A Little Bit of Progress .... A Little

So just checking in with a quick update

Firstly, we heard back from Resolve Finance during the week to say that for pre-approval on the Mortgage we needed to provide a little bit of evidence - Eg. Bank Statements, Land Deposit Receipts etc. We provided these to Resolve so now we have to wait again to hear back I guess.

Kind of exciting but also nervous as just want to get this approval now and has been over 3 weeks since we lodged the application.

We also got an e-mail from our Conveyancer during the week to say that Stockland had counter signed our contract and had sent a copy to her. Once the contract is counter signed by them you have strictly 30 days to get finance approval. The contract was officially signed on the 8th August so we have until the 9th September to get approval. It's now the 24th August so getting a bit itchy to have this all done and dusted!

On another note, we took a drive up to Mernda yesterday arvo to firstly take out puppy to the fantastic dog park there but also to have a quick peak at everything .... very exciting to see the road fully laid and the crossovers completed. They had roughly pegged the plots but were still digging. We could see pipes leading to each plot - not sure how much more work needs to be completed before titling but all looks very good so far!

Here for your viewing delight:

Hopefully I can come back sometime during the week with some good news on the finance side of things - although I'm pretty sure I said this last week as well?!

Contract Signed & Colour Schemes Chosen!

Well today was a big day! Although we are still awaiting mortgage approval we signed our HIA contract (for the building of the house) and also chose our colour schemes and optional upgrades.

I guess it still doesn't feel real as we don't have the sacred mortgage approval but this is another milestone in the process - plus we got to spend an hour in the show room looking at taps, sinks, towel rails, tiles, door handles .....

Firstly, we spent a good 45 minutes going through the HIA with our pre-start consultant. This was great as I had a list of questions and was in need of some definitions (I don't recommend going through this contract in one hit - brain dead). Our consultant broke everything down for us and went through it step-by-step which was great - there is a checklist at the start of the contract that is fantastic - if you ever have the joy (sarcasm) of reading this contract then please, please make sure you use the checklist.
Once we were happy, we put pen to paper - many times. Initialled each page and signed where indicated and CONTRACT SIGNED!

After a celebration that looked much like the one above from Anchorman (in my mind anyway) we then got to hit the showroom and confirm all our colour schemes and fixtures and fittings *rubs hands together in delight*

So without further ado .....

Exterior

HBC very helpfully put together colour boards that take a lot of the hard work out of the decisions - I don't think we'd have been able to put together something remotely attractive from scratch.
We wanted an exterior colour scheme that was easy to maintain as well as obviously looking aesthetically attractive. Enter the Flinders colour scheme - chestnut colour bricks with a lighter colour rendering yet darker contrast driveway, garage door and windows:

Now imagine the picture of the house above but with the garage on the other side and the windows at the front being 3 long vertical ones - got it? Good because that is the facade we have.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the front door but it will basically be the same dark colour as pictured but with one long vertical glass panel. The glass is see through so we'll go and buy some of the translucent film from Bunnings (or Masters in the art of fairness) once built.

Interior

So again we wanted something easy to maintain as well as looking great  - we didn't want to chose anything too 'fady' as give it 6 months and the fad will be over and we'll be looking to re-decorate.
We initially decided upon a colour board called 'Java' which had coffee beans as it's banner (I guess that gives you some insight as to where they were going with this one) but last minute we changed our mind to the board named Evandale:

Something which we didn't realise was that the overhead cupboards actually are not included with your kitchen design - at all. This was a surprise and what was a bigger surprise was that it will cost $400 to get them. So, with Matt being a tradie we figured we will call in a few favours and get these done independently once completed for a cheaper price.
If you look closely enough you'll see a grey square there - this is the colour of our roller blinds. We are so impressed that these are included in the price as most other builders don't include these and they are not cheap to sort out once built!

We pretty much chose the standard inclusions for most elements (we got a choice of garage doors for example as well as door handles and locks) - the only thing we splashed out on was a double length, double arm towel rail, which set us back a whopping $32.

So all-in-all a good day as we only spent $32 - all upgrades are to be paid for at this meeting so this is a result for us. We were looking to upgrade to a Colourbond roof but this was going to be $1,000 and would have hindered Matt when he installs the air-con so we stayed put with the tiling.

Now for the mortgage approval - when we last spoke to Resolve over e-mail a few days ago they were hopeful of an answer over the next week - here's hoping!!

And so the Journey Begins!

It was about one month ago that we started the journey towards building and owning our own home.

After plenty of research and discussions we looked into one of the low deposit options that many of the popular builders were offering.

In the end we settled on Homebuyers Centre VIC - after meeting with them at their Docklands office they gave us the most level of comfort and trust. Their reviews were pretty solid as well which was the main factor for signing with them.

After our initial meeting with them, we chose the Encore 18 design as it met all the basic requirements we were after. 

It was pretty exciting seeing the plans and having a quick peek around their show room at all the fittings and fixtures.

Things moved quickly from there on - we decided upon a plot of land in Mernda villages that is due to title in December so that gives us plenty of time to save towards our deposit.

We decided to use Resolve Finance as our broker as it made sense with them all being under the same umbrella as Homebuyers. They have so far been super helpful and have lodged our application for finance - now comes the waiting game for approval!

So where we're at now is that we have signed our Pre-Works contract with HBC as well as paying the $1500 deposit for the house.

Yesterday we met with Stockland to sign the contract with them for the land - we had already secured the plot by paying $1500 the week before. They have sent this off to their head office for counter-signing and also to our conveyancer for the once over. 

We have our Colour selection and contract signing meeting on the 18th of August - this is pretty exciting as we get to select all the colours and upgrades for the house! We were sent our HIA contract in the post last week so we've been slowly going through this the last few days and making a note of any questions - man this is a big document! Our conveyancer has been great and sent through lots of information as well as a list of questions to ask HBC. 

We took a quick squizz at the area we are building on last week and there were tradespeople there working on the road (it's a continuation of an existing road that has been fully built on):

                               The plot is actually behind these pre-existing houses

We went back yesterday as we were in the area and were amazed to find that the road had all been laid and roundabouts completed and even some pegs around the plots ..... that escalated quickly!

The sales rep at Stockland had said that they are quick at titling land so wouldn't be surprised if it happens earlier than expected. Although this is real estate so wouldn't get my hopes up too much!

So now we wait ... I'm sure the time will fly by for finance approval but it will finally seem real once we get this through ... here's hoping!