Heart failure
Stressed? Moi? no - I've only got an exhibition opening on Friday, Michael's off to Brisbane today, etc etc etc... Which is why my demeanour apparently became a little frosty when the phone rang at 08:45 this morning and I heard our estate agent telling us we were about to be gazumped on Lot 31 North Boambee Road. It wasn't a message that I particularly wanted to hear, especially since we've done so much work trying to resolve different issues about the property and indeed we have a soil consultant going there later this week.
Blood pressure rising, I managed to ask what we had to do in order to secure the property - having been assured that neither the agent nor our solicitor believed that this was a ruse and that the owners did in fact have a genuine cash buyer waiting in the wings and ready to sign a contract today - and was told that we had the choice of letting it go, or getting down to the solicitor's office, signing the contract, couriering it to the vendor's solicitors in Kempsey (112 kilometers south of here) and forking out a $24,000 deposit. So instead of tootling down to the studio to wrap unframed prints for the exhibition (me) or packing a bag for Brisbane (Michael) we dropped Ella off at school and legged it down to Lee Sames Egan's offices.
Peter Sames, our solicitor, is a lovely fellow: a real country solicitor. He speaks slowly but in a very considered way, and although he runs through all the risks for you, if you look you can see a reassuring twinkle in the back of his eyes. He's a very nice man, and has done a great job for us identifying the risks and the potential pitfalls, but I think he thinks we've been prudent in doing the investigations we've paid for and although he wouldn't be rash enough to say 'go for it' I think he's happy that we've got what we wanted - just. So we've signed the contract, I've written out the biggest cheque I've ever signed, and Peter has arranged a courier to get the documents down to Kempsey this afternoon. He also, while we were there, phoned the vendor's solicitors and confirmed that they will now sell the property to us and that the transaction was accepted. We now have 28 days in which to complete the transfer of title and arrange payment of the balance owing on the property but we are now, technically, landowners! And, because Michael and I haven't owned property before in Australia, we don't have to pay Stamp Duty and once a house is built we'll get a First Time Buyers' grant as well.
We got back to the house at about 11:00 - sadly too early for the stiff drink we both felt we needed, so I've settled for a coffee instead. Michael's got to leave for the airport in a couple of hours, and I've got to go back to the gallery to start putting up my prints.
Blood pressure rising, I managed to ask what we had to do in order to secure the property - having been assured that neither the agent nor our solicitor believed that this was a ruse and that the owners did in fact have a genuine cash buyer waiting in the wings and ready to sign a contract today - and was told that we had the choice of letting it go, or getting down to the solicitor's office, signing the contract, couriering it to the vendor's solicitors in Kempsey (112 kilometers south of here) and forking out a $24,000 deposit. So instead of tootling down to the studio to wrap unframed prints for the exhibition (me) or packing a bag for Brisbane (Michael) we dropped Ella off at school and legged it down to Lee Sames Egan's offices.
Peter Sames, our solicitor, is a lovely fellow: a real country solicitor. He speaks slowly but in a very considered way, and although he runs through all the risks for you, if you look you can see a reassuring twinkle in the back of his eyes. He's a very nice man, and has done a great job for us identifying the risks and the potential pitfalls, but I think he thinks we've been prudent in doing the investigations we've paid for and although he wouldn't be rash enough to say 'go for it' I think he's happy that we've got what we wanted - just. So we've signed the contract, I've written out the biggest cheque I've ever signed, and Peter has arranged a courier to get the documents down to Kempsey this afternoon. He also, while we were there, phoned the vendor's solicitors and confirmed that they will now sell the property to us and that the transaction was accepted. We now have 28 days in which to complete the transfer of title and arrange payment of the balance owing on the property but we are now, technically, landowners! And, because Michael and I haven't owned property before in Australia, we don't have to pay Stamp Duty and once a house is built we'll get a First Time Buyers' grant as well.
We got back to the house at about 11:00 - sadly too early for the stiff drink we both felt we needed, so I've settled for a coffee instead. Michael's got to leave for the airport in a couple of hours, and I've got to go back to the gallery to start putting up my prints.
posted by Sara Bowen at 12:09 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home