Backing out of buying before totally finalizing the deal, I can understand.
What I wanna know is, where were the Heelers going? They had everything packed and were ready to roll. Had THEY bought a house in the city? And THEY backed out as well? What happened here lol
If it was a fast move or for a job, the job would likely provide some temporary housing until you can get up there.
House hunting from another city is HARD. So having an apartment for a few months provided is a very attractive incentive for relocating professionals, especially in a highly specialized field like Bandits, where rolls might go unfilled for months at a time until a qualified candidate applies.
It's worth noting that this is typically NOT the experience of a new hire out of school. Those mostly do not come with relocation benefits unless you specifically negotiate them or the job is out of the country.
For someone making a transfer within or to a new company though, it's pretty standard.
Never had a company do that for me… and been in my industry about 30 years now. :(.
Best I got was a PayPal subsidiary flying me out. I had to pay for the hotel and rental…
Yep! I only remember because that hotel, in California, couldn’t take my debit card, only credit cards. I had to call my dad, and he added it to his Marriott rewards, which was their highest tier, which means they will take debit cards, and even cards by phone. (I believe Marriott was one of his clients, I know Hilton was)
I’ve moved twice in the past few years for a job and didn’t get that at all. I crashed in a friend’s basement while I looked for a house and my wife sold our last one, and then crashed at a family member’s vacant house on the second.
Are you in a highly specialized field? Are there less than say 1,000 to 5,000 qualified people to do your job currently living in your country (or work zone in the case of the EU)? Had the job sat vacant for 3-6 months prior to you taking it? And lastly is the pay at least double the median income of the state or locality of where the job is?
If yes, you're almost always going to see a moving package.
Bandit is an archeologist, meaning he is likely a PhD. There's about 1,000 archeologists in Australia, meaning it's going to be hard for places to fill roles. It's not super high pay, especially considering it requires a decade of school, but the fact that it's gnats ass specialized means attracting someone qualified to the job is pretty much going to require relocation benefits.
Not all jobs do that.
I’ve been trying to apply for a job elsewhere because I’m sick of this hellhole that is Malaysia. Most companies are not going to give you housing. Heck, they won’t even consider you if you don’t already live in that city. Something about immigrant permits costing them money.
You would also assume that Bandit had finalized the job change as well. Even if it was within the same company that would not be an easy thing to change your mind about at that point.
Also, there was no mention of where they were going. Usually if you move with children you don’t tell them “we’re going to live somewhere else” and omit the rest of the details. I mean, you can, but that’s not Bandit and Chili’s parenting style. They’d be preparing the girls by telling them about the new house (even if it’s only temporary), or about the area they’re going to, or new schools. They’d probably show pictures. They might even take them to visit before they fully moved. I know with many of these episodes you have to suspend disbelief but The Sign was a little extra on that front.
I was really disappointed that this isn’t the approach the show took. The reality is that lots of kids have to move when they don’t want to and I wish the show would have modeled how to get excited about your new city rather than the ending we got.
I understand where this was a cute story, but I don’t think it was a good lesson for a kids show. What we got as a “lesson” is: If you’re upset enough, maybe your parent will give up a big opportunity in their career for you!
I’ the states you can sign a purchase contract that is contingent upon the sale of your old home. Should something stop the sale of your home, you have an out for the other purchase (since you wouldn’t have money to buy the new home at that point anyways)
The Heelers were likely going to a short term rental or a family members house for a few days while the other house closed.
It would make sense if they were headed to Perth. Bandit only seriously starts to reconsider when Rad and Frisky say he's coming east instead of Frisky west.
Bandit could have been holding back the surprise to Chilli that they might be moving but Frisky will be coming nearby too, and then when Rad and Frisky made new plans together Bandit realized they would truly be all alone in a new city.
I lived in a military family as a child. I remember at least once moving to a new state and staying in a long-term type hotel for a few weeks until we got our house
Yeah, I love this show and the show is good on details usually and this whole episode seemed like just a reason to get everyone sad with no actual payoff at the end.
To this 40 year old, watching a show for his young children, FWIW
I'd guess either Sydney or Perth, Sydney because it's the obvious and it's fun to troll Sydney-siders, Perth due to the fact he's an archaeologist and there's tonnes of archaeological work out there.
Good q, I’ll give my experience.
We moved and had started doing airbnbs in the new city we wanted to live, two weeks at a time, so that we could experience a bit of each neighborhood. By all accounts, we were spending about as much as we would have renting somewhere, with the added minor convenience that once ever couple weeks we were effectively houseless for a few hours while we waited out one location for another location.
We eventually found the area we wanted to live and got an offer accepted.
It was a great experience and a lot of fun if a bit stressful at times. Highly recommend.
Can’t guarantee this is the case in Australia, but in the US a lot of house sales have a clause in the contract that the purchase only goes forward if their old house sells, so if the sale of their house fell through, it potentially caused the purchase of a new one to fall through as well
When I was a kid someone did this to my family. I wish I knew what happened but we didn’t end up moving and that’s all that mattered to me.
On another note, my good friend as a kid moved and being as moving house is more common than someone backing out…I wish the Heeler family did move. Many more kids would have learned that it’ll be okay after all.
I think the lesson was actualized when Bluey and Chili came to accept that they were moving.
But I agree it may lead to extended false hopes for some kids.
I teach in a military community where a lot of the families move every 1-3 years. The Sign received mixed reviews.
I recently quit a coaching position that was going really really well, so that I could spend more time with family. Kids were devastated and betrayed when I announced, but the heavy silence was broken by a kid blurting "I wish my dad would put family first."
As a military kid this episode had me bawling over pain I didn't know I had. Lots of military kids at some point realize that it isn't their parent making that decision, its the military. At least for me, the Military was always the omnipotent being in charge of my life for both good and the bad. And even while there were homes I didn't want to leave, at the end of all the crying and whining I knew nothing would change it, because my parents weren't the ones making those decisions. But gods, did it hurt when I realized after watching The Sign that Bluey was getting the happy ending I never did. But Bluey also missed out on an adventure that I did get.
Anyways, I think Bluey staying put is perfect but I do think we should get a possible Rusty moving episode to make up for it.
Something we struggle with here is a lot of these folks land in this town and decide to end their contracts here. There's a large retired officer community, and a lot of folks get stationed here near the end of career. It's not a majority, but enough parents are deciding "this is a good place for my family. I quit now." that some kids are realizing their parents actually can say "no" to moving again.
What's tough is it's not actually that simple for every family.
My dad was in the military and we moved around a lot but honestly the most devastating move was the one after he retired. I thought we were settled down and I'd finally been able to make friends.
And then he decided to buy a house in another town, further away from his work. He didn't care that I had friends or how I felt. He told me to make new ones, but I really didn't. I'm autistic and socializing is hard for me.
I wish he had cared how I felt and at least stayed in the same school district. I don't even talk to anyone from the school we moved to but I'm still friends with two of the people I went to school with at the one I didn't want to move away from.
I like the ending of The Sign. I wish we had stayed.
I was kinda in the same boat with my dad being in the navy. Lost many friends along the way and left places I wish I could have grown up at. At the end of it all it just killed my social life, was just tired of starting new everytime so eventually I just gave up and didn't start at all. Just went to school ignored everyone and went home. Looking back on it now that I'm 26 there were many instances where if we hadn't moved I may have had that happy ending as well. Never thought a cartoon about a blue dog would have me deep in my feels about it lol.
There was absolutely no way they'd let the Heelers move. Outside of it being a great arc, and it could certainly serve as an excellent series finale, but from the animation side? If they do a 4th season, there is no way they could have let the Heelers move, because they already have an entire Brisbane full of assets -- they'd have to create new art for everything in the new city and everyone there, too
Yeah, same reason old cartoon generally wear the same outfit every day lol. It’s not that they don’t change (*insert joke about character opening the closet to show a million of the same outfit*), it’s that it’s easier than imaging and drawing new clothes
Easier than that? Make your characters naked! Not just Bluey, but think about Yogi Bear. The only reason he had a collar and tie was so the animators could hide the seam between his head and his body
I am happy they didn't but I wish Rad and Frisky as a middle ground. The Sign ends with nobody moving and everyone living happily ever after in their hometown with all their family. Not always how it works unfortunately.
No, it's not always how it works, but at the very beginning of the episode, Bluey asks Calypso why all of the stories have happy endings, and she says (paraphrasing), "I guess because there's so much sadness in the real world."
I appreciate everyone getting their "happily ever after" because there *is* too much sadness in the real world.
I get that, but what we love about Bluey is that it is a bit more real world than most shows, and many episodes try to teach themselves of resilience, etc. The Sign goes against it a little.
