Second Last Land Release at Ropes Crossing

One of the land estates we looked at (and are registered with) is Ropes Crossing. This estate is situated in northern area of St. Mary's in between Werrington the Northwest part of Mount Druitt (where suburbs like Blackett, Dharruk and Shalvey are). They have released information regarding their second last land release and I have to say that we will not be interested in that area anymore. 

Looking at the release plan, there is barely a piece of land on which you can build a home with a double garage. Most of the land sizes are quite small and not fit for our family in our opinion. 

We initially thought that this could be a candidate for our next home due to it being closer to our current home. Less distance from the places that we know should mean that there are less new places to learn about and get lost in. However, the options for expansion will be limited due to the land sizes being offered. 

Waiting for the Bank

I've been standing here
Waiting for the bank on a Friday 
Laundry on my back 
Ultraviolet rays 
Like I'm posing for a shot in a blog-azine
What the heck does it mean? 

So here we are narrowed down to 3 estates (after hearing what we consider as a negative about Jordan Springs). We are now looking at Landcom's Caddens and Thornton as well as Mulgoa Rise. At the moment, there are no new releases at both of Landcom's estates. There are some available in Mulgoa Rise but not the size/shape that we want. Here are some views and opinions that we have about the three estates: 

Caddens

• very close to our kids' school (It is practically a walk via Caddens Road to get to my kids' school. But there is a section that is undeveloped, that is, there is no sidewalk, so it will be difficult to let a young kid walk to school on that road.) 
• quite hilly land (We may need extra for site costs and levelling.) 
• planning is done very well (There are enough parks, a shop area and the sidewalks, lighting look very well done.) 
• land sizes are decent, enough for needs 
• pricing is rising rapidly (what my friend said about staging the releases to give the illusion of scarcity is being proven true with any estate, so far) 
• demand is very high (The last release ran out within 1 week. We didn't think it was going to run out within the week seeing as the previous release, the larger lots took longer to get sold.) 
• proposed road access will improve if they go ahead with all their plans (With two access points already connected to Caddens Road plus additional plans to connect out to the UWS campus and out to the old suburban area of Claremont Meadows to the East, at least you have some options to get in and out of the area.) 

Thornton 

• very close to transport and the Penrith CBD 
• land is quite flat 
• land pricing is high 
• land sizing is quite small (If building on your own, the frontage is often a problem. Our only consideration here is to get a good sized Courtyard Home.) 
• planning is done very well (There are parking controls which is especially needed for a denser type of area as they seem to have zoned this estate. Perhaps this is due to its proximity to Penrith station and CBD.) 
• will need to brave the multiple traffic lights of Parker Street during school pickup hours to get the kids (We have considered this as this is one of the big reasons for moving further out West. Even back when we were still looking at Jordan Springs, we had to do a timing run from the Northern side of Parker Street and it came up quite negative because of the "luck-o-the-lights".) 

Mulgoa Rise 

• quite far from transport (There are proposed bus lines through the estate and existing bus lines from the next estate, Glenmore Park) 
• land is flatter than Caddens 
• land pricing is moderate (You can get a fair sized land for ever $ you spend.) 
• land sizing is decent (It is difficult to find anything smaller than 450 sq. m.) 
• planning looks well done 
• on the edge of the suburbs (You're either looking at reserves or farms which border on the estate. It will definitely be a quieter area, at least until the other farms choose to develop. 
• some areas are BAL rated (There was one house and land package we looked at that had a BAL 12.5 meaning it had to be protected from ember attack from a bushfire. May also need additional insurance to get covered for fire.) 
• easy M4 access (We judged that the South side of The Northern Road seems to have easier access from the M4. This is an advantage if we want to say drive to our relatives in Blacktown and Kellyville or if they want to visit us. We can probably attribute this to the smaller amount of traffic lights in this direction.) 

At the moment, we are leaning well towards Mulgoa Rise due to the balance in pricing and what we can get for every $ we spend. With a competitively priced estate, we are lowering our financial risk while still getting what is necessary for our lifestyle. Knowing how we have always prioritised our needs, we think this is the obvious choice for our family. 

