So by now many of you might have heard through the grapevine (in other words Chantelle’s FaceBook profile) that we have purchased our very first house.

And you would be correct.

We have indeed bought a fantastic starter home in the heart of Gordon’s Bay, in a security complex named Country Mews. Our offer was accepted, the deposit paid, the bond was approved, the various requirements are being met as we speak, and the champagne has already been cracked open! ;)

Our house hunt began a few weeks earlier when something just clicked inside me and I answered Chantelle after one of her standard, “Ooh, look at this place” comments that she makes on a weekly basis after browsing the local newspaper too much (she has way too much time on her hands at work! :P), that she should set up a viewing appointment.

So she did. And on that first Saturday we viewed about six or seven places. But it didn’t stop there. The next week Chantelle viewed seven more places in one day and by the end of the week, we had already found a house we both liked enough to put an offer in on – which was subsequently rejected.

Having realised now that our original limit that we wanted to spend on a house was going to get us either a) nothing or b) something we would have to spend both a lot of money and time on in order to get it up to scratch, we pushed up our limit and started the search anew – though the re-energised search didn’t last all that long!

A chance call to the second estate agent we had originally dealt with all the way back on that first day of house hunting revealed that the one house that Chantelle and I had both liked initially, had in fact got an offer in on it in the meantime, and to be honest, hearing this forced us into action as we scrambled in a last minute viewing and placed in a bid of our own, going high enough as to hopefully beat the other buyer but low enough that we were still comfortable with it!

And it worked.

A short tense wait over the weekend (we submitted the offer to purchase late Saturday evening!), and come the next week the good news rolled in – the people currently living there (a quadriplegic man and his partner) had accepted our offer and as such, the ball was back in our court. The next step was the submission of all the necessary documentation so that the bond originator (in our case Mortgage Explorer) could get to work on finding a bank that might like us, and come Monday we got the news that ABSA weighed in with the best interest rate offer and so we’ve taken our bond out with them.

Now just the long wait while the lawyers (Strauss Daly in case you are wondering) sort everything out, but if everything goes according to plan then on the 30th of September 2010, Chantelle and I will step into our very first home, fulfilling my long time dream of owning my own property at last! :)

Of course, at this point I really must thank Len Wilmot from Homelink for his professionalism and mannerism as an estate agent – too many estate agents that we dealt with tried so hard to be our friends that they forgot they are also trying to deliver a service to us, a service for which we eventually pay a lot of money for in the form of the commission! Len was fantastic and in the end we gave him our business, and so far haven’t looked back – so we’ll certainly recommend him to anyone else looking for property here in Gordon’s Bay!

So what did our R770,000 (about R25,000 less than what the sellers originally wanted for their property) get us in the end then?

Well for starters, I’ll go on record and say it is a rather small property in terms of plot size. Only 250 square meters or so, and as such we don’t really have much of a garden. However, it is situated in a nice security complex, one of the better ones in Gordon’s Bay. Our free-standing house is completely open plan, featuring three bedrooms, one full bathroom (and one en-suite to the main bedroom), all looking out on a nice-sized living room with a functional kitchen dividing itself from the room by means of a nice, broader than usual counter.

Finally, because the previous owner didn’t need the garage, that too has been converted into a spacious dining room/braai area, featuring a great indoor braai and a beautiful frosted glass sliding door that opens up to the outside car port. Note, one of the bedrooms is currently fully furnished as an office space, with gorgeous wall to wall cupboards and desk space, all of which stays put for when we take over!

As I mentioned already, there is a small carport outside, and access to the property is through a electronic sliding gate. Oh, and there is a nice fountain ball thingie in the front as well.

The house is therefore perfect for our growing needs, perfect as a starting home for my family and the perfect way to get my foot into the property market as far as I’m concerned! According the to paperwork, transfer should happen on the 30th of September, meaning that after I convince my friends to help us move, one heck of a house-warming party will be in order! :)

Now for the pictures, probably what you have been waiting for all this time. We snapped these quick pics when we were conducting our final inspection before putting our offer to purchase in. Unfortunately, as with all indoor photos, the lack of context makes the house seem much smaller than what it is, and so probably aren’t the best representation of the house after all – however, I am pretty excited, so thought I would share these with you guy after all!

Our new kitchen counter!

As for the rest of the bunch, you can view them all in the gallery over at: http://photos.codeunit.co.za/v/20100724-Buying-Our-First-House/