For those less aware of the finer points of property finance nomenclature, the term "mortgagee sale" refers to the occurrence of someone defaulting on their mortgage and bank selling off the property to get their bucks back.
So how does this differ from a regular sale? Well, apart from the bank trying to get way too much for the property because they lent far too much against it in the first place it should be pretty similar. One point of difference is that the bank (in our case Westpac) does all of the dealings through solicitors and this serves to make everything move rather sloooowwwwly. So on the 5th of September we signed that contract. Today Lee called our real estate agent, Russell, who said he should have the paperwork back this week. Well that's what he said last week too. We're not blaming Russell for this - he's as eager to see this deal finalised as we are. In (more or less) his own words, he'll be very glad to finally see the back of this one!
As far as we can tell the contract has been sent to Melbourne (or Sydney - can't remember which) for the Westpac reps to sign and it then goes to the legal eagles in Adelaide. It may then go back to the interstate bank people before finally heading back to Russell and then to us. Where it is now, we have no idea. Precisely what we are waiting for is the 'Form 1' - the piece of paper that notifies us that the contract is now officially formalised and our 2 day cooling off period begins upon receipt of said notice. At the end of this time we need to pay our deposit then settlement may occur after the necessary conveyancing, money transfers, etc.
So we will post once again when something bloody happens!
Until then here are some new photos of the chateau.
A bientot!
