“Resilience -that personal trait which allows you to weather the storm & come out the other side smiling.“

 Recently, I had an experience where I was forced to put my own resilience to the test.
 After 2 years of painful land registration delays, a very patient, long-valued client recently settled on vacant land and can now start bringing to life the building of her dream home.
I first met this valued client of Financial Adviser, Kevin Cuthbert, back in February 2016 when she had just signed a contract for a block of land in a new development near Ripley (around the Ipswich area) and was keen to secure finance.

The great news for the client is that she followed Kev’s ‘sage’ advice over the years and not only had she built good equity in her current home to use towards the purchase, but she was able to put down a 10% cash deposit as well.

Despite the strong start, the road ahead was filled with 2 years of continuous setbacks. Here’s a snapshot to give you some indication of what we went through together:

• My client’s first choice lender changed their credit policy and was unable to meet her requirements (not a great start).
• Her existing lender returned the valuation at only 87% of the purchase price due to being unfamiliar with the boom in development at Ripley. This resulted in a potential Lender’s Mortgage Insurance premium cost of well over $10,000 for my client.
• 12 months into the contract, the local council planners caused further delays when they decided that the development required extensive changes to the storm water drainage works (ironically, the client’s site is elevated and unlikely to be flood affected, unless Noah comes back into town).
• Then, believing that the land contract would soon settle, my client sold her residence in July 2017 and set off to Mum and Dad’s place to save some more while the process played out. Little did she know that  she’d be waiting for another 6 months … and let’s face it, living with your folks is not always easy the first time, let alone when you’re in your (ahem) forties.

This was hardly the end of the drama with the outgoing bank, the incoming bank, the developer, the agent and all the solicitors, who all needed lessons in maths and good manners to bring the settlement together.

Throughout this ordeal, however, one conversation constantly reminded me to stay resilient, to keep my client in the game and to represent her interests as best I could. It was a simple chat at the very beginning in which I sought to understand her needs and objectives. In that revealing conversation she shared her vision to build her dream home in the very same area where her dad had grown up. To me, her vision was enough to keep us both focused.

Eventually, the land title was registered and finally settled in early February 2018 on a miserable, rainy day, of course. But I could sense the smile in her voice as we discussed the settlement …  and I knew we had finally weathered the storm to  achieve  the first part of her dream. 
But meeting my client on site, celebrating her win and imagining the views from her yet-to-be-built veranda are my true highlights for this journey.

Needless to say, this experience was so much more than the crunching of numbers,  securing the best interest rates and meeting contract deadlines that many people associate with mortgage broking.  This was a feel-good win for both our client and our service.

“Happiness… that smiley feeling you get when not even rain can dampen your dreams.”