Browse Forums Buying Land Re: Buying Land Advice 21Jun 07, 2011 3:55 pm [quote="cattycatcat"]Deb17, we did check out the land sales office and the prices are pretty much in line with what we are expecting. The only problem was that the current land release doesn't title until march 2012 which is way to late for us. We have to be in by June at the latest.[/quote So the realestate agents will be selling re-sales of earlier releases. It's always the way isn't it, the land takes so long to title. I hope you get the block you want, and chose a builder that doesn't take to long to build your house. We will be in ours in the next couple of weeks, only took just 3 and a half months to build. I know someone that is building with another volume builder and it has been 20 months and they are still not in lots of mistakes made. So research the builders. Re: Buying Land Advice 22Jun 07, 2011 8:03 pm Yeah I'm pretty sure it's a re-sale. The couple of blocks that we really had our eye on are from stage 6. At the moment the land sales office in Wallara Waters is selling the land from stage 8a but as that doesn't title until march it wasn't going to work for us. Can I ask who your building with. They sound great! Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 23Jun 07, 2011 9:38 pm We are building with Bentley Homes, they have displays at Plenty River Estate in Doreen, Laurimar, Cragieburn and Point Cook I think. They have been great, the whole process has been very easy, they have a good reputation and build really nice homes. There is no add ons, virtually most of what you see is what you get, the upgrades are very reasonably priced our upgrade in bricks to cat 2 only cost about $440, I can't remember the exact amount but it was close to that. We have a sloping block and they gave us a great deal, fixed site costs and that was before they could even access the land. Our house is in their designer collection, so we have quality included, 6.4star energy rating our house ended up being. They build very quickly, so far we have only had minor problems and they are fixed when told about them. They answer all calls and emails very quickly. We did alot of research before choosing our builder, we had built before with a private builder and that experience was brilliant, not one headache the whole time, so we wanted to find a builder that would look after us, we had heard so many horror stories and we didn't want to end up being in one of them We have our PCI tomorrow, so I hope we will be moving in soon. Re: Buying Land Advice 24Jun 07, 2011 10:48 pm wow I cannot believe the price of land these days. One of the things I have always done when buying land is to go there when its really wet and or raining to see what the drainage is like. I have seen alot of the areas around Wallan that now have houses under water in heavy winter rains. A larger block is definately worth considering if you are going to have kids in the future, alot of blocks these days have no room at all and no where for kids to play. I prefer the country outlook (I have over 200 acres near Broadford and really glad I bought it years ago). Hidden Valley has a really nice outlook to the place without having to own lots of land yourself. Their is another estate on the other side of the highway which is quite hilly coming into wallan that also looks nice but probably a bit more suburban. The estates down near the freeway, really are not to my liking at all. Seen those areas under water in wet years. Wallan or even kilmore is a great place to live. Close commute to the city, and lovely fresh air. I used to live in the Yarra Valley, beautiful place but the commute to the city was terrible, half hour drive to the train, over and hour commute, and lots of undesirables on the train at night. Now 10 mins to train station, still only an hour commute, less stops, and comfy trains. Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Buying Land Advice 25Jun 08, 2011 9:44 am equineaffair wow I cannot believe the price of land these days. One of the things I have always done when buying land is to go there when its really wet and or raining to see what the drainage is like. I have seen alot of the areas around Wallan that now have houses under water in heavy winter rains. A larger block is definately worth considering if you are going to have kids in the future, alot of blocks these days have no room at all and no where for kids to play. I prefer the country outlook (I have over 200 acres near Broadford and really glad I bought it years ago). Hidden Valley has a really nice outlook to the place without having to own lots of land yourself. Their is another estate on the other side of the highway which is quite hilly coming into wallan that also looks nice but probably a bit more suburban. The estates down near the freeway, really are not to my liking at all. Seen those areas under water in wet years. Wallan or even kilmore is a great place to live. Close commute to the city, and lovely fresh air. I used to live in the Yarra Valley, beautiful place but the commute to the city was terrible, half hour drive to the train, over and hour commute, and lots of undesirables on the train at night. Now 10 mins to train station, still only an hour commute, less stops, and comfy trains. The water was also a problem when we were in Wallan, our backyard used to fill right up to the back door. We had a flat block and all of the correct plumbing. If we didn't have the plumbing that we had, we would have flooded inside the house. Our Builders put in lots of extra pipes around the outside of the house. Re: Buying Land Advice 26Jun 08, 2011 12:29 pm equineaffair wow I cannot believe the price of land these days. One of the things I have always done when buying land is to go there when its really wet and or raining to see what the drainage is like. I have seen alot of the areas around Wallan that now have