== FEBRUARY 2009 OUR FIRST EXPERIENCE ==

On this month we have decided to buy our first home. We have been looking around and searching on websites plus newspapers it was long and tedious not to mention frustrating. The government is giving away a first home owners grant of $26,000 bonus if you are building a new home or $17,000 if you buy a established home well these grants are only available till June 2009. So right now the property market is booming and heating up especially for building a new home. Therefore we need to get in quick before everyone else does.

As a real newbie in buying property, it all started by asking questions at my work who already has a home, and of course googling around.
This whole month was more about experience, and the reality of buying property.

First off we went to see our friend who knows a good Home Loans Officer, it was a fair trip going from the Western suburbs to the South Eastern suburbs about 1 hour and 45 minutes drive on the freeway. We met the Home Loans Officer and she is in fact very good and informative, we sussed out our affordability and eligibility to buy a house and found out exactly our maximum budget in buying the house we can afford.

Now our search begins, we were looking towards living the western suburbs as I know the area more and I am very comfortable of the location as I have lived in the western suburbs for over 15 years now.
Every time we found an excellent location or spot someone else seems to have either placed a hold on the property or have already settled on the contract. Anyways after a few weeks of frustrating search, we have found the house and land that we wanted, it was close to schools, highway and right in front of a park with playgrounds court etc, we were very excited.. we then spoke to the House salesperson which took about 2 hours reading what is included in the house and what the process includes so we were all happy and good to go, so we then placed $50 as our initial deposit to hold the property.

OK 1 week later I thought phew!! that was really good and thought that was so easy it only took us 2 weeks to find our place. Next minute the sales person calls and advises that the house and land was already taken and the land were sold by the Land Sales office and they were not notified argghhhh!!.. This part irritated me and my wife and I were not very happy of the unprofessional ism that took place, apparently this has happened to three of their customers. This was beyond bad, so we went and took our deposit and didn't need to comment anymore on that. But lucky it happened quickly it would have been really bad if it were to go on for 3 or 4 weeks.

On this Month we have also met a person outside the Land Sales Office at the car park, well she sounded really nice and asked us if we are interested in buying Land, we said yes of course. Well she said she is just coming out of a divorce and she would like to sell her Land ASAP.
OK we thought wow were in luck here, Hmm the Land is $20,000 more expensive than the previous property we were looking at so now we had to look for a house that can be $20,000 less to accomodate our budget.
We have met and contacted each other a few times, to try and organize in getting the Land under our name, this is actually more headache because we need to get a Solicitor which is extra costs, and we seem to find something unusual about the deal, because we are trying to find out why she badly wants to get rid of the Land ASAP, well we got the response because she is divorcing and doesn't want the EX to try and take it away.
Well she is asking us $10,000 to pay for her Stamp Duty Land Tax that she has paid and then she will give us the Land Title.
Haayy too much effort and so little time and such big money on the line to gamble, we made a decision in the end to cancel the deal even though its a good property location. She kept calling back and I kept saying nope, no deal.

Alright back to the drawing board again, back to doing research and back to the frustration of who gets to the best location first. Before the end of this month I think we have checked over twenty properties, including established houses which are five to ten years old, we have also spoken to different builders. I think during this Month we have learnt so much in so little time.