Land, Finance, Things.

It's been a long 4 months since I wrote an update! Mainly because there were no (good) updates. This is what happened in the last several months.

In December - our title is being pushed to January because "If we lodge the title now, the land owners will need to pay 2 years of land tax" 

In January - title pushed to January

In between that dates, our full unconditional finance expire so we needed to reapply!

End of Feb - title is out, settle in 14 days. We had holiday in the coming week (arranged 6 months ago). Our finance is not ready!

Now March - Our settlement need to be pushed back one week as bank is not ready. Our land developer is penalising us by $550. 

-_-

Oh well. The better news, we have our soil report back. 

• Site classified as P (as in "Problem" per AS2870-2011) I think mainly because of the amount of fill in our site. 
• Wind rating N2 (see explanation from Stratco - it's a pdf). 
• Our BAL has not been removed, I reckon because the area next to us is not developed yet. 

Boutique has been responsive so far and I'm glad they are given that we needed to deal with all the issues above. 

Timing from them looks like this:

Day 0 - land titled. Emailed Boutique.
Day 2 - Boutique emailed back that we are now in pre-construction state and no more changes allowed (no prob, we haven't changed our mind since)
Day 
Day 7 - confirmation that soil and survey report has been applied for
Day 14 - our soil report received. They are now working on final plan and will take approx. 2 weeks. 

Low Valuation...

… is very common with Land + Build scenario. I expected one and I did get one. Our broker is looking to another lender at the moment, but in general there are 3 options if this happen:

1. Challenge the valuation - unlikely to deliver results unless there are significant inaccuracies in the valuation 
2. Look for different lender that use different valuer - make sure you have a good broker
3. Borrow more - last resort

Things that are mentioned in my valuation document (always ask for this document):

No provision for landscaping and fencing – as the valuer looks at the “on completion valuation” of house and land, house with no fence and basic landscape will likely sell less compared to the completed house in the area. 

Total building cost is considered to be unreasonable and not in line with current market. Yep. Building cost is the main culprit for my low valuation with almost 40K below. 

For the next time:

1. I obtained fencing quote + full land contract instead just the front pages (we have front landscaping included, mentioned deep in contract), so I hope it helps.
2. If I ever build again, I might consider finance clause in the build contract

Now just crossing my fingers.