kjp

I went flat hunting earlier today. In the morning I drove (bludgy me) the 20 seconds down the road to the shops to get the paper. On the way to the shops I nearly had a prang... changing into the left lane when a car was speeding up on my back left. Anyhow, later on, I went to five places: conveniently numbered 12, 13, 14, 15 and yes, you guessed it: number 16. (I've checked out 11 places before today...).

The places I went to were in Gordon Park, Lutwyche and Kedron (all near to (mostly South of) the junction of Stafford and Gympie roads).
12   was advertised as needing some TLC. And it did - being more than a bit old and dingy. I don't want to have to make any repairs / maintenance to the place I get... so that one is off the list. It was overpriced, as well.
13   was a good place - owner occupied, in good condition, nice. But all the walls were yellow - not my thing. But a good place for me, and good value for money. Not sure about not catching the breeze though.
14   was good, except that there were no views of anything - fixed wooden shutters over the windows. Probably due to block out views of other apartments and the immediately adjacent shopping mall. It was a good price. But weird layout - go through the kitchen to get to the living area?
15   was a new place - had tiles almost everywhere - something that I like. Air conditioning in the main living area, and an inbuilt funky dishwasher, and expensive. Being a Canberra boy having ceiling fans or air conditioning is a plus.
16   was going for less than $200k. Dark, dank, smoky, next to a construction site. Nup.

My checklist of things to take into account (created the previous two weekends), whilst nerdy, was helpful. While whether or not the other people in a block of flats are owner occupants or are rents is a factor to take into consideration; whether or not the previous occupier of the flat for sale was the owner or a renter is important. Owner / occupiers have a greater interest to keep the place in good condition.

It's also good (for me) that I'm getting able to say "that's too expensive / that's a good price" for a particular place... Which is the whole point of the exercise: I don't need to move just yet, but when I do and a good place comes up I want to be able to move quickly. Ahh the rain: it's been drizzling off and on for most of the day - presumably this kept the numbers on the flat hunting circuit down a bit.