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“Hey, Will. Paul Ramos here,” the voice on the phone said. “I guess you’re at home at the moment, I called your office at the University, but that cute short girl in your office said you weren’t in over the summer break.”

“Paul, comrade. Great to hear from you,” I replied. “No, I’m taking a couple of weeks off; we’ve got a bunch of gigs heading up to Christmas, and into January too. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I’ve got a proposal I’d like to discuss with you; are you going to be home this arvo? I’d prefer to talk to you in person.”

Since I wasn’t going anywhere, we agreed for him to all around to see me later in the day. When he arrived, I offered him a beer – “Sorry, it’s only KB” – but he declined, saying his doctor had told him to cut back. We sat in the dining room, at the main table.

“As I said on the phone, I have a proposal for you,” he said. “I’ll get straight to the point, would you be interested in buying this house? I’m prepared to sell it to you for what I paid for it, I’m not looking at making a profit, I just need to liquidate some assets quickly.”

“Um, yeah, I guess so,” I said. “What’s the price you’re wanting for it?”

“Two-fifty grand,” he said. “That’s a special mate’s price for you; I know just how much work all of you have put into it. Here’s the full story, we’re looking at redeveloping some old, run down terraces in Balmain, and we need the capital up front to buy them; one and a half million. The banks are so bloody tight at the moment, interest rates are up through the roof, and I need to liquidate some of my assets, get enough cash so the bank will come to the party. I know that this place with the big garage and studio is perfect for you guys. I’d hate to have to sell it out from under you. So, what do you reckon?”

“It’s a tempting offer; can you give me a coupla days to think on it. I’ll need to talk to some people, see how I can finance it – I don’t have that kind of cash at my fingertips. But I would love to get the place, there’s so much potential here. Funny, a week or so before she was killed, Janelle and I were talking of doing just that, seeing if you would be interested in selling it to us.”

“You know it’s got a heritage protection order on it, don’t you,” he said, “and that makes doing anything major to not just the house, but the grounds as well a hassle. You have to get council approval, and they will refer you to their heritage committee. A bunch of middle aged, upper middle class women that don’t like to see any changes to ‘their’ suburb at all. That’s why I haven’t bothered doing anything to the place, even though I wouldn’t change the appearance of the place. I mean, that front fence is complete crap, but to get anything approved, there’s so much fucking paperwork and bullshit to go through. I don’t have the expertise, or the patience for it. But I reckon you probably know people, or at least could get things done.”

“Yeah, I know about that heritage order. But a sailing mate of mine is an architect, and a specialist in heritage and conservation stuff. He can probably get things past those fussy women. Like I said, give me a few days, and I’ll get back to you. But I’m pretty interested; when would you want the sale finalized?”

“This afternoon would be perfect!”

We both laughed, I knew that it took at least three or four weeks for a property sale to go through.

“Seriously, by the end of January would be great,” he said. “That gives me time to work on the other financing I will need. I’m not going pressure or rush you, you have to work out what’s best for you.”

“No worries, let me make a few calls in the next few days, and I’ll get back to you.”

That night at dinner, I mentioned to the others that Phil Ramos was planning on selling the house.

“Really! Oh shit, that means we need to find another place, with room for a studio. Fuck!” Mary Beth said. “This place has been perfect for us; it’s even better than the terraces were.”

“Don’t panic,” I said. “He’s offered me first refusal, seeing if I wanted to buy it; he’s asking two-fifty for it.”

“That’s not a bad price,” Garry said. “Are you going to take him up?”

“I think I will, but I need to talk to some people first,” I said. “I have some money, not that much, so I’ll have to get a loan, and I don’t know if a bank would lend me money.”

“Talk to Fifa tomorrow,” Mary Beth said. “She really knows all that sort of finance stuff, she would be the best person I know to give you advice. And it’s not like she has a vested interest in anything, like a lawyer or bank might.”

Mary Beth’s suggestion sounded pretty good, I thought, and I made a mental note to call Fifa in the morning.

