Gracie’s Life Experiment

Hurray – Hallelujah! After 3 months of looking for a house we have finally had an offer accepted. We went into the Estate Agent’s today to sign the contracts. It is noticeably different to the UK system. In Oz you sign and exchange the contracts straight away but you have a 5 day cooling off to get surveys done and finance in place. In the mean time you provide a 0.25% deposit to hold the house for you during the week with the remainder of the 10% deposit paid at the end of the cooling off period. If you pull out before the end of cooling off then you lose the 0.25%. In comparison in the UK it takes ages about 4 weeks for the solicitor to get to exchange and the surveys can take 4 weeks too. The Aussie way is a little more stressful, but much less risky as less chance of being gazumped after you’ve exchanged. So I was ringing and running round like a mad woman yesterday trying to get things sorted out. Firstly, find a conveyancer. Secondly, make sure I have the home loan (what we would call the mortgage) offer in place. Thirdly remember the cheque book and important details for the estate agent. We’re soooo excited. The house is everything that we want. It has 2 storeys, is about 10 min walk from the main train line with trains every 20 mins into the City. It’s a family area. It has a pool. It has a garage. It has 4 bedrooms as well as a study. There’s some grass for Mocha to play on. There’s enough room for all of Evie’s toys. The verdict is still out on whether there’s enough space for all hubby’s toys (3′x5′ model railways, 8m long rowing boats, etc) – relegated to the shed me thinks