General Chat

It's a lovely house, Allan.

I do love the fact that you have used native plants ............... but then you maybe know I love Australian plants ;-)

I see what you mean about the tiered garden though!

Allan your house is beautiful and so is the garden. I am sure there will be mixed feelings when you leave so I hope you can find somewhere equally lovely. Have you anywhere in mind? Yes the garden looks as though it will be an effort as you get older, and it would be difficult for one of you to manage. Believe me, I know that from experience. a good idea to at least downsize the garden, but also I think the house as well. good luck with selling and buying, very stressful.

Gosh,that's a lot of house, and a lot of land :-S The space!!!!

A cheeky question - is it always that pristine?
When my daughter sold her last house, the photographer accidently included the heap of children's toys and shoes that had been shoved into a corner for the 'pristine' photograph :-D :-D

Maggie., if you could see inside the garage that is shown you'd have the answer to your question.

Also, there was a photo of the upstairs middle bedroom which we asked not to be included for the same reason :-D :-D :-D

We are having a 'Home Open' today.

This means that, for a time, the house is open for anyone to view whilst we make ourselves scarce. This is a normal method of displaying homes although it does have some attendant security risks, but the Estate Agent is always on the premises.

Yesterday (Friday) after waking from an afternoon siesta I looked out through the bedroom window and parked at the bottom of the drive was a strange car.

I though that it may have been one of OH's friends but could not hear any voices downstairs.

Went down and OH was merrily working outside in the back garden so I asked her who's the car was.

Blank expression!

She went to the front and walked to the car and a woman stepped out. This person told OH that she thought that the house was empty, and her story was that she had travelled down from Perth to attend the home open and was just having a quick look around the area.

Under normal circumstances I would have looked at that statement with a a degree of suspicion except for the fact that we have already had some couples from Perth already come through the property, by appointment.

We'll wait and see :-D

I am sure you would get a lot of 'viewers' just being nosey Allen. A good day out.

I hope that your 'Home Open' day was a success.

Hopefully it will lead to a sale before too long.

Do you have a property in mind that you might like to buy?

That's the problem here sometimes, when people get stuck in a purchase 'chain'.
They have a buyer, but are not able to move to their next property.

Ann, Gwyn, thank you!

The day was a success :-D

A couple arrived just as we were about to leave for what was supposed to be a half hour interlude. They had a babe in arms and I had a brief conversation with the dad

An hour later, still no word from the Estate Agent as to whether it was possible to return home. :-|

We phoned him, to be informed that he was just preparing the contract on behalf of the young couple.

The bottom line, they offered the full asking price, which we accepted, and the house is now under offer, subject to certain requirements.

Please excuse any poor spelling or grammatical mistakes in this post as I have had a few whiskies to celebrate :-D :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D

hope all goes well Allan

Allan, your house looked so nice it doesn’t surprise me that it sold quickly.

Have you got somewhere to go to?

Great news, Allan. It's nice it's a young couple, hopefully they will have as much happiness bring their family up there as you and OH did. :-)

So now you just have to find a new home to move to ;-)

Don't let the photos fool you.

The house IS nice, but we had already committed to do repairs such as replacing some rotten bargeboard ends and having some redundant air-conditioning vents (3) removed and the ceilings made good.

The total estimate for those bits was less than $5000.00 and work starts on Tuesday.

We were prepared to accept less than the advertised price of the house and were surprised to get the offer we did

Now to find a place for us, or just buy a large tent :-D

Good Luck!!! :-D

Thanks, Maggie :-)

We now face the problem from the other end..houses are selling as soon as they hit the market.

On the positive side we are now cash buyers, on the negative side we only have a finite period to find something to buy.

We don't want to go into a rental property even if we could find one

Lovely house Allan and so glad you've found a buyer so quickly hope it all goes well for you. Now as you say you need to find a new place so good luck with that.
Like you and Sylvia, here in Ontario places are usually quickly bought and prices are going crazy, glad I don't need to buy right now.

Allan, I'm so glad that you found a buyer so quickly, and a nice young couple as well.

Yes, as Caroline said, houses sell fast here often for far more more than the asking price.

But the sad thing here is that many of them will then be demolished, a much larger new house built and put on the the market for a far higher price. Or it will go to a developer who is trying "to buy up the block", knock everything down and replace the single family houses with a row of tacky town houses (row houses).

They can fit 18-24 such houses in the space that once held 5-8 single family houses.

No gardens of course!!


For those in the UK ................. those chains are not found in most every other country. Here in Canada (and in the US and I think Australia) it would be illegal for a buyer who has signed a contract that has been accepted by the home owner to then lose the house. There is only one seller and 1 buyer once a contract has been offered and accepted.

Or else ........ court case!!!!!!

Yes, Sylvia, Australia operates the same way as you so there can be no gazumping and if you change your mind for no good reason over there you have to forfeit that small initial deposit over there that you have to lodge with the solicitor - unless rules have changed over the last thirty years or so.

When we bought the house here, I mentioned that system to our young solicitor who was just starting out on his own and wanted to know more about it. I gave him copies of the paperwork we’d kept when we bought our last house in Oz as he was keen. Alas, it came to naught. I have no idea whether he mentioned it to anyone because a good long while later he was found dead. I was ‘gobsmacked’ and I never heard or read whether it was an unlawful death or suicide.

Fingers crossed as we've put an offer in for another house. We know that there is at least one other party interested in making an offer. :-(

As the property was advertised 'offers over $xxxx...' we hope that our offer is sufficient, coupled with the fact that we are essentially cash buyers.

We should know by tomorrow at the earliest or definitely by the end of the week

Gosh, it all seems to happen so quickly over there !

Your speedy sale of your own house puts you in a good situation as prospective buyers, so I hope you hear good news soon.

Good luck, Allan!!