NEW HOME, NEW OPPORTUNITIES, NEW LIFE?
NEW HOME, NEW EXPERIENCES, NEW CHALLENGES
Moving into your new home is easier if it’s in your familiar neighborhood, it’s quite strange when you move into a whole new area. A new home brings opportunities, challenges, and many new experiences.
Moving from Mt Dandenong to Olinda via Kallista (we rented while we built), was exciting. The home in Olinda was built from scratch to our design, it was at least twice the size of our old, 1946ish, renovators delight, and probably five times the size of our rental. Moving in was easy, there was heaps of space, and a seemingly endless number of cupboards, and storage spaces. The Mt D Hotel was still the same, the shops were the same, the people were the same, the kids school was the same. The only thing that changed when we moved was our physical location, and the cavernous spaces both inside and out.
Moving from Olinda to Cowes is completely different. Our sale went through with a short Settlement, we weren’t buying until our home was unconditional, and hadn’t even fixed on a location. We had explored the Mornington Peninsula, Inverloch, and Phillip Island. We knew all 3 areas albeit only vaguely. Inverloch from my youth, Phillip Island relatively well more than 25 years prior, and the Peninsula because of family lunches and events. Our preference was the Peninsula emotionally because our son, and some very good friends, live there.
New Home, Mornington Peninsula
The Mornington Peninsula is varied, very suburban to coastal, people everywhere, old holiday homes abound. Within our budget if they had a view and required a great deal of work, outside our preferred budget if turnkey AND in an area we actually liked. We found the perfect home however it was like an episode of “Honey I shrunk the Kids”. The home was like someone had sucked the space from it, the quantity of rooms were good, however each was very small. I LOVED the location.
New Home, Inverloch
Inverloch is beautiful, incredible beaches, a good number of shops and cafes. Again, a fair number of old beach houses, and a sizable number of new homes in new areas. Fitting our criteria of “walk to the beach, see the beach, walk to coffee etc” was a problem and we were time poor. Nothing jumped out at us and we had to move on.
New Home, Phillip Island
Back to ‘The Island’. We had a caravan at Cowes Caravan Park when our children were very young, progressing to a new beach house in Ventnor that we loved. Ventnor was close to the beach, and that was about it, everything else was a drive. We had great times there, however it wasn’t what we wanted a few decades down the track. Needs change as you age.
Buying a new home requires exploration, Silverleaves was an area we had liked before we bought in Ventnor, it is very Hills, complete with the bugs/mosquitos. I found a house that I adored. Unfortunately, Silverleaves has an inundation overlay through much of it which impacts on any building, and we wanted a garage. Speaking with old friends, they told us of a house close to theirs in an Estate in Cowes which was about to hit the market. We saw it, liked the space, it met much of our criteria, and it definitely met our budget. The offer was made, the home was bought.
One of our requirements was that the house was available for a short Settlement. Harking back to your criteria is vital particularly when you are on a tight timeframe. It ticked most of the boxes, and we could move in straight away. Time can be a very important consideration and may override some of your wants and needs.
Moving. It’s too early to talk about that! What a nightmare!
Settlement. Hm, Settling on two houses almost simultaneously. A few snags. Again, too soon to speak about that too!
Unpacking. Boxes and crates, where to put things, it becomes a mad jumble without constant supervision. Downsizing, an excess of ‘things’ working out how you will live in the space. A work in progress.
New Opportunities, New Life
New life, new location, same work. Fortunately much of my work is online. Guiding, coaching, meetings, and conversations don’t need to be in person post covid. Conversations are essential, and location won’t change this. If I need to be somewhere to meet a client, or potential client, then I leave home earlier.
New opportunities abound. Moving beyond mainstream real estate has been a blessing. I can do what brings me joy, the client work that pays the bills AND aligns with my values which was long overdue. Life is good, my new location unbelievably, is quieter than Olinda, and beautiful in a completely different way.
If you are considering downsizing, or moving home then please let’s chat – my experience is far more relevant now and meshes well with all my real estate knowledge and know how.
Don’t forget Stamp Duty in Victoria, we have the highest in Australia, and you will need to pay it.
