gryphon strike Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 [quote name='Adelle Tully' post='1638190' date='Jan 5 2009, 21.28']Ah, the Australian housing market....could there be anything more annoying? We're looking to move into our own house (finally) and finding a house is a HUGE pain in the ass. In the US, you'd see an add in the paper, call the landlord and arrange a time to see the house. At this time you could bring your kids along and see how they like it and if all went well, you paid you deposit and first month's rent and arranged a day to move in. The way things are currently going for me in Australia: You see an ad in the paper, you call the real estate agencies and THEY TELL YOU when the house can be viewed. At these viewings, bringing kids is a no-no as there are MASS amounts of people viewing it at the same time. In addition, there are so many people in the house that you can't see anything about the house and you don't have time to thoroughly examine things like lighting and conditions of windows, ceilings and walls. Then you rush out the door and if you like the place you pray that you can drive to the agency office faster than the person you was in front/behind you so you can be the first to place an application and be approved. Then you'll be contacted if you're approved and can pay the deposit etc. The worst thing is that none of these agencies care whether you have to work at 10am and can't make the viewing and no, they won't schedule a time for you to view it outside the alotted time, not even if no one is currently living there. In one case, the agency was across the street. I asked to be shown the house 10 minutes before the alotted time as I had to be at work after that. The tenants were okay with this, but the agents were too lazy to get off their asses and cross the street to show it to me. GRRRR! I get to go to an actual private viewing tomorrow - pending on whether someone went to look at it today when I was at work. If no one has put in the application, we'll go first thing tomorrow. (Dies)[/quote] Adele you need to toughen up, they say no its not possible you ask "DO YOU WANT TO SELL THE HOUSE?" ( capitols to empathise the force it is said with ) Seriously if they tried that shit here then they would be looking for a new job. The other thing is if they are a large agency you can always ring the head office and ask them why the particular branch is making a simple viewing so difficult. Another way of dealing with it is treat the idiocy with laughter and say ok all silly jokes aside whats the reality. Because that sort of treatment is pure BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 [quote name='gryphon strike' post='1640288' date='Jan 7 2009, 17.29']Adele you need to toughen up, they say no its not possible you ask "DO YOU WANT TO SELL THE HOUSE?" ( capitols to empathise the force it is said with ) Seriously if they tried that shit here then they would be looking for a new job. The other thing is if they are a large agency you can always ring the head office and ask them why the particular branch is making a simple viewing so difficult. Another way of dealing with it is treat the idiocy with laughter and say ok all silly jokes aside whats the reality. Because that sort of treatment is pure BS.[/quote] I think she's looking for a place to rent not buy. In which case, the rental market really is that bad at the moment, at least it is in Sydney and from what I hear QLD is similar. Theres just more renters than houses available so the real estate agents and landlords can get away with murder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon strike Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 [quote name='brook' post='1640290' date='Jan 7 2009, 17.07']I think she's looking for a place to rent not buy. In which case, the rental market really is that bad at the moment, at least it is in Sydney and from what I hear QLD is similar. Theres just more renters than houses available so the real estate agents and landlords can get away with murder.[/quote] ooohhh sorry I have a pet hate of people who are supposed to do a job and don't. Something that is starting to annoy me at my new job, I mean they hire me as a driver and then have so little work that so far they have yet to give me a truck! Ohh well if I cannot do the job they have hired me for I am at least keeping busy and helping out where I can so its not a total loss. I did get to go over the truck they think I will be driving and it seems pretty decent, a solid old work horse. ohh and they decided to give me a nickname today, of all things it is "Agro" thats cool I got the barstard back by naming him "Uncle Fester's" ugly brother :P Yes I am enjoying work it is fun lots of stirring etc but the work gets done and thats the main thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon strike Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 I finally got my truck yesterday, now if I can just figure out the gears :P ohh well I was supposed to be relaxing on a beach today and instead am here on my comp. I got off work early on friday and then went to meet a friend of mine 300kms away. She was supposed to be taking me to her friends property and thats where the beach is etc. So 3 hrs and a tank of fuel ( almost ) later I get to the meeting place at the agreed upon time, noone is there, so I wait and wait etc I needed to nap anyway after driving all that time approx12 hrs of driving that day at 10pm I decided to drive home still with noone having shown up. I have not heard anything from her either. So yeah came online to bitch about it in chat but noone has shown up. Sorry to lay it on you folks, I just needed to get it out. I am inbetween hoping that noone has been hurt and anger at noone meeting me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brook Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 I hope everyone is ok so you can get started on killing them yourself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon strike Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 [quote name='brook' post='1643401' date='Jan 10 2009, 12.37']I hope everyone is ok so you can get started on killing them yourself...