Signed and Sealed

We have signed the countersign and it has gone to the lawyers.
So unless there is a problem with the LIM report from the council or the building inspection then everything should go through.

Settlement day is Oct 26, ensures I have somewhere to live until I have moved everything to Hamilton, so all is working out nicely.

Now all we have to do is secure a rental place in Hamilton next weekend and we will be sailing!

2nd Party

So we raced home last night and made the house look reasonable for this other party that wanted to view it.
They were good this time and actually showed!
They had a really good look around, asked me several questions and mubbled a few other things a long the way.
I made sure Adam (Real Estate Man) had informed them that there was an offer on the table and that if they were not serious then we would be responding to it asap.

So what do they do....they suddenly say that they are interested, BUT they have someone else they would like to have view the property. No problem, we can probably hold out till Friday we say, but no they can't get this person to view until MONDAY!
So we either have to tell them NO, and go with the offer we have, or we hold on the offer and let these others view on Monday or we ask them to place an offer, we hold the other offer and still let them view on Monday?? Confused? So was I at one point last night.

So they went away to think and then Jane called us to say they had given a verbal indication as to what they would be offering after the 2nd viewing on Monday, well it was below what we currently had on the table.
So we said that we would not be interested in another offer unless it was the same or more than currently there. They still couldn't get there person to view before Monday and so we told Jane we were not interested, we could not make the other party wait for 4 days, now I know we could have if we wanted to, but I don't work like that.

So the final decision we came to at 7.30 last night was that.......

1. We accepted the countersign from the people we are currently dealing with.
2. We let them know verbally immediately and then we would sort papers out this morning.
3. We inform the other party that they are still welcome to view on Monday if they require.
4. They are available to put in a back up offer if they are still interested.
5. We will still hold the Open Home this Saturday, just in case, always good to have some back up.

So there you have it, WE HAVE SOLD OUR HOUSE !

Yea for us

Negotiations

I hate this part, the tooing and frowing.
We countersigned with an number that was going to make them sit up and yell, and from what our Real Estate Lady (Jane) said, it did!

So Jane met us at my office yesterday and we signed the figure we wanted to take to them, she took it to them in the late afternoon and then she called us in the evening and told us what they had come back with.
This then lead to 3 different phone calls to her, Steve and I having several different conversations, at one stage even sitting in front of the computer and crunching numbers!
It all ended with me calling Jane again and her giving us some very good advice on where to go from here and how to get what we wanted with what we had to offer.

So she met us again today to countersign what they had come back to us on, only problem was Steve was in his office at Greenlane and I was at Auckland. So Jane doing her business bit, met with Steve and got his signature and then drove the 12 minutes to me and got mine. Then she went and presented it to the people.

At 12.12 today Jane called to say what they had come back with!!!
I like the number, I think it will be the best we get out of them. Steve is still hesitant and has decided we will wait until tomorrow to give our answer back.....mainly because he thinks we can do better, and plus we have someone wanting to view the house tonight (shame it is not tidy!), so he would like to wait for them to see it in case they want to place an offer.

So Jane knows that this couple tonight have to be told up front that an offer is on the table, if they like the place then they have to do some smart thinking and fast moving, otherwise the place will more than likely go tomorrow morning.
I am hoping that the couple tonight make a decision very quickly, because I would like to not keep the other people waiting until the morning, I would like to be able to give Jane our answer tonight and then she can verbally tell the couple if they have it or not.
I know I would at least like a verbal response before seeing it on paper, at least they can smile and go WOW we got it, tonight rather than waiting.

So the saga of selling a house continues. Hopefully when I post tomorrow it will be with good news.......come back later and see what happens.

Ongoing Selling

Well the open home at the weekend was a little slow, only 2 groups went through (we have since learnt that one group was our neighbour!) so a little daunting.
On Sunday we got a call to say that one of the parties from the open home would like to come through again, so on Monday evening they came and spent 25 minutes viewing every inch of our house and garden.