“So, if you bought the place, could we still stay here?” Murph asked. “What would the arrangements be?”

“I haven’t really thought about that,” I said. “But I can’t see any reason why things would change in any way. All of you would still pay the same as you put into our rent account, we would all contribute to the bills, it’s just that I would own the house, and not Paul Ramos.”

“Will Morris, slumlord,” Garry said. “Please don’t throw us out into the cold winter’s night, Mister Landlord,” he added, trying to sound like a crying child.

“Oh, fuck off! Dickhead,” I swore at him. “Assuming I buy the place – which isn’t certain at all, all of you are more than welcome to keep living here, just as you have since we moved in. And that includes you too, Jenny. Someone has to keep that bastard under control!”

“Yeah, and I love you too, Mate,” Garry said, smiling. His girlfriend, Jenny, was trying so hard not to laugh at us.

The next morning, I called Fifa, and asked her if I could get some advice. I told her about Paul’s offer regarding the house, what he was asking for it, and whether she though me buying it would be a good investment. She told me that she felt that at the price Phil was asking, it was certainly worth it.

“That house, with the big garage and the studio, is perfect for you; I can’t see you finding anywhere else just like that. Can you afford what he’s asking?”

I told her that I had almost the full amount, with what I had got from Janelle’s settlement, and my previous savings.

“No, you don’t want to spend everything you have; you also need money for the stamp duty, and other costs involved in purchasing a place. You’ll have to pay for property insurance, and then any work you want done on it. I would recommend you put up something like $150,000 of your own money, and get a loan for the balance. Is your only account the credit union one, where we pay your royalties into?

“Yeah, I did have a Commonwealth bank account, but I closed that about two years ago,” I said.

“Let me make some calls, I think we can find a good source for the money you need. I would recommend you tell Paul that you will buy the place at that price. Do you know an attorney who does conveyancing? I know a few good ones, if you don’t know anyone.”

“No, I would probably use Martin, my friend from school who handled Janelle’s death, and all that; he told me they do heaps of work like that.”

“Okay, then get onto him today, get things started. I’ll call you back once I can get someone to help with the financing. But go ahead now, don’t waste any time, you don’t want to let this opportunity slip away.”

I thanked her for her assistance, then called Martin’s office. He was in a meeting with another client, but his secretary said he would call me back as soon as he was out. About thirty minutes later, he called me back, and I told him I was buying a property, and asked if he would handle all the legal stuff.

“Will, not a problem, let me get the details, I assume it’s the place you’re living in now?”

I confirmed that, and made sure he had the full address. I gave him Paul’s details, and the asking price. When he asked me about financing and any mortgage information, I told him I was getting information on that. He said he would get started on the process; organize a site survey and building inspection, do the title search.

“I want to make sure there are no surprises in store for you,” he said. “I know you’ve been living there for almost two years, but the inspector will determine if there’s anything that needs to be addressed right away. The survey will ensure you’re actually buying the parcel of land that you think you’re getting, and there are not encroachments onto other blocks, or neighbours aren’t encroaching onto your block. Sometimes there are easements on the block that you need to know about, for sewer or water pipes, clearances for power lines, those can restrict what you can do to that part of the land. The title search will see if there are any encumbrances or liens on the property, to make sure you get clear title to it. You’ve got my card, with my contact details? That DX number – that’s the document exchange number – the bank and the vendor’s attorneys will need that.

“Costs, well, the title search, inspection, survey and other bits and pieces will be less than a thousand, the title transfer isn’t much, but the big killer will be the stamp duty, probably close to ten grand. All to the State government, for nothing. But you can’t get out of that. My job is to make sure that not only do you get to legally own the property, but there aren’t any nasty surprises for you.”

“And what will I owe you for you work?” I asked.

“Treat it as a favour, you get it at Mate’s rates,” he said.