[/quote] Thats pretty much what I am thinking, in fact myself and several others spent today trying to make certain everyone was ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adelle Tully Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 yeah, I'm looking for a place to rent...still... We've been to about 10 showings. No less than 20 people have showed up to any one house. Many of these, of course, are students. Brisbane must have more students than anywhere else in the world because they're fucking over the housing market majorly. We just found out that the reason (one of many, but this was the main one) that our lease is not being extended is because they want to up the rent by a VERY large amount because they could get more from students. So the big plan in Brisbane is to uproot families with small children so prick ass college kids can have somewhere to trash...oops, I mean live. Anyways, being that the dumbass agent where we currently live neglected to put my husband and I on the lease and kept my sister in law on it (who doesn't even live there), we now have no rental history. We've been shelling out cash so that my sister in law can have a wonderful rental history while they fuck us over. How typical. Needless to say finding a house is proving to be very difficult. If push comes to shove, I guess I'll be moving back to the US and taking my old job back and telling Australia to go fuck itself (which it seems to be doing anyways). I don't want to move back to South Dakota, but I'm not going to live in my car because of some stupid ass real estate agents who can't fucking do their jobs and don't give a flying fuck about anyone but themselves. Rant Over. Insert Australian Patriotism and other random stupidity here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sh_wulff Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 perhaps looking in other areas of Brisbane might help just a small suggestion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adelle Tully Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Thanks for the sarcasm when I'm in such a great mood. We've actually tried from as far north as Woolowin to as far south as Upper Mount Gravatt and Macgregor and to the east and west as well. Most the houses we're looking at currently are in the Mount Gravatt area. I have to be mindful of how close the primary schools are and how close the house is to public transport as my husband doesn't have his license yet and I work strange hours. He has to take Public Transport to Uni and walk the kids to school on most mornings. We're very hopeful about one house though...we're the only applicants so far and it's been on the market for a couple of weeks. We'll know by Thursday whether we got that one or not. The realestate agent revealed the other day that we could stay where we are if we wanted to pay 450 a week (we're currently paying 350) and we said it would be a possibility and we'd get back to him. Apparently the owner thinks they can get up to 600 a week for it from students. The minimum they'll take is 500 a week. That would be like paying 24k a year just for one house where the electricity doesn't work half the time and the asbestos roof leaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryphon strike Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 [quote name='Adelle Tully' post='1646902' date='Jan 13 2009, 20.49']Thanks for the sarcasm when I'm in such a great mood. We've actually tried from as far north as Woolowin to as far south as Upper Mount Gravatt and Macgregor and to the east and west as well. Most the houses we're looking at currently are in the Mount Gravatt area. I have to be mindful of how close the primary schools are and how close the house is to public transport as my husband doesn't have his license yet and I work strange hours. He has to take Public Transport to Uni and walk the kids to school on most mornings. We're very hopeful about one house though...we're the only applicants so far and it's been on the market for a couple of weeks. We'll know by Thursday whether we got that one or not. The realestate agent revealed the other day that we could stay where we are if we wanted to pay 450 a week (we're currently paying 350) and we said it would be a possibility and we'd get back to him. Apparently the owner thinks they can get up to 600 a week for it from students. The minimum they'll take is 500 a week. That would be like paying 24k a year just for one house where the electricity doesn't work half the time and the asbestos roof leaks.[/quote] Err if they think they can get $600 a week from students they are dreaming! Agreed that the last Gov did everything it could to make higher education a rich persons only game but even so they would need something like 10-12 students living there and thats illegal. The damage that many students would cause would be incredible also and then there is the fact that they normally leave the house vacant for 3 or more months each year. So considering they can rent to students and make the equivilant of $450 a week and have lots of problems such as holes in walls etc or they can rent to you [i]if[/i] they fix the place up ie roof and electricity and have a secure family in there long term Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheizerbrick Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 I gotta say, students don't have that much cash to spend on housing. I'm not a student myself but I've lived in two houses with different mates of mine, all students, and they've barely had money left after rent (no more than 150 a week, students usually live wherever they have to to pay as little as possible) and food. Edit: This is in Brisbane BTW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 [quote]Thanks for the sarcasm when I'm in such a great mood.