They have since put in an offer, and so we are now in the world of negotiations, what fun! I would rather we all just met at an office somewhere, sat in different rooms and then hashed it all out in 1 hour with the agent running between the 2 of us.
I am an impatient person, so taking days for offers to go back and forth is very frustrating for me! So they have placed in an offer, we have counter signed and as of now we are waiting to see if we have scared them away or if they will counter sign our offer.........we sit and wait!

Whilst this is going on though, there is another group that would like to view the house tomorrow night, so life goes on.

Will keep you posted on how things go.

Renting

When we first get to Hamilton we are going to rent a place to live. We do want to buy, but not knowing the areas, we will rent and then start looking.

Anyway, we have been surfing the web for places and keep coming across several, but they are being let by agents, no problem here, just we know we will have to pay a little more in fees etc by using the agent!

Contacted several agents today to find out fees etc. No worries there, not as expensive as I thought or though still up there with having to front up with about 5 weeks rent in advance!
So I explained our situation to one agent and asked how the process went? We wanted to view some properties online and then arrange a time to view the 1 or 2 we are interested in.
This is not possible!!!!
They would like you to do a drive by and then choose just 1 place to view, they will only show you 1 property a day?????
There must be someone out there who realises that we are not in the town, we can not just drive by these places and say yes or no to viewing. We do not have a week to spend in Hamilton trying to sort this out, we have 2 consequtive weekends (oh also they don't work weekends!!!)

So our thoughts of maybe using an agent as an easy hassle free way to get a property to rent down there has just flown out of the window, or more to the point I shoved it out the window at full speed!

So we our know back to our back up plan. Check the web site for private renters, call them and arrange a time to view their property on a Saturday morning and hope we don't have to run too far all over Hamilton after we have set up several viewings of different places.
This way will be hard work but at least we hopefully won't have to come up with 5 weeks rent in advance and pay an agent fee.

So the 2nd weekend in September will be our first jaunt down to find somewhere to live.
Will keep you posted on how it goes.

Selling Our House

We had a quiet week after the Open Home last weekend.
Good turn out for the first showing, especially with the rain.
We have had 1 mention of an offer since then, but it was very low compared to what we want, so has not actually gone anywhere.
Although we have a person coming through tonight at 5.30.
Don't mind having personal appointments, just gets a little tricky juggling it around the family.
If you are into selling your home, then you make it as available as possible, but I do hope this guy is prepared to smell the Apricot Chicken cooking (the smell will probably seal the deal) and have a 2 & 4 year old running round, as I have told them it is dinnertime they will have to accept us as they find us, although having said that, as soon as I finished work today I am rushing home at 3 to do some final touches that we weren't able to do and manage to get to work on time at 7 O'clock this morning!
So when Steve gets home with the boys at 5, they can play in the garden and not touch the house till after this guy has left!

More Work on the House

Another window finished.

Always great to have a little helper, even if he is just watching!

From this to this

Open Home

We had our first Open Home today.

Apart from it being a long morning, with me feeling like there was so much to do, the house looked good by the time we went out to lunch at Subway.

We of course moved some stuff out of the way whilst the showing was on, so our car and Grandma's car was full with stuff that needed to be out of sight but that could be returned after the half hour was up. Sure everyone knows what I am talking about and I am sure they have all been there. You know, things like the full laundry bag, the pile of wet washing, the extra chair that just doesn't look right left in the corner of the dining room etc. Toys from the boys room so it didn't look too crampt in there!

The Open Home itself, apparently went well. About 4 couples (not bad seeing as it is raining) and not bad seeing as the Property Press Magazine with our ad in it didn't arrive at our house until 11am TODAY, usually it is out about 11am on Friday, giving potential buyers the chance to see what Open Homes are on over the weekend (will have to investigate that one further) so we will wait and see if there are any takers, but hey always next weekend.

Lawn Mowing

When we got home from work today, Steve went and finished mowing the remaining little sections in the garden ready for the Open Home tomorrow.
He had a little helper in this project, one who seems to love the mower!

So there is Alex with his own little mower, assisting daddy to the best of his ability, just such a shame his mower doesn't actually cut anything! Would be so helpful if it did.