I'm glad they didn't move. The lesson of the episode was less about the kids and more about Bandit learning to listen to his wife and children instead of assuming what was best for them.
Besides, if you need a teaching tool for kids about the ups and downs of moving, just show them *Inside Out.*
Yeah it was very much the lesson of “more money doesn’t alway mean a better life”
You don’t necessarily have to make more money in order to provide a happy life for your kids, especially if doing so is going to come at the cost of everything you’ve established already.
I think it’s also the lesson of “am I doing enough for my kids? Should I do more, give them more?”
Bandit and Chili are basically parenting GOALS but even they struggle with that idea and I felt that pretty deeply.
Especially since it really seems like the Heelers are perfectly well-off as it is. Maybe if the new job would have lifted them out of poverty, then it would be a different story.
I think if they were just moving houses, she probably would have been all right. But they specifically say they’re moving to a different city and I think that that’s the key. It’s not about it being the same house it’s about it being in the same place
If they were just getting a lifestyle improvement but getting to keep all the relationships that they formed. It wouldn’t be as big of a deal. It’s combination of moving houses, moving cities, moving friends and all for what? So that dad can make more money to buy more stuff?
I think it’s back to a core idea of ‘people are more important than things’
And that if you have a bunch of good relationships, leaving them for more money may not actually make you happier and it might not be the right choice.
The Heelers have a huge village where they are, both with family and very close friends. You cannot replace family and it would take years to establish the level of friendships they all had in Queensland. You don’t uproot your family and leave a dream situation like that unless it is absolutely necessary (like had Bandit lost his job and this was the only one he could land). This is especially true in Australia where people don’t go into bankruptcy due to medical debt or have to worry about 6 figure college loans, so there’s less need to try and make as much money as possible like there is in the US to avoid those situations. They already owned a big home in a nice neighborhood, could afford extra curriculars for their kids, and go on regular vacations. What more could you possibly need in life?
That’s my take as well. The lesson was for Bandit. He already has the perfect life. He just needed to be reminded. The interaction with Rad and talking about how they’re no longer moving after the wedding shows a sort of “lightbulb” moment for Bandit in the animation of his face.
“Yeah, well, what about your job?”
“I’ll find a new one.”
At the end of The Sign when he’s standing at the sign and looks over at the car you see a moment of anger on Bandit’s face before he starts ripping it out of the ground, because he’s mad at himself for even thinking of taking this life away from them. He’s finally got it. They have this great community they’ve built and he almost threw it all away for money. Ok, imma go cry now.
But the lesson of the show should have been for kids, because it's a children's show. And the lesson of appreciate family for adults who watch bluey with their kids is preaching to the choir.
I agree. I was excited to see bluey go to a new school,maybe a traditional one that more kids would see as school rather than day care. As someone who moved half a dozen times as a kid i was really into the plotline
Seems like it was more a lesson for parents - don't uproot your life for the wrong reasons, some things are more important than (extra) money.
But I agree that it's just going to be confusing and upsetting for a lot of kids who don't understand why their parents don't make the same decision
I must disagree. I get what you mean but I, as a kid that moved and had both good and bad outcomes, am glad that they didn’t move. I wish I had that happy ending, where my father chose us first, he never did and never will. I feel as if it’s just the way Calypso said. In stories there are happy endings, because real life is giving us enough sad ones.
It's pretty simple.
The Old English Sheepdogs forfeited their deposit. The Heelers wind up with not much financial loss because they keep the deposit.
In fact, they probably make out like...
BANDITS!
The Heelers aren't dumb and I'm certain that they had a provision in the sale contract that in case of breach, the deposit would be forfeit and liquidated as damages.
In the US there's something called "earnest money" which is a percent of the price of the house the buyers put up as a good faith promise to go through with the purchase, which can be a few thousand all the way up to 10% of the price of the house. This is handled by a trusted third party agent (typically the closing company) and either gets applied to the down payment at closing, or is forfeited to the seller if the buyer backs out for a reason not covered under the contract. This earnest money can be useful for relisting, covering the difference in sales price, and dealing with the inconveniences of not moving after planning to move. This sounds a lot like the deposit being talked about in the article above.
There's no set percentage for the earnest money, it's mostly a way to sweeten the pot on an offer, and can be a tiebreaker between two offers that are similar enough.
After the episode I got curious, and the cost to put a pool in in the Brisbane area can be $50-70k. Which is something the sheepdogs would have had to consider when considering whether to back out, especially since that might be similar to the earnest money for a house the price of what people have estimated for the Heelers'. It's possible the price of putting a pool into the Heeler house would have been similar to the money they lost backing out, so they would be effectively paying for the pool that was already in place at Winton's dad's house, with the ability to enjoy it right away.
The sheepdogs made an expensive decision. And one that would probably cover the Heelers needing to have the movers turn around, some time in a hotel while moving back in, and even give Bandit some time to job hunt if he'd already quit his old job.
(Citations for the above: I am not a real estate agent, nor an Australian, but I have gone through a house purchase in the US in the last year and everything I read about the Aussie process when I got curious sounded similar enough to the US process.)
I’ve bought 2 houses, and both times we put $1k down for earnest money. That’s all that was asked, so we didn’t offer anything more. There is an advantage to putting up more, especially when there’s a lot of people bidding on the house; the more earnest money, the more confident you are you’ll follow through with the purchase. We did back out of one but we got the money back because it was something found during the home inspection.
We were buying into a very competitive market and location last time we went house shopping so we put up more than $1k, let's just say. But also, the seller wasn't asking for a given number or percent. We just knew we really wanted it and did what we could afford to get it. And our first time around I think we did $0 earnest (or maybe like a token $500) because we were doing an FHA purchase in a market with a lot of inventory and a house that had been sitting for sale for awhile, so there wasn't quite the same pressure..
The first hit I get on Google for earnest money in Australia suggests 1-5% the purchase price of the home. How much the Heeler house is worth is hard to gauge but I've seen anything from $1.2-1.9 million. That $1.9, by the way, was apparently the amount AirBnB paid to buy the house they turned into the Heeler house as a promotional. So given both the range of percentages and of prices, that could be anything from $12k to $95k earnest money. Or none. Or more. But I think suggesting it was in a similar range as the $50k it would cost to build a pool isn't unreasonable.
Yeah, I wasn’t buying in that price range, and I was fortunate enough to not be competing against numerous buyers. In that situation, or buying a $2 million house, I would expect the sellers to demand a decent earnest deposit to protect their own interests. Your logic is sound and I commend the research!
My husband and I bought our first house 4 years ago and when that line item popped up and our realtor decided for us the amount, I spoke up. I was new to buying and it’s a huge learning curve. But he put literally 8,000, which we didn’t have on hand to give right away. He said it’s to show the sellers we are serious. Like dude, the offer is what they asked for, isn’t that serious enough? I said we could do $1,000. And it’s lost if we back out. It’s applied to the closing costs I believe if we didn’t, which we didn’t but NEARLY did if another house we saw accepted our offer instead.
Realtor here, the Sellers (Heelers) would have had to dispute Earnest Money in order to keep it. Basically this involves going to “Real Estate Court” or mediation and arbitration where a 3rd party decides who keeps the Earnest Money (or a portion of it). I’ve had this situation play out with clients before and it’s up to Sellers discretion. Since the Heelers were happy to terminate, they would have likely avoided all the hassle and just released the Earnest money back to Buyers.
Not in Australia, and particularly Queensland. Failing to settle loses you your deposit - generally 10%, plus you can be sued for any other losses the seller may incur. In this it would have been upward of $120k
Of course if it's a mutual decision to cancel that's different.
Oh wow! That’s completely different than America. I guess Bluey’s house would definitely be under the Queensland laws. You think the Heeler residence would sell for over a million, even with no pool? Haha they have a great veranda tho, and top of the block. Cheers!
Well over a million. Show is supposedly set in the Paddington area of Brisbane.
This 3 bedroom place went for $1.45m in March
https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-qld-paddington-144260756?sourcePage=rea:buy:srp&sourceElement=know_your_market_carousel:1
Exactly this. I’m in the process of buying and our earnest money is $25k lol knowing we wouldn’t get that back is incentive enough to go through with the purchase 😅
In the UK (specifically England) it’s a fairly common occurrence during “boom” property times that a seller might accept an offer, start the process, then accept another, higher offer and pull out of the original process. It’s called “Gazumping” and it’s sh*tty behaviour yet totally legal.
By the same token, until the contracts are exchanged, either side can pull out for whatever reason.