houses under water in heavy winter rains. A larger block is definately worth considering if you are going to have kids in the future, alot of blocks these days have no room at all and no where for kids to play. I prefer the country outlook (I have over 200 acres near Broadford and really glad I bought it years ago). Hidden Valley has a really nice outlook to the place without having to own lots of land yourself. Their is another estate on the other side of the highway which is quite hilly coming into wallan that also looks nice but probably a bit more suburban. The estates down near the freeway, really are not to my liking at all. Seen those areas under water in wet years. Wallan or even kilmore is a great place to live. Close commute to the city, and lovely fresh air. I used to live in the Yarra Valley, beautiful place but the commute to the city was terrible, half hour drive to the train, over and hour commute, and lots of undesirables on the train at night. Now 10 mins to train station, still only an hour commute, less stops, and comfy trains. +1. We came from the outer east (via Footscray ) as well. My train station was either Boronia or Croydon, we lived between the two. The train to the city is quicker from Wallan and clean and comfy and with a conductor. That was another factor in our thinking to come out here, DS could safely take the train home from concerts, footy etc when he is older. To be honest, that was my concern with Wallara Waters, we've been told by quite a few people that it is a flood plain. We have great drainage and as we are on a hill, it all just heads away from us. We are also fortunate that there is an easement on the high side of our block with a swail so we get no rain from further up the hill on to our block. In the future I can see us heading further out to Broadford, Wandong or even Tallarook on around 5 or 10 acres.... I'd still like to stay close to the train line. 200 acres near Broadford sounds gorgeous equineaffair! I'm a big fan of Broadford, love it around there! I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Buying Land Advice 27Jun 08, 2011 1:19 pm Wallan would be about as far from the city as I would want to go. Thinking about Wallara Waters though it is all very flat where as hidden valley is nice and hilly. I think of I do settle with WW I'll just make sure we get really good drainage Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 28Jun 08, 2011 3:54 pm cattycatcat, have you tried Springridge I think that is the estate on the northern highway on the left if you are coming from Wallan travelling towards Kilmore. There are alot of new houses there and it is also quite a hilly spot and looks really nice but close to the train etc, I would worry a bit about wallan waters, as teh whole area used to be under water, and as one of the other posters mentioned it doesnt really matter how much drainage you have if the area is flood plain then in wet years its going to fillup. It really irks me that developers get away with developing land like that especially since insurance doesnt cover flood damage. joels I really love living out here, even in the shed its a much better place to commute from. Will be even better once the house is finished. Land prices have also gone up considerably since we purchased our block, 8 or so years ago. I only paid $170k for my block. here is a link to a photo bucket of pictures of our property if you are interested. we are on the strath creek rd. http://cid-012a5814f7fbf9f0.photos.live ... x/property Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Buying Land Advice 29Jun 08, 2011 8:42 pm Hey equineaffair, So far we have only had a chance to check out Wallara Waters. We are going to head up to Wallan saturday morning and check it all out. We're planning to drive through all the estates up their as well as check out the local shopping areas and stop in at all the real estate agents to find out exactly what they have on offer. That way well get a really good over view of exactly what we want and then try and figure out what is going to work for us. Being as close to the station is important as my other half is still only on his 'L' plates so unless we get the train together and we drive to the station having the option to walk would be great! Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 30Jun 08, 2011 8:45 pm joles equineaffair wow I cannot believe the price of land these days. One of the things I have always done when buying land is to go there when its really wet and or raining to see what the drainage is like. I have seen alot of the areas around Wallan that now have houses under water in heavy winter rains. A larger block is definately worth considering if you are going to have kids in the future, alot of blocks these days have no room at all and no where for kids to play. I prefer the country outlook (I have over 200 acres near Broadford and really glad I bought it years ago). Hidden Valley has a really nice outlook to the place without having to own lots of land yourself. Their is another estate on the other side of the highway which is quite hilly coming into wallan that also looks nice but probably a bit more suburban. The estates down near the freeway, really are not to my liking at all. Seen those areas under water in wet years. Wallan or even kilmore is a great place to live. Close commute to the city, and lovely fresh air. I used to live in the Yarra Valley, beautiful place but the commute to the city was terrible, half hour drive to the train, over and hour commute, and lots of undesirables on the train at night. Now 10 mins to train station, still only an hour commute, less stops, and comfy trains. +1. We came from the outer east (via Footscray ) as well. My train station was either Boronia or Croydon, we lived between the two. The train to the city is quicker from Wallan and clean and comfy and with a conductor. That was