Remember Real Estate George? Well, he’s back …
Last time we convened for the Adventures of Cath and Friends (House Hunting), we met a curious and shady character named George, ostensibly enlisted to aid us in our quest for living quarters. A house we were meant to move into at the end of February became the house that would be ready mid-March, then the house which would be ready in “just one more week”, “just one MORE week”, “no really, next week. I promise.”
And so on.
You can imagine our joy and delight when, two weeks ago, we find that the house still doesn’t have a stove, or sockets, or electricity. So we did what should have happened a long time ago – we bailed.
Trouble is, it wasn’t a neat little cut-and-run situation. More of a “hack off with a blunt implement and stagger away bleeding from orifices” type ending. (There’s got to be a snappier analogy than that, but you get the idea.)
You see, a certain significant sum of money (our “holding deposit”) is now tied up in the hands of our lovely Real Estate George. I’ll avoid going into the details, as the case is probably soon going to be in the hands of the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal. Plus it’s a long boring story and I probably couldn’t tell it without a metric buttload of expletives. (Honestly, I’ve never been much of a potty mouth, but Real Estate George has, on occasion, caused me to bust out the C-word. If you’re around me after I get off the phone to the guy, it’s like a Tourette’s convention*…)
* Ok, more accurately the involuntary utterance of inappropriate or obscene words is actually called Coprolalia, and is only present in 15% of Tourette Syndrome cases. "Coprolalia Convention", I don't know. Hasn't got the same ring to it...
Comments
Cath, you can move in with me if you want. My Mum alleges that ironing is 'therapeutic.' And all our sockets are attached to walls etc.
Posted by: Lauren | April 10, 2006 09:36 PM
You have our permission to use any words you want to, if it'll help. Good luck with the battle!
Posted by: cath's parents | April 11, 2006 06:23 PM
Cath, that sounds delightfully horrible! I'm so scared of these moving out stories. I want to return to the days of marshmallows, hot chocolate and being tucked in with a kiss. (Now that I'm 21 years old however - My fantasies now replace the parental unit, with a handsome stranger.)
Posted by: Ghassan | April 12, 2006 02:32 PM
I've managed to save up roughly $66561 in my bank account, but I'm not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?
Posted by: Courtney Gidts | May 9, 2006 01:50 PM
Courtney, I'm afraid that question falls somewhere outside my expertise ;)
I will say, though, once when a real estate agent was preparing a lease for me and a few friends, he calculated the amount we would be paying over one year for a 4 bedroom place (which was in the vicinity of $30,000 altogether) and he said "It's just money down the drain... have you considered buying one of our lovely properties instead? Then at least your money would be paying it off."
The idea of a twenty or thirty year mortgage when you're still studying undergraduate is a bit of a worry. We just grimaced and signed the damn lease.
Posted by: Cath | May 31, 2006 09:08 AM
THANK YOU.
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Posted by: Tax Liens | June 24, 2008 09:01 PM