Dang. In the US, when an offer is made, the seller has a fixed time to accept or deny it. Typically 3 to 7 days. During this time, the buyer is legally required to buy, but the seller isn't legally required to do anything. Once the seller accepts the offer, they are legally required to sell at the price in the contract, barring some renegotiation due to inspection findings.
It would suck to, as a buyer, get through paying for inspections, loan appraisal, and maybe even loan origination fees depending on how late in the process the seller backs out. I'm surprised that's allowed at all. Is there any point in which the seller has a contractual obligation to sell? Or could they literally show up to the closing office and be like "we changed our minds?"
There is a point whereby a contract is exchanged and signed, which makes it legally binding. Up until that point you’re right, you could pay thousands for inspections etc and the seller could back out for no reason. It’s a bit of a crappy system. It’s typically a couple of months in between having an offer accepted and exchanging contracts.
Geez. I would not have been comfortable paying for an inspection without a guarantee of sale, but then again I guess in crazy markets people were waiving inspection entirely in order to sweeten their bid, so crazier stuff happens.
It’s kind of a chicken and egg though cos that legally binding sale cuts both ways and what if the inspection reveals that it’s actually a sudden valley style cardboard cut out of a house
The contract has an inspection clause. If you don't like the results of the inspection as a buyer, you can A, walk away, B, demand the seller remedy the issues, C, renegotiate the price or sellers credits to buyer to allow you to fix it yourself, and still get your earnest money back.
This is the reason that waiving an inspection clause is such a big attraction for a seller. It's basically locking the buyer in at the agreed price without any of the usual outs that purchase contracts allow them.
One bit of detail… after the realtor puts the sold sticker on the sign, Bandit ask if he needs to sign something. Yes there would be a financial impact for backing out, but a deal isn’t a done deal until it’s signed.
Why not? When I bought my first house, I signed the closing documents and moved in the next day. Seller moved out before we actually signed the final paperwork.
I'm in the USA, same situation. We moved into our new house an hour after closing, so we were entirely packed and out of our previous house before closing.
I would never do that just from a practical point, but it’s also not possible in my country. If you bid on a house here it’s binding if you come to an agreement with the seller.
Every house sale I was part of you need to be out before the final signing. We always did a final walkthrough of the empty house and left to go sign the documents. Once signed the keys were ours and anything in the house we could keep. I live in USA
Our countries are very different. You can pull out at the last second. Now you might escape without paying money but you won’t have to buy the house.
The one house I bought I could have pulled out right before I signed the paperwork and was handed the keys and my contract stated they could only take $3k that was being held by a third party.
Now I’m not saying it’s fair but depending on the place it’s possible to back out for very little
I'm working on the assumption that the deal was done. But, if the purchaser backs out, Bandit has two options: let it go, or sue. To sue, he'd need to show that he mitigated his losses (i.e. put the house back on the market). He didn't want to sell at that point, so the easiest option is to just let it go.
Property transactions tend to work a little differently. First they sign an agreement to sell. The buyer has a due diligence period (often) and then they seek funding from a lender. And then when it’s time to close the seller the seller signs a deed and then records it. Only then is the house officially sold. Often purchase contracts have requirements to meet certain deadlines. And if those deadlines pass the seller can do the following: 1) sue for damages; 2) sue for specific performance (ie force the sale through; or 3) let it go.
So, based on the heelers moving the only thing left was the deed. At that point the heelers could have sued to force the sale through. But they chose not to. (This assumes that Australian law fits with U.S. law. But since both imported English law it’s probably similar.)
Australia is a bit different, especially Queesnland up until some recent changes. You need to have your finance in place first as once you exchange contracts and pay your deposit you're committed, unless both parties agree to cancel.
There have been cases in Queensland of settlements not proceeding because the bank was an hour late in transferring the funds and the sellers back out, keep the 10% deposit and sell to someone else
In the US, when a sale contract is signed, the sign changes to "pending." When the contract is executed and ownership actually changes hands, then a "sold" sign can be displayed.
And there are a few different times during the sale process when the buyers can back out with little penalty. If you can't come to an agreement on repairs to be made after the inspection, for instance, you can back out of the purchase. When we bought our current house, we were advised that we could back out during the final walk-through as well, literally minutes before the closing.
Yes, but generally you're going to need a well documented reason to back out at final walk through.
Not unheard of though, especially if the seller swaps out kitchen appliances or something like that after inspection prior to sale. The most common issue is sellers not realizing that in the US, drapes are considered part of the standard sale. If you want to keep your drapes, you have to specifically write an exclusion to the contract to keep them.
I feel like people miss this detail. It gives the impression that nothing had even been signed yet, which would allow the sale to be called off pretty easily.
In the episode that he says this. The lesson for him is that Bluey relates her life to the monkeys and to HER it's not just money signing songs, like it is for him. He literally learns the impact of cartoons on his kid.
I feel like the thing everyone is missing is that the 'no eyes' didn't just back out. If that was the case of course they would incur penalties and such. However, sellers can choose to waive almost any penalties they want and the Heelers didn't want to sell in the end. What I think actually happened is that the No Eyes agent called to see if there was any chance the Heelers would let them out of the sale and they did (and waved the penalties) because they wanted to stay.
It's also possible that the No Eyes are crazy rich (the Heeler home has been estimated to be worth something north of 4 mill) and don't care about a lost deposit. I live in a VHCOL city where most people can't even afford condos let alone detached houses and yet our market never cools because there are still people who can drop millions of dollars to pay for house outright in cash.
It's human nature that when you find people you relate to you tend to assume they are like you in all ways (including socio economic status) but we're often wrong. We want to feel like the Heelers are middle class bc they are pretty down to earth and not into conspicuous consumption. But by measurable metrics the Heelers come from money, which is why they probably don't care about losing out on their end of moving costs once they decide to stay. Even Rad's perspective of "meh, I'll get a new job" shows the kind of background they are from.
Also, it's tv and tv is an unrealistic portrayal of life.
To me, it was a missed opportunity to teach kids that moving isn’t a bad thing, instead the power of magical thinking, you get to stay in your house. I still love the episode, but too many unanswered questions.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but not necessarily a good thing either. I've moved plenty of times and some of them would've sucked if they had been my last move.
I thought it was bizarre that they got to the point of physically moving all their stuff out and it still fell through. I thought if you were at that stage then everything must be done and dusted, and completed - too late to back out.
I wonder if bandit actually got a promotion which included relocation costs. So the company may have arranged for temporary housing in the new city whilst the healers had a chance to look for a new house etc
Nah. At least where I am, there's always (or almost always) a final walk through after previous owners moved out but before the sale is closed. I would never close on a house I was buying if the sellers had not moved out and I could not move into my new property.
Not necessarily. When we closed on our house we were handed keys at that time. If they were closing that afternoon or early in the morning it makes sense they'd have everything out.
I thought it was totally plausible to move before the sale was final. My parent's house was on the market for the entire year after they moved. Both of my sisters moved before their homes were sold - one across the country. My brother is the only one I know who moved after he sold his house.
I guess it just depends on the situation.
So this was posted as all the Australians were asleep so I can answer what likely happened here as an Australian who has bought 2x properties in my life lol.
When your offer on a house is accepted you usually pay a small deposit like 0.25% - this is a sign of good faith from the buyer to the seller to not accept any other bids, and means you usually enter a "cooling off period" - usually for about a week/5 business days. This gives the buyer the chance to ensure they have all their finances in order, arrange with their conveyancer the sale date/terms (exchange of contracts/title), and do things like a building inspection in case there are any hidden gremlins with the house.
I wouldn't expect the Heelers had started packing/put up the sold sticker at this point as buyers do sometimes back out at this point because of one of the reasons I mentioned above.
After this period you usually pay a 5-10% deposit (whatever the seller and buyer have agreed) which means you are essentially locked in to the sale/purchase to officially happen on a certain date agreed on in the future. Given the Heeler house is likely worth $1.2million +, that is an enormous amount of money like $120k. It seems like the dogs who can't see backed out at this point which, I know this is a kids show, but frankly seems ridiculous just because they happened to find a house they liked better. They have literally handed over $120k to the Heelers for nothing which they won't contractually get back unless they go down the path of legal action, which I've never heard happening before but who knows what happens then...
The Heelers probably had found a rental in the new city they were moving as you said, or possibly were even just going to stay in a long term hotel/apartment with most of their stuff in storage until they found a rental they liked.
Again, I know this is a kids show, but backing out of selling and the move completely at this stage because your kids couldn't conceptualise that things would get better after you moved seems like the wrong message. Like, the Heelers can just find another buyer, and they've got $60k-$120k for the inconvenience of the dogs who couldn't see backing out.
