Project New Home: Homes Viewed = 11

Open house inspections for this week were lean and mean this week, but I still managed to find 2 properties for us to look at.

Admittedly, one of the properties was suppose to have been sold at auction on Thursday evening, but as it was still listed, I added it to the Inspection Planner. Alas, I should have known that the information on the website would be out of date, and I should have checked with the agent prior to driving past the property. The agent was, after all, the twat who turned an old apartment into a hot box during a previous open house inspection.

Yes, the property was sold at auction. And there was a big sign out the front of the house, with a big "Sold" sticker on the big sign. Oh well. Another one bites the dust.

There was another property that was open for inspection at the same time, in Epping, on the other side of the train line from the above property, so we hightailed it over there to have a look. And the minute we arrived, we wanted to leave.

Firstly, it was a townhouse in a complex that was right on the train line. The townhouse was on the train track side of the complex too. Secondly, the complex could not have been any closer to the train line if it tried. And lastly, the property sat literally on top of one of the tracks.

And once inside, we wondered how long we would have to stay to not seem overly keen to get the heck out and that the property was crap.

The townhouse was brand new, which was about the only thing going for it. The downstairs area was tiny, with an even tinier kitchen - and yes, it was even smaller than my current kitchen. There was a tiny tiny tiny backyard which was right on the train track. There was a tiny tiny tiny toilet downstairs, and even the garage looked tiny.

Upstairs, there were 3 bedrooms - all very oddly shaped, and only 2 of the 3 bedrooms had built ins, which was a rather odd feature to have considering this was a brand new development. I would have expected built ins in all the bedrooms!

A train passed as we were inspecting the property, and it was loud even through the closed doors and windows.

We got the heck out of there, without stopping to talk to either of the real estate agents who had strategically placed themselvs at the top of the driveway. We ducked our heads and hurried past, mumbling thanks while running to the car.

We had planned to attend the auction for the Marsfield property we viewed last weekend, so after a spot of lunch at The Ranch, we headed to the auction. As expected, the opening bid was towards our upper limit, with the auctioneer interested in $20,000 bids at the start of the auction. The bids eventually slowed to $5,000 bids, and when they finally dried up, the price was well beyond our reach, but close to what I was expecting the property would sell for. It was eventually passed in, and at that time, Jonathan and I left to continue our busy Saturday.

Hopefully, there will be a few more open houses to attend next weekend. I'm starting to become a little bit impatient and a little bit panicky about finding a new house, with the feeling in direct proportion to the speed with which my waistline is expanding. Fingers crossed we see a few more properties next weekend!

Updated on September 1

The Marsfield duplex, the auction of which we attended, is now relisted on the market for a huge princely sum, $70,000 more than the final bid on Saturday. The new asking price is totally beyond what I had expected the property to be worth, and to be honest, the vendors are kidding themselves if they think they will end up selling the property with that asking price.