House Buying (from the other side of the world!)

As some of you may know my mum and dad own a flat in Devonport and it is in a block of four flats. Well they own the upstairs back flat and the upstairs front flat has been on the market for a while at various prices. Peter and I had thought about it and we had decided that the price was too high and we were overcome with "it's too much hassle" syndrome so we never really thought about it seriously. Anyway, mum kept us updated with the sale progress of the flat as her and dad were quite keen for us to buy it. With the recent down turn in house sales and us having a year longer to save for our deposit we decided that perhaps it would be a good time to look into buying some property.

We approached a number of banks and most in NZ said we needed a 30% deposit (out of our range) except one which offered us a loan with a 20% deposit. We asked some friends of our about the whole house buying process when you don't live in NZ and they were very helpful (thanks Bex and Johnny!). Then we got a call from the agent saying that someone else was interested and that we needed to make an offer that day if we wanted to have a chance. So it was all a bit of a panic, us being asleep when NZ was awake did not help! Anyway, after a week of negotiations and a fortunate trip away for me we had won the negotiating and agreed on a price. All that was left was a few checks etc and of course us looking round when we arrived in NZ.

The week we arrived in NZ for our wedding was spent doing pretty much house stuff, meeting lawyers, accountants, and actually viewing the house. Our first impression was a very jet lagged one and we felt a bit indifferent about it. When we had our second look we were much more awake and we decided we did really like the flat. It has all now gone through, we had found a tenant and we are now paying those big bills and feeling all very grown up about it.

Here are some pics, sorry about the poor quality but they are all I have (how sad!)