I tried to protest, but he told me that they already earned a huge amount from me after the settlement following Janelle’s death. He refused to listen to me, saying the cost would be only a few hundred anyway, and for me to bugger off, and just accept it. I couldn’t push it without insulting him for his offer, and he said once the financing details were sent to him, I would have to come up to sign various papers.

“I’ll get started right now; assuming there’s no hold up with the financing, we should have settlement before Christmas,” he said.

I called Paul, and told him I would buy the place, at two hundred and fifty thousand. He was pleased, and I gave him Martin’s details. He said he would get his attorney to contact Martin directly, and also gave me the relevant information. I told him I would keep him informed of how things progressed.

Later that afternoon Fifa called me back, saying I should speak to an investment banker in the Commonwealth Bank’s head office on Martin Place.

“His name is John Lamble, and he does all of the investments and financing for the company, and he’s also Ted’s personal investment manager,” she said. “Nice bloke, really friendly. I’ve made an appointment at eleven tomorrow morning, here’s his address.”

I made a note of where his office was, and thanked her for her help.

The next morning I got ready for my visit to the bank; I ironed a shirt, and made sure my good suit was brushed. I polished my shoes, got copies of my appointment letter from the university that showed my annual salary, and recent royalty payment reports from Alberts. I was sure they would want to see evidence of my income, so I included a copy of my last annual tax return. I drove across to the station, and caught a train into the city, getting off at Wynyard. It was a short walk up to the bank headquarters in Martin Place, when I got off the elevator at the floor that Fifa had told me his office was on, I spoke to the receptionist. I was about ten minutes early, but I thought it better to be slightly early than late.

“Good morning, my name is Will Morris; I have an appointment with Mr. Lamble at eleven,” I said.

She checked on a large diary in front of her, picked up her phone and pressed a button.

“Mr Lamble, I have Mr Morris here for his eleven o’clock meeting with you,” she said. “I will send him right down now.”

She told me to proceed down the hallway, his office was four doors down on the left hand side. I thanked her, and went to the office indicated. John Lamble was waiting there for me; he appeared to be in his fifties, a full head of showy white hair. He gestured towards a seat at a low table, I sat down, and he sat opposite me.

“Would you care for a coffee or a tea?” he asked me.

“A coffee would be great, thank you.”

He spoke into his intercom, asking the receptionist to bring us two coffees. He picked up a folder from his desk that was tied closed with a maroon coloured ribbon, and opened it as he sat back down.

“Now, Ted called me, and said you were planning on purchasing a house, and you would need an additional one hundred thousand dollars to add to what you have. I am sure we can help you with that; do you have the details of the property, and your attorney’s information?”

I was quite surprised, this wasn’t how I expected the process to go. I gave him the details of the house, plus Martin’s information, and Paul’s attorney’s name.

“Edgington and Alfonso, they were the firm involved with the compensation for that young nurse that was killed in the car accident the other month, weren’t they? I guess you must be her fiancée; I am so sorry about what happened, quite a tragedy, yes, terrible. Okay, I’ll get the paperwork couriered up to them by close of business today; I was told we need to move quickly on this; I will call their office to let them know the agreement is on its way.”

“You don’t need to see evidence of my income, or anything like that?” I asked him.

“No, Ted told me to organize it as a standard advance, so all of that will be between you and Alberts Music,” he said. “Are there any other questions for me? I’m sure your attorneys will be able to explain the details of the advance, it’s all standard industry procedures.”

The receptionist brought in a tray with two coffee cups, a small milk jug, and some sugar. She put it down on the table between us, and asked if I wanted milk or sugar; putting the milk in my coffee and handing me the cup. When she had served Mr Lamble, he gave her some sheets of paper from his folder, no doubt with the information I had given him earlier.

“Can you write up the agreement ready to be sent to Edgington and Alfonso for me, Margaret?” he directed her. “I want to get that sent to them this afternoon.”