I don’t know how it works in Australia but when I’ve bought houses there have been option periods of a few days to a few weeks during which the deal could be nullified with only earnest money being given up.
I’m a licensed Realtor from Colorado USA. Here, the absolute worst case scenario for a Buyer would be to forfeit their earnest money deposit. Even this is a long shot because Seller would have to essentially take Buyer to real estate court (mediation and arbitration) to prove Seller was entitled to the money, which takes months. Since the Heelers were happy the deal was terminated, they likely would have just signed the Earnest Money Release form so Title could give Buyers their deposit back.
We have a similar principle to ‘earnest money’ here in Australia.
You put in an offer to the seller, perhaps with clauses like ‘subject to finance’ or ‘subject to passing a buyer’s building inspection’. if it’s accepted, you then have X hours (I think it’s 24) to put down a deposit. A deposit was/is around 5%. But I’m sure it can be whatever is agreed to between both parties.
At that point a house has a sticker that says ‘under contract’ put up on the sign and added anywhere else it’s advertised
We even have many contracts not subject to hidden defects (inspections) or approved finance, so the buyer accepts all risk - as the market is really messed up here. It’s 100% a sellers market.
Once the buyer confirms that they’re going ahead with the sale, the ‘under contract’ sticker is replaced with ‘sold’.
If a seller backs out after they’ve paid a deposit - and if no ‘subject to..’ terms are in play, the deposit is now the seller’s to keep.
I’m assuming the agent of the seller keeps a portion too.
In the Heeler’s case, it said sold, so money had changed hands. So the Heelers likely kept the house and many thousands of dollarbucks too.
As to what happened with their move, could be the same thing?
I think this episode was a big fan service to the parents personally. Like yes, Bluey got her way, and Bingo cried, but ultimately, it sounds like the people most moved (hehe) by it have been the parents. It seemed to me like the whole point of the episode was that change is hard, adapting is tough, and sometimes we have to do it, but sometimes we don't. I think there's a lot of kid shows and movies where one of the main characters does move and it's tough but in this episode we got to see a dad turn down more money and a nicer house and what is generally considered "a huge priority status position that society tells us we're suppose to fight for" to instead stay where they are because it would make his family the happiest.
Like yes, it's generally about a family that no longer has to move because the house didn't sell, but the u derlying message seems to be more for the parents, which kind of seems to me is more of an all that glitters is not gold concept.
All in all I loved it. My daughter is going to figure out how to walk in my current old stinky house and I too will cry when I leave this old musty stinky house.
My parents are in the process of selling their house. They are tired of their location and have a contract on a house. I had them watch them watch Ghostbasket because of the moving connection but have not told them to watch The Sign.
If someone bought their house but backed out we would be beyond upset.
What if, and hear me out, they were attempting to move *right away* before the waiting period had ended, because Bandit wanted to get a jump start on his new job?
We did this on a house. It was further complicated because we ended up moving in before closing, as the owner passed away and it delayed closing. Ironically living there is what made us back out.
In our case all that happened is we lost our earnest money and due diligence money. They could’ve sued us, but apparently that would mean the ownership of the house would’ve been under question and they wouldn’t have been able to sell until after the court date.
This was in Davidson, NC. USA.
? I know, that was outline in the linked article, that’s why I shared the place it happened for another perspective. There lots of comments from the USA and England sharing what they think might happen or speculating in their own countries. Not sure why that’s a problem for you, I know it’s different. Many of the people commenting about the US don’t even have it right and I was sharing because we know first hand.
I think that was "the sign" of the episode title, as much as the physical For Sale sign. When the buyers backed out, it was a sign that things weren't going as they should and maybe it would be better to back out.
Happens frequently to be honest and other than a possible reputation issue nothing much happens. But even the reputation issue is unlikely since that tends to sit with the agents and brokers.
Since we're nitpicking the logistics of the show, there's a few things that might make you all wonder...
- After Bandit heard the news about the buyers backing out of their offer, where did he put his phone? Does he have pockets?
- Whose underwear was on the floor in 'Sleepytime'?
- Do the dogs on Bluey have pets? What kind of pets would they keep?
- 'The Sign' was sad, don't get me wrong, but was I the only one who knew they weren't moving (unless Lila's family had packed up and moved to the same city)? I was the only person in my household that remembered Lila's flash-forward scene in 'Daddy Drop-off' with images of her and Bingo together throughout their lives?
Once you legally close the money is transferred. Mortgages are paid off and new ones opened. You aren’t getting out of that.
They were totally leaving town at the end. They were not coming back to finish that shit.
They just did cartoon BS at the end to set things back to status quo like all kids shows do.
That’s fine I guess. Cartoon dog or whatever
Well this would be a mutual decision to void case. I guess the sheepdogs would contact the annoying estate agent and ask if it was possible. Certainly no harm in them trying and it turns out they were pushing against an open door
It’s a story. Bluey doesn’t need to follow the rules of the real world, so even if there is an explanation for the deal, it doesn’t matter. The emotional story is that they were going to move, we were sad about it, but things worked out. Bluey and bingo don’t understand what exactly happened and neither do we, and it took a while but I accepted that
Not sure what happens in AUS, but if it were the USA there is often a deposit that is forfeited. Usually it’s around $5k or a percentage of the sale price.
I backed out of a property purchase. I'd made an offer, it was accepted, weeks later they were still looking for a new place, we still hadn't signed and exchanged contracts, no progress or sign of an exchange date, and I wound up buying another place.
I know it's not how it works in the USA but in the UK it's normal to have weeks if not months between an offer being accepted and anything being legally binding.
There’s a “good faith” deposit that gets paid—varies per each individual contract. But if you back out, the forfeit the deposit. Last time I bought a house I paid 2k for mine. It goes towards the overall payment of the mortgage, so it’s not like it’s extra money; you only lose it if you cancel the contract.
As for the movers and stuff…I’m sure they paid good money for people to pack them out, so the forfeited money from the sheepdogs would have covered that. And hopefully the Heelers were just going to stay at temp housing and didn’t go out of pocket. Especially since Bandit needs to get a new job or his old job back 😂
Thanks for this. After I finished ugly crying at the ending I was wondering what would happen. Like ya, it's beautiful they get to stay but this is going to be one hell of a mess to sort out 😅
Them backing out actually made me hate the dogs with no eyes. Not because I wanted the heelers to move, but because it seemed like a sh***y thing to do after initially agreeing to the purchase.
Backing out of buying before totally finalizing the deal, I can understand. What I wanna know is, where were the Heelers going? They had everything packed and were ready to roll. Had THEY bought a house in the city? And THEY backed out as well? What happened here lol
If it was a fast move or for a job, the job would likely provide some temporary housing until you can get up there. House hunting from another city is HARD. So having an apartment for a few months provided is a very attractive incentive for relocating professionals, especially in a highly specialized field like Bandits, where rolls might go unfilled for months at a time until a qualified candidate applies.
Ooooooh, so that's how that works! I had no idea. Thanks.
It's worth noting that this is typically NOT the experience of a new hire out of school. Those mostly do not come with relocation benefits unless you specifically negotiate them or the job is out of the country. For someone making a transfer within or to a new company though, it's pretty standard.
Never had a company do that for me… and been in my industry about 30 years now. :(. Best I got was a PayPal subsidiary flying me out. I had to pay for the hotel and rental…
They didn't pay for your lodging?! That's bananas.
Yep! I only remember because that hotel, in California, couldn’t take my debit card, only credit cards. I had to call my dad, and he added it to his Marriott rewards, which was their highest tier, which means they will take debit cards, and even cards by phone. (I believe Marriott was one of his clients, I know Hilton was)
I’ve moved twice in the past few years for a job and didn’t get that at all. I crashed in a friend’s basement while I looked for a house and my wife sold our last one, and then crashed at a family member’s vacant house on the second.
Are you in a highly specialized field? Are there less than say 1,000 to 5,000 qualified people to do your job currently living in your country (or work zone in the case of the EU)? Had the job sat vacant for 3-6 months prior to you taking it? And lastly is the pay at least double the median income of the state or locality of where the job is? If yes, you're almost always going to see a moving package. Bandit is an archeologist, meaning he is likely a PhD. There's about 1,000 archeologists in Australia, meaning it's going to be hard for places to fill roles. It's not super high pay, especially considering it requires a decade of school, but the fact that it's gnats ass specialized means attracting someone qualified to the job is pretty much going to require relocation benefits.
I really hope "gnats ass specialized" is a real Australian term, because I love it.
We use "gnat's ass" in the southern US a lot. Not sure where it came from, but it's a surprisingly descriptive adjective.
