This house. I wants it.

[sarren]

I want to buy this house RIGHT NOW.

Quick, people who are more knowledgable about house-hunting than me - that is to say, EVERYONE,

TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS THAT IT IS ONLY $669 000 IN MAYLANDS!!


Also, I continue to holiday in a reality where paying more than half a million dollars for a house is something I can actually do.

Comments

[victorian-tweed.livejournal.com]

I am not au fait with WA real estate, so have no idea.

Do you really want to have to clean 3 bathrooms?

Gee I'm a lot of help, aren't I? But hey! I commented! *beams*

[sarren.livejournal.com]

What do you think of the house?

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I can tell you what I think. It looks like it's really cool, but sadly will have stairs so I would never be able to live in it. (Correction: I could live in it, it's just the wife who couldn't.)

[victorian-tweed.livejournal.com]

It looks like you wouldn't have to do any renovationy work on it (BIG plus).

Yard looks low-maintenance too. Is it big enough for your doggy?

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Hello? 200 metres from the RIVER!!!

Doggy heaven :)

Oh wait, then I'd have to bath him all the time. Dammit.

[hopefulnebula]

It's probably haunted. :p

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I can live with that!

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

My problem with the house is that your job isn't permanent and then you'll be stuck with too high mortgage repayments.

Is there space for Bunny and canines to play?

[sarren.livejournal.com]

God, I never thought of that - I've been completely confident that I'll have moved up to a L3 position by then. My contract's til the end of 2008, with the strong possibility of being extended another year. But if all else fails I can always go back to the fast food job for a while.

Bunny's going to live under the stairs, didn't you know? When Dragonfly threatens her with that in future, Bunny'll no longer be able to point out that we don't HAVE any stairs for her to live under.

River nearby, I think I can manage to exercise the dog/kid occasionally.

But very good points! Thanks for thinking of them!

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

Strata is my guess.

Plus, the rooms might be really, really poky.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Strata title, so it's just a unit, possibly squished up against other units. Then there's possible common property and other tedious strata title issues, insurance, etc. Plus, some of us immediately equate "stairs = bad".

What's the world come to when a unit in suburban Perth is more than a stand-alone house in suburban Melbourne?!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Dragonfly WANTS stairs. I want a bedrooom on the ground floor. *g*

Perth property prices ARE crazy, but it's a wealthy suburb anyway. We'd be able to get a big house much further out in the suburbs for way less.

Also, good points about the strata issues. It's beginning to sound like more trouble than it's worth.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I can totally understand putting up with stairs, such as for fitting more living space on a tiny block, but actually wanting stairs? Why? They're punishing on the knees (esp. as you get older) and totally obstructive to those with any walking disability. They make it hard to get furniture into the place and easy for people to fall. Also, most houses these days are fairly open, so stairs often create a way for all the downstairs warm air to go upstairs, which is bad all year round.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

All excellent points!

Dragonfly appreciated my pointing out that we're getting too old and creaky for stairs.

[reynard-pyjama.livejournal.com]

Wow, it looks flash awroight. Nice and bright.

My first thoughts were: gosh what a lot of bathrooms, and the lack of back yard. But as you say, river. Still, nobody walks their dog 24/7 and I know my dog would get cabin fever being cooped up like that, even if she doesn't run around in the yard she needs some sort of feeling of space. Also it doesn't leave room for growing vegies, but you might not do that. Or sending rampant teenagers down the back shed to get out of your hair. But they can be shooed out to the river too of course. One thing that would be a problem for me is that such proximity to neighbours means everybody can hear each others' conversations and so on, and new town houses tend not to be all that solid and sound-proof, though you never know. Is it solidly built, or is it going to look naff in a few years and loose its value? As the daughter of a master builder, I always look for really good quality construction, or something that can be worked with over time. Also, what direction does the sun go, is it going to get plenty of light in winter as well as summer? How well insulated and energy efficient is it? Are you going to be overly reliant on the heating and cooling? Watch out for so-called "energy ratings", they can be arbitrary.

