Great news!

I got an email from our CSA at Eden Brae advising that our land has been registered! Awesome news!

She sent us details of our next steps as to what we need to prep for - Copy of email attached. I don't know if this is for house and land packages only, but hopefully this will be of assistance to some people!

1. Once your land is registered, a 149(2) certificate will need to be obtained from council. I can then order the CDC pre-assessment with this certificate which takes approximately 5 working days, from there your file is prepared for CDC lodgement.
2. CDC approval is received.
3. Require the sign off for the DA check letter- we understand that you have not seen the final plans but this is to ensure you have raised all the variations you want to so far. We ask for you to look at your current plans and variations to see if you may see something else you want. If not, you confirm with this letter that no more changes will be made.
4. DA check to be completed by the estimating team- The DA check is where the estimator will look over your consent and raise anything in the consent that is your responsibility as well as any additional items that have been requested. The DA check will also go through your entire file and check to see if any items have been missed or doubled up throughout the administration process. This takes roughly 1 week to complete.
5. DA Check completed - After the DA check is completed I will send you the final PCV in which I will need it signed and returned in order for me to be able to order your final plans and the amended 5% invoice from accounts which your bank may request. Final plans take 3-4 working days to be completed.

6. Site Start Appointment - Once your final plans have been ordered I will be able to book in a site start appointment to take place in 1-2 weeks time at our office. The site start appointment is where you will come in and sign off on your final documents. I will send these documents over to you a few days before the appointment so you don’t feel overwhelmed on the day. Approval of these can also be done via email if you wish which is usually much quicker.
7. Surveyor Peg Out- once we have your final plans we are able to order the surveyor peg out. The surveyor will go out to site and peg the position of your slab ready for excavator to begin
8. Bank Authority to Commence Construction (ACC)- during the above process we ask you to engage with your bank to finalise all loans and ensure the funds are ready to draw down on. Proof of this needs to be given to EBH in the form of an ACC letter. THIS MUST BE GIVEN PRIOR TO EDEN BRAE COMMENCING WORKS.
9. Production- once you have signed off all the final documents and provided EBH with all required bank documents, your file will go into production where all the orders are raised ready for the supervisor. Once this is complete you will be released into construction. This process takes 20 working days as per your contract.
10. Once released you will liaise with your supervisor on when the slab will get laid, it usually happens about 2 weeks after being released.

I am so lucky we checked our mailbox because j only check about once a month!

We received a letter from our solicitors saying that our land will be registered in 14 days. Awesome! The letter was dated about a couple of days beforehand so really we have about 9 days or so.

So glad we checked our mail!

Time to get our finances checked! Thank goodness we have a good broker.

Watch this space. Construction will start soon!

So I got an email from Eden Brae saying that our land registration has been delayed =/ which means our start date has been delayed to the 31st May 2016.

As much as we wanted it to start on time (so that we were able to get in by Christmas), it isn't the case. Oh well, what can you do!

Let's hope that it doesn't get delayed again! Last time we saw our land (which was probably about 2 weeks ago), it was looking great! The street signs were up, the footpaths were concreted and the lights were up! So let's hope there's not a lot more that needs to be done.

Hopefully my next post will be about our land being registered!

I'm too indulged in our appointments that I completely forgot to show our land progress. It's so far so good. We go and check out it about once or twice a month. Let's hope registration is on time (Feb/Mar 2016)!

15 October 2015

It's been so long since I've been to the bank to draw a bank cheque!

Well, that's what we did and at the same time, we saw our savings dwindle away, all for a good cause of course!

We arrived back at our solicitors office with our signed land contract and our 10% deposit cheque.

It all happened so quickly because there really wasn't anything else that was required!

We also had to provide proof of identification for the stamp duty exemption. I didn't have all the information available but I was able to email it over the next day or so.

Our solicitor advised us that he will keep us updated everytime something came through, I'll just have to make sure that I check our mailbox! haha

Just remember to get your solicitor to photocopy your cheque and get it signed and verified as proof. Good to have a copy handy just in case something happens!

So let's hope for good news and that our land registers on time!

In between everything else, I received a phone call from our Solicitor to advise that he had received our land contract and that we had to go in and review the contract with him.

I'd say we had about a week to visit him, talk about the contract, and come back and sign it along with our 10% deposit cheque!

I thought it was a bit rushed, until I realised that they had sent us a letter through snail mail about a week ago to contact them to organise an appointment.

So, NOTE: check your mail every day! I don't know if it's a solicitor thing but they still do things old school!

When we arrived for our appointment it was fairly straight forward. The solicitor told us that it was going to tae about a half an hour to go through things. I wasn't so sure once I saw the thick pad of paper which was our contract!