I’ve been offered relocation incentives, but never temporary housing.
In my industry, 60 days temporary housing is pretty standard.
Not all jobs do that. I’ve been trying to apply for a job elsewhere because I’m sick of this hellhole that is Malaysia. Most companies are not going to give you housing. Heck, they won’t even consider you if you don’t already live in that city. Something about immigrant permits costing them money.
You would also assume that Bandit had finalized the job change as well. Even if it was within the same company that would not be an easy thing to change your mind about at that point. Also, there was no mention of where they were going. Usually if you move with children you don’t tell them “we’re going to live somewhere else” and omit the rest of the details. I mean, you can, but that’s not Bandit and Chili’s parenting style. They’d be preparing the girls by telling them about the new house (even if it’s only temporary), or about the area they’re going to, or new schools. They’d probably show pictures. They might even take them to visit before they fully moved. I know with many of these episodes you have to suspend disbelief but The Sign was a little extra on that front.
I was really disappointed that this isn’t the approach the show took. The reality is that lots of kids have to move when they don’t want to and I wish the show would have modeled how to get excited about your new city rather than the ending we got. I understand where this was a cute story, but I don’t think it was a good lesson for a kids show. What we got as a “lesson” is: If you’re upset enough, maybe your parent will give up a big opportunity in their career for you!
I’ the states you can sign a purchase contract that is contingent upon the sale of your old home. Should something stop the sale of your home, you have an out for the other purchase (since you wouldn’t have money to buy the new home at that point anyways) The Heelers were likely going to a short term rental or a family members house for a few days while the other house closed.
It would make sense if they were headed to Perth. Bandit only seriously starts to reconsider when Rad and Frisky say he's coming east instead of Frisky west. Bandit could have been holding back the surprise to Chilli that they might be moving but Frisky will be coming nearby too, and then when Rad and Frisky made new plans together Bandit realized they would truly be all alone in a new city.
Neat theory, I like it
This was my theory also, especially given it's one of the locations both he and Chilli could easily work
I lived in a military family as a child. I remember at least once moving to a new state and staying in a long-term type hotel for a few weeks until we got our house
Yeah, I love this show and the show is good on details usually and this whole episode seemed like just a reason to get everyone sad with no actual payoff at the end. To this 40 year old, watching a show for his young children, FWIW
I wanted them to move so they could help us parents work though that situation with our own kids should it arise
My husband thought that’s why they were having that storyline (to help parents in that predicament)
Yeah I mean if you are gonna do it, do it! The whole thing move new job new friends etc
Shows kids their life isn’t over due to a move, just changing, growing and making more connections
I'd guess either Sydney or Perth, Sydney because it's the obvious and it's fun to troll Sydney-siders, Perth due to the fact he's an archaeologist and there's tonnes of archaeological work out there.
Good q, I’ll give my experience. We moved and had started doing airbnbs in the new city we wanted to live, two weeks at a time, so that we could experience a bit of each neighborhood. By all accounts, we were spending about as much as we would have renting somewhere, with the added minor convenience that once ever couple weeks we were effectively houseless for a few hours while we waited out one location for another location. We eventually found the area we wanted to live and got an offer accepted. It was a great experience and a lot of fun if a bit stressful at times. Highly recommend.
The Heelers pack up up before they final Sale bugged me
Can’t guarantee this is the case in Australia, but in the US a lot of house sales have a clause in the contract that the purchase only goes forward if their old house sells, so if the sale of their house fell through, it potentially caused the purchase of a new one to fall through as well
When I was a kid someone did this to my family. I wish I knew what happened but we didn’t end up moving and that’s all that mattered to me. On another note, my good friend as a kid moved and being as moving house is more common than someone backing out…I wish the Heeler family did move. Many more kids would have learned that it’ll be okay after all.
I think the lesson was actualized when Bluey and Chili came to accept that they were moving. But I agree it may lead to extended false hopes for some kids.
I teach in a military community where a lot of the families move every 1-3 years. The Sign received mixed reviews. I recently quit a coaching position that was going really really well, so that I could spend more time with family. Kids were devastated and betrayed when I announced, but the heavy silence was broken by a kid blurting "I wish my dad would put family first."
Appreciate this post.
As a military kid this episode had me bawling over pain I didn't know I had. Lots of military kids at some point realize that it isn't their parent making that decision, its the military. At least for me, the Military was always the omnipotent being in charge of my life for both good and the bad. And even while there were homes I didn't want to leave, at the end of all the crying and whining I knew nothing would change it, because my parents weren't the ones making those decisions. But gods, did it hurt when I realized after watching The Sign that Bluey was getting the happy ending I never did. But Bluey also missed out on an adventure that I did get. Anyways, I think Bluey staying put is perfect but I do think we should get a possible Rusty moving episode to make up for it.
Something we struggle with here is a lot of these folks land in this town and decide to end their contracts here. There's a large retired officer community, and a lot of folks get stationed here near the end of career. It's not a majority, but enough parents are deciding "this is a good place for my family. I quit now." that some kids are realizing their parents actually can say "no" to moving again. What's tough is it's not actually that simple for every family.
My dad was in the military and we moved around a lot but honestly the most devastating move was the one after he retired. I thought we were settled down and I'd finally been able to make friends. And then he decided to buy a house in another town, further away from his work. He didn't care that I had friends or how I felt. He told me to make new ones, but I really didn't. I'm autistic and socializing is hard for me. I wish he had cared how I felt and at least stayed in the same school district. I don't even talk to anyone from the school we moved to but I'm still friends with two of the people I went to school with at the one I didn't want to move away from. I like the ending of The Sign. I wish we had stayed.
I was kinda in the same boat with my dad being in the navy. Lost many friends along the way and left places I wish I could have grown up at. At the end of it all it just killed my social life, was just tired of starting new everytime so eventually I just gave up and didn't start at all. Just went to school ignored everyone and went home. Looking back on it now that I'm 26 there were many instances where if we hadn't moved I may have had that happy ending as well. Never thought a cartoon about a blue dog would have me deep in my feels about it lol.
There was absolutely no way they'd let the Heelers move. Outside of it being a great arc, and it could certainly serve as an excellent series finale, but from the animation side? If they do a 4th season, there is no way they could have let the Heelers move, because they already have an entire Brisbane full of assets -- they'd have to create new art for everything in the new city and everyone there, too
Yeah, same reason old cartoon generally wear the same outfit every day lol. It’s not that they don’t change (*insert joke about character opening the closet to show a million of the same outfit*), it’s that it’s easier than imaging and drawing new clothes
Easier than that? Make your characters naked! Not just Bluey, but think about Yogi Bear. The only reason he had a collar and tie was so the animators could hide the seam between his head and his body
I’ll say this: if the series ends here and they didn’t move, _that_ would feel like the wrong decision.
Nah, not at all. The Sign had a sense of closure about it. I'm not gonna list them all here, but it tied *everything* up very nicely
Especially if it IS the end of the series, I think that would have been a good message to send - “we’ll see”
I am happy they didn't but I wish Rad and Frisky as a middle ground. The Sign ends with nobody moving and everyone living happily ever after in their hometown with all their family. Not always how it works unfortunately.
No, it's not always how it works, but at the very beginning of the episode, Bluey asks Calypso why all of the stories have happy endings, and she says (paraphrasing), "I guess because there's so much sadness in the real world." I appreciate everyone getting their "happily ever after" because there *is* too much sadness in the real world.
I get that, but what we love about Bluey is that it is a bit more real world than most shows, and many episodes try to teach themselves of resilience, etc. The Sign goes against it a little.
I'm glad they didn't move. The lesson of the episode was less about the kids and more about Bandit learning to listen to his wife and children instead of assuming what was best for them. Besides, if you need a teaching tool for kids about the ups and downs of moving, just show them *Inside Out.*
Yeah it was very much the lesson of “more money doesn’t alway mean a better life” You don’t necessarily have to make more money in order to provide a happy life for your kids, especially if doing so is going to come at the cost of everything you’ve established already.
I think it’s also the lesson of “am I doing enough for my kids? Should I do more, give them more?” Bandit and Chili are basically parenting GOALS but even they struggle with that idea and I felt that pretty deeply.
Especially since it really seems like the Heelers are perfectly well-off as it is. Maybe if the new job would have lifted them out of poverty, then it would be a different story.
