So I don't have the child and I definitely don't have a house.
I'm now literally hunting for property. My boyfriend (I will refer to him as Samurai) has now realised how great it will be to own our own home and has joined me in this passionate goal for home ownership but with our very basic salaries, we wondered how realistic these goals could really be.
When Samurai first started to show interest in owning property we went into TTMF to find out how much we'll qualify for separately. It was like a meagre $200K each or a little more. Depressing eh! We were a bit despondent and weren't really giving much of an effort to find property and then yay! I get a call from HDC for land allocations! About a year ago we updated our application from seeking housing assistance to land and clearly it worked. Well we thought it did. I went in for my appointment, selected my three preferred areas in Central Trinidad, submitted all my financial documents and then... silence. Nothing for about two years.
As the first year passed, we started to think maybe this HDC thing was all a gimmick for political PR so we decided to resume looking for property but we were more serious about it this time, so, I'm buying the Guardian, Express and Newsday every single day just for their classifieds. I saved every single local real estate website as a bookmark. I was literally desperate to find something affordable... but everything was so damn expensive. We really realised why so many people just live with their families because owning property in Trinidad and Tobago seemed so realistic for the middle and low class.
When the search began to intensify, we went in again to TTMF but this time to see how much we would be pre-approved for as a couple and I think it grew to about $500K+. I've also been reading a lot of articles to help with our property search. They say to let friends and family know you're looking, sign up with real estate companies and look and consider anything and anywhere.
I honestly don't have much friends or family so that part didn't help much. I e-mailed a few real estate companies, but most of them clearly just ignored me but we did follow with the advice to consider anything and anywhere. One thing we did decide on is that we will only consider purchasing land and build our own home. I didn't like the idea of living in a house where someone lived, farted, ate, showered or even possibly died. Morbid, yeah I know. We also were appalled by the quality of houses on the market that were so small or rundown or ridiculously overpriced or just not a style and size of house suitable for us. We wanted to make our own home and not settle for someone else's.
We looked at a lot of property in Central Trinidad becuase it was cheaper, mainly Gran Couva. There was a lot of property for sale in this area but a lot of these lots were not Town and Country approved which explained their affordability. This meant we were basically taking a risk buying this property because Town and Country may not approved it for residential construction so we'll just be stuck with a piece of land with no house ever to be built on it. The lots that were approved were usually much more expensive or in locations that were very hilly, with poor road access or would require very in-depth structural engineering so that means the costs would add up for us some way or another.
We did stumble upon a $500K+ acre plot opposite the popular La Vega estate that Samurai was very excited about. I wasn't that excited though. All I could think about is the long and winding drive people would have to take just to get to our house. There was also no public transportation other than PH drivers (a somewhat illegal trend of citizens using their personal vehicles to provide public transportation, which I am honestly very wary of) but looking back now, I kind of regret this decision because it would have been a great location for a business like a Bed & Breakfast, Diner or something similar as La Vega had a high number of visitors. I might have had an opportunity to resign and work from home. Apparently someone did purchase the property, however, and we then saw it listed again in the daily newspapers a few months later for over $800K! That turnover in real estate could have also been a consideration because that profit would have helped us out sooo much.
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