The Search Continues

For the past weeks, my life has revolved around real estate. Images of various properties swirl around inside my head before I sleep and the topic of houses dominates our dinner conversations. In the day, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, touring real estate websites and studying Google maps. I speak more to real estate agents than my friends and we have met every single agent of Barry Plant (Point Cook). In between maintaining our usual routine and the daily rounds of delivering KK to school and collecting him, I even went to inspect a few worthy properties alone with XX.

We have still yet to secure our future home although we have made several offers. Our plans also keep changing. We are now looking at 2 other suburbs which are further away but has more value (in terms of the price). We also considered buying land and building. I've even spoken to one builder who offers 7-star energy efficient homes. That sounds very appealing to us - double glazed windows, rain water tank system (to flush the toilets), solar energy water heating system etc. However, I had concerns for the location of the land and am not too eager to embrace having to deal with conntracters and all the minor details of building. I've heard horror stories about builders from some of my friends' experiences and read some nasty complaints about them at online forums. It is so much easier to just buy an established home and often it has more value too.

Many homes that we have visited, especially those that are owner-occupied, has got landscaped gardens, decked alfresco area and pergolas. Some even have outdoor spas and many homes have got their own personal children's playground in the backyard, complete with playhouse, swings and slides! Australian children are so lucky! Basically, with a well-maintained home, you can just move in and start living. The problem is finding one that you like.

Of so many houses that we've seen, I will like some aspect of the home but not others. Like I'll like the timber flooring but the bedrooms are small or we love the granite kitchen top but the layout out the house is weird. I guess most importantly for us is the price and location. If the price is attractive, I guess I can live with a few imperfections and make improvements later on. But often, I find I can't justify the price with the location/quality of the house. So, the search continues......

I managed to reclaim some of my sanity last weekend. After an afternoon of just 4 inspections, we had a feast of Domino pizzas at a friend's place on Saturday night. On Sunday, we didn't do a single house inspection and instead spent our time with 2 groups of friends. First, to lunch at a restaurant in Hawthorn selling Malaysian hawker fare. My Hakka style bork belly noodles was delicious, abeit a little too salty. The teh tarik was piping hot and milky but too sweet. At night, it was Mee Siam time. Catching up with friends is always rejuvenating. And they have shared their opinions, advice and stories regarding house hunting which has been so useful for us first-time home buyers.

I have a few other groups of friends whom I really want to meet up as well. It's gonna be challenging given our weekend schedule of inspections but I'll have to manage. Though I want to get the house issue settled soon and move on, I really shouldn't be rushing. We are not in a hurry to move out of our current place so we should take our time to find the right one.