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Time to move on
Jul. 1st, 2020 09:52 amI have been living at my current address since 1993. This house has done very well by me, but I have had to accept that with D's daughter moving down to join us next year it's just not quite the space we need - or can afford even right now*. We've been looking around the real estate websites and talking to a real estate agent and it's doable to move to a
- recently built or renovated (cheaper to heat/run)
- 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom + convertable-to-quiltspace living area
- house on a smaller property farther out of town (lower rates).
... for what we can probably get for this property less the associated costs, and more practical than my plans for eventual renovation here.
The hurdle we've just encountered to is that the bank is (understandably) willing to loan a lot less to a single (part time) income with two dependants than they were willing to loan to the same income + auxiliary from a boarder with no dependants, and we will have to make up the difference when we close off the mortgage here ... which reduces our budget from "any number of perfectly suitable properties" to "we can make it work" :(
(This caused D. to have a little breakdown feeling that the bank's rejection was all her fault ... which is of course nonsense, you might just as well say it's my fault for being too broken to work a full time job, or for getting the unit built instead of cutting C loose and moving properties when D & I committed to the long-term.)
(This is going to be rough on C too (we are keeping him fully in the loop) - he's also been comfortably ensconced here for 20ish years and this is rut-ending-at-the-edge-of-a-cliff territory. We'll be giving him all the support we can to find a new place.)
~~~
One of the reasons for moving now is so we don't end up moving school zones between E's intermediate and secondary years, which has constrained our areas a bit. We know very little about the schools in Christchurch so we've basically had to be guided by deciles and what little advice we've got from friends online. (Feel free to leave your feelings about particular schools in the comments). We've found ourselves looking primarily at two areas - Rolleston initially and, since learning that Mother has signed up for a villa in a new development and will probably be moving about the same time we are, Redwood and surrounding suburbs.
The current timeline is
- declutter and box up for storage everything we can over July. The kids are down for both weeks of the school holidays.
- The last two weeks of July / first weekend of August finish the boxing and move boxes and unneeded furniture to a storage unit, get the grounds tidied and house cleaned professionally
- to market over August, both selling and hunting. It's impractical to expect the properties we've been looking at to still be available (although if they are perhaps the price will be reduced) but I'm confident the same sort of stock will be available.
- ideally offer conditional on selling, sell, buy, and sort out all the money at the end of August
- Possession / move end of September / October.
~~~
* It's a serious blow to the confidence to realise that while you always thought you were good with money it turns out that it was just that money was always there and when it actually gets tight you pretty much suck at being able to budget and spend in a disciplined fashion.
- recently built or renovated (cheaper to heat/run)
- 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom + convertable-to-quiltspace living area
- house on a smaller property farther out of town (lower rates).
... for what we can probably get for this property less the associated costs, and more practical than my plans for eventual renovation here.
The hurdle we've just encountered to is that the bank is (understandably) willing to loan a lot less to a single (part time) income with two dependants than they were willing to loan to the same income + auxiliary from a boarder with no dependants, and we will have to make up the difference when we close off the mortgage here ... which reduces our budget from "any number of perfectly suitable properties" to "we can make it work" :(
(This caused D. to have a little breakdown feeling that the bank's rejection was all her fault ... which is of course nonsense, you might just as well say it's my fault for being too broken to work a full time job, or for getting the unit built instead of cutting C loose and moving properties when D & I committed to the long-term.)
(This is going to be rough on C too (we are keeping him fully in the loop) - he's also been comfortably ensconced here for 20ish years and this is rut-ending-at-the-edge-of-a-cliff territory. We'll be giving him all the support we can to find a new place.)
~~~
One of the reasons for moving now is so we don't end up moving school zones between E's intermediate and secondary years, which has constrained our areas a bit. We know very little about the schools in Christchurch so we've basically had to be guided by deciles and what little advice we've got from friends online. (Feel free to leave your feelings about particular schools in the comments). We've found ourselves looking primarily at two areas - Rolleston initially and, since learning that Mother has signed up for a villa in a new development and will probably be moving about the same time we are, Redwood and surrounding suburbs.
The current timeline is
- declutter and box up for storage everything we can over July. The kids are down for both weeks of the school holidays.
- The last two weeks of July / first weekend of August finish the boxing and move boxes and unneeded furniture to a storage unit, get the grounds tidied and house cleaned professionally
- to market over August, both selling and hunting. It's impractical to expect the properties we've been looking at to still be available (although if they are perhaps the price will be reduced) but I'm confident the same sort of stock will be available.
- ideally offer conditional on selling, sell, buy, and sort out all the money at the end of August
- Possession / move end of September / October.
~~~
* It's a serious blow to the confidence to realise that while you always thought you were good with money it turns out that it was just that money was always there and when it actually gets tight you pretty much suck at being able to budget and spend in a disciplined fashion.
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