The main thing I'd be concerned about though is the lack of an ongoing reliable income. So many people are forfeiting on their mortgages these days it seems. Maybe its best to keep researching and wait to see for sure if your contract is renewed. Still, I think its so exciting you are thinking of buying a place!! I don't want to sound as though I'm putting a downer on it with the questions and suggestions I raised there.

ps. I likee stairs!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

God, from what I hear, nothing gets built to last nowadays. Shoddy workmanship from the market being glutted and the builders get to fuck us over with impunity *sigh*

I can sincerely promise that I will never, ever in my life, grow veges. DO NOT GIVE DRAGONFLY ANY IDEAS.

Very good point about thin walls and neighbours. Also, they won't love us when we play our scifi shows up loud (I don't have the best hearing)

Thank you for all the info about light and energy. It's all stuff i need to learn about!! If you think of anything else it'd all be appreciated.

I'm not concerned about LOSING my income - I could always go back to the fast food job if I had to. I'm just angsting about not earning a high enough income!! This never bothered me until yesterday and now I'm kicking myself.

The lack of backyard would be the biggest issue - both because of the dog and because Dragonfly loves to have a garden.

Mostly, the dog. Even if they allow dogs, he cries when we go out, so instead of annoying a handful of neighbours he'd be annoying the 20 other townhouses in the block.

[reynard-pyjama.livejournal.com]

Lol, I promise never to mention vegies unmentionables again!

Oh, your poor pooch. Mine gets separation anxiety too. Thankfully she's quiet about it.

There's so much to think about with a house purchase, isn't
there. Maybe you could start a list of mandatory and ideal requirements and things to consider. Even down to does it have enough circuits to run all your DVD players, computers, etc (presumably a new house would, but an older one mightnt). And as you go about your daily life you could be reminded of the things you do and how they'd be in a different place, and then add them to the list.

I love that your sci-fi show-watching is coming into the foreground as a consideration - hee! It really is SO IMPORTANT.

I wasn't so much meaning you'd loose your income entirely, but rather if it drops or there is a break in it and you are already mortgaged to the hilt, that could be devastating. Just the insecurity of not having a known income in the future can become very pressuring if you have significant repayment schedule. Also, like was mentioned, there are interest rate rises to consider etc. Don't forget also when factoring in your budget that you'd not only have a mortgage, but rates and upkeep to take care of. Random exploding hot water services, etc. Perhaps you could go see your bank and get a realistic breakdown of what you could borrow and how much it would all be and so on. That might put things in a more tangible light.

Anyhow, I think its very cool that you are looking into this stuff.

Now, you could always buy this entire island> instead. Its only about $AU420, 000. Though it might not qualify Bunny for the school area... (http://cgi.ebay.com/FIDSCHI-INSEL-90-Hektar-Blue-Lagoon-Island-Resort_W0QQitemZ140123811370QQihZ004QQcategoryZ66406QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Go look!

It might have magical properties that aren't being appreciated properly

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

It looks very nice inside, but to me something like that doesn't offer enough room for a kid and a dog on a daily basis. Having the river nearby is nice, but it's also nice to have space that's yours. I'd sooner have less house and more outside space, though that might mean the odd spot of gardening!

It's a huge amount of money! I don't know how much equity you have in your current house, but I wouldn't be comfortable financing even half of that. What if interest rates go to 17% like they did the the late 80s? Also, I hate to mention this but we're getting kind of old - add a large 25/30 year mortgage to our current ages and you'd be heavily committed until you're nearly 65/70 (barring something like a large inheritance!). The bigger your repayments, the less money for things like travel and other activities (for Bunny as well as you) and other essentials like retirement saving!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I'd sooner have less house and more outside space, though that might mean the odd spot of gardening!

You mean, like what we have now??

