I had a pretty good system worked out. Wednesday I picked up the local property sales magazines, then I read them and identified all the places I wanted to view. I usually called to get a few viewings set up for Friday afternoon, however, the majority were left for Sunday, open house day. Saturday or Sunday morning I would write out the times and locations of all the places and organize my day, I know DORK! I was able to see up to 11 places between 11 am and 3 pm though which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I would grab some water, maybe a snack, a map and head out. I think I saw over 60 houses, maybe even more.
There is definitely a variety of house styles here in Wellington. There are the old Victorian age homes, which usually needed lots of maintenance work, rewiring and redecorating, weren't insulated, had single pane glass, no parking, no closet space and no garage. However, they did have some nice features like old wood floors and artistic glass. The newer houses were a little more North American looking but still weren't insulated and had single pane glass as well. There was also an issue in the 80's where they built "leaky" homes which weren't weather tight and often had moisture and mold problems. The layout of houses was a bit different from North America as well. Most houses are built on fairly steep slops and so generally have a main floor and a smaller downstairs portion as well. The kitchen and main living space are upstairs and they often spread the bedrooms out over the two floors.
Then there is the Kiwi DIY attitude, they really like to renovate things themselves and don't always get it inspected. To add more complexity to an already complex problem there is the issue of views, wind and sun. If you have a view you likely have really high winds. Depending on which part of the hill you are on you may get morning sun, afternoon sun, both or none. Due to the fact that they don't insulate anything (oh yeah, and no central heating either) having afternoon sun can be quite important for the winter months to heat the place up. All this made it difficult to find something we liked. However, after ~2 months of looking we finally found something we liked. It is on 1 Nebraska Way and is a newer house without any leaky building problems (well, almost no problems) and it has insulation, a garage, closet space, and a view of the bay.
Now we come to the Tender process. The house buying process in Canada I believe goes like this, home owners advertise their house with a price they would like, then you find one you like and make an offer right away at a price lower than the asking price, then you negotiate back and forth a bit until you agree on a final price. In New Zealand some houses are sold through a Tender process. The owner puts the house on the market, without any indication of price, then any interested buyers have to put their offer in at the specified date and time, and not before. The vendor reviews all offers at once and can either accept one, or accept none and negotiate with someone to increase their price or change their terms. This means that you have to guess at the price and put in the best offer you can, with as few conditions, like financing and building inspections, as possible and wait until the specified Tender date. It is completely in favor of the vendor and painful for the buyer.
So, the house we saw was being sold by Tender, the tenders had to be submitted 2.5 weeks after we saw it. The 2.5 weeks meant we had time to get our finances in order and figure out what else we needed to do but it also meant waiting until the end of April. We put the offer in at 9 am on the Tender date and at 7 pm the agent called to say they had accepted our offer. I was stunned, I figured since it took so long that we hadn't gotten it.
Our offer was subject to a builders report, so after they accepted the offer we had to get the building inspection done as soon as possible. We figured it would be fine since the house looked like it was in great condition and well maintained. We were wrong. The report came back stating that there were moisture issues in the downstairs master bedroom. So, we panicked, we really liked the house and didn't want anything to be wrong with it. Once we calmed down we found a second builder to come and check out the area identified and give us a quote for fixing it. The current home owner came as well. The builder explained the issues and the home owner ended up offering to have it fixed before we moved. So, with that everything was solved and we had purchased our first house. Yeah!!!!!!!! We get to move in on July 2nd, which seems like a long way away. The following photos are from the property sales website.
This is the view of the house from the street. It has a main upstairs floor, with kitchen, living/dining room, 2 bedrooms, and then the master bedroom downstairs, on the same level as the garage.
This is the view from the main living area. We look down towards the city and Wellington Harbour.
Here is our living and dining room area, there is a conservatory as well, so you can enjoy the view but not the wind. This end of the house will get full morning sun.
The dining room and kitchen.
The conservatory, we are looking forward to sitting out here with some good wine.
Here is the master bedroom, we even have an ensuite, score or should I say Sweet As.
The kitchen.
Here is the guest room, can't you just imagine yourselves staying here???
Here is the deck, off the main living area.
Here is the music room, now Ted can play his guitar really LOUD.
Those are the main areas, there are more photos on the internet, just go to the following link, http://www.nz.open2view.com/Property/222826.
Now we just have to wait 7 weeks and then we can finally settle in.
We hope you are all doing well.
Meg and Ted
