When you can't agree on a house, what do you do?

[BellyBelly]

Gosh it is such a tricky situation! I can relate though as this place is owned by DP, its too small for us by far and we're looking at both options too. Luckily we've been pretty much in agreeance so far, but we listen to each others concerns and if one isn't happy, we look at other options. I know its hard having limited options in the country. We're also having massive issues with the BMO guidelines now, we're looking in a bushfire management overlay (used to be the wildfire management plan thingo) which is such a joke. Even Marysville isnt in one (Vic fires) and there havent been fires here at all. It involves crazy crap like providing a 10,00lt tank for CFA use only, access requirements, more expensive, fire resistant building material requirements and roofing - depending on what your permit gets rated you can be hugely out of pocket - around an extra $20k on what you already budgeted for! Been a huge shock because no-one told us about this til we signed on the dotted line, found out by chance the other week. Sent us into a headspin.

So we're in limbo too, wondering what to do - risk the $3000 assessor fee, $490 permit fee, to tell us we need to spend an extra $5k to $20k+ or just wait until a 4br house comes up for sale. Its soooo hard! I wish you guys luck!

[chody47]

This is not an answer to your question as such, but just something else to consider with regards to building a house. I'm not sure if you've ever built one before, and if so, I'm sorry for telling you stuff you already know, but building always costs more than the house price + land + fees. While the builders always include a 'footings allowance', in both our experiences it has cost us much more than that - 20k the first time and 15 the second. You've also got floor and window coverings, landscaping, air con ect on top of the standard house price. The house price also often doesn't include lots of things you'd want in your house like built ins, in some cases overhead cupboards in the kitchen, down lights and many other things. I think in this house we paid almost 50k in 'upgrades'. That being said, building is great, if that's what you decide to do, but maybe get a specific quote from a builder if you want to seriously consider that option, or if you want to convince your partner otherwise