I'd prefer exactly the opposite. I hate, hate, hate, gardening, and Dragonfly does not have the time to keep up with it. I think a happy medium would be good. A neat low maintenance garden about half the size of what we have (Dragonfly probably doesn't agree, we've yet to sit down and hash out exactly what we're looking for).

I'm doing America once more next year and then I'm pretty happy with not much travelling. I'm quite settled. Bunny can pay for her own travel once we've given her the best education we can and she's got a decent job.

Retirement. *headdesk* I guess it had to be said. Though I fully expect to be working for another 27 years

Feel free to keep reminding me of financial realities. I clearly need that!!

[mr-booboo.livejournal.com]

You and Dragonfly currently have a house which you can sell so your mortgage won't be so bad. The strata isn't likely to be an issue either because it probably wouldn't be that much. I'm guessing the reason that it's cheap is because it's either not close to public transport or it's in a developing part of Maylands. You may find that there are some lovely new houses as well as some old and ugly houses all in the one street. This normally brings the value down.

Or, it could be near a dodgy end of Maylands (where all the drugs and prostitution is). Or, the people are desperate to sell because they can't afford the repayments. Check it out first if you're really interested. You might find it doesn't really suit you. Also, I don't think it's a dog friendly place.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

THERE ARE DRUGS AND PROSTITUTION IN MAYLANDS??????????

It's actually looks like it's in a fabulous spot 13/7 Fogerthorpe Cres.

It's apparently cheap because it was a rental and doesn't exactly look like it does in the piccies. Which I can live with.

I think the dog issue is the breaker.

Plus of course we'd have to sell our place straight away, and it's not exactly ready to go on the market. *sigh*

The strata's $450 a quarter - and the real estate agent said that they'd recently had some water damage which everyone had just decided to pay themselves, which strongly implies to me that they've got people who aren't paying their fees and they've run out of money. I'd be interested to read the notes from their strata meetings!!

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

haven't looked at much of it, but I suspect that the kitchen would cause problems. It looks like the stove is too close to the wall - with the wok burner next to the wall. But then, that assumes that you are as obsessive about kitchen as I am.

Mind you, I wouldn't like it anyway - stairs, small 'al-fresco' courtyard.

Also, it would be interesting to know what the orientation is on the house - it looks like it has no eaves, so depending on where the windows face, it might be really bad for heat/cold balance.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant advice - I wouldn't have thought about the stove, though I bet Dragonfly will be very particular about the kitchen we end up with, as she's the cook.

Eaves! Will watch out for.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Speaking as one on strata land, it has pros and cons. On one hand, it's actually cheaper for some things because you can split the costs. Like resealing the roof cost about a quarter of what it cost Liz Bowyer to do hers in the same year.

I don't mind living close to other people. The first place I lived independently was in a youth hostel where I could hear everything going on in the adjacent rooms. You just have to maintain a polite pretence you can't.

The downside is having to interact with your neighbours more - strata meetings etc. And getting some things to happen is really hard. It took 4 years to get agreement to replace one fence as it involved the agreement of all 30 on this side and 50 in the place on the other side.

What I would consider carefully, though, is whether you could live in less space. You often seem.... constrained at my place.

Also, of course, some parts of Maylands are still a slum so you'd be making a long term investment in it becoming gentrified. I have made the same commitment but gentification is very very slow.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I've been hearing some horror stories about stratas that have turned me off, and as it turns out from actually talking to Dragonfly, she won't have a bar of it anyhow.

Dragonfly's a crazy light sleeper, noisy neighbours wouldn't work for us. Also important, we wouldn't voluntarily inflict Bunny's tantrums on anyone else.

By 'you seem constrained' do you mean ME or me, Dragonfly and Bunny? And no, we wouldn't move anywhere with less space - the reason we're moving is to have a bigger house.

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

tee hee - and if anyone kow about living in a 'slum' it's the inhabitants of your part of your suburb - at least your council thinks so.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's nice to know I'm a slum dweller. We hill billies like to stick close to our roots.