Category: housing

Moving day is over, I can tentatively say that it’s all done with. I thought just the process of deciding to move was enough, since we tossed the idea up and down for a good three years. Not that I didn’t LIKE the old area, but…it’s boring. I want a place that can be quiet most of the time, but is still close enough to activity.

Well…that’s just when the troubles started. Finding the perfect home is a drag, but we didn’t have the money to build our own. It’s just that nitty-gritty bit of finding a place that checks all the boxes at once…and we thought, since we’d been looking for three years, there was no use rushing things and not checking every single box, right? What a nightmare. Eventually we had ALL the professionals in to help us look, like indecisive kids in a lolly shop. Pretty sure we bounced off (and irritated) every single conveyancer in Carnegie, and that was only the beginning.

Millions of miles of paperwork later, and we were finally ready to make our moving dream a reality.

Oh, unrelated note…did you know that Yaival DuMesque is filming his next big blockbuster in Melbourne? Whatever it is, it’s some sort of western, and he got permission from the local council to bring in hundreds of cows and dozens of horses to transform the Carnegie centre into a movie set for the day. Must’ve cost a fortune. And when I said unrelated, I meant that it happened on exactly the day we were moving. Funny, all those hours spent in the conveyancer’s office didn’t prepare us for the nightmare of being gridlocked by cows for three hours, then told to go the long way around.

But it’s done. It HAS to be done. The conveyancers over in Caulfield (they were dealing with the previous owners, and…oh, it’s too complicated) have assured us that the whole possum infestation incident isn’t going to affect the paperwork. Transfers are done, the house is hours…and I just want to sleep for three days.

-Tanya

I don’t always employ services for illicit purposes…but when I do, it’s for a good reason. That good reason would namely be that it benefits me, and that’s always a good thing. That is an excellent thing, you might say.

So. Anyway. Houses interest me, specifically the insides of them. Quite often I like to summon real estate agents to look inside places, not with any intent to buy them, but just to have a sticky beak. I’ve got some spare time, THEY have time because they’re doing their job…and so it’s win-win for everyone involved. Maybe, one day, I’ll decide I actually like a place, and then everyone wins even more! But the thing is, I’ve seen so many houses that I’m not content any more. I want the big prize. I want something better.

For that, I’ll need a buyers advocate. Melbourne has an up and coming industry around them that I’ve been following for a while, with the only catch being that these people cost a bit of money. Makes sense, right? If you’re going for the BIG houses, if you want to pay the BIG bucks, you have to spend a little along the way. It’s the first rule of investing, maybe. Probably the only rule. Actually, it’s the definition of investing, which is even better.

I wonder, am I going to sink money into my hobby? Plenty of people do, so I don’t see how me doing it is really a bad thing. I could afford to pay a bit to see the inside of some really nice places, and have people advise me on whether I should be buying them. I’d be paying them for the pleasure, so really, no one is getting hurt here. The Melbourne property advocate business will thrive, and I will be one of the ones making it so. Besides…I could be super rich in the future, and then I’ll need a property advocate for real. What say you to that?

-Clive

There’s always time for milk. People at work seem to think it’s odd that I have my own mini-fridge, just filled with milk that I drink at random intervals. That is, people who’ve never heard of calcium. People who’ve never heard of protein.

Honestly, I’m used to being judged by ignorant folks who just don’t understand. People without milk can be so bitter, probably because they have brittle bones. That’s enough to make anyone grumpy. But okay, maybe I take it a little bit too far sometimes. We have meetings with the clients, and also the conveyancing lawyers since they have to be present for the signing of the documents. And then the clients are sipping tea, the conveyancers have coffee (it just seems to be a job thing) and I’m there with my glass of milk. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with that. It’s not like I’m about to start spilling it all over the clients or anything! I should try my best to learn as much as I can from these excellent Melbourne based conveyancers. It’s a field that I find rather fascinating, I could see myself giving it a try in the future. I wonder if people think I’m strange for drinking so much milk?

Milk helps me in my job, anyway. It’s full of great stuff, and unlike something like tea or coffee, milk actually fills you up. That means I can easily go without lunch more or less every day, because I’m so full of milk! Easy stuff. And when you’re dealing with houses, you really don’t want to be going about it on an empty stomach. Bad decisions can be made. Paperwork gets lost. You can advise a family to buy a haunted house, just because you want to get back to your desk and eat a sausage roll. How terrible.

Everyone needs to learn from me; conveyancing solicitors as well, because their job is even more detail-oriented. I will show you all the way of staying full, staying healthy and being an excellent housing representative. And that answer is milk.

-C.K.