I was surprised, everything seemed be over with quite quickly; that wasn’t how I had imagined going to a bank to request a loan would be. Mind you, I had never done it before so I really had no idea what it would be like, but this seemed to be a very rapid process, almost as if them lending me the money was a foregone conclusion. I was sure Ted had pulled some string; I owed him a big thank you. Not just Ted, but Fifa as well.

While we sipped our coffees, he asked me what my plans for the house were, how I planned to deal with the heritage and conservation restrictions on it. I mentioned how that while we had been renting the place we had already done some work to the fittings and finishing inside, and that I had a colleague who was an architect with experience in heritage properties. I mentioned how I wanted to work on the outside, getting the ground up to standard; the front fence needed to be replaced, and the jungle in the back yard would take some work to clear. I wasn’t overly concerned about the inside of the house, there was nothing that really needed immediate attention.

We spoke a bit more about things that I could do with the yard, and then he said he needed to review the documents that he would be sending to Martin. I thanked him for his time, and left to go home. I was still in a bit of a daze as I made my way home, and I called Martin to say everything had been approved, and Mr Lamble would be sending the loan documents to him later today.

“Well, if everything checks out, I’ll just need you to sign them, and we will be full speed ahead,” he said. “Give me a day or two to work on things; so what if you come around Friday morning, and we can go over all the paperwork, have you sign the paperwork, and then we are good to go.”

I was surprised at how simple it all seemed; I had heard stories from other people about how difficult it was to get a bank loan to buy a house; the complicated paperwork, but this seemed pretty easy. Of course, I had yet to deal with any of the paperwork; that would come on Friday, when I saw Martin.

On the Thursday evening we were due to start a three night booking at the Lifesaver; I filled the others in on the progress with buying the house.

“So, nothing will really change, we still have the studio?” Phil asked. “Do you want us to pay you rent, for the studio space? Plus we have all of our equipment stored in the back of the garage, I mean that’s got to be saving us at least a hundred a week, if we had to get space like that. It’s not fair that we all get to use the place here; the studio and the storage, and you have to pay for everything.”

“What? Charge rent? There’s no way I would think of doing that,” I replied. “I use the studio probably every night, either practicing, or using it as my study. Nothing about the place will change; at least in terms of everyone’s ability to make use of the coach house and the yard. I’m probably going to get the yard and stuff outside fixed up, but I want all of you to treat the place as if you lived there.”

“Including your stash of ‘George Dickel’?” Paul asked.

“No, that’s strictly off limits,” I said. “Leave George the fuck alone!”

“And it’s off limits to you, too,” Mary Beth said. “Remember the last time you over-indulged in a bit of Dickel.”

“I wouldn’t mind trying to over-indulge in a bit of dick,” Fiona said, and we all laughed.

“Okay, I think we need to get the sound check done,” Mary Beth said, trying to get us to concentrate on the main purpose of the evening. “We really need to do a good job of promoting the new album.”

Tonight would be the first live performance of songs from our most recent album, ‘Songs for Janelle’ since it had been released the previous week. Already sales were looking good, most record stores around Sydney reported selling out within the first day of release. Fifa has told us that usually they will have an initial production run of five thousand copies; and based on early sales, they would then run off another five, or in rare cases ten thousand.

Alberts already had their plant producing another ten thousand copies, and had booked time in their production schedule for a further run before Christmas if required. Given that a dollar from each album was going directly to the Children’s Cancer Fund charity; the special trust fund that Beth Ward was managing in her honour, I felt particularly pleased about that. The money that we raised was being put into scholarships to help train additional specialist nurses for the paediatric cancer ward, so that was a good thing.

I still felt pretty sad – well, that’s not the best term to describe my feelings over the loss of Janelle – but I had reached the point about it all that the shrinks would call ‘acceptance’. My close friends – Mary Beth, Garry, Michelle, and Allison – particularly Allison – had helped considerably in that process. There hadn’t been a repeat of the night spent with Allison; I guess neither of us felt a need for sharing some more ‘benefits’ in our ‘friends with benefits’ relationship. It wasn’t that either of us regretted spending that night together, making love pretty much through the night; but we didn’t want to let our relationship drift into one where we would spend most nights together, and have sex on a regular basis. Keeping it to some rare, special occasions seemed to be what we both needed.