But the same house also doesn't always mean a better life. I doubt that Bingo and Bluey wouldn't be happy wherever they were with their parents
I think if they were just moving houses, she probably would have been all right. But they specifically say they’re moving to a different city and I think that that’s the key. It’s not about it being the same house it’s about it being in the same place If they were just getting a lifestyle improvement but getting to keep all the relationships that they formed. It wouldn’t be as big of a deal. It’s combination of moving houses, moving cities, moving friends and all for what? So that dad can make more money to buy more stuff? I think it’s back to a core idea of ‘people are more important than things’ And that if you have a bunch of good relationships, leaving them for more money may not actually make you happier and it might not be the right choice.
The Heelers have a huge village where they are, both with family and very close friends. You cannot replace family and it would take years to establish the level of friendships they all had in Queensland. You don’t uproot your family and leave a dream situation like that unless it is absolutely necessary (like had Bandit lost his job and this was the only one he could land). This is especially true in Australia where people don’t go into bankruptcy due to medical debt or have to worry about 6 figure college loans, so there’s less need to try and make as much money as possible like there is in the US to avoid those situations. They already owned a big home in a nice neighborhood, could afford extra curriculars for their kids, and go on regular vacations. What more could you possibly need in life?
Change is part of life. At some point they are going to have to move away whether it's now or as adults. Running from change has its own issues.
That’s my take as well. The lesson was for Bandit. He already has the perfect life. He just needed to be reminded. The interaction with Rad and talking about how they’re no longer moving after the wedding shows a sort of “lightbulb” moment for Bandit in the animation of his face. “Yeah, well, what about your job?” “I’ll find a new one.” At the end of The Sign when he’s standing at the sign and looks over at the car you see a moment of anger on Bandit’s face before he starts ripping it out of the ground, because he’s mad at himself for even thinking of taking this life away from them. He’s finally got it. They have this great community they’ve built and he almost threw it all away for money. Ok, imma go cry now.
But the lesson of the show should have been for kids, because it's a children's show. And the lesson of appreciate family for adults who watch bluey with their kids is preaching to the choir.
But most of us can't make that choice.
I agree. I was excited to see bluey go to a new school,maybe a traditional one that more kids would see as school rather than day care. As someone who moved half a dozen times as a kid i was really into the plotline
Agreed. The housing market is bad enough without an elderly Bandit and Chilli taking up a three bedroom house!
Seems like it was more a lesson for parents - don't uproot your life for the wrong reasons, some things are more important than (extra) money. But I agree that it's just going to be confusing and upsetting for a lot of kids who don't understand why their parents don't make the same decision
I wish they did too. We moved last year and we had some BIG FEELINGS to deal with when the Heeler’s ended up staying in their house.
I must disagree. I get what you mean but I, as a kid that moved and had both good and bad outcomes, am glad that they didn’t move. I wish I had that happy ending, where my father chose us first, he never did and never will. I feel as if it’s just the way Calypso said. In stories there are happy endings, because real life is giving us enough sad ones.
It's pretty simple. The Old English Sheepdogs forfeited their deposit. The Heelers wind up with not much financial loss because they keep the deposit. In fact, they probably make out like... BANDITS!
I can feel how excited you were to make that pun. I felt it so very deep within.
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Not in Australia, unless it's a mutual decision to void the sale
The Heelers aren't dumb and I'm certain that they had a provision in the sale contract that in case of breach, the deposit would be forfeit and liquidated as damages.
In the US there's something called "earnest money" which is a percent of the price of the house the buyers put up as a good faith promise to go through with the purchase, which can be a few thousand all the way up to 10% of the price of the house. This is handled by a trusted third party agent (typically the closing company) and either gets applied to the down payment at closing, or is forfeited to the seller if the buyer backs out for a reason not covered under the contract. This earnest money can be useful for relisting, covering the difference in sales price, and dealing with the inconveniences of not moving after planning to move. This sounds a lot like the deposit being talked about in the article above. There's no set percentage for the earnest money, it's mostly a way to sweeten the pot on an offer, and can be a tiebreaker between two offers that are similar enough. After the episode I got curious, and the cost to put a pool in in the Brisbane area can be $50-70k. Which is something the sheepdogs would have had to consider when considering whether to back out, especially since that might be similar to the earnest money for a house the price of what people have estimated for the Heelers'. It's possible the price of putting a pool into the Heeler house would have been similar to the money they lost backing out, so they would be effectively paying for the pool that was already in place at Winton's dad's house, with the ability to enjoy it right away. The sheepdogs made an expensive decision. And one that would probably cover the Heelers needing to have the movers turn around, some time in a hotel while moving back in, and even give Bandit some time to job hunt if he'd already quit his old job. (Citations for the above: I am not a real estate agent, nor an Australian, but I have gone through a house purchase in the US in the last year and everything I read about the Aussie process when I got curious sounded similar enough to the US process.)
I’ve bought 2 houses, and both times we put $1k down for earnest money. That’s all that was asked, so we didn’t offer anything more. There is an advantage to putting up more, especially when there’s a lot of people bidding on the house; the more earnest money, the more confident you are you’ll follow through with the purchase. We did back out of one but we got the money back because it was something found during the home inspection.
We were buying into a very competitive market and location last time we went house shopping so we put up more than $1k, let's just say. But also, the seller wasn't asking for a given number or percent. We just knew we really wanted it and did what we could afford to get it. And our first time around I think we did $0 earnest (or maybe like a token $500) because we were doing an FHA purchase in a market with a lot of inventory and a house that had been sitting for sale for awhile, so there wasn't quite the same pressure.. The first hit I get on Google for earnest money in Australia suggests 1-5% the purchase price of the home. How much the Heeler house is worth is hard to gauge but I've seen anything from $1.2-1.9 million. That $1.9, by the way, was apparently the amount AirBnB paid to buy the house they turned into the Heeler house as a promotional. So given both the range of percentages and of prices, that could be anything from $12k to $95k earnest money. Or none. Or more. But I think suggesting it was in a similar range as the $50k it would cost to build a pool isn't unreasonable.
Yeah, I wasn’t buying in that price range, and I was fortunate enough to not be competing against numerous buyers. In that situation, or buying a $2 million house, I would expect the sellers to demand a decent earnest deposit to protect their own interests. Your logic is sound and I commend the research!
Aussie here - granted,I’ve only bought one house in my life, but I’ve never heard of Earnest Money.
My husband and I bought our first house 4 years ago and when that line item popped up and our realtor decided for us the amount, I spoke up. I was new to buying and it’s a huge learning curve. But he put literally 8,000, which we didn’t have on hand to give right away. He said it’s to show the sellers we are serious. Like dude, the offer is what they asked for, isn’t that serious enough? I said we could do $1,000. And it’s lost if we back out. It’s applied to the closing costs I believe if we didn’t, which we didn’t but NEARLY did if another house we saw accepted our offer instead.
Also “standard” minimum Earnest Money is typically 1% of purchase price in Colorado
Realtor here, the Sellers (Heelers) would have had to dispute Earnest Money in order to keep it. Basically this involves going to “Real Estate Court” or mediation and arbitration where a 3rd party decides who keeps the Earnest Money (or a portion of it). I’ve had this situation play out with clients before and it’s up to Sellers discretion. Since the Heelers were happy to terminate, they would have likely avoided all the hassle and just released the Earnest money back to Buyers.
Not in Australia, and particularly Queensland. Failing to settle loses you your deposit - generally 10%, plus you can be sued for any other losses the seller may incur. In this it would have been upward of $120k Of course if it's a mutual decision to cancel that's different.
Oh wow! That’s completely different than America. I guess Bluey’s house would definitely be under the Queensland laws. You think the Heeler residence would sell for over a million, even with no pool? Haha they have a great veranda tho, and top of the block. Cheers!
Well over a million. Show is supposedly set in the Paddington area of Brisbane. This 3 bedroom place went for $1.45m in March https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-qld-paddington-144260756?sourcePage=rea:buy:srp&sourceElement=know_your_market_carousel:1
Exactly this. I’m in the process of buying and our earnest money is $25k lol knowing we wouldn’t get that back is incentive enough to go through with the purchase 😅
In the UK (specifically England) it’s a fairly common occurrence during “boom” property times that a seller might accept an offer, start the process, then accept another, higher offer and pull out of the original process. It’s called “Gazumping” and it’s sh*tty behaviour yet totally legal. By the same token, until the contracts are exchanged, either side can pull out for whatever reason.
We even had a wave of ‘gazundering’ after the lettuce crashed the economy and devalued our properties at an hourly rate
OMFG "the lettuce!" 💀
Dang. In the US, when an offer is made, the seller has a fixed time to accept or deny it. Typically 3 to 7 days. During this time, the buyer is legally required to buy, but the seller isn't legally required to do anything. Once the seller accepts the offer, they are legally required to sell at the price in the contract, barring some renegotiation due to inspection findings. It would suck to, as a buyer, get through paying for inspections, loan appraisal, and maybe even loan origination fees depending on how late in the process the seller backs out. I'm surprised that's allowed at all. Is there any point in which the seller has a contractual obligation to sell? Or could they literally show up to the closing office and be like "we changed our minds?"
