Buying a Home

We’ve gone uunconditional on our house! In New Zealand you have a binding contract to buy once your conditions are met – we just bought a house in Titahi Bay!We had until today to sign off our conditions – which were the building report and the council LIM. The  dramas of the building report I’ve written…

Darn – I spoke too soon. Agents always say you haven’t bought or sold a house until you are unconditional – and we had a building report as a condition on this place.I went with the builder partly so I could finally take some photos inside! I wasn’t expecting him to call me over to…

There it is the view we bought – it took a bit of back and forth on price and settlement date – but once we approve the building report and and the Council records – we will own this house! We spent a day or two going back and forth offer and counter-0ffer – in…

If you’ve been following along on the house saga – you’ll remember that I was furious to find the bank was slow getting back to us.Frankly the longer we waited the less I was expecting good news. I am self-employed after all, even though my partner makes good money he’s only a few years off…

Well who knows is the short answer! I’m still in love with the house with the view. But we still haven’t made an offer – the bank finally came back and said they needed a WEEK to give us an answer.Once I calmed down I rang my “business banker” and got that down to 4…

How does it work in your country. When you are looking to buy a house in NZ you often go to “open Houses” or “open to view” times. This is when the agent advertises 30 minutes or so slot when you can come and walk through the house.Top tip: if you are doing this a…

Note – in the southern hemisphere the sun hits a house on the north and west sides. A south-facing house is not desirable because it will get little sun- it always sounds funny with English real estate programs rave on about south-facing gardens! When we lived in Perth, Australia  – I was very happy to get a…