Buying "The One"

Discussion in 'Investor Stories & Showcase' started by 7020, 16th Nov, 2017.

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  1. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    14th Sep, 2016
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    Location:
    Melbourne
    The Search,

    Hi All,

    Just thought I would share my journey to buy my dream property, I will post more as we proceed but as you will soon see it is pretty much a done deal. this thread may also assist those who are;

    Looking to buy farm land in Victoria,
    Dealing with Town Planning
    Looking to build on farm land with a number of overlay and planning schemes

    So lets start with the brief or what I was looking for in a property,

    1. Sweeping views of the landscape preferably with water,
    2. Enough land that I can run a hobby farm or lease excess land,
    3. Existing house that requires little to no structural alteration or,
    4. Can build the dream home on.
    5. Under $1,000,000 including construction costs (if applicable)

    Anyway with that out the way I started my search, at the beginning my search is focused online, looking for properties that meet the criteria above. One thing to note is that whilst photos are worth a thousand words nothing beats viewing properties in the flesh. Also why so many photos of cows? I felt like I was buying livestock most of the time.

    So all in all I viewed something like 400+ properties in Gippsland (South East Vic) area in terms of actual inspections there were about 12, most of this was done without the agent present (i.e. drive by) and then inspecting with the agent if I was still interested (sure it wasted some time for me but being an agent I appreciate their time as well).

    Funnily enough the property I was looking for was not revealed by my searching, I found what I believed to be the perfect property only to learn that it was sold, and my heart sank a little but the agent involved suggested I look at some land he had for sale nearby and that I would not be disappointed. Well by this stage I was trying to convince myself to settle for something that meeting all but one of the criteria above, the one being that it was only 6 acres.

    So I was reluctant to inspect this block of land, first as every agent has what you're looking for, it was a 1h:45m drive from my location (by the side of the road) and the time was 4:27pm (home is an hour the other way!) I can tell you as I drove out to the property I was skeptical, but pay day was just around the corner.

    More to follow,
     
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  2. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Melbourne
    Wow! what a view

    So as I was driving I came to the "town" of which the property belonged to. Due to my in car GPS being 10 years out of date and generally being useless for country roads I pulled over to get my bearings and thought to myself "Gee... Up there is exactly what I am looking for!" So I looked to see how I might get "up there" and noticed a road snaking its way through the gully, then I spotted the street sign. I began to get excited as that was the street I was looking

    So I hopped back in the car and began heading up. One thing to note here is that the Agent hadn't given me an address (as the property doesn't have one) more like directions as to were it was. "pass the pine tree on the left... then proceed to the large dam and turn right".

    Well once I found the property, even without having walked through the paddocks, I was in love. fortunately the agent was happy for me to walk through the paddocks and even suggested I walk the whole property (by this stage it was about 6:30 pm and the sun was setting. (side note I plan on going back out there tomorrow/over the weekend to take some photos and sign paperwork)

    Well walking the property was amazing and the sunset made it all the more spectacular. Given that I was looking to build my brain turned to possible house locations. I'll be honest there are many possible locations but I was/am interested in only one. It also happens to be 600m+ inside the property from the road (thinking about the running of services and road/driveway access)

    So as I finished walking out to what I thought might be the best site I received the Section 32 statement (via email) and sat myself down to have a quick look.

    Not being to well versed in planning I was a little concerned when I saw...

    Farming Zone
    Significant Landscape Overlay
    Environmental Significance Overlay

    I began to worry if I could actually build here at all... My next post will deal with planning schemes but it might be a bit long
     
    Last edited: 16th Nov, 2017
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  3. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Melbourne
    Planning Schemes, Overlays, Oh my!!!

    "Oh gee" sorry for the delay between posts, how one can get distracted.

    Ok so lets post about Planning Schemes, Town planning and overlays (I can feel your excitement)

    So as mentioned previously the property has the following;

    Farming Zone
    Significant Landscape Overlay
    Environmental Significance Overlay

    After a quick read of each of the scheme and overlay I summarized them as follows;

    Farming Zone: To encourage the retention of productive agricultural land and ensure that non-agricultural uses (including dwellings) do not adversely affect the use of land for agriculture,

    Significant Landscape Overlay: To control or minimise the effect of future development upon natural features, particularly canopy trees and ridgelines.

    Environmental Significance Overlay: Deals with mainly erosion and preventing or minimising the potential for erosion.

