Hi Everyone,

It’s been awhile but we have finally settled on our family home. It’s been a long journey but it has been been completed with the banks settling this week. It is one of our biggest purchase to date so its exciting but also daunting because of the mortgage. We have been looking for a family home 7 years ago but due to the housing market being too hot back then, we decided we can wait until we have kids and then settle on a place. We were super close to one place with building inspections done, checked through the documents with the lawyers etc but the building report came back with something that may cost us a lot to repair so we let that property go. We still drive past it every week as it is close to where we live and the owners have renovated it out throughout (which we would have done also) and of course we didn’t want to take the risk back then with not much savings left we have continued with the purchase.

![Screen Shot 20210416 at 9.47.04 pm.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmSyHPq2ZxJQDJBPKowfcPQ61KdFYwaYiiULykpu3P3xBc/Screen%20Shot%202021-04-16%20at%209.47.04%20pm.png)

[source] - google maps

So we decided to rent in the area we like to see if we really like it that much to settled and fast forward 7 years to today, we still love the area and community so we decided to hang around. Our area is pretty small so there aren’t many properties for sale and of course this drives the prices up. If you have seen some of my past posts about the Australian housing market, it is extra hot and honestly at some point I am thinking why are people paying so much money for their home. We have seen literally people lining up to see properties because there are so little available on the market. After weeks of looking at houses every weekend, I’m sick and tired of getting disappointed. 

We were close to one a few months ago and the same building inspector we used 7 years ago came back to use with another issue. We told him our plan about opening up the back of the house and move the kitchen to the back opening back up to the yard. He told us it may not be possible due to council restrictions. We got as surveyor out (they were expensive!) and confirmed that the council restrictions may but an issue as well as the yard is actually 40cm into the neighbours place. So immediately we didn’t go ahead with the purchase and luckily we didn’t put in a deposit and saved ourselves further headaches with the council. The last thing you want to do is to get involved with the council.

Again going back disappointed, I was thinking how much we like our current place we are living in. We have been renting here for awhile, love the garden and outdoor space, close the school, public transport and shops so I asked hubby to see if the owners are interested in selling it to us. 2 months later they came back saying they were and we agreed on a price. It was a little more expensive than we expected but they only asked for what the neighbours sold for 3-4 years ago. We thought it wasn’t too much to sweat about so we have gone back and agreed and here we are this week, the place is ours! The best part is we don’t need to move and we are free to do any renovations we want now! Stay tune as you will see how I will transform our place slowly (will start small!) …. exciting times!!

<center>![happywalk02.gif](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTA83J2vJLoed895woPKqy2P1Vmyk5r6q5iyE15nyb8H2/happywalk02.gif) </center>

<center><h6>animation by @catwomanteresa </center></h6>

![Travelgirl pic.jpeg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/travelgirl/wvWpUyw1-Travelgirl20pic.jpeg)



https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmV63eqqyggh6LJKKxn33jKWfFkz7gCufpbc13iLs6MwUq/Footer_travelgirl.png



---
Thanks for reading. If you like my post, please follow, comment and upvote me. There will be more exciting posts & destinations to come.

All photos & videos are taken by me & co in all my blogs/stories unless quoted. 



Posted Using [LeoFinance <sup>Beta</sup>](https://leofinance.io/@travelgirl/we-finally-settled-on-a-place)