Step four : get our own place.

14 March 2013

At last, we have our own place. Not that we were sick from Jenni and the girls, far from it actually. They’ve been nothing but awesome. We’ve actually grown pretty close to the whole family, even Ronnice the mum, Caz the sister, and the friends, and of course Shiobby and Katie. But yeah as much as we loved living in Millendon, renting one bedroom is not exactly the ideal situation.

So, day after day, we we were on real estate websites, looking for the new ads, for THE one house that would be affordable without being either a total dump or a shoebox. Real estate is booming in WA, as I am sure it’s the case in the rest of the country. Bloody mining industry ! There’s too many people in Perth, and not enough properties on the market. So for one house inspection, you have fifty people queuing up to have a look, and of course those with a mining salary will offer twenty or forty dollars a week on top of the asking price, which inflates the whole market in general. You won’t find a one bedroom apartment in the city, or in the suburbs for that matter, for under $250 a week. That’s ONE THOUSAND dollars a month, in a city that doesn’t even have two million people. Insane.

The process is quite simple. A property is on the market. The price is advertised, along with the description such as number of bedrooms, air-conditioning yes/no, garage yes/no, pets allowed yes/no, yadiyadiya, and a date is set for inspection. Inspection means fifteen minutes at the most, where twenty to fifty people run through the house, check out if they like it or not, ask a few questions then fill out a form. Filling the form takes ages so you’d better go home to do it. The first one who’s filled in and submitted their form by email or fax has the more chance, plus you have to pay one week in advance, just to prove your dedication. Of course, when you’ve applied for four or five houses, you’ve actually paid four or five weeks of rent. You’ll get it back of course, but it’s just a big chunk of money that you can’t touch for a week or two. Should you not be successful in your application, the money comes back into your account within five days. Should you withdraw your application, some real estate agencies will keep that money as prisoner of war. And of course, if you are successful, well you’ve already paid the first week so it’s actually pretty good.

Right, so, you’re all excited about the house, start filling the form. Name, address, current and previous employer, current and previous landlord, next of kin, references, age, etc etc damn this form takes ages. Then there’s the statement of your bank account, the copy of your passport/drivers licence, etc etc by the time you’re done, you’re just about over this.

But last Saturday, Claire struck gold. One ad had been posted in the morning, no picture, very little details, visit the same day. Off we went, we were the fist to get in, and the first to leave our details. This time it wasn’t an agency but the owner directly. Just a sheet of paper, we scribbled down our names, mobile numbers and current employers.

Monday morning came, and I heard my colleague Witold answering the phone behind me, he was looking at me when we replied “yeah he’s been with us for two months”. Liar 🙂
Five minutes later, Shirley, the owner, called me back and said “the house is yours if you still want it”.

YAY !

So there you go, we even have a guestroom so PLEASE don’t be shy, come and visit us 🙂 We’re right here.

I’ll post some photos later on but basically it’s an old house, with floorboards all the way (Australian LOOOOOVES carpet, I bloody hate it, unhygienic as anything). You enter by the walkway, left is the master bedroom, right is the living area, across is the bathroom. Further down the hall, another bedroom on your left and into the kitchen on the right. The kitchen and the living area are the same room, it’s one big room. There’s a gas stove (good, because I can’t cook on electric stoves, it’s just bollocks), a fridge (massive, two doors), and some storage. At the back, a laundry, another room with no apparent purpose and the stairs down to the minuscule garden.
There’s a pond at the front, with a couple of trees and flower plants and a bit of grass. Sure it’s not Millendon, we won’t have a horse in there, but we realised living in the countryside meant $150 of fuel every week, so… that’ll have to wait.

We’re both very excited to move in on Saturday, finally, our OWN space. I can’t bloody wait !

Step three: get a visa.
Step two : get a car.
Step one : get a job