With our keys! Melbourne, Australia, $925,000 at 5.99%
We’ve been renting together for the past 10 years, and in our current home for the past three. The area we’re in is so lovely, and we’ve truly fallen in love with the house over the years, and especially in love with the beautiful neighbours.
In February (fittingly on Friday the 13th…), we received an email that the owner was selling and that we had ninety days to vacate. We had literally zero knowledge of how to buy a home, and also zero confidence that we’d be able to own it. Lo and behold, within twenty-four hours of receiving the email, we had scoured this subreddit and many others, made a colour coded binder full of our financials, had an appointment with a lender, and got approval for a loan. We came back to the real estate agent with an offer and got accepted!
I will say, even though we got a bargain, the price tag still shocks me. I’m originally from Oklahoma in the states, and my husband is Australian. Buying in Melbourne, Australia is leaps and bounds more difficult and expensive than in ol’ Oklahoma, but I’m proud to have made it to the other side!
It certainly wasn’t on our agenda to buy a home this year, or learn all of the tedious steps to do so, but we’re beyond happy that we get to stay in our lovely place, and in the beautiful community that surrounds.
Since we couldn’t do the typical ‘sold’ sign photos, or photos in an empty home, we took our keys to a little 1970s black and white photo booth, and celebrated by splitting a bottle of prosecco, getting a bit drunk, and stamping a little heart shaped stamp with our names engraved on it onto the wall in the garage ❤️