Existing Residential home - Purchase & Lessons, Lessons & Lessons

I first bought the house across the street to ‘retire’ too at the ripe old age of 33 having left my corporate development activities. (see The Peninsula Home Project) Life was good in early 2007. 

​

I purchased this house to live in while the house across the street was demolished and re-built (see The Peninsula Home Project). Really, this purchase was an unnecessary, and let’s say an emotional purchase –not a cold hard investment decision, as we easily could have just rented nearby. Nevertheless, after negotiating terms with the seller for a delayed settlement of six months at $750k, on settlement the home was valued at some $100k more than purchase price. While living there, and with the house across the street under construction, the world changed. This will forever be the house where I stayed up at night watching CNBC and the American stock marketing melting down, it was the start of the GFC. My share market investment (my parked liquidity) lost over $2 million in weeks, margin calls were a daily event and this was just the beginning. Twelve months later I decided to sell the home and the best I could get netted me $100k less that the purchase price. Yup, a $200k turnaround, the credit crunch was in full swing and my life like this investment was on the downward spiral.