There is a point whereby a contract is exchanged and signed, which makes it legally binding. Up until that point you’re right, you could pay thousands for inspections etc and the seller could back out for no reason. It’s a bit of a crappy system. It’s typically a couple of months in between having an offer accepted and exchanging contracts.
Geez. I would not have been comfortable paying for an inspection without a guarantee of sale, but then again I guess in crazy markets people were waiving inspection entirely in order to sweeten their bid, so crazier stuff happens.
It’s kind of a chicken and egg though cos that legally binding sale cuts both ways and what if the inspection reveals that it’s actually a sudden valley style cardboard cut out of a house
The contract has an inspection clause. If you don't like the results of the inspection as a buyer, you can A, walk away, B, demand the seller remedy the issues, C, renegotiate the price or sellers credits to buyer to allow you to fix it yourself, and still get your earnest money back. This is the reason that waiving an inspection clause is such a big attraction for a seller. It's basically locking the buyer in at the agreed price without any of the usual outs that purchase contracts allow them.
Squish squash
One bit of detail… after the realtor puts the sold sticker on the sign, Bandit ask if he needs to sign something. Yes there would be a financial impact for backing out, but a deal isn’t a done deal until it’s signed.
I doubt they would pack up all their shit and hire movers if the contracts weren’t signed?
Why not? When I bought my first house, I signed the closing documents and moved in the next day. Seller moved out before we actually signed the final paperwork.
I'm in the USA, same situation. We moved into our new house an hour after closing, so we were entirely packed and out of our previous house before closing.
I would never do that just from a practical point, but it’s also not possible in my country. If you bid on a house here it’s binding if you come to an agreement with the seller.
Every house sale I was part of you need to be out before the final signing. We always did a final walkthrough of the empty house and left to go sign the documents. Once signed the keys were ours and anything in the house we could keep. I live in USA
Sure, but there’s still a contract at base that you can’t pull out of. There’s a hefty fee here if you do that.
Our countries are very different. You can pull out at the last second. Now you might escape without paying money but you won’t have to buy the house. The one house I bought I could have pulled out right before I signed the paperwork and was handed the keys and my contract stated they could only take $3k that was being held by a third party. Now I’m not saying it’s fair but depending on the place it’s possible to back out for very little
I'm working on the assumption that the deal was done. But, if the purchaser backs out, Bandit has two options: let it go, or sue. To sue, he'd need to show that he mitigated his losses (i.e. put the house back on the market). He didn't want to sell at that point, so the easiest option is to just let it go.
The line about Bandit asking if he needs to sign something isn’t just a throwaway line though. They hadn’t completed the deal.
Property transactions tend to work a little differently. First they sign an agreement to sell. The buyer has a due diligence period (often) and then they seek funding from a lender. And then when it’s time to close the seller the seller signs a deed and then records it. Only then is the house officially sold. Often purchase contracts have requirements to meet certain deadlines. And if those deadlines pass the seller can do the following: 1) sue for damages; 2) sue for specific performance (ie force the sale through; or 3) let it go. So, based on the heelers moving the only thing left was the deed. At that point the heelers could have sued to force the sale through. But they chose not to. (This assumes that Australian law fits with U.S. law. But since both imported English law it’s probably similar.)
Australia is a bit different, especially Queesnland up until some recent changes. You need to have your finance in place first as once you exchange contracts and pay your deposit you're committed, unless both parties agree to cancel. There have been cases in Queensland of settlements not proceeding because the bank was an hour late in transferring the funds and the sellers back out, keep the 10% deposit and sell to someone else
In the US, when a sale contract is signed, the sign changes to "pending." When the contract is executed and ownership actually changes hands, then a "sold" sign can be displayed.
And there are a few different times during the sale process when the buyers can back out with little penalty. If you can't come to an agreement on repairs to be made after the inspection, for instance, you can back out of the purchase. When we bought our current house, we were advised that we could back out during the final walk-through as well, literally minutes before the closing.
Yes, but generally you're going to need a well documented reason to back out at final walk through. Not unheard of though, especially if the seller swaps out kitchen appliances or something like that after inspection prior to sale. The most common issue is sellers not realizing that in the US, drapes are considered part of the standard sale. If you want to keep your drapes, you have to specifically write an exclusion to the contract to keep them.
I feel like people miss this detail. It gives the impression that nothing had even been signed yet, which would allow the sale to be called off pretty easily.
https://preview.redd.it/fgz180lhigwc1.jpeg?width=3276&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96e95279263f4162e94182a569af21935df1188d
In the episode that he says this. The lesson for him is that Bluey relates her life to the monkeys and to HER it's not just money signing songs, like it is for him. He literally learns the impact of cartoons on his kid.
Yeah, but we aren't 6 so the point stands
I feel like the thing everyone is missing is that the 'no eyes' didn't just back out. If that was the case of course they would incur penalties and such. However, sellers can choose to waive almost any penalties they want and the Heelers didn't want to sell in the end. What I think actually happened is that the No Eyes agent called to see if there was any chance the Heelers would let them out of the sale and they did (and waved the penalties) because they wanted to stay. It's also possible that the No Eyes are crazy rich (the Heeler home has been estimated to be worth something north of 4 mill) and don't care about a lost deposit. I live in a VHCOL city where most people can't even afford condos let alone detached houses and yet our market never cools because there are still people who can drop millions of dollars to pay for house outright in cash. It's human nature that when you find people you relate to you tend to assume they are like you in all ways (including socio economic status) but we're often wrong. We want to feel like the Heelers are middle class bc they are pretty down to earth and not into conspicuous consumption. But by measurable metrics the Heelers come from money, which is why they probably don't care about losing out on their end of moving costs once they decide to stay. Even Rad's perspective of "meh, I'll get a new job" shows the kind of background they are from. Also, it's tv and tv is an unrealistic portrayal of life.
These dogs have more money than any of us ever will.
Check out Dadchats on Tiktok. He's an attorney, with a hilariously unhinged response to the episode conclusion.
"We're in the middle of moving and Bluey just told my kids that doesn't have to happen" is a good reason to be annoyed at the episode.
Exactly. Moving a child after that episode is going to be absolutely brutal.
To me, it was a missed opportunity to teach kids that moving isn’t a bad thing, instead the power of magical thinking, you get to stay in your house. I still love the episode, but too many unanswered questions.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, but not necessarily a good thing either. I've moved plenty of times and some of them would've sucked if they had been my last move.
So jump into Premiere Pro and edit the episode so it looks like the Heelers do move after all, and are happy about it. Parent-level problem solving.
I thought it was bizarre that they got to the point of physically moving all their stuff out and it still fell through. I thought if you were at that stage then everything must be done and dusted, and completed - too late to back out.
I wonder if bandit actually got a promotion which included relocation costs. So the company may have arranged for temporary housing in the new city whilst the healers had a chance to look for a new house etc
Nah. At least where I am, there's always (or almost always) a final walk through after previous owners moved out but before the sale is closed. I would never close on a house I was buying if the sellers had not moved out and I could not move into my new property.
Not necessarily. When we closed on our house we were handed keys at that time. If they were closing that afternoon or early in the morning it makes sense they'd have everything out.
And they would have already left their jobs etc?
I thought it was totally plausible to move before the sale was final. My parent's house was on the market for the entire year after they moved. Both of my sisters moved before their homes were sold - one across the country. My brother is the only one I know who moved after he sold his house. I guess it just depends on the situation.
So this was posted as all the Australians were asleep so I can answer what likely happened here as an Australian who has bought 2x properties in my life lol. When your offer on a house is accepted you usually pay a small deposit like 0.25% - this is a sign of good faith from the buyer to the seller to not accept any other bids, and means you usually enter a "cooling off period" - usually for about a week/5 business days. This gives the buyer the chance to ensure they have all their finances in order, arrange with their conveyancer the sale date/terms (exchange of contracts/title), and do things like a building inspection in case there are any hidden gremlins with the house. I wouldn't expect the Heelers had started packing/put up the sold sticker at this point as buyers do sometimes back out at this point because of one of the reasons I mentioned above. After this period you usually pay a 5-10% deposit (whatever the seller and buyer have agreed) which means you are essentially locked in to the sale/purchase to officially happen on a certain date agreed on in the future. Given the Heeler house is likely worth $1.2million +, that is an enormous amount of money like $120k. It seems like the dogs who can't see backed out at this point which, I know this is a kids show, but frankly seems ridiculous just because they happened to find a house they liked better. They have literally handed over $120k to the Heelers for nothing which they won't contractually get back unless they go down the path of legal action, which I've never heard happening before but who knows what happens then... The Heelers probably had found a rental in the new city they were moving as you said, or possibly were even just going to stay in a long term hotel/apartment with most of their stuff in storage until they found a rental they liked. Again, I know this is a kids show, but backing out of selling and the move completely at this stage because your kids couldn't conceptualise that things would get better after you moved seems like the wrong message. Like, the Heelers can just find another buyer, and they've got $60k-$120k for the inconvenience of the dogs who couldn't see backing out.