[/quote] Adele, you might find it better if you tone down some of what you're writing here. I know it's tough moving into a different place and a different culture, and I can sympathise with many of the issues that you're having with Australia and the way things work (or in many cases with our state government, the way they don't work ;)). Just to clarify, by and large I haven't had any issues with most of the things you've said here so I don't want to make this into anything big. By all means, many of us discuss our own problems here, and that of course is welcome; but there are a few cases out there where things could have been done in a less inflammatory way. Regarding the housing/rent situation with students, it really depends. Most uni students are living on the margins of personal finance, since they usually only work part-time and don't have all that much money to spend on rent. Those who can afford higher rents are probably students who come from rather wealthy families, students from overseas who might have other sources of funding, or students who have managed to get hold of some sort of good academic scholarship money. Mind you, I must say that in many cases students have to pay over the market price; the common concept of uni students trashing places etc means that even the good ones will end up having to offer plenty of money just to secure a place, since a lot of landlords don't necessarily trust their caretaking skills. ;) In politics news, Barnaby Joyce went off and made some silly statement about how global warming skeptics (he's one himself) are labelled as bad as Holocaust deniers. Now Barnaby has always been a bit of a maverick but he seems to be moving towards loose cannon status a bit more readily these days. I wonder if Turnbull's going to do anything about him; likely not, seeing as Turnbull is going to need all the help he can get. Unless some huge scandal drops into his lap I don't see Labor losing the next election; they'll say (and probably at least partially rightly so) that they can't be held accountable for the bad economic times because it's a global thing and much of the preparation was laid by Costello. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sh_wulff Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 tiptoes out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sio Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 Australia, Australia, Australia. It's such a crappy country, and yet it probably has something like the highest QoL in the world. I'm happy to be living here - somewhere where I can live comfortably, get a decent education and hopefully wreak some change in the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 [quote name='sio' post='1648340' date='Jan 14 2009, 19.31']Australia, Australia, Australia. It's such a crappy country, and yet it probably has something like the highest QoL in the world. I'm happy to be living here - somewhere where I can live comfortably, get a decent education and hopefully wreak some change in the system.[/quote] Yeah, I feel lucky to have been brought up here. My grandparents came to Australia from Southern Italy shortly after WWII. If not for their sacrifices, I may not have had the opportunity to go to university. And more importantly, I would have had no idea what the game of cricket was about if I was Italian! However, there are some things that we Australians shouldn't be proud of: most notably our inhumane policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arantius Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 This thread needs chocolate. Where's the group smiley for everyone sharing a chocolate fondue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sio Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 [quote name='Paxter' post='1648374' date='Jan 14 2009, 22.22']However, there are some things that we Australians shouldn't be proud of: most notably our inhumane policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers.[/quote] Precisely. Thus the "crappy country" and "something to fight for" parts. I do think that Australia has a lot of potential, however, and that if enough of us stand up and fight for our rights something in the system will have to snap. [quote name='morningsword' post='1648375' date='Jan 14 2009, 22.23']This thread needs chocolate. Where's the group smiley for everyone sharing a chocolate fondue?[/quote] Sorry, I'd help, but my artistic skills would leave you all burning your eyes out with red-hot pokers. Mmm... Chocolate... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stubby Posted January 14, 2009 Author Share Posted January 14, 2009 We just got back from a week in Thailand. Life's really pretty decent here in Oz. And I'm all out of chocolate except the drinking kind - [toddles off to put the kettle on].... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldLordPlumm Posted January 14, 2009 Share Posted January 14, 2009 stubby, How was thailand? Adele, life is going to be rocky at first. I know u moved here for the better, but to get there will take a little bit of time. It's never easy straight away, only in the long run (1 year or 2) will you notice the difference. It's only if u get your new aussie emplyer to sponsor everything for you. Like the WA police do for overseas cops. Don't take things the wrong way regarding pl correcting you over students. But the truth is that most students in Oz are different from the student culture of the US. Eg. frats, brats all very young with bad attitudes etc. Not so much the case here. Unless you go to some elite sandstone unis with majority 18-22 year old bratty rich kids. Gs, didn't you have this damn womans mobile number? Everyone, turned 29 the other day. One more year to go before the big 30. I really want to get somewhere career wise in the next year. Girlfriend bought me a slab of my favourite beer from beechworth in victoria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 [quote name='OldLordPlumm' post='1649078' date='Jan 15 2009, 07.50']turned 29 the other day. One more year to go before the big 30. I really want to get somewhere career wise in the next year. Girlfriend bought me a slab of my favourite beer from beechworth in victoria.[/quote] Congrats OLP! And nowadays the big 30 isn't that scary anymore (or at least, that's what my friends tell me...I've still got a few years left before I hit it!). Best wishes with all your work this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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