The night’s gig seemed to go particularly well; I always enjoyed playing at the Lifesaver. While it lacked the raw energy of the Antler, the audience at the Lifesaver was always into the music, and we got great feedback from them. Tonight’s gig was no different; during the break we had people come up wanting autographs, and telling us how much they liked the new album. We managed to sell around fifty copies that evening; Mary Beth would pick up more from Alberts tomorrow.

The next morning – Friday – I was up at Martin’s office in Mona Vale, to go over the paperwork for the house purchase. He had already done the title search at the Land Titles office, and he had received the financing papers from John Lamble.

“Well, let’s go through all of this, starting with the easy stuff,” he said, pulling one sheet from the pile in front of him. “Here’s a copy of the title search; the title is free and clear, no encumbrances, no liens or other restrictions. Standard freehold title, of course. There’s no easements on the land, the only things out of the ordinary, which I’m sure you already know, is the heritage protection order on both the land and the house. You won’t be able to make any alterations to the place without approval from the council, and they will need an endorsement from their heritage and conservation committee before they give you approval. It’s not a huge problem, plus you get a tax incentive for taking on and maintaining a heritage listed property. Many local government areas are being more and more protective of their heritage properties; that goes back to the Green Bans around Woolloomooloo in the early 1970’s.

“My advice is before you do anything – even dig stuff up in the yard, or plant shrubs or bushes, get an experienced architect and landscape consultant, get them to put the plans through that committee. That way, you’re not going to get the busybodies complaining and trying to stop whatever you might want to do. Some of those groups can be a real pain in the arse; they view any change as suspicious and needing to be refused, and work from there.”

“I know just the people for that, a guy I sail with is not only an architect, but an expert on heritage properties. His wife is a landscape architect, as well. They also live in the Lane Cover area. I’ll talk to them, get their advice on what is the best way to go.”

“Good, it sounds like you have that under control. I’ve got both a surveyor and building inspector lined up, they will call you to arrange to get things done. I’ve got a request into the Lane Cove Council to make sure that the rates and all that are fully paid, same with the water and sewerage rates. Now, the only thing left is this financing agreement, it’s quite different from any mortgage document I’ve seen before, I’ll tell you that.

“The usual financing deal with a bank for a home loan is what we call a mortgage – that’s from an old French expression meaning ‘death pledge’, because the loan obligation ends – or dies – when it is paid out, or the property foreclosed on. The loan is secured on the property, meaning that the lender actually has the right of possession of the property, if you fail to pay the loan back. Then it goes through a foreclosure process – which you want to avoid at all costs, because you really get screwed. I would say ninety nine point nine percent of all housing loans are done that way.

“This is different, there’s no security on the loan, no interest being charged, basically Alberts Music – not a bank – is giving you an advance to purchase the property, and you will pay that back over time as they deducting money from record sales, concert receipts, and so on. I contacted a colleague of mine who deals with entertainment industry matters, and this appears to be a pretty much standard ‘advance arrangement’ that a recording company or publishing house would pay to a musician, author, or other artist that they have signed to write a book, or record an album. You’ve got a fantastic deal with this; Alberts must think pretty highly of you to do this for you. You going to save thousands of dollars with the loan done this way, as opposed to the traditional bank mortgage. At current interest rates, for a hundred thousand dollar loan, you would probably have to pay at least another twenty grand over the life of the loan if you had to use a standard bank mortgage.”

I was very surprised myself; no wonder the meeting at the bank the other day was so quick, and I was surprised at how little he asked me. I really owed Fifa and Ted for this.

“Now, I’ve looked through the agreement, and it all appears above board. Legally, it’s quite standard in the industry – the entertainment industry – according to my colleague, there are no nasty clauses, nothing in there that needs you to be concerned about. Of course, should you decided to change recording companies, then you have to pay back anything outstanding on the advance, but you probably guessed that anyway. Are you likely to change studios?”

