Visited 4 house inspections on Sat and viewed display homes in 2 new estates, Manor Lakes @ Wyndham Vale and Rose Grange @ Tarneit.
We're becoming such regulars at inspections now that we even have a checklist to help us tick off the boxes as we go. We've also come up with an informal ranking system to help us tell one house from another, a critical concern when we've seen one house too many in the same day.
As usual, decision-making is complicated by wanting everything.
To be nearer amenities like good schools and shopping centre usually means paying a premium for 20-30 y.o. homes with dated styles, high-maintenance yards and unknown safety hazards.
On the other hand, an affordable new home with plenty of room, low-maintenance garden and stainless steel mod cons in a master planned estate, is usually found further afield in outer ("ulu") suburbs like Wyndham Vale, where land is abundant and therefore cheaper.
The plus of all this weekend legwork is that as we inch closer to the recommended expert advice of "inspect 100 homes before you buy", our understanding of residential real estate is increasing at a rate that never would have been possible otherwise.
We've even viewed houses at night. Not that we could see much of the outside, plus it was freezing, but it was a fun family adventure and we came away impressed by the agent's professionalism - and with a solid basis for crossing another 2 more properties off our list.
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