Forever grateful

Building a house is a labour of love.  So much time and effort is put into the pre-planning before you even get to the starting line.

In my case this dream has been brewing for over 10 years.  I put in the hard yards for years, meandered around display villages, wondered what house would fit my family, wondered if we would ever get to a point in our lives to make our dreams come true.  I devoured blogs just like this one.

Then the time arrived.  FINALLY we could work towards our dream.  We visited display homes, we poured over brochures and magazines and crunched numbers and did all the things we were meant to do.

Then right as we were about to put the deposit down I was made redundant.  I vaguely remember hearing my husband say to me "Aren't you glad we didn't put that deposit down" and although I smiled and silently agreed in amongst the disappointment, I just couldn't give up the dream.  After a few days of feeling sorry for myself I was back in employment - determined.  I was temping but I was moving mountains to get a permanent job and I did it, within a week I was employed.  I was onto the bank, I had the balls rolling, I managed to secure a verbal go ahead from the bank even though my employment status was still in limbo (I had another 3 weeks to go before I even started the new job) but I wrote to my bank manager and begged (I have no shame).  He looked at my employment history and the fact that I'd been unemployed for about 48 hours in my life, he gave us the go ahead. Yes! The dream was still alive.

We were doing it.

Then the valuation came back and my dream was shot to pieces.  The valuation was under and miles from where we needed it to be.  It was the last straw.  I sat looking at the email, sitting at my new desk with my new colleagues surrounding me and internally I cried.  All the emotions that I'd held back from the redundancy and the pressures of finding a new job and chasing the dream all came crashing down and I died a little inside.  My brain was spinning, it was over.

Then I remembered reading a blog about someone who was building with McDonald Jones and they praised their mortgage broker.  I have no idea how I remembered that blog, but I found it.

Rebecca Jarrett-Dalton of Two Red Shoes came highly recommended.  I kid you not I emailed her and asked for a miracle.  She responded instantly, asked me for x, y & z which of course I had at hand, and within 24 hours she was sitting at my kitchen table working towards my miracle.  We tried everything to get my own bank to budge, we even went straight to the valuer, but they weren't in the business of handing out miracles so our broker went to work.

Rebecca gave us options, we picked one, a second valuation was arranged and I walked on egg shells for a couple of days.  Rebecca did her thing and our miracle was delivered.  We had a new valuation which came in higher than we needed (go figure), we had a new bank ~ who didn't even blink at the fact I was in a new job, and most importantly we had our dream again.

And here we are 6 months later building our dream home.

It is only fitting that I share Rebecca's details with anyone who reads this blog.  I am a true believer of word of mouth and Rebecca's company 'Two Red Shoes' deserves the praises that I'm singing.

If you, or anyone you know is in need of a Mortgage Broker who listens, understands, and is in the business of helping you achieve your goals, I cannot recommend Rebecca highly enough.

Give her a call.  I know I'll be forever grateful that we did.

Ms Betsy xo