another factor in our thinking to come out here, DS could safely take the train home from concerts, footy etc when he is older. To be honest, that was my concern with Wallara Waters, we've been told by quite a few people that it is a flood plain. We have great drainage and as we are on a hill, it all just heads away from us. We are also fortunate that there is an easement on the high side of our block with a swail so we get no rain from further up the hill on to our block. In the future I can see us heading further out to Broadford, Wandong or even Tallarook on around 5 or 10 acres.... I'd still like to stay close to the train line. 200 acres near Broadford sounds gorgeous equineaffair! I'm a big fan of Broadford, love it around there! cattycatcat Hey equineaffair, So far we have only had a chance to check out Wallara Waters. We are going to head up to Wallan saturday morning and check it all out. We're planning to drive through all the estates up their as well as check out the local shopping areas and stop in at all the real estate agents to find out exactly what they have on offer. That way well get a really good over view of exactly what we want and then try and figure out what is going to work for us. Being as close to the station is important as my other half is still only on his 'L' plates so unless we get the train together and we drive to the station having the option to walk would be great! My Friend, lives at Tallarook, in a Mansion, it used to be a pub and part of it was the post office I think, so many rooms. Re: Buying Land Advice 31Jun 08, 2011 8:55 pm Deb17, if only we could all live in mansions Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 32Jun 08, 2011 8:58 pm cattycatcat Deb17, if only we could all live in mansions I wish, your home will be your Mansion, once it's built. I have moved so many times, never again. I'm over it all, packing, unpacking, ringing TRU Telstra and the rest of them, is more painfull than the actual, build, move. I spent a good two hours talking to TRU today, how hard can it be I hope you can find your dream block on the weekend. Re: Buying Land Advice 33Jun 08, 2011 9:17 pm Good idea to have a drive around, i did lots ot driving to find the block I have now. Remember to find something that wont just suit you today but down the track as well, as your partner wont be on L plates forever, but you will be in your house for some time. It is a lovely area so I am sure you will find something. Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Buying Land Advice 34Jun 08, 2011 10:36 pm Even if we only end up building a tiny house, it will be all mine so it will feel like a mansion to me I have already been to wallan a few times because my brother in law lives there but I have't actually seen much of the town itself so it should be an interesting/fun day. Hopefully we can find something that really shouts out to us. That way we can decide something quickly and get things moving as soon as possible. The sooner we buy the block the quicker we can start seriously thinking about what kind of house we put on it... I already have some thoughts on the subject and have already been through quite a few display homes... Here's my list of what our house has to have as a minimum: -4 bedrooms -study -tV/theater room -double garage -walk in pantry -min 2 bathrooms -rumpas room -alfresco If I get all of that I will be a happy Cat Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 35Jun 09, 2011 9:20 pm I am sure you will find something. Wallan is such a growth area, their is alot of land for sale. You will find alot of houses as well that meet your criteria, you also have the advantage of pretty much most builders will build in wallan as their are so many new estates, where we are we were very limited or were being charged alot extra to come out to where we are. Look at lots of display homes and something will really catch your eye. I got lots of ideas from the display homes. Practical things like the door from garage to pantry so you can put groceries strait in there from the car without carrying through the house etc. When you build your own house its always fantastic when you move in as its something you have selected yourself with your own tastes and colours. My first house was 11sq and it was even more thrilling building that as it was the first one, loved it as it got us out of home! Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Buying Land Advice 36Jun 09, 2011 10:37 pm Thanks for the positive comment I'm pretty excited about it all. It's been two years in the planning so it all couldn't come soon enough. Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 37Jun 11, 2011 2:16 pm Have you had a look at Springridge which is on the opposite side of the Northern Hwy to HV and a little closer to the Wallan township - the landscape is undulating (read: hilly) so if you're looking for a nice flat block then you might need to dig a little (pardon the pun), although we were just up there last weekend to have a look and the blocks in stage 4a look reasonably flat for the most part (not sure how many reasonably flat blocks would be left in stage 3 but I'm think some of the more heavily sloped blocks might still be available). We picked up an 800m2+ block with ~2m of fall from corner to corner for $170K (that was back in October so expect prices to have risen). I'm pretty sure stage 2 has long since sold out, there may be some blocks left in stage 3 (not sure how many are left that don't have a significant amount of slope though) and there's some available in stage 4a now. Titles for stage 3 are apparently coming in early-to-mid July 2011 (most of the infrastructure for stage 3 is done now so the timeline looks more realistic) and they're whipping through stage 4a fairly quickly so it shouldn't be too far behind. Now on the train thing - I've done a bit of research on the trains and to be honest