For those who know, Landcom now does this ticketing system for their land releases. This helps to prevent people from camping outside the sales office in anticipation of reserving their land on a first come first served basis. We missed the last release at Caddens thinking of the slow movement of bigger land sizes based on their previous releases. 

They recently had a release of Terrace homes in Thornton. When we had a look at their open homes about a month ago, we deemed them insufficient in terms of the living spaces that we require. We did not line up for this release so we have no idea of the movement of this release. Besides, there might be a different level of demand for the Courtyard home that we are after. 

Mulgoa Rise has a different policy in terms of getting people to reserve the land that they want. However, to enter into this commitment, we probably require our finances to be complete. So again I have go back and keep...

...waiting for the bank. 

Meeting up with Adenbrook this Sunday

We're going to meet up with Adenbrook this Sunday. Before this, we will be reviewing this list from another blog that we have been following. 

http://firsthomebuildingadventure.blogspot.com.au/search?q=CHECK+LIST

Most of these suggestions are logical but often overlooked when you think about it. A lot of these are practical but some them are highly dependent on your lifestyle. We will need to sort through this to see what works for us and which ones are not necessary. Results of our review will go up tonight or sometime tomorrow. 

Potential Meeting with Designer

It's amazing how things move quickly when you get closer to certainty. In our case, the amount of funds we can obtain are becoming more established so: 

• our choice is becoming limited and a clearer picture of what we can and cannot get is starting to appear 
• potential for negotiations with builders and other contractors are more defined and both sides of the table become more confident 

We spotted a build that will be happening in one of the areas we are interested. The area is called Mulgoa Rise and it is part of Penrith city to the South of an area called Glenmore Park (also south of the M4). From what we have been told, it will appear to be a house and land package. The package is on offer from a builder, relatively new to the Sydney market, named Adenbrook Homes. 

We have always looked upon Adenbrook Homes favourably ever since we met with Heidi from Adenbrook in Jordan Springs (another area we are interested in). This was when we first started looking for places in 2011. The build is very appealing and it also has some of our preferred inclusions. 

The property we found is at the peak of our budget and we would very much like it to be reduced for us to be able to add on our own inclusions. For example, there was not provision for solar power at all on the plans provided to us so far. We have classified this as one of our needs for the new house so this needs to be included in our budget. Another example is carpet, as all my kids are allergic to dust mites, which we will always remove from any inclusion list that we will encounter. 

Our meeting with the designer will look at the current inclusions to the internals of the house. We will look into what things can be un-included which we can live without or perhaps put in later on. Hopefully, this will bring down the price to something that we are comfortable with, to be able to proceed with the purchase. 

We are restricted to non-structural inclusions only because the property has already been submitted to the local council. There is a loss of flexibility because of this, however, we are quite happy (aside from a few clarifications with the designer) with the structure of the house and external inclusions (e.g., termite protection, fence borders, BASIX, etc.) 

We need to look at all the plans again and bring these questions to the meeting. This is so we can cover as much ground as we can and bring more things into certainty. 

Financial Review Today

We,
Are going to see
The Finance man
Today

Choose
The don'ts and do's
Of our search for a home
To stay

Yes, that's right. Well actually, we just went to see our finance man, Mr. Dickerson from Direct Mortgage Concepts to try and finalise what kind of loan and how much we can also borrow to get our building dreams done. 


Current Situation 

In terms of loan amounts on paper, it will appear that we will get a big chunk of red if we do go out and ask a bank for a loan in our current financial standing. Although we have paid off most of the loan on our current dwelling, we still have a substantial amount owing on an investment property. 

In fact, we can probably just pay off the loan on our current dwelling. However, having cash ready to go is more flexible depending on your situation. In our case, we prefer to keep the cash in hand for now. 

With these in view, on paper, there will be less risk if we sell our current dwelling to release funds into our account, rent somewhere (or stay with in-laws) until the new place is built, then move to the new place. In this way, our "red" financial debt will have a better chance of not climbing to the $1M mark during the transaction. 

