House is still on the market.
Dropped back down to “offers over $959k” after two weeks of upping the listing price to “high $900,000s”following our generous $975k offer. Still not sold lol.
Will report back and post the address once it sells.
Original post that got alot of attention:
We have been seriously looking at buying for the past few months now, and REAs seem surprised and annoyed when I ask for basic information such as:
Is there a final certificate/certificate of classification for this mid 80’s built house? (I must have this in cyclone country for insurance)
Do any extensions etc have council approval and certs to confirm they adhere to building code?
Has the roof ever been re-sheeted ?
How old is the waste water system, when was it last serviced?
Is the shed cyclone rated and bolted to the concrete etc.
These seem like basic questions to me, that are basically all essential to know for insurance and also for the bank to finance a property in north Queensland.
Like have people just been blindly buying $1m or so houses and taking huge risks?! This is all basic due diligence surely??
I feel like I’m being gaslit by REAs as if asking these questions are “over the top” and not just rolling with their “trust me bro” attitude lol.
Every second property I’ve been watching in my North Queensland city that’s sold in the last 4 weeks has been “price withheld”. The rest have generally been $100k or more below the “offers over” price.
Extremely telling, and I don’t know why REAs even bother withholding the price, just that statement tells me everything I need to know. Market downturn. We can all clearly see it ha.
We are looking at a house to buy at the moment, but we are only interested if this “studio with loft” up the back can get approved as a second dwelling for insurance purposes. We want to use it as a granny flat for my mum. We would need to install a proper kitchen as it’s currently just a sink and some cabinets. Mum would use the upstairs loft as storage and live downstairs only. The main issues I think need to be addressed are:
The wall between the studio and the garage is only masonite, so that wall would have to be replaced with a fire rated wall.
Wired smoke detectors and alarms need to be installed, currently not a wired system in there.
The height above the kitchen area looks too low due to the loft?
I’m pretty sure it is more than 20m from the main residence.
Not 100% sure of what the walls are made out of, thinking just usual fibro?
If it’s going to be a huge job to make it legal, we aren’t interested.
This was used as accomodation when the owners were building their main residence 20 years ago, and it seems they never got it council approved.
Looking at buying a house that owners built in 2006, was designed and signed off by a civil engineer prior to build:
Wind Design (AS1170 Part 2 1989)
• Region: C (cyclone region)
• Basic Wind Speed: 57 mps
• Terrain Category: 2.5
• Height Multiplier: 0.85
• Shielding Multiplier: 1.0
• Topographic Multiplier: 1.0
• Importance Multiplier: 1.0
• Internal Pressure Coefficient: 0.6
• Design Wind Speed: 48.5 mps
Footings
• Method: Resist uplift/bearing
• Site Classification: “H” (highly reactive soil)
Loads
• Design Floor Live Load: 1.5 kPa
Standards Referenced
• AS1170 Parts 1 & 2
• AS3700, AS1250, AS3600, AS2870
However, they may not have a copy of a final inspection certificate to confirm that the building conforms to the design standards. They are looking for it, and council may not have a digital copy.
If I were still to pursue the property, I was thinking of adding in a term to the contract stating pending a building structural inspection to confirm build meets design standard? And then paying a structural engineer to check the property…I am assuming this will be more than your average building and pest inspection…
Would this be enough due diligence for insurance in the event of cyclone damage?
Going to talk to my conveyancer about it on Tuesday as its now Sunday night and tomorrow is labour day in QLD.
I have had three early losses in 10 months before 5 weeks. This was what I assumed was my 4th, first hcg comparison was terrible, lines weren’t getting darker / started to look lighter around 13 DPO. So I assumed it was chemical. Started bleeding 4 days ago, now 21DPO and did an FRER to check it was nearly faded back to nothing, but now the test lines are alot stronger, but I think still too light for 21 DPO. So starting to think it may be ectopic, going to Dr today to check. 🙁
Anyone else with similar experiences?