It was so funny watching him help daddy, as everytime Steve turned the mower off to empty the catcher bin, Alex would stop as well and turn the knob on his mower, at the same time as announcing to daddy 'I turn mower off too' then he would help empty the bin into the bag and then help put the catcher back on the mower.

He helped daddy do the whole lawn out the back.

Not much else for us to do before tomorrows Open Home, few little things to do inside the house, mainly tidying and cleaning, but just the basics that will just get messed up in the morning, the bathroom, the kitchen and the dining room table. So everything should be fine for the showing except maybe the weather, which is forcast for RAIN.

Mail Box

The mail box needed a new lease of life. So Steve, Ben and I sanded it back and painted it.
Ben was very helpful for a short period of time, then got bored, but at least he gave it all a go and helped a little. It now looks very smart and will hopefully give a good impression when people first arrive at the the house next weekend for the Open Home

We are Live on the Web

You can check out our home for sale at The Joneses, Trade Me and Realestate.co.nz

Looks good.

For Sale Sign

As we drove down the drive way this morning we noticed a For Sale sign at the end!
We were told that the sign would get made next week and be up about Tuesday.
So Steve stopped the car, I jumped out, Ben is sat in the car saying 'that is my house' and there we have it a sign at the end of the driveway showing us where we live.

Photographer

Today the man from The Joneses came to take the pictures for the Sale sign, brochures and websites.

I had of course spent the last 24 hours racing round the house like a mad woman trying to get it respectful. Now I didn't want it perfect (impossible) just tidy, as these pictures are what people would base their decision to visit the house on.

Everything went well, apart from the 5 minutes that I lost it as the man arrived because the boys had decided to play 'Hide & Seek' in their room and I am sure every toy had to be on the floor and both beds looked like a tronado had gone through them.
I recovered, but just enough to follow the man around and ensure he got good pictures of my house, although as Steve and Grandma both said 'it didn't matter if I didn't like the pictures, I wasn't buying the house!' How true.

When the links are available for the websites I will post them so you can all see.

Garden

Spent the whole weekend in the garden trying to get things tidy for the photos on Tuesday.
Decided that we didn't need to do all of the garden, just the areas that would show in the pictures.
So weeding was completed, bark was resettled and made to look nice and I got the small areas that needed mowing done.

Steve managed to get 90% of the painting finished although there are still 2 areas that need oil based paints and it has not been warm enough to do it nicely, so he would rather not do them yet.
If he hasn't had chance to get them painted before the Open Home on 18th, then it will just get mentioned that it will be a 'condition of sale' that the painting will be completed.

Kindergarten

In New Zealand kids can go to Kindergarten sometime after they turn 3, now the age that they actually get to go can vary varstly between suburbs within one town, just by how many children in the area are registered for Kindy.
You can register children at 2, and so we did with Ben. We just have with Alex as well.
Now we always knew that the chances of Ben ever actually attending a Kindy in Auckland was very slim as I currently work 3 days a week and they like you to commit to at least 3 afternoons, usually between 12.15 and 2.45.
Thus the problem, because of the times and with me working, he was never going to go because it was not convenient, but with moving to Hamilton we are pretty sure that he will attend down there because I won't be working to begin with and therefore he won't be attending daycare, and I really want him to have something to do, mainly for my sanity, I don't think I will survive with both of them at home 24/7!
Well the Kindy that we have been registered at, has changed the age, due to huge numbers enrolling and Ben is still not in there yet, YET being the word.
Here we are, just under 10 weeks until we are all totally moved and now the Kindy have got in touch to say would we like Ben to go 3 afternoons a week? As of next week!Talk about notice, they call on Friday and ask if I would like him to go on Tuesday.
Of course we have had to decline the position, but considering we have been waiting since January for a place, I just knew it would come up just as we moved!

Weather

Steve is having lots of fun on his week off work, unfortunately I wish the New Zealand weather was playing as nice.
With rain forcast for the whole week, Steve is trying to paint windows with oil based paint, that really need warmth and sunshine.
He is managing to get some stuff done, and I am managing to get pictures taken of what he has completed, so will get them posted soon so you can see how things are now looking.