and then brought the last carload of items to our current residence. We (and by we I mean my parents) purchased the house furnished, so it probably hasn't been this empty since it was built. I discovered various areas of housekeeping in which I need to improve going forward. It would not have been possible to achieve a satisfactory level of clean myself without the professional going over I mentioned earlier. Nevertheless it was utterly exhausting both physically and emotionally.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the new property manager conducted her pre-settlement inspection (all good) and I locked up, left behind all the keys except the one being held by the real estate and reluctantly pulled the front door closed for the last time, which is when the feels really hit me. I sat on the car and cried for a little while before driving back to work, and then again before going up to the office. There isn't a specific feeling of loss or anything, it just was.
As I cleaned through I tried to think about my memories of each room, and "thank" them individually "for their service", along with a final farewell to the whole house. I have surprisingly few specific memories, and many of them are deeply personal and not things I would be inclined to share with anyone, but the ones I found were mostly good. My life at Gladson, while often angst-ridden, was very good in all important respects.
2. Deepest Dalwood
The original plan was to buy ourselves over the selling period, but properties which suited well enough weren't coming up. Suiting includes being built in an insurable location (there a lot of very nice, very affordable properties in Burwood and adjoining suburbs which survived the quakes well enough to be rebuilt, surrounded by the green space left by the demolished neighbourhoods) and near a school where we think E will thrive. After missing out on a 4-bedroom which (still will be) in the process of being built out in Rolleston (other offers went in on it well before we had a chance of sorting finance) D. decided to contact some of the companies building out there. One came back to us, and suggested if we could get to the point of signing a build contract quickly enough they could have it done in time for the next school year.
Naturally we didn't get to that point quickly enough, over a month later and we have just signed a contract conditional on finance. Finance is a difficult issue; even with the smallest build on the smallest section, and > 50% deposit we're still going to need more debt than I am confident we will be able to service (in fact I have a great deal of fear that we won't, and what the consequences of that could be), and more than 2 out of 3 mainstream lenders are (rightly) willing to lend us. One pre-approved an amount which would do it, just, but the person responsible is going on leave for a week ....
But Rolleston has a brand new secondary school and aquatic centre and is in the process of getting a brand new library. It is just the other end of a brand motorway from my work. The section we have been offered (and confirmed today after money came in) is walking distance (500m - 1000m) from the established intermediate (mixed?) school and not much farther from the town centre. And although we can't afford as much floor space as we would like, by building and
- cutting the garage down to a single and putting D's quilting workshop in the other half
- in particularly the kitchen/bathroom prioritising both accessibility and future-proofing to leave space for some of the things we can't afford now
... we at least know we are getting a space which will suit our needs.
In retrospect our expectations were set too high by that first 4-bedroom property, which looking at the prices vs space of other properties in the same range since was a real bargain. It has taken a lot of compromise and hard decisions about what we actually need and want to get to the point we are now.
If I had made some other hard decisions earlier we might be farther along, and in a better position as well.
3. Renting
So having sold one house and not having another to move into until next year sometime we find ourselves renting. We didn't have a long time to look, but were lucky enough to find someone breaking a lease which was due to expire about the time we hoped to be moving into our new home. It is closer to my work, right handy to the Mall, a 3-bedroom unit in a block of four. It is shaded and draughty, I would not want to be living here in winter but apparently bringing it up to the new legal requirements (which kick in next year) is to be done when this lease ends.
Three bedrooms mean D has her quilting room and there is a spare room where I can set up an office and E can stay when she comes down for a pre-enrolment school visit. The kitchen (one corner of the living area) is small but adequate. The bathroom\laundry and toilet are a bit claustrophobic. My big desk would not fit through the little hallway into the spare room so that has also had to be retired earlier than planned :( (There is an office nook in the new build but we measured and the desk would be too wide).
LBTC Gytha has settled in quickly and seems to have accepted that outside is now a place to experience in small more-or-less supervised doses and without straying too far from the doorsteps.
We are burning through capital going this route (which doesn't help the getting finance situation) but that's just one of the costs we'll have to bear.
When we signed the lease we still (foolishly, optimistically) expected to be moving to our final destination about the beginning of January. Now that is looking to be April/May. So the current plan is to start looking soon for a place opening up in Rolleston or Templeton about February which can take us through with a minimal commute to E's school in Rolleston.
~~~
And that is only a summary of only the property-juggling dramas in our lives the past two months; but I'm not going to write any more in this post. It's getting late and I still have to pop back to Gladson this evening [listens - in the rain..] to put out the big green bin for collection; and tomorrow to put away the standard size green bin which will have replaced it.
