Thursday, November 29, 2012

How do you know when you've become too obsessive with realestate.com.au?

Is it when you find yourself checking every half hour just in case some new rental property has appeared?

Is it when you check within 30 seconds of waking up in the morning, despite knowing that rental agencies don't start work until 9am?

Or is it when you check at midnight and then again at 3am?

Just wondering.

Not that I do any of those things, of course...

26 comments:

  1. All of the above :)

    When I have been in full on house hunting mode, I have been known to do all of those things.

    Is there much available for rent there? Or do they just go really quickly when they do come up?

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    1. There are some things available. Nothing quite right. A few days ago we were getting a little worried because nothing new was coming on. Today a few things have appeared.

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    2. I checked the Cairns rentals after I read your post and found Chris' old place listed but it already had a label on it saying that it was rented after the first inspection. It was in Manoora though...not one of the nicer suburbs (unless things have changed over the last fifteen years?)...20 Conlan Close. It's been done up a bit since then, always interesting to see places you lived before and what they look like years later!

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  2. hope you find something soon. after you get a new place you'll have to move onto a gumtree obsession of some sort to replace the black hole.

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  3. What about this one? It says walking distance to schools and shops.

    http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-edge+hill-409253491

    You'd have to get rid of all the Buddhas sitting around the garden though, maybe they belong to the current tenants?

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    1. I've spent the last hour looking at it trying to work out if it would work. The price and location are very right.

      But does it have a laundry? And what is that funny looking area off the kitchen with the black thing in it?

      Wondering how big the living area is. Ideally we'd like 2 living areas, but...

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    2. Sorry, I got sidetracked looking up some articles for work for a bit. But this is obviously far more important.

      I say apply now and ask questions later. It's very hard to find a place when you're not there on the ground to take a look at it. Maybe you could take the 6 month lease and if it's not ideal then at least you can be looking for something better once you're up there. And then you can get lots of help from the people at church to help with the move too ;)

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    3. And I agree it's very annoying when the photos don't tell you what you want to know. And rental properties never have great photos, maybe that's a skill the agents learn on their way from being a property manager to a proper RE agent??

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    4. Karen, glad to have you on board with the search for us. I'll see you on RE.com each half hour, 24 hours a day. Share the joy!

      This one isn't a 'classy' house, as the kids say. Child #1 doesn't care. Child #2 doesn't like it. Child #3 says we should take it.

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    5. It looks like a pretty standard Cairns house to me, the Besser block homes are pretty common up there. Good in cyclones, so I'm told, though we have no experience of that season (one went through just before we moved there...). There are nice Queenslanders around Edge Hill & Whitfield but they would push your rent up a bit.

      Is Child #2 the one who's going to be hard to convince on anything about this move though?

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    6. Yes. We've also considering this house - http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-kanimbla-409233387

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    7. Oops. Chris just told me it looks like a fibro house. Just when I was feeling like an expert ;) In that case I am not sure of it's cyclone-proofness....

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    8. Or this - http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-kanimbla-407326101

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    9. Any house still standing in Cairns is cyclone proof! There's been some big ones lately!

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  4. Kanimbla looks a bit further out of town. Both those houses look like they're in new subdivisions.

    I think I like the second house of the two Kanimbla ones a bit better. And it proves my point about weird photos taken by property managers. But I'd be a bit worried in a new subdivision that your house would be very close to your neighbours.

    I still think I like the Edge Hill one best of the three of them. Even if it is older. Older places have character.

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    1. Older, but convenience and price!

      We've been watching this one for a while. Andrew is taken with the beer tap downstairs.

      http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-edge+hill-409134031

      It would be a great house to have visitors come and stay at, but I know how long it would take to clean. And the price.... (Same as what we are paying at the moment, so we could do it, but would prefer not to.)

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    2. I tried the link just then but it seems to have been taken down...did you guys get the beer tap or did someone else beat you to it?

      I like pools too. But they are a bit of work because you have to get the water checked regularly, and the chemicals are irritatingly costly because you have to keep buying them. They built a nice lagoon on the esplanade in Cairns (like the one in Redcliffe) after we left, I think. Maybe that's a pool to consider for a lesser price tag...

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  5. Basset st looks nice. (Easier to clean?) But then so does a beer tap. we'll take anywhere with a pool if guest opinions matter.

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  6. I relate. I'm working with two others to track down a rental property for our new minister for January. Lots of realestate.com love. And totally stupid houses.

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  7. This one's unusual:
    http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-edge+hill-409263687

    Love the hallway shot which tells you....yep, there's a hallway in it.

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  8. It's weird. Everything about it is strange. What's with the cupboards sitting on the bench in the kitchen. It's cheap and in a great position, but...

    We have promised the kids a pool.

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    1. A friend's mother had cupboards like that, only I'm sure they were deeper. They had a row of power points on the wall inside them, and the idea was that you kept your electric appliances permanently plugged in and ready to go inside the cupboard.

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    2. I've seen single cupboards like that before in some houses, they call them "breakfast cupboards" or something like that because you can store the toaster and the kettle in there and leave them plugged in. And no one sees all the crumbs that tend to hang around the toaster.

      But this looks like a more supersized version. And it doesn't leave a lot of bench space.

      That house wasn't a serious suggestion, by the way. I agree it was very weird looking, the front view of it was so unusual I could see why they used the back view shot as the main picture :)

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    3. But at $300 per week... I'm almost tempted!

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    4. If it's that cheap, I'm sure it's probably not very rentable....

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