Everyone in life wants an adventure, and sometimes a bit of a gamble, in my case I decided to do both at the same time. I have lived in the USA my whole life and eventually I wanted to move to Australia.
House prices in Australia like in every other country vary quite dramatically from very cheap to very expensive depending on what you are looking for, so I decided to go a little bit cheaper so that I could make a house my home before I moved in.
MAKING THE MOVE
I have always liked the idea the idea of moving to Australia and renovating my own home, although have never really had the funding before, and once I got the money I knew I had to act fast in order to get the best deal I could.
First of all I got my current home valued to see how much money I had to play with, then I checked for the prices of visas and the legal fees of a property in Australia. After my little fact finding mission I went on a 1 week holiday to Australia to look for properties and visited a fee auctions.
Although I had not planned to buy anything on this trip, I suddenly found myself going back to America after the week with a deposited paid on a property and now needing to raise the rest of the money in a very short time scale. This decision did cause a lot of stress but I have never felt such adrenalin and I loved it.
After doing the calculations I figured out that it was going to be virtually impossible to get my house sold through and estate agent in the time that I had, so I needed to find a different way of selling up, and fast.
With a little research online I found my answer, Sell House Fast Guide got me a buyer in record time, it felt like I was living in a dream, but when I woke up, I was in a new home in Australia. This was a great way to wake up.
Getting to Work
Although the property was by no means run down, it did need a lot of work to make it perfect and inhabitable.
I made a list of everything that I felt needed done and then prioritized, I would highly recommend doing this, and sticking to it as you never realise how tight a budget can be, and how much even a little impulse buying can put you over budget.
Another way I saved a lot of money and ensured that I could complete everything I needed to complete and stay within my budget was to do a lot of the work myself, or even call in a few favours from friends and family, I actually got a good deal from them, I paid for their food and they paid for their flights and accommodation, and they were a great help.
Tips & Tricks
Everyone wants everything done fast, although when trying to decide a timescale always make it realistic, for example if something realistically is going to take 6 months, plan for it to take 8 rather than 3, because if you are trying to keep to an unrealistic timescale then you end up rushing the work, and then this sacrifices quality and can actually make a building unsafe.
Also if you miss a deadline then you will feel very demoralized and this can cause depression.
When buying materials if you are on a budget always go mid-range as if you buy the most expensive on everything then you will go majorly over budget and you won’t be able to afford everything you need.
At the opposite end of the spectrum if you buy the cheapest of everything you may find yourself needing to replace a lot of stuff very quickly and possibly not being able to afford to when you need to.
Finally, DIY is great although there will be a lot of things if you are not qualified in a trade you will need to bow down and get someone in to do the work for you, this ensures that all work carried out is safe and will pass building standards.
Thanks for reading, I hope you have found this informative.