Underfloor heating for laminate floors

Earlier, I posted on the subject of heating the floor. This post is on the subject of underfloor heating that is suitable for wood laminate flooring.

Wood laminate flooring is not a very good conductor of heat, so a different type of heating is required to that of an under-tile heating solution.

Under-tile heating comprises a coiled cable that is stuck to a mesh. It requires a screed to be poured over it in order to keep it in place and to provide a stable base for the tiles. With heating suitable for under laminate wood, a flat mat solution is required. No screed needs to poured, but the matting is laid over a firm-sponge acoustic underlay. The wood laminate is laid directly on top of the mat-heater.

Heat matting for under wood laminate

The heated mats are connected to mains electricity which must be installed by a licensed electrician. The controllers enable the heating temperatures to be easily controlled, and they can be placed on timers, with manual over-ride capabilities.

We had the solution laid in a large open area, in a house that is elevated from the ground, in a room with high ceilings, yet we are very warm in the area after only half an hour of the heating being on. The added bonus is having toastie toes while I walk around first thing on a frosty morning!

Laminate flooring gets laid on top of the heat mat

Sell your own home

We made a tough decision. Despite everyone telling us to keep our current house and use it to earn rental income, we decided to sell it in order to significantly reduce our home loan.

The house we wanted to sell was a three-bedroom, one-bathroom, brick construction, built in the 1980s. Located in a suburb north of Perth, it was not the most expensive house around; in fact, the house was valued in the price-range that was selling the quickest at the time. So it was a bit of a surprise when a real-estate agent valued it at a lower price than we expected. However, the biggest surprise was the fee the agent quoted to sell the house for us. The average time to sell  a property in the price-range in the area at the time (April 2013) was 39 days - that's from listing to 'under offer'.

The agent's fee quoted was $7,500. We thought that was more than a bit steep and indicative of another rip-off Perth service.

So we decided to sell the house ourselves. We conducted a lot of research in owner-sales, and chose to use forsalebyowner.com.au. A little reluctant to risk the fee ($699), without really knowing what we were doing, I started an online chat with one of their 24-hour support staff. I was truly surprised that, on a Sunday evening, Colin (one of the founders of the company), was available to chat online, give me all the risks, the positives, and the guidance, to place my property listing in their care.

After taking several photos of the property, and writing a description of its features, we paid the fee and logged on to the website to list our property. It was publicly listed on the most well-recognised real-estate websites (including realestate.com.au), by midday the following day. We had our first enquiry (SMS received to my mobile phone) by late Monday afternoon, and our first viewing on the Friday of the same week.

After purchasing a Sale of Contract form ($4.50) from our post office, we held an open day on the Saturday (just five days after listing) where 21 prospective buyers viewed the property. We received five offers, and accepted an offer at above the asking price - you should know that we listed the property at a higher price than the original real-estate agent wanted to list at.

We will honestly never again list our property with a real-estate agent, without first trying to sell it ourselves. The feedback we had from the prospective buyers, at the home open, included them being grateful that the actual home-owners were there to answer their questions about the house, without the real-estate agent spin being added. They also said that they felt the house was listed at a fairer price and they did not feel the price had been inflated to cover the real-estate agent's fees! In short, people were attracted to our property BECAUSE we had decided to sell it ourselves - we'd thought it might put people off!

We settled six weeks later - it was far easier than any previous experience I've had using real-estate agent.

Settlement agents

A settlement agent is required if you are not able to manage all the legal tasks and paperwork associated with buying (or selling) property. A quick internet search, via your favourite search engine, will produce a rather long list of settlement agents in and around your local area. So how do you choose the right one?

It's important to choose a settlement agent with experience with your type of property (residential, commercial, strata, etc.). It's also a good idea to check how many actual conveyance agents there are at the agency. This ensures that should your agent be away from the office for any reason (including holiday or sick) during your settlement period, there will be other agents available to handle your case. Settlement agents need to have a good reputation, and you need to feel that you can maintain a good relationship with them for the duration of the settlement (anything from a couple of weeks to months!).

We searched the internet to find our settlement agent. We made a wrong decision to begin with, choosing an agent whose website was very informative (and included a settlement calculator). The problem was, after a few days, the agent still had not returned our calls or emails. We searched again, finding another good website with lots of information and a convenient calculator that included all settlement costs, including stamp duty.

Advantage Settlements were excellent. We used them for the both the purchase of the house in the hills, and the sale of our previous home. So confident are we in their capabilities and services, that we are resolute to use their services again in the future.