    So after reading the objectives of each of these I was almost convinced that building the "dream home" here was not possible. For example the Farming Zone overlay/scheme requires that a dwelling must be the only one on the lot and that the lot must be at least 40 hectares :( (the lot in question is only 39 hectares but more on this later)

    The significant landscape overlay seeks to control the building of dwellings built on or near the ridgeline of hills (we plan to build right near the ridgeline)

    So by this stage I was a little crushed, however not to be let down I decided to contact the councils town planning department. After a 30 minute conversation with the local town planner I was surprised by how helpful they were. I expected to be met with some grumpy bureaucrat who just wanted to get me off the phone, how wrong I was. The town planner was super helpful and whilst they can't say that my dream home will comply with the schemes they helped me understand the requirements of each of the overlays.

    You might feel that this post is a bit light on detail but to be honest I don't know how helpful listing all the requirements and my way to deal with them would be helpful, suffice to say the requirement to have over 40ha of land (I will deal with that in the next post)
     
  4. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    Perth
    This is gripping! I am very interested to see how it turns out.
     
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  5. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Melbourne
    Planning Schemes cont'd

    So I forgot one important point in my last post "Water Ways". In my conversation with the town planner, they explained that the dwelling had to be 100m away from a registered water way. A quick search on land channel (for those that don't know Land Channel is an excellent resource for checking overlays and boundaries for a property. You can even measure the size of the block, might not be very accurate but it is pretty close) I found that the property is littered with water ways. The property has so many that I had to go back and check that none of these impacted the site where I wanted to build the house. A quick note on water ways, they also include dams in certain conditions and there is a dam not less than 5 meters away from where I want to build the home :eek:.

    Fortunately the dam in question is not registered and I was very relieved when I found this out ;)

    So next I will deal with the negotiation to buy the property, however due to how country agents deal with finalising paperwork I might not be able to post about this until next week.

    To elaborate on "country agents" I am always amazed at how they are happy to agree to terms "on a handshake" and leave the paperwork to the lawyers. We agreed to terms over a week ago and I am yet to see any paperwork (apart from a section 32) However surprisingly the property is listed on the market as "Sold" :rolleyes:
     
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  6. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Melbourne
    Negotiation

    So it has been a little while, sorry for the delay. A few errors with the paperwork and now all fixed and laid to rest. Therefore I am now confident to discuss the negotiation that took place. So the listed price was $430,000 as mentioned previously the property is 39 hectares (97 acres) in size. Not ideal for what we are after given the zoning, there is however another parcel of 3 acres adjoining the lot. Quick recap we need to have 40 hectares in one lot to be able to build thus we needed this extra land.

    Being a little cheeky I offered $380,000 subject to finance, 120 day settlement, and that the 3 acres be included in the sale. The agent responded that the vendor was firm on $430,000 but that he would take the offer to them.

    A few days passed and I was beginning to get worried, most deals I am involved in leave little chance to second guess things but this was moving at snails pace. 5 days later the agent calls me "they won't accept anything less than $420,000" everything else was acceptable (so we now have 40ha to work with). Now at this stage I was happy to pay $430,000 hell even $440,000 but with the extra land I needed to consolidate the lots to produce the desired 40ha. This will cost approximately $3,000. So I thanked the agent and told him that I would change the offer to $400,000 and reduce settlement to 60 days. He wasn't too happy with the offer but asked me to give him some time.

    At this stage I was over the moon $420,000 was a bargain, any less is gravy at this stage. Three days later the agent phones me "$415,000 is their final price". Telling me something is your final price is like a challenge to get the price lower so I counter with "$410,000 unconditional". He asked me if I could possibly increase it any more but I explained that I couldn't. It took him 10 mins to get the offer accepted.

    I am, based on a handshake, the owner of a farm. I was over them moon and couldn't contain my excitement. three weeks later it was official with paperwork being signed.

    Note to self, must post pictures. :cool:
     
  7. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Perth
    My favourite part of the process! I have even negotiated on properties I didn't want because I couldn't resist. One time an agent refused to present an offer so I approached the owner direct, he fired the agent and we negotiated a deal in about 10 minutes.

    You did well negotiating your deal. When you love a property it is hard to hold your nerve!
     
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  8. 7020

    7020 Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Melbourne
    @Perthguy I am exactly the same.

    I am a sucker for a view, I had one experience early in my property life where I went to an OFI and the agent asked me how much I would pay. I responded with "Ummm $1.2 million" the agent did his job and suggested that for the low price of $700,000 the property would be mine. A great lesson in asking the agent the asking price first :p
     
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  9. Mel Morgan

    Mel Morgan Sydney Property Manager Business Member

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    Sydney
    Wow well done! I definitely love to negotiate but if this was 'the one' then I would probably have no fingernails left and would have given in at the $420k mark. I'm enjoying the story, please keep us updated :)
     
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