“No, I can’t see myself doing that,” I replied. “Alberts have been damn good to me over the years, I can’t see myself wanting to change recording companies.”

“Okay, then you just need to sign here, and here, and initial this paragraph,” he said, pointing to the locations on the form.

I signed as indicated; and he pulled out another document.

“This is the one to go to the vendor; or at least to their solicitor, confirming the intent to purchase, the price, and the proposed settlement date,” he said. “If you can sign this at the bottom, just above your name...”

I signed that one, too.

“That’s almost everything that needs doing,” he said. “Just one final form, which is the actual title transfer form; this will get the title of the property to your name. Now, there’s one interesting thing with the property title; the name of the house. Banksia Lodge; it’s not just an interesting house name, but look here,” and he pointed to the top line on the title form, just above the street address. “The name of the house, Banksia Lodge, is on the actual title deed. It has an official name. People tell me that in the early days for the growth of Sydney, all through the 1800’s, places didn’t have street numbers and addresses like we have now. Instead, a place was knows by either the owner’s name, or the name of the house. Like we had the ‘Rocklily’ here in Mona Vale, or ‘Collin’s Halfway Store, up near Bushranger’s Hill.”

I signed my name on the ‘transferee’ section of the title transfer form.

“Now, we just wait until settlement, I’ll need you to get me a bank check for that $150,000. Here’s the details that it needs to be made out to. That’s probably easier than trying to do a bank transfer, particularly from a credit union. They aren’t tied into the same money transfer system, at least not directly. If you can get that to me at least a week before settlement, to allow for checks to clear, that will be good. We don’t want any banking system hold ups to delay settlement. There will also be a check for the stamp duty and title transfer fee, I’ll get you the details on those as soon as I know what the duty will be.”

Everything seemed to be in train for me to purchase the house; but I really had to get over to Alberts and thank Fifa and Ted for what they did. I didn’t think there would have been any way I would have been able to have purchased the place without their help, setting up that advance. I needed to call Ian Craig as well, see what he recommended be done about getting approval for work in the yard. He might also have some good ideas on how the house could be improved, while still retaining its historic look at feel.

On the way home, I decided to call into Ian’s office; it was just up near the Lane Cove shops. I hadn’t been there before, but I did have his card with the address on it. I found his office, it was on Burns Bay Road, half a block down from Longueville Road. His office was upstairs in an old brick building, part way down the hallway. The sign on the door “Craig & Craig; Landscape and Conservation Architects” told me I was at the right place. I opened the door, knocking on it as I entered.

Ian was sitting at a desk, talking to someone on the phone, and Celia was at the large drafting board, no doubt working on some project. They waved at me as I entered, and Ian pointed to a chair next to the front counter.

“Will, great to see you,” Celia said. “Welcome to our luxurious office accommodation. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Coke?”

“Just a cold water would be great, thanks, Celia,” I said. “It’s hot out there!”

She returned with a glass of water, just as Ian finished his phone call.

“So, Will, to what do we owe the pleasure of you visit?” Ian asked.

“Well, I’m buying the house I’m renting, Banksia Lodge,” I said. “Settlement is planned for the 23rd of this month, and there’s a bunch of stuff that I want to get done, mainly in the yard. But with the heritage status on it, I’m going to need some help getting council approval and all that. I was wondering if you two would like the job of drawing up the plans for that work, and getting the approvals.”

“Sounds like its right up our street,” Ian said. “We would love to do that; just how much do you want to spend and how far are you wanting to go?”

“I guess there’s a couple of major projects,” I said. “The first is the yard, the front fence is disgusting, it really needs to be replaced before it rusts away and falls down completely. And the back yard, I want to pull all of the lantana out, and see if it can be landscaped or made useable. It would be nice to have some gardens, and I’m sure under the weed-infested grass there are the original pathways or whatever. I guess that’s part one.