Having sold my old rental property that I was residing in because of the unspeakably awful trash that moved in next door to me and kept me awake all hours of the day and night, and copping roughly a $90,000 whack for selling at the wrong time of the property cycle, you can imagine I'd be a little gun shy about dipping my toes in the property market again up here.
I can be impulsive. OK, I'm very impulsive. But I'm trying not to be these days, because those ill conceived impulses have been costing me big time. However in fairness to myself, and I always do try to be that to myself and others as well, I can truly say that some of it was totally unforeseeable.
I bought a house in 2009, just a cute little two bedder brick, near the hospital. For me to retire in, I figured. Not far to hobble over to the hospital, not too big to look after, great for an old lady who just wants to lie in the sun in her twilight years. So when I moved up to Qld in January this year, I moved into that house. And the first two weeks were pretty blissful, until the Tenants From Hell moved in next door. Given I'd just made the most enormous move interstate, and as a sole parent with one child, to then just get settled and partly unpacked, and then have what felt like the Apocalypse arrive next door, well all I can say is the gods watching over me must have a hell of a sense of humor. I wasn't laughing however. Between the all night brawls, the punch-ups in the street, the screamed obscenities, the neighborhood looking like a tip, comings and goings in the nature of a drug den, and I was a nervous wreck. I was even afraid to leave my house for an hour or two, in case they saw me leave and burgled me.
Not quite the lovely lifestyle I'd envisaged!
So I sold up, fire-saled it in fact. It's the only way you can unload property in a hurry, both in good times and in bad. I took a big financial hit, went off and rented an apartment that I could afford, which meant the apartment is about the size of a large shoebox, but anyway it's home for now. We have peace, well sort of. We are deep in the tourist precinct of Noosa, and tourists as you can well imagine, are simply out to have a good time, and to hell with anyone else. So the complex we are renting in is sometimes quiet, often noisy, and sometimes intolerable, but in a totally different way to living next door to ferals. It's more bearable, sure, but still not quite what I'm looking for here.
I thought of renting something else (bit bigger, bit more away from the tourists) and then realised that's just more dead money because it will be more expensive. So now I'm house hunting again. My agent had said to me not to worry about taking such a whack on my house when I sold it, because if I buy in the same market it will all balance out. She has a point. I guess I just don't rent that well, is really the problem. I haven't rented since I was about 22, and it irks me that I'm at somebody else's whim as to how long I can stay, what I can do, what I can fix and improve. And rental properties always seem to leave a lot to be desired! TV points that don't work, mouldy looking blinds, doors that don't lock properly, windows that don't open. Neither the oven nor the dryer worked when I first moved in; I'm flabbergasted as to how the previous tenant got by like that, except obviously she didn't cook or dry her clothes. There's no clothesline here either, and man do I hate that! I like the smell of clothes dried in the fresh air; the cost of it is far better also. I'm not a tight arse, just hate unnecessary expenses like that.
Anyway I looked at a house today which is a doer-upper. Meaning hopefully it will go for a song (my song) and I can manage to secure it. I spoke to the agent today, and I guess time will tell if the pricing is going to be right. But I can see so many possibilities in this house. My daughter however hates it already. She likes things to be NICE and CLEAN and MODERN. This house is none of those things, but it's quirky, full of possibilities, and I like it. There's also a good chance of making some money on it at the other end, and that I REALLY like!
While I was walking around it today (it's empty) one of the neighbors came over and introduced himself as an ex-tenant of the house. He then proceeded to declaim loudly that the house was only fit to be bulldozed, it had been flooded numerous times, half burnt, was full of mould, the pool overflowed when it rained, the water came charging through the front door when it rained, the garden was revolting and unmanageable, there were snakes everywhere, and the roof leaked as well. My reply was "Otherwise OK?" Also all the other houses in the street were about to go up for sale too, I'm assuming for the same reasons.
Wow-wee, what a welcome to the neighborhood!
If my daughter hated the house before, you can imagine how she felt about it after hearing this tirade. Of course I explained to her afterwards that this angry little man was just way too zealous about the idea of putting me off buying the house, and it was clear he had some agenda of his own. I could only surmise he'd been evicted, and was on a mission to stop the house being sold as payback to the landlord. Some people need to get a life.
Tomorrow is another day, and we'll see what's truth and what's not when and if we get a step further and order a building and pest report to see the true state of affairs.
Oh, better notify the snake catcher as well...
(to be continued)....
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