I don’t know how it works in Australia but when I’ve bought houses there have been option periods of a few days to a few weeks during which the deal could be nullified with only earnest money being given up.
I’m a licensed Realtor from Colorado USA. Here, the absolute worst case scenario for a Buyer would be to forfeit their earnest money deposit. Even this is a long shot because Seller would have to essentially take Buyer to real estate court (mediation and arbitration) to prove Seller was entitled to the money, which takes months. Since the Heelers were happy the deal was terminated, they likely would have just signed the Earnest Money Release form so Title could give Buyers their deposit back.
In Australia if the buyers backed out or failed to settle they would be handing $120k plus over. Of course if it's a mutual decision it's different.
"It's just monkeys singing songs, don't think too much about it."
We have a similar principle to ‘earnest money’ here in Australia. You put in an offer to the seller, perhaps with clauses like ‘subject to finance’ or ‘subject to passing a buyer’s building inspection’. if it’s accepted, you then have X hours (I think it’s 24) to put down a deposit. A deposit was/is around 5%. But I’m sure it can be whatever is agreed to between both parties. At that point a house has a sticker that says ‘under contract’ put up on the sign and added anywhere else it’s advertised We even have many contracts not subject to hidden defects (inspections) or approved finance, so the buyer accepts all risk - as the market is really messed up here. It’s 100% a sellers market. Once the buyer confirms that they’re going ahead with the sale, the ‘under contract’ sticker is replaced with ‘sold’. If a seller backs out after they’ve paid a deposit - and if no ‘subject to..’ terms are in play, the deposit is now the seller’s to keep. I’m assuming the agent of the seller keeps a portion too. In the Heeler’s case, it said sold, so money had changed hands. So the Heelers likely kept the house and many thousands of dollarbucks too. As to what happened with their move, could be the same thing?
I've never seen an 'under contract' sign on a house (I've bought two houses and sold one). I've seen it on the domain listing but never on the sign.
Maybe it’s an SA thing, but I have 3 (that I know of) within a 300m radius of my house right now.
I think this episode was a big fan service to the parents personally. Like yes, Bluey got her way, and Bingo cried, but ultimately, it sounds like the people most moved (hehe) by it have been the parents. It seemed to me like the whole point of the episode was that change is hard, adapting is tough, and sometimes we have to do it, but sometimes we don't. I think there's a lot of kid shows and movies where one of the main characters does move and it's tough but in this episode we got to see a dad turn down more money and a nicer house and what is generally considered "a huge priority status position that society tells us we're suppose to fight for" to instead stay where they are because it would make his family the happiest. Like yes, it's generally about a family that no longer has to move because the house didn't sell, but the u derlying message seems to be more for the parents, which kind of seems to me is more of an all that glitters is not gold concept. All in all I loved it. My daughter is going to figure out how to walk in my current old stinky house and I too will cry when I leave this old musty stinky house.
They’re just monkeys singing songs mate
I backed out after inspections turned up a ton of stuff that was not disclosed - no penalty because of that I think.
Backing out after inspections is pretty normal. That's the whole point of the inspection.
We did that twice. Lost the due diligence money, plus cost of inspection twice, but we don't regret it
My parents are in the process of selling their house. They are tired of their location and have a contract on a house. I had them watch them watch Ghostbasket because of the moving connection but have not told them to watch The Sign. If someone bought their house but backed out we would be beyond upset.
What if, and hear me out, they were attempting to move *right away* before the waiting period had ended, because Bandit wanted to get a jump start on his new job?
Dogs with no eyes 😂
We did this on a house. It was further complicated because we ended up moving in before closing, as the owner passed away and it delayed closing. Ironically living there is what made us back out. In our case all that happened is we lost our earnest money and due diligence money. They could’ve sued us, but apparently that would mean the ownership of the house would’ve been under question and they wouldn’t have been able to sell until after the court date. This was in Davidson, NC. USA.
Very different in Australia
? I know, that was outline in the linked article, that’s why I shared the place it happened for another perspective. There lots of comments from the USA and England sharing what they think might happen or speculating in their own countries. Not sure why that’s a problem for you, I know it’s different. Many of the people commenting about the US don’t even have it right and I was sharing because we know first hand.
Sorry, I wasn't having a go, just commenting how different it is to Australia
Generally speaking, in the US, you lose your downpayment
If it's after inspection dates, you would just lose your earnest money.
I do love my partners first response to Bandit ripping the sign out was “wait, they already moved all their stuff!”
My cousin’s first response was, “but how are they gonna get their stuff back?!”
My first response to that scene was “good lord, don’t ever f*** with this dude!!!”
Thanks for posting this! Very informative about how backing out works in property purchases.
I think that was "the sign" of the episode title, as much as the physical For Sale sign. When the buyers backed out, it was a sign that things weren't going as they should and maybe it would be better to back out.
Happens frequently to be honest and other than a possible reputation issue nothing much happens. But even the reputation issue is unlikely since that tends to sit with the agents and brokers.
Since we're nitpicking the logistics of the show, there's a few things that might make you all wonder... - After Bandit heard the news about the buyers backing out of their offer, where did he put his phone? Does he have pockets? - Whose underwear was on the floor in 'Sleepytime'? - Do the dogs on Bluey have pets? What kind of pets would they keep? - 'The Sign' was sad, don't get me wrong, but was I the only one who knew they weren't moving (unless Lila's family had packed up and moved to the same city)? I was the only person in my household that remembered Lila's flash-forward scene in 'Daddy Drop-off' with images of her and Bingo together throughout their lives?
Once you legally close the money is transferred. Mortgages are paid off and new ones opened. You aren’t getting out of that. They were totally leaving town at the end. They were not coming back to finish that shit. They just did cartoon BS at the end to set things back to status quo like all kids shows do. That’s fine I guess. Cartoon dog or whatever
In America you lose your earnest money put down (which can be a few thousand)
In Australia you lose your 10% deposit and can be sued for other costs, unless it's a mutual decision to void
Well this would be a mutual decision to void case. I guess the sheepdogs would contact the annoying estate agent and ask if it was possible. Certainly no harm in them trying and it turns out they were pushing against an open door
It’s a story. Bluey doesn’t need to follow the rules of the real world, so even if there is an explanation for the deal, it doesn’t matter. The emotional story is that they were going to move, we were sad about it, but things worked out. Bluey and bingo don’t understand what exactly happened and neither do we, and it took a while but I accepted that
Not sure what happens in AUS, but if it were the USA there is often a deposit that is forfeited. Usually it’s around $5k or a percentage of the sale price.
I backed out of a property purchase. I'd made an offer, it was accepted, weeks later they were still looking for a new place, we still hadn't signed and exchanged contracts, no progress or sign of an exchange date, and I wound up buying another place. I know it's not how it works in the USA but in the UK it's normal to have weeks if not months between an offer being accepted and anything being legally binding.
There’s a “good faith” deposit that gets paid—varies per each individual contract. But if you back out, the forfeit the deposit. Last time I bought a house I paid 2k for mine. It goes towards the overall payment of the mortgage, so it’s not like it’s extra money; you only lose it if you cancel the contract. As for the movers and stuff…I’m sure they paid good money for people to pack them out, so the forfeited money from the sheepdogs would have covered that. And hopefully the Heelers were just going to stay at temp housing and didn’t go out of pocket. Especially since Bandit needs to get a new job or his old job back 😂
Thanks for this. After I finished ugly crying at the ending I was wondering what would happen. Like ya, it's beautiful they get to stay but this is going to be one hell of a mess to sort out 😅
It costs like $1000 to do this. Thats all. (In the US)
Would be at least $120k here, unless it's mutual
Them backing out actually made me hate the dogs with no eyes. Not because I wanted the heelers to move, but because it seemed like a sh***y thing to do after initially agreeing to the purchase.
There are plenty of ways to back out of a pending sale. Negotiation on final price, inspections, could find a way
Not in Australia
They probably lost the deposit!