No More Snags

We just heard some good news regarding our little snag. 

IT IS NO MORE!! 

Thanks to the team from Adenbrook Homes and Wayne from DMC, we are now back to full steam ahead. As we are waiting for the bank to go through their process, our builder will be allowing us some leeway to be able to pay the first invoice (for the slab). This means that we can just kick in our funds when the bank provides it and we do not have to fork out now. 

So now we can just concentrate on the land settlement which was due for 10% today and 90% next month. The bank can concentrate on their part and release funds for us for the slab invoice and any other invoice that hits us in the future. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the teams involved. Thank God for letting us work with great people and for our little family team as well. 

A Snag on the Slab

It seems like we've hit a little pitfall in our cash flow and the timing of the build. 

As in the previous post, we were already awaiting valuation on the property. The status now says that the valuation report has been submitted back to the bank. In this case, we should be right in terms of the land settlement on the 13th of May and henceforth on the 13th of June. 

One thing that doesn't quite fit right now, in terms of schedule, is the incoming invoice for the slab. As the slab has been finished (possibly finished curing already), we have now been invoiced for the slab. This is quite a significant value of the house and without the bank's loan, it will be difficult to pay for this. With the current timing on the bank (and we know that bank processes can take time), we may not have the cash flow for this to happen through the loan. 

We are hoping that our trusted broker can negotiate something with our trusted builder. We will await the results of their chat on Monday and hopefully something comes through. We are sure that both the builder and ourselves want this to be worked out and it will be beneficial for both sides to have this go smoothly. 

There is always a plan B and C but we do not want to dip into these quite yet. 

For now, just wait and see until Monday. 

Enjoy the weekend and have a happy Mother's Day. 

It's all with the Bank

We are at a critical point with our finances again. As we approach the settlement date on the land, we need to get a big chunk of money to pay for the land. We also need the assurance from the lender that we will be able to finance the build. 

In the words of our solicitor, pre-approval means nothing in legal terms. If the bank says you are pre-approved for $1,000,000, it doesn't mean that they will lend you the whole $1M. They will need to make sure that what you are borrowing for (in this case, the house and land that we are buying) will be worth $1M when it is finished. 

Here in Australia, most banks will often undervalue the property. This is to reduce the risk on their side. I'm guessing this is a result of the highly regulated banking industry, especially if you are borrowing from one of the big four. 

We're hoping that we get somewhere close so that the availability of funds is not restricted for the building process. We have some reserves on the side but we are hoping not to dip into these yet. These will be for things after the build (e.g., landscaping, curtains/blinds, additional furniture, utility account connections, etc.). 

The last news was that there was going to be an inspection on site to see if the land is worth what it is on paper. I can already say that it probably is not worth that on paper. Although, as the land price was locked in a few months before (already 'purchased' by the builder), if you compare the price with other pieces of land in the same estate, this one will now be lower priced. The newer land releases have increased in price since the previous releases. 

The very important thing for us to happen, is to have the valuation done and the bank assurance received before we commit to the purchase. Given the timelines, we have two more business days before this has to happen. Minus one for sending the document. It'll also go over one weekend so let's hope the process goes smoothly. 

Electrical Done (for Now)

We met the electrician that will be doing the installation for our house. We met him as his new shop in Kemps Creek where he had a showroom to give us a view of the products that they can install. Apparently, the show room is pretty new and as evident with the trade tools in one corner of their kitchen, the office is not yet finished. 

The electrician welcomed us and in all honesty mentioned that he was not there to sell things to us. We were quite honest as well in that we may need some suggestions and ideas for our install as this is our first experience of building from scratch. 

We walked through our marked up plan (with red pen on the original electrical plan). I suggest other buyers/builders to prepare this before you meet with your electrician. I have to say that we already had a plan that was proposed by the builder which helped us in what kind of things we should initially think of (e.g., number of lights in the room, fan and light in bathrooms and basic things were already in place). If anything, we just had to add new stuff and move some thing to more convenient places. 

Here are some things I would consider coming from our experience today: 

• Consider your bedroom power outlets in conjunction with your proposed bed position. This should also accommodate for proposed furniture (e.g., heater, bedside table.) 
• Consider a two way light switch near the bedside and on the normal position at the door. At least you can turn off your light without having to get out of bed when you are ready to sleep. 
• You may need sensors for areas which will be rarely inhabited and behind closed doors. This is in case people (especially children) forget to turn off the light. If it is behind a closed door, it may be even more difficult to detect the forgotten light. 
• Ensure you install a sensor with sufficient range for the area which you need to be lit. At our front, we have 4.5 metre frontage. We though a 5 metre range sensor is sufficient for this. 
• Fittings stick out. You may not want a sensor, a smoke detector and a light fitting to appear in a row. Consider moving some fittings or using a design that is more flush with the ceiling/wall. 
• Anything wired or that needs provision within the walls will be easier to install now. Being IT people, we opted to put in our data ports now rather than later. 
• You can probably bring down price by doing wiring only if needed, especially, if your loan is limiting your available funds. When it comes time to installing a few months or a year down the track, you probably have more funds available then. This is good for things like the alarm and intercom. 
• Consider separating circuits for different machines/rooms/electricals. For example, you may want your lights to be on its own circuit so that it does not trip when you are doing an electrical project in the garage. Another example is to have your computers on a separate circuit from "noisy" equipment like your washing machine and rainwater pump. 
• How about some down lights on areas where you need focussed lighting? Maybe the kitchen bench, the feature wall or a designated area for electronic projects. 
• If you have a kitchen island, consider a power outlet on the bench side. 
• With NBN, think about how and where you will put your branch out to the other areas of the house where you think hard-wired LAN will be required. Also remember that you can move the NBN box to another place inside the house. The garage climate is usually not easily controlled. 
• Having 3 in 1 (heater, light, fan) devices installed in bathrooms should be considered now than later. We initially had light and fan only. If we were to do this later, on of the holes will need to be patched as the 3 in 1 only requires 1 hole. 
• Consider an external, waterproof GPO for outdoor electrical devices. We're not big on Christmas lights but some people may be. You can always whip out a super long extension lead. If it is near a gas outlet, think about the GPO's position in relation to your barbecue grill. 
• Consider ceiling fans and check that they have speed controls and reversible motor (summer/winter mode). Usually, the season mode is controlled with a switch near the fan mechanism. Check its placement in relation to any vents (e.g., air conditioning). 
• Think about putting in a surge protector at the meter box. This should protect everything in your house including your fridge, air conditioning, laundry machines, lighting, and other electronic appliances without having to get those surge protector power boards. 

Before the meeting with the electrician, we actually underestimated the price for our proposed electrical modification. We also got some ideas and suggestions from Joe (our electrician), that we thought were pretty practical and will be difficult to install after fit-out. We wound up with a pretty big price that was even more expensive than one of our big ticket items we opted for our structural upgrades. 

In any case, given the rushed nature of our building process, we thought our meeting with our electrician was very pleasant and open. Perhaps with him not having a sales background helped a lot in that he was giving us suggestions and not pushing them. He was letting us make our own decisions and was happy to make recommendations and have them accepted or rejected. We told him that we were happy with the meeting and appreciate how it was arranged. Not to mention the chocolates for the kids.