[clg]

Hello,

We have been here just under a week and we just made an offer on a house today. So much for renting first!

Does anyone have any recomendations for the following in Wellington:

Lawyer
Builder for inspection
Heating Contractor

We can just pick names out of the phonebook but I trust you all better! The house is in Kandallah and we are very excited about it. We are just going to need to do some work on the heating to bring it up to where we want.

Thanks!

Chris

[Avalon]

We used Realsure for our building inspection and was mightily chuffed with the result. They actually went in that very day, and couriered a repoort to us the next day. We paid %595 for it - but that included $88 because it was a very big house, and $76 for travel because it was in the Wiararapa. Phone No 04 939 0296

We are using Mike Burrowes solicitors (burrowes and Co) on Willis St, because our friends deal with them and reccommneded them. We are finding them fine to deal with - however they are Expensive! (I personally think of it as "reasuringly expensive" - I dont want the cheapest solicitor), but to put it in context - we are going to pay nearer $1200 where as most quotes come in at $800.

We were also impressed with a company called "the Conveyancing Company" on Victoria St (near the pravda Cafe), and our landlord uses them whenever he expands his empire. Im afraid ive lost thier details.

HTH

[Chris Blunt]

Hi Chris,

Congragulations! Can I ask where in Khandallah? We are renting in Khandallah at the moment and just waiting for the right property to come along before we buy!

Cheers,

Chris.

[zsj]

Let me add my congratulations to that! We also live in Khandallah - a great choice may I say!

Mike Burrowes is one we have heard of too, we have friends who used him and he was good. I won't recommend the lawyer we used.....say no more.

Good luck and enjoy.

Sarah.

[clg]

Thanks for the great info Avalon!

We just heard that the seller took our offer. The only things outstanding are the builders report and we put in a condition on the valuation. The house had not yet listed, they were still working on it but they showed it to us before it was public. We made what we think was a good offer but we are looking for a little back up with the valuation.

Small correction on location, we will be in Ngaio, we are very close though and I thought it was Kandallah. It is just up the hill from the Simla Crescent station. Schools are good in Ngaio too from what I see. I had lots of people say good things about Kandallah but had not heard much about Ngaio. Anything good/bad to say?

If all goes well we move in on the 10th! Any new neighbors want to come by?

Chris

[Chris Blunt]

Hi Chris,

Ngaio is great as well, we liked the primary school in there and it is on our list of locations but we are currently trying to hold out for the Cashmere Avenue area of Khandallah.

Cheers,

Chris.

[clg]

We looked lots around there but we could not find anything we liked. I'm sure if we, or you, waited the right thing will come along but we thought it would be much easier on us and our daughter to limit our moves.

Good luck on your hunting!

Chris

[Carl and Liz]

Chris,

Congratulations to you and your family on finding a home so quickly! It sounds like you are settling in well. We just had the realtor over to take some photos to get our house on the market next week. Still waiting on our PR but hopefully it will come soon. I'm tempted to jump on a plane and start looking for a place to live and work, but we'll see.

It is sweltering hot and smoggy in Los Angeles - you are not missing a thing except maybe a few million too many people!

Good luck to you guys.

Liz

[Do B Brief]

Hi CLG

We're just down the hill from you in J'ville. Been in J'ville for 3 weeks and house hunting too but it ain't easy.

It sounds like you had a lucky find!

What we didn't know is that the areas we are in is a sellers market where undisclosed offers well over the RV are being submitted.

You put in an offer of what you think it is worth along with other bids and then the sellers gets to pick (normally the highest).

We'll get there, albeit slowly.

Good luck!

[Carol]

There is a GREAT indian take-away in Ngaio!! :nice1

[clg]

Thanks for all of the comments and good thoughts. The builders report came back OK, a few things but nothing too major. The house has a brick skin (folks from the UK should like that) so the construction in not what we are used to in California. We are going to get a heating contractor to come look at it. Because of the way it is built we can't use ducted heating and would need a bunch of heat pumps, or radiators. We are hoping a diesel boiler system will not be too much, I hope to find out more in the next day or two.

Good news on the Indian takeaway!

I'll post an update when we (I hope) go unconditional.

[clg]

Update to this. We went unconditional on the house late yesterday. We move into the house in one week!

It all happened quite fast but it worked out about perfect, the house is vacant and newly painted so we don't need to do anything for a while. We are getting radiant heat installed soon that is the only thing I want to get taken care of really quickly.

Thanks for all of the great advice here. We were VERY happy with Realasure. They went above and beyond the same day we called they inspected the house and emailed the report. The conveyance company was quite good too. We would use both again.

Now we just need to wait for the container, we hope we will get it in about 3 weeks...

Thanks!!!

Chris