Finally....our commencement letter is released

We signed our construction loan documents last Wednesday and were told that the ACC letter should be emailed to EBH the following day. However, Thursday came and went and nothing.....

At 5:48pm on Friday afternoon I received a call from our mortgage angel whom informed us that CBA had further requirements before they could release the letter. It turns out that we never supplied the bank with a copy of our signed building contract, so I sent off an email to our CSA requesting her assistance.

Our ever efficient CSA emailed on Saturday advising she would forward a digital copy of our contract on Monday. So Monday comes and I email the contract, amended contract price, amended payment progress payment schedule and final tax invoice to our mortgage broker and hope for the best.

With no news on Monday or Tuesday I contact our Mortgage Broker whom emails the big wigs at CBA late Tuesday evening and on Wednesday at 12:02pm we receive our ACC letter!!

A big thank you goes out to Irene Cujko of Mortgage Choice Kings Langley.  She has been absolutely fantastic throughout this process. When there were dramas with the land loan Irene stepped in and got it sorted. Irene really understands construction loans and has gone the extra mile to make this happen for us.  Our Mortgage Angel assigned to us has also been a godsend. She kept us informed every step of the way. I would highly recommend Irene and her team at Mortgage Choice Kings Langley to anyone looking for a home loan.

The dramas of finance

Our land loan was a huge drama, one where we thought we wouldn't make settlement. But in the end, Irene Cujko of Mortgage Choice, Kings Langley pulled a number of strings and CBA got it all sorted in time for settlement scheduled a couple of hours later in the day.

We were told by Serge Cujko that the construction loan would be done once we had settled on the land, and so the documentation was lodged 2 days later (Friday 9th May 2014). It is now a week on and CBA have booked in a valuation of our land for tomorrow at 11am. So we are looking at least another week before we receive formal approval and the bank can issue our ACC.

This process is so frustrating. We cannot understand why it has had to be done this way. Mortgage Choice assure us that this is the way the bank operates. Nothing can be formally approved until after land settlement and so we have to wait.  Its stressful because all of our administrative requirements to Eden Brae have been fulfilled and they are waiting on the ACC.  We just want to get started.

In saying that....there has been a lot of action on the estate this week. There have been 5 blocks scraped and prepared for slabs. One block has now gotten their formwork done and a slab should be laid tomorrow. It is actually quite exciting watching other blocks commence construction. It gives us the sense that it is real. After years of waiting, construction has now commenced. We just have to be patient....our turn will come :)

And we can't wait!!

Settlement Day!!

It started out as a nightmare!  We had settlement booked for 12:30pm today, but as at close of business last night, our loan had not been certified and ready for settlement.

This morning I called our broker who informed me that our file had been pulled from certification and sent back to assessment because of a credit card limit reflecting on J's credit file. The card had been paid in full in 2012 and we requested this account be closed. It certainly wasn't the time to discover that it was still active.

Thanks to Irene at Mortgage Choice Kings Langley, who pulled a lot of strings and managed to get our file back to certification and finalised.

Our conveyancer booked settlement for 2pm! At 2:30pm she informed us that settlement had taken place (thank god!) We are now officially owners of a small patch of Australian soil. How exciting!!

Its time to move onto the construction loan. I am hoping that it doesn't create as many dramas as the land loan.

We have registration!

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from our mortgage angel advising that she had spoken to the conveyancer (surprise surprise) and that she was waiting on additional paperwork to be provided to her with the street name, etc. She was also liaising with the bank with regards to loan documentation. I was unsure why she was telling me all of this information, considering registration hadn't occurred yet.  And then it twigged...maybe we had received registration today...and sure enough, upon asking the question, we had.

I was extremely excited to say the least. Every day I would wake up wondering if today was the day. I was out all day yesterday and didn't have a chance to check my email, but sure enough, when I got home, there was the email from our conveyancer telling us that registration had occurred.

Settlement is on the 7th May 2014! Now all we need is for the bank to get the loan docs ASAP.