Dave & Marleen Rentoul

We view the Liberty Trust loan as an “Enabler”. Here is a little of our “home making” experience. We want to share our experience as there must be many other couples out there who are just starting out or are having the same space issues as us.We signed up with Liberty trust a few years before we purchased our first house. We had been thinking about signing up for the two years prior to that. In retrospect, we wished that we had signed up earlier once we were waiting our turn! At the time we were uncertain about jobs and the city we would be living in.  

Our first Child – Josh – was born in 2004.

In 2005 we purchased our home. The perfect 1970's three bedroom brick and tile home for the Rentouls. The property boom was heating up, and we were really blessed to find this home and to purchase it for a reasonable price - It was a God thing. We had made higher offers on two other houses that fell through. We didn't like them much. We made offers because, in our price range, we  thought that was the compromise we would have to make. Our financial limitation was self imposed as we did not want to borrow more money than we could service on one income. Otherwise Marleen would not have the option to be a stay at home mum – something we really wanted for our kids. We had saved 50% of the houses value, so by today's standards our bank mortgage was not huge.

In 2007 Azaria was born.

Originally we intended to use our Liberty Trust loan to pay off the remainder of our bank mortgage. We changed our plan last year when we realised that we had almost paid off our mortgage. We evaluated our housing situation: 2 and a half kids, three bedroom house, looming maintenance. The outcome was that we were very keen to extend our existing home to gain an extra bedroom and tidy up the existing living area. Time passed and we did a lot of research, drew up plans, and completed preliminary quantity surveying. It became apparent that this was not going to be cheap and that our Liberty loan would not cover the cost.  So we evaluated more options: i.e. remaining with the status quo, buying a house with 4 bedrooms, or building a new house. What we found was that no option would be completely covered by our Liberty Trust loan. Now the choice became status quo, status quo with minor tidy up, or have a Liberty loan and a bank mortgage. We started looking at our options, asking God to show us what to do, talking to our friends and other people we respect about what they would do or have done. 

Luke was born in May.

A month ago we purchases a section. So now you know what we chose to do! For us its a long term plan as we cannot afford to build the house. But we feel really blessed for our Liberty loan which will allow us to pay down our mortgage much quicker, so that we can build a house sooner.... in a perfect world that would allow us to then sell our existing home to cover the cost of the new one....but only God knows what the future will hold. We don't need a bigger house yet, our kids are little and they love sharing a room. Its just nice to have a plan for the future. God bless you, Dave, Marleen, Joshua, Azaria and Luke.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16.9

4 July 2009