Happy Monday!

It's been a really productive weekend.

Sat afternoon was spent rushing from one Open for Inspection (home viewing)to another while Beth was at Chinese class. We're getting to know some of the neighbourhoods really well now, which will be a great help when we're ready to decide where we want to settle eventually.

Just as hilarious was running into agents from the same real estate agency as we went down the list. By mid-afternoon, we knew the routine so well we automatically gave our names and contact number, produced our photo ID, and rattled off the names of their colleagues whom we'd met at earlier inspections.

As we joined 3 or 4 other interested parties outside a very brown and very old house with a somewhat overgrown garden whose only attractive feature was its huge allotment (>700 sq m), I wondered briefly if it would be more productive to establish a relationship with selected agents to a. better understand the ins and outs of the buying/selling process, and b. position ourselves to have a first look at the better properties before they are advertised.

The final viewing for the day turned out to be the most worthwhile, and we almost missed it because we were looking on the wrong side of the road. By the time we got there, the agents were chatting with the home owner and the last visitor had left.

This was an ex-display home in Hogans Road, close to good schools/kinder/Maternal and Child Health Centre, 10 y.o., with a >500 sq m allotment, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 toilets (homes here tend to have bathrooms and toilets separated), a beautifully manicured front lawn with native plants (low maintenance!), the ground's been mulched so it's kept moist all the time and you don't get those ugly bald patches where the grass has stopped growing, a huge rear yard with a separate section that has been paved over (for the kids to ride their bikes) and another with grass (for the family pet).

What totally won me over was the LINEN CLOSET. I'm not a terribly houseproud person, but I do aspire to get there someday, and an LC is one of those must-haves if you don't want bedsheets, quilt covers, table linen and tea towels etc spilling out of your wardrobes or kitchen cupboards. It's also a feature we've so far seen only in display homes in the new estates.

Another attraction: the neighbourhood is a fairly gentrified one, in that the houses across the road are all new, very nice-looking 2-storey homes which will definitely fetch more than what this single-storey property is asking.

Our only complaint is that it's a bit further from Werribee Plaza than we'd like. Ideally, we want to be within trotting distance of WP - the biggest and newest shopping strip in Werribee and Hoppers Crossing - because if we ever want to resell, the location would be a major selling point.

Apparently the owner is selling because they've got 4 kids (we saw their photos on the wall in the hallway) and the house is getting too small. It was on the market before but there were no takers at the original price so they've relisted with a lower price. Let's hope this goes on and then maybe - just maybe -they'll make it on to our radar.

Click here for the pictures.

Sunday was spent cleaning out the garage, checking the boxes one last time for things we need critically, then sealing them up, labelling them and popping them in the garage.

Backbreaking work, especially for the man, but oh! the sweet relief to see the living room (almost) empty again. Now we can actually walk from one end of the room to the other without squeezing past grubby boxes and piles of stuff.

Footnote:
As I was typing this, the phone rang and what do you know, it was the agent for the aforementioned property asking what we thought about the property.

I told him what was on my mind:
a. the place was nice but the rooms are a bit small; it's like they had to compromise on living space to make it 4 BR instead of 3
b. it's not as close to the Plaza as we'd like
c. the price is on the high side.

He asked what price we had in mind. Off the top of my head, I said $215-220K.
(I was just pushing it, because we know from our research that it's highly unlikely we'll find anything like it for that price.) He replied that for that price, we would get a unit rather than a house, and certainly not one with 4 BR and a study.

I asked if any one else had made an offer.

His answer: No.

There you go.