He bascically had everything marked with the just the main things for us to talk about. These were things like the sunset clause, where the sewers were and if they were correct on the diagram, the design guidelines for our estate and I think that was it.

There were more important things, but I've forgotten them so far!

Once we went through it and all was ok, we were given the contract to take home and look through again, as well as signing the contract to return a couple of days after.

We also had to make sure that we had a 10% cheque payable to the solicitors (which is -$1000 you paid at the sales centre). This had to be a cheque unfortunately!

So the fun began reading the contract. I guess I just re-read what the solicitor reviewed with us. Everything else was straight forward.

Also because we were a first home owner, we don't have to pay stamp duty (YAY!), so we were given more documents to sign for that.

It ended up being not so complicated in the end...!

*hand up in the air* yep, we're first home buyers. I'm not going to lie, I didn't know what we needed a solicitor or conveyancer for. Lucky for us, Eden Brae provided us with a timeline of what we required during the process. As soon as you put your $2000 deposit during at the sales centre, they ask if you have a solictor or conveyancer to review contracts. My friend initially referred us to a conveyancer, but I didn't really know of them (like I would be contacting solicitors' all the time anyway)!

The salesperson then gave us a business card of a conveyancer. There was no pressure for us to use them, but I think I felt more confident with their referral for some reason! So we ended up going with them.

I thought the conveyancer was supposed to look over both building and land contracts, but it turns out that it was just for the land. I guess, how were we supposed to know?

I asked the conveyancer when we saw them if they were required to look over the house contracts, but he said that it was a standard HIA contract and that you will just need to review they that didn't leave anything out (structural changes, additions), and make sure that the prices are the same (no overcharging) as discussed at your tender presentation. I guess they can review it and answer any of your questions, but it is straight forward.

You get given a standard HIA contract at the sales centre so review over before your tender presentation. To be honest, I read about 4 pages and got over it!

So yes, make sure you find a decent solicitor or conveyancer if you are buying a house and land package. It's good to be prepared because we weren't!

To be honest, when we were at the sales centre at Eden Brae, we didn't expect to walk away with a deposit on a house and land package!

We were probably talking for about half an hour, trying to get a grasp on the house and land plans. Half of the phrases I didn't even understand! What happens when you cut and fill land? You have to level what? It was a bit overwhelming!

30 minutes isn't a long time to think about signing your life away but it had to be done.

We quickly called our broker to make sure all was ok, and when it was we went back in and placed a $2k deposit there and then ($1k for the house and $1k for the land). During this time, we were already able to make structural changes and additions to the house. These changes would be made and prepared with actual costings when you arrive for your tender presentation.

This is what we ended up getting:


The package included:

• Land (312.5m2)

• House (Richmond Mk2 27)

• Air conditioning

• Smart living series inclusions

• Kitchen, Bathroom & Ensuite upgrade

• Alfresco

• Roof upgrade (to Monier tiles or Colorbond)

• Fixed price site costs

• $12,000 smart home buyer bonus (which was removed from the total cost price)

• And a lot of other things (which was great!)

The main things that weren't included were:

• Landscaping (including fencing and mailbox)

• Window blinds

• Tiling to alfresco

We were quite happy with the total price. I couldn't believe that it was finally happening!

We already knew how tough the property market was, but we still decided to look into it anyway!

We initially started looking at blocks of land in new estates (mostly in south west Sydney). We knew that it was more inexpensive than the west and north west, and it was a perfect area is it was close to both my parents and in-laws.

I just didn't realise how competitive it was, registering to go into a ballot system, then getting a priority number, etc. It was hard, and we didn't want to stress about trying to get a block of land. This was also our first time to buy and build a house, so I was half clueless about how it all worked!

My husband and I then agreed on looking for house + land packages. So here we went again, going to display villages, asking if there were packages available but being advised that they were all sold out. The amount of times I registered my email address with how many builders, I don't even remember! I'd say we were on email listings for about 4 months.

One day we were out around Oran Park looking at display homes when I received a bunch of house and land packages via email from Eden Brae. At the same time, I was on the phone to Masterton about a house and land package out at Cobbitty, and we were going to go and see the sales officer out in Warwick Farm about it. When I got off the phone, I opened the Eden Brae email and we read a package that we were interested in, so we decided to head up to Willowdale first. A 5 minute drive and a 30 minute conversation later, we ended up putting a holding deposit on one of the packages with Eden Brae!

It all happened so fast, I wanted to go home and think about it but I knew the package wasn't going to last for long. I feel like we didn't think hard enough about it, but I guess that's how the rat race works!

For me, I would personally say that purchasing a house + land package was so much easier. I know you don't get to choose your perfect block of land but with the way property is going at the moment, I think it was the best way for us!

We're happy we've taken the step towards building our first home.

And so it begins....