House hunting

Seeing as I can't sleep, I may as well do something useful and write a few posts that should have been written ages ago. Here's a few happy snaps of the eight open houses that I attended a few weeks back. When you go property hunting, it's best to take photos and jot down notes about the pros and cons of each property, what the price should be given comparable sales and ultimately what the property actually sold for.

You may think your mind is great and that you won't forget, but if you've done your research properly then that would mean you've attended heaps of open houses to gauge property prices- then you will start forgetting the finer details of the properties you've viewed. It may become a blurry mess in your mind and that means that your open house visits have become useless for future referencing and making well informed offers.

Without further ado:

 
Notes on this Denistone house: Single garage was way too narrow, kitchen could have been a one bedroom sized kitchen and not in proportion to a 3 bedroom house, fridge space is too narrow, backyard recently landscaped no doubt to maximise resale price, laundry has a 1920s style looking trough for the sink and I didn't include the bathroom but man, the shower was TINY.

Notes on the Eastwood house above: Beautifully landscaped, long driveway (perfect for entertaining so friends can park), skylights in bathroom, heated tiles, chandeliers overpowering the main bedroom, large open airy rooms that are well lit excluding the main bedroom, on a semi-main road so noise may be an issue, kitchen is beautiful except bench space is reduced due to the cupboard being built onto the bench (better design would have been building the cupboards higher to the ceiling and leaving the bench free) and the sink is only a single sink with no drying rack space.

Notes on Epping house above: This house sold for an unbelievable price of around $980k ish!!!! Everything must be renovated. It's so dingy that it's possibly a knock down and rebuild. The position isn't even that fantastic with a good 30 minute walk uphill to the station. From the mould on the far wall, cockroach baits on the kitchen benchtop, curtained windows to the 70s carpeting, 1920s trough in the laundry, cracked windows and fleuro pink vanity sinks to the old retro curtained shower and old tiling throughout the place. It was certainly memorable for the wrong reasons.

Notes on Beecroft house above: It was pretty much a dream house. Discounted from over $1.1 million or so to around $980k. It was huge, renovated, airy, plenty of good natural light, huge master bedroom with huge walk in robe, huge laundry with extra toilet, two sitting areas, large balcony/deck. The drawbacks were the lack of neighbouring fences and the bush that backs onto the property which could lead to snakes being in the backyard... overall, it was one of my favourites but was really on the higher end of the price range. After you add in transaction costs of approximately 5% it would cost $1,029,000.00 and all those zeroes are shocking @_@

And after that...sorry ...my camera battery ran out! I should also make a note to charge my camera prior to attending a long day of open houses...

Anyhoo, with all the recent events lately, house hunting is truly on the back burner while I work through all the other issues first. Sunrise now... the sky has such a beautiful tinge!