I suspect I'll be making the 15-odd minute drive to Craigieburn station most days due largely to: A) I leave for work between 6:00am and 6:30am so parking shouldn't be an issue at Craigieburn for me, although I do know there is heavy demand for parking space there so after the traditional 7:30am cutoff it might be difficult to get a park (although that's the same for most train stations to be honest) - I'm already driving 10-15 minutes to a station now, so having to do so when we move isn't going to be a big deal. Note that our good friend Mr. Mulder has stated publicly that he knows there is an issue with high demand for parking at Craigieburn station but there "The Coalition government’s efforts to provide additional parking ... have been made more difficult due to the previous governments cost blowouts blah blah blah" (translation: they've just been elected so they don't care that Craigieburn residents are annoyed for the time being) - link: http://hume-leader.whereilive.com.au/ne ... aigieburn/. It is at least on the radar though so hopefully something will be done about it eventually with several new estates popping up in the region which may funnel more passengers towards Craigieburn station. B) There will be roughly a 75 minute gap between outbound services to Wallan after the 5:39pm service (the next two after the 5:39pm service are inter-city express services and don't stop at Wallan). C) Working in the CBD I'd have to somehow make my way around to Southern Cross after work or get on a train to North Melbourne D) I've heard that the VLine services are often held up by Metro services, so the "40 minute trip" can be a bit of a myth - for the record it's already blowing out to about 50 minutes in the last quarter of 2011 according to the VLine timetable. I'm also hoping against hope that myki or whatever Mulder decides upon is up and running for regional "suburbs" such as Wallan by the time we move in next year (we're anticipating some time around Easter) so I can easily try out both services. This is just an FYI as the train station in Wallan is touted as a big advantage in all of the marketing material you see, the cost for taking trains to/from wallan is the same as a zone 1/2 daily metro ticket and there is plenty of parking (which makes it an attractive looking option), but in practical terms it might not turn out to be so depending on when/how you travel to/from work (especially for the afternoon peak outbound commute). Sory for the information dump/overload - as you can see I've been doing my homework for the past 8-9 months while we've been waiting for our land to title. Edit: I just read the part about your other half still only being on his L's and being in close proximity to the train station might be an important factor - given that Springridge is on the other side of Wallan from the train station you might discount it right of the bat as it's obviously not within walking distance - more like a 5-10 minute drive depending on how long it takes you to get out of the estate itself (it's going to suck just a little initially having everyone coming out through Pretty Sally Drive and having to queue up at the lights to turn right towards the town centre until the bridge from stage 3 across to stage 2 and the "main" entrance to the estate on the Northern Hwy is built). We looked at Wallara Waters but to be honest the land at Springridge was cheaper, bigger blocks and we're not smack bang next to the freeway - we were also nervous about it being reclaimed swamp land and what really put us off was how the undeveloped part of the estate looked after the big wet we had a while back - to be honest it looked rather what you call soggy but I'm sure it has improved now that things have dried up a bit and they've had more time to sort out the drainage works for the area. Edited to clear up some horrible typos... Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: Buying Land Advice 38Jun 15, 2011 8:56 pm how did the land hunting go Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Buying Land Advice 39Jun 15, 2011 10:18 pm It went even better then we could of hoped We found three that are perfect. All in Wallara Waters and all bigger and cheaper then we were expecting. All three are 17m x 34m and are less then $170k which is amazing. One had only been on the Market for a week and the other two had been on for a month or more. As Saturday was more about getting ourselves 100% sure that Wallan was for us we didn't make an offer on any of the land but it's really good to know that there is plenty there for us to choose from. We are going to build in Wallan. I don't have any doubt that it's not perfect for us and it also means we'll save so much Monet on our loan! We are going to wait 2 to 3 weeks to make sure there is no doubt (don't want to rush into it) and then go and have a real look at land with the intention of making an offer on the day. Our original budget for land was $250k so the fact that we are able to buy something for so much less is so exciting Thanks to everyone for all the advice. I'll make sure I keep you posted! Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Re: Buying Land Advice 40Jun 15, 2011 10:21 pm Oh! And we also found a house we really liked.. It's called the Davenport 30 and it's built by Places homes who are rejoining Porter Davis at the end of June so it looks like we'll be building with Porter Davis Building the Drysdale 30 Wallara Waters, Wallan My Blog : http://www.ourwallanhome.blogspot.com My thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50975 Yeah I don't know why I came to a forum. Place is full of wierdos/pedos thought internet may help but I suppose I'll try my luck with someone in person. Cheers. I tried… 0 6415 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 15661 Need advice on the backyard plan above. 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