Buying a house is hard

Buying a house, as they say, is hard.

I've been trying to buy a house for several months now. I haven't succeeded.

First, there was the fact that I already actually own a house. In fact, I own a quarter share of the 200-acre property in Michelago that I've been living in for the last ten years. That has become a bit of a problem. When I moved out of that house, I did so with the intention of moving into a place that I owned, with my girlfriend Terri and our dog Badger (aka. beloved overlord).

Getting the forms sorted out to submit to a bank to apply for a loan was in itself a nightmare, mostly because of that 200-acre property and the fact that over the years I've racked up quite a startling amount of credit card debt.

So I put a large amount of money down to clear that, and cancelled three cards completely. That made the bank happy. But as we didn't want to put a second mortgage down on the property, we had to find some other form of security for the loan. Fortunately my parents were awesome, and offered to pony up some security. So that was sorted out. However.

Turns out that the Michelago property was a sticking point. The bank had to account for that asset, and as I found out this week, they were unable to provide us with a loan such that the payments were affordable at my current salary.

We did have another broker lined up who had previously told us that they would be able to loan to us without this being a problem. But that's when something else went wrong.

I lost my job.

The fantastic, awesome employer that I'd been working with for the last five years made a decision that having an ICT person on staff was not going to be a part of their next five-year strategic plan. They have offered me a generous redundancy - a very generous redundancy - but a lender is never going to give me a home loan while I don't have a job.

So this means that we aren't going to get the townhouse that I'd very nearly bought. We'd got as far as signing the contract, and exchange was pending the bank giving us money. It was a quite nice townhouse too, in a very good location literally a few minutes from my parents' place. But that's not going to happen now.

My girlfriend and I have been living in my parents' spare bedroom since Easter, with the intention of moving into the new place when we could. My parents, as I said, are awesome, but we cannot trade on their goodwill forever. So it's time for Plan B.

Plan B is the "we need more time" plan. The process of buying a house has so far been plagued with bad timing - the worst example of which was finding out about the job just as we were putting the loan application form in with the bank.

Plan B consists of renting for 12 months while we get everything sorted out. First, it gives me time to find another job. I have savings that would last me six months if necessary - more if we stretched it. Those savings were going to go towards asset improvement on the house, but it is money that I have in the bank and can draw on if necessary.

Second, it gives me more time to become financially independent. For some time, I have voluntarily delegated my finances to another person and as a result I am now quite firmly entangled in the collective accounts of the people I've shared a house with for the last ten years. Separating myself from that is going to take some time. The plan ultimately is that I would sell back my quarter share of the property, but that's not a thing that is doable immediately.

So Terri and I have been looking at the rental market - which is in quite good shape right now. There are appropriate dog-friendly houses available for affordable rents, so that's good.

She and I are about to go away for a week to Melbourne and environs. Partly because she's registered for a neuroplasticity conference and partly because right now we need to simply throw everything, say fuck it, and have a holiday and a break from everything.

Once we return, I'm going to throw myself full-time into the job hunting, and she is going to look for a rental place. In practice, I'm probably going to go back to a help desk job while doing some PD in network admin or security so I can quickly move to a new and higher-paid position.

Times have been interesting, but I have Terri and Badger to help me see it through, and once I'm stable again I can return to the idea of actually buying a house.

Wish us luck.