I had lunch with Barnes today and realised that I have been most remiss in my online world, so here is a brief catch up on everything since we visited Tasmania a couple of weeks ago.The lesson was the next phase in my learning curve in the whole house buying thing. The bottom line was that we worked out our budget, went along to the auction of our 'dream' house and totally got our arses kicked by someone else with bigger pockets then ours...
Basically the whole experience sucked - we had been in to see the place about three times, it was great - good location, 'sustainable' design, recently renovated and covered by building insurance, heaps of space etc. All of our homework counted for nought though, it was sold to someone who walked in off the street, liked what they saw and sat through most of the bidding (which was mainly between us and another couple we have seen at quite a few inspections of this and other properties) then they walked in at the last minute when we were already over our limit and just bid all over both of us...
So we then had to rethink and recover over a large slice of chocolate cake and a few coffees, red wines and beers. Apparently the auction thing isn't so big elsewhere but here in Melbourne it is ruthless and frustrating. However now we know our limits and have everything sorted for the next place that works for us. So on weekends we are back on the house circuit, but with the Federal Budget and the June deadline looming for Uncle Kevins handouts - the whole thing is very daunting.
The other big thing has been the new show at work which opened last week to pretty good feedback from everyone concerned. It is great to see something which I thought of as an idea, actually come through to reality and I always enjoy when people actually start walking into the space.
We celebrated by going with some friends to see Arj Barker at the Melbourne Town Hall as part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We all went to the Dainty Sichuan for a heart stopping dinner and Tsing Tao beers beforehand and all had a great time. I haven't ever been to a comedy festival gig since I moved here and it was an absolute hoot. Barker was hilarious and the crowd all were there to have grand old time.
This weekend we are looking at houses on Saturday (Preston, Coburg, Thornbury) and then on Sunday heading off for a road trip to the Clunes Book Town event. So will be dragging back some book bargains for the home library no doubt!
Bad luck with the joint - that really blows goats.
ReplyDeleteI was in Tassie this week - so beautiful
I can't bitch about the auction process because it's helped me, but I do know what you mean. Good luck with the house hunting.
ReplyDeleteRight in the midst of the same poofight over here in NZ - lobbing in offers like hopeful hand grenades, fully expecting to be blown out of the water by someone rich enough or silly enough to pay more than us. Auctions are madness but multiple offer situations aren't much better.
ReplyDeleteLerm - thanks for the sympathy - did you get up to your usual shenanigans in Tassie?
ReplyDeleteBangar - it sucks big time - still trying to decid whether to wait and see whether Uncle Kevin gets rid of the first housing grant and what effect that will have?
Dr Yobbo - it is a learning curve...
Professionaly i hate auctions, and i find most vendors who use them are generally greedy.
ReplyDeleteIn Sydney auctions became the only way agents would sell during the property furnace a couple of years back. I went to a couple and they were quite nasty.
ReplyDeleteGood luck. Buying and selling real estate is major crap.