[Croft]

During our recent trip to NZ we thought we'd found our ideal house in the ideal location. We fell in love with it, and invested a lot of time and money checking details, getting surveys done etc. More than that was our emotional involvement with the property. We even got on really well with the current owners.

It went to auction a couple of hours ago and we bid by telephone from the UK. It went way beyond the valuation and, despite pushing our boundaries to the limit and beyond (which would have meant not being able to do any work on the property), we failed to secure our dream house. In the end it was just 2 of us, the other a Kiwi out of Dubai. They won.

I'm so upset I can't sleep now, so I'm wide awake on the board, listening to Radio NZ National on the net.

Other properties we saw were OK - this one just ticked all the boxes. I just don't know where to go from here now... I suppose start trawling through the listings again but we really thought we'd found that house that we could live for the rest of our lives in. It also means we're not likely to have a property to move out to when we emigrate, as we're not willing to buy sight unseen.

Absolutely gutted.

[zardell]

Hey - chin up.

I'm a big believer in things happening for a reason and I'm sure you'll soon find the reason why this house was not to be.

I know that doesn't help how you are feeling right now, but things always look better in the morning ( so my Mum used to say) but I don't think she meant THIS EARLY in the morning...........:laugh

{{{{{{{{{{{BIG HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}

Julie

xx

[sizzlingbadger]

It's a feeling you will probably have to get used to unfortunately.

No doubt you've read our recent trials and tribulations of selling ours and finding something. In the end we finally had to go through the feelings you're describing 4 times before finally securing a property.

You don't have to have your property to come to when you come out, there's the option of renting and finding the 'perfect' property whilst in rented. If we had bought the first property we saw here we'd be in a financial mess right now, it took us 4 months before finding our ideal area and house, we were glad we didn't jump straight into it.

Hang in there your dream property is out there just not this one.

[Carol]

Cant say anything more than SB's and Julie's posts.


We also found the house of our dreams last April. And lost it.
In August - I had to resign from my job - and havent worked for a while.
There is no way we would have been able to afford the mortgage we would have had.


So - as an eternal optimist - I believe.......
We lost the tender for a reason.
There is another (better) one waiting for us somewhere else.
And yes - time does help you get over stuff like that.


Plenty of cool houses here......cool being the operative word just now.
;)

[Ana&Steve]

I am so sorry this happened. Disappointment is such a harsh pain, but it will fade, and like everyone has already said, life does seem to operate on the "blessings in disguise" theory. Take care of yourselves, and I hope you feel better soon!
Ana

[KerryS]

There'll be another house out there for you. I spent months looking for a place that met all my criteria - then 2 came up on the same street in the same week!

[Pip]

I'm so sorry... but I am up there with the others on the "everything happens for a reason". The first house we were shown, I totally fell in love with and thought it was perfect in every way, but as we viewed it, the agent apologised and said she's discovered it had gone unconditional (sold) in the last couple of hours, when it wasn't expected to.

For the next four weeks, I measured everything we saw against it, and didn't really fall in love with anything and nothing was quite as nice. Eventually, we saw a house that my OH really liked, and I thought was o.k. It didn't wow me, but it ticked most of the boxes - the kitchen was too small, it didn't have a woodburner - but it was a good location had four beds, garage and a (very) decent garden and was well within budget - in fact $25K cheaper than the other one.

to cut a long story short, we ended up buying it, and bit by bit it grew on me and now.......... I love it! I regularly pass the other place as its on the way to the nearest town, and actually with hindsight, it was far too close to a main road (thinking of the cat), the garden was a 1/2 an acre and now we have four acres! We're getting a woodburner installed and when we have the cash, will extend the kitchen into a kitchen/conservatory to get more space. We love having all the extra garden - no idea what we'll do with it - but hey - we've got options.

I'm also with sizzling badger, best to do a short term let / holiday home and have a good look around. Also on a personal note, having gone to a few auctions when we first arrived, we decided not to view auction properties as we couldn't handle that approach to buying (just our personal point of view). I saw one bid reach $600k on a guide price of $450 and it still hadn't met the reserve. From chatting to a few of the locals, looks like auction properties often have a guide price of way below what the owners are actually willing to accept, but a low price generates interest.

fingers crossed , that a few months after you arrive, you are updating this thread, to tell us about your new fantastic house :)

[Sam B]

Really feel for you, there's not a lot more disappointing than missing out on the house of your dreams. So sorry.

[Croft]

Thanks for all you kind thoughts.

We'd been out in NZ last year looking for properties and really found we were looking in the wrong price bracket. Upped the anty this year, inluding a mortgage in our calculation. We'd been looking for months online but really there's no subtitute for looking around yourself. On our recent visit we had 2 weeks of viewing houses - this was 1st house, 1st day, and nothing else on reflection measured up. Large 1920s period house, imaculately maintained by the church, one of a kind.

There was no guide price, but it went way over the valuation we commissioned and the online QV estimate. I guess it's te old thing about who's bidding on the day, and if 2 people really want a property it'll go through the roof. We just didn't have deep enough pockets, with the way the pound is at the moment.

I guess it's rentals, here we come. Still sad but not as despertaely sad as last night.

[CjChris]

Sorry to hear about your "lost house." That must be so upsetting to you!

I understand how you feel because my OH and I found what we thought was the ideal property online, too, and we held great affection for it in our hearts for weeks, hoping it wouldn't sell until we can get to NZ and look at it in person...it has everything we want in a lifestyle property, and is affordable because it is in an area of NZ with lower property values....then....lo and behold......Google Earth revealed the regional prison less than two miles away from our dream house!!! (Between it and the beach, actually!) :exit

Needless to say, we were sickened and had to let that one go.....now we'll do what we thought we'd do all along, which is show up and wander around a lot until we find what we know to be the best choice in person.

Like others have said, everything happens for a reason!

Sorry you are so sad, though. :(

Christine

[lockstock]

Cheer up Croft. I know you've it feels like the end of the world but it's done now. I'm allowing you another 24 hours of feeling really cr***y and then you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and get back to looking forward to moving to New Zealand. :clap . The worst bit is over now (she says optimistically) and if it isn't, well you've had some practice in feeling cr***y and could be getting rather good at it. Ok, 48 hours then if you must. But that's it. No more. Or I'll send you one of these:raebanana You have been warned.

[Croft]

Cheer up Croft. I know you've it feels like the end of the world but it's done now. I'm allowing you another 24 hours of feeling really cr***y and then you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and get back to looking forward to moving to New Zealand. :clap . The worst bit is over now (she says optimistically) and if it isn't, well you've had some practice in feeling cr***y and could be getting rather good at it. Ok, 48 hours then if you must. But that's it. No more. Or I'll send you one of these:raebanana You have been warned.

Oh no! Please, not the bananas!!!!! I'm feeling better already!