This is quite inconvenient as the double move will in itself incur costs as well the rental payments (or contributions to the in-laws inconveniences). So we are trying to do a single move option. 


Possible Options 

Initially, we were looking into a relocation loan. This will be what I described in the previous section. It will involve re-financing all of our loans and possibly a transfer to another bank. Again, a small inconvenience with changing of cards, account management and also automatic payments need to point to the new account(s). 

The second option, which we are leaning towards, is to stay with our current lender. DMC will be helping us to defend our position with the bank and try to get pre-approval for the amount that we are hoping for. It is a bit more than what we expected and thanks to them, we have a preferred option. This will be more convenient, much smoother and obviously has view of loyalty with the bank. 


Here is to hoping that we will get the second option. It is difficult to speak to builders and land releasers regarding what you want when you do not have a solid pre-approval to lean on. I guess it is difficult to commit from both sides in this situation. 

Reasons for Looking

We are quite secure in our current home. So the question that might come up is why are we looking to move to another place. 


School 

We love the school that our daughter is currently attending. It is a very family oriented school out in Orchard Hills (near South Penrith). She is very much at home in her classroom and has come out of her shell ever since she attended kindergarten. We've always thought of her as a quiet and introverted child. But now, it is difficult to stop her from talking about things she likes and things that have happened throughout her day. 

We've lined up both our other younger kids to the school. By this, we have concluded that we will be better off living in that local area for the next 20 years, seeing as the baby boy just turned 1 recently. 


Space

With baby number 3 already out and crawling about, we have definitely outgrown our current little duplex. Our Rooty Hill home for almost a whole decade cannot provide at least another bedroom for the new bub comfortable. It is a three bedder and with only 2 major living spaces. With the two elder sisters already sharing a room, it's a tough ask to dismantle the third bedroom, currently a home-office/music room/library and turn it into a boy's room. 

A few living re-arrangements will probably allow us to stay in this place for a bit longer. This is our fallback plan if our quest for a new home doesn't quite suit us. It places us in a comfortable position to be able to say 'no' to a potential builder if something is not quite right or wait it out for the next available opportunity in case we miss out on one we liked. 

We also have only 1 car spot. Again, although this is a workable solution for our transport needs, we would like to have 2 spots both as a better solution for our 2 car family and as an added storage area for several things that should not be inside our laundry room. 

Age of Current Property and Flexibility

Not that there is much going wrong with our current property, but we think it is time to move on to another spot. Without putting the space issue in the spotlight again, we cannot do much to our duplex in terms of extending or knockdown-rebuilds. This lack of flexibility, which we anticipated when we bought this for our first home just before we got married, has pushed us towards the decision for a new place. 


Environmentally Friendly Features 

We like a lot of features in new homes now. With the BASIX now a requirement, it adds a lot to the liveability of a new home. We can probably retro-fit a few things onto our current place but the other previous reasons given seem to make retro-fitting a bit out of our aims. This makes our quest for BASIX++ probably more suited to a new place. 


Those are the main arguments we have for moving. I have to say that besides all the media portrayals of Western Sydney and the Mount Druitt area, this has been quite a decent neighbourhood to stay in. There are great people here who are willing to make this area a top community. It is not fair to say that because of all the events that occur here that there are no good people here.

Even after we have moved (when it does happen), we will be sure to come back here a few times for both family and friends whom we have got to know. 

This Blog

So we've started this blog as a diary of our quest for a new home for our family. We hope that this diary can help others in their finance, build and move process as well. We will endeavour to 

• record details of meetings we have with companies we will deal with 
• show pictures of things we discover throughout the process 
• note things we like and don't like showing our opinions and reasons for it
• outline our decision making to show the process of how we came to our own conclusion 

For us, this will be an adventure that we hope to look back on in the future. For our kids, we hope they can read this in their later years to appreciate what we have done for them and how they have been a part of this huge undertaking.

Without making it sound any grander, please enjoy reading our adventures in this...

...Search for a New Home.