Suburbia revisited

My little family has lived in suburban Toowoomba for almost two years now; in a plain, no frills, small little house, made of bricks and colorbond.

I'll be truthful, it's not where I imagined to be by 2013, but then again, I don't think I had a particular 'dream' for this phase of my life.

Suburbia, to me, is kind of a living hell. Most of the time:

1. Our windows are closed with curtains and blinds virtually permanently closed. We typically live in darkness and artificial light.
2. When we do go outside, we have 634 square metres of "land". The reality is there is a patch of about 4 by 14 metre grass to run around on, the rest is house, sheds, garden, totally useless unfenced front yard, carport and driveway, and trailer space. It's a bit like watching lions in those small cages. Space, yes, but it's really just a small holding pen.
3. There is no paths leading to the local park; we become 'road walkers', dodging cars and pushing prams up and down  the kerb between the road and the council strip.
4. The local 'park' has unsuitable play equipment for my 2 and 3 year old. Half of it disappeared one day after some teens melted some of the plastic tunnels with some sort of fire producing device.
5. At around end-of-school time, the street becomes a mini racing strip of mummy taxis.
6. Birds.


Look in all honesty it's not too bad. Of course there are heaps of awesome parts to living so close to convenience, to life, and really, we are lucky to have great neighbours (although next door just moved out, here's hoping).

At the moment, suburbia is close to work, which is good. But soon enough, work will change once again and I'll be doing my 30-35 minute "thinking time" drive all over again.

The bottom line thought I think for me has become about the actual house itself. This particular one is your typical three bedder with the original garage remodded to be a rumpus/large 4th bedroom. It's starting to grow on me in terms of practical space; recently I've added more storage and it's starting to work. It's become easier to live with.

What is most perplexing for me is how do millions upon millions choose this living option. How do they favour such an option? How do they "live with" this type of living? Is it by choice?

Suburbia....the joy of confinement.    

Upgrade = Stress = Upgrade?

Recently my wife and I began having conversations around the nasty "U" word. This word often strikes fear in the hearts of the average man, as this word changes everything. This word locks us in, and throw away the keys, because after this word, nothing will be the same every again. EVER. That word is "upgrade". 

Currently we live in a slightly small but comfortable 3 bedroom house, which really is four bedrooms because the rumpus room (read "built in garage")  serves as a large study and hence we refer to it as a bedroom. But somehow, it's cramped. Getting the cars out for example, we have to move one out of the single carport/garage to get to the other and a few months ago when I had a motorbike, you basically had to move half the machinery on the entire block, just to go for a ride. Also, my little boy and I sometimes want to play ball. The tiny backyard is OK, but we're limited to a piece of grass on an uneven sloping surface and really, once we get this new swing set, we will be playing 'guess where the grass is' game. The kitchen too, is on the smallish side for us, as we're used to a bit more space from our last few places.

So yeah, upgrade. Not such a dirty word, is it? Well, unfortunately I think it is. We're on a single income and at this point in time, while we could upgrade to a nice pad, it would really tighten the belts. Not that there is anything wrong with a bit of extra forced savings as I like to call it, but somehow over the last two years or so, I've become accustomed to a certain relaxed spending mood and not minding having a bit of extra cash lying around now and again. 

In reality, an upgrade is out of the question right now, especially on a single income. Maybe soon...only time will tell. 

There is a little Facebook/Twitter/other social media sharing options thingy underneath this post. Spread the word. As much as I love writing on this blog, it would be great if I had more 'followers' or 'disciples' who read the word of the great Andrew. 

Ownership pushed to the suburbs?

I often fail to see past the obvious notion that our nation's journalists are a bunch of idiotic, moronic, 'non-life experienced' idiots. I mean for instance, read this article. 

While the statistics about how far people travel for work are indeed very interesting, the wording is just all wrong:

"Young people are most at risk as housing affordability worsens and first-home buyers are increasingly pushed to outer suburbs."

Does this writer suggest first home buyers should be buying the premium properties in the exclusive suburbs AS THEIR FIRST HOME? Get a grip please, a grip on the reality that the typical first home owner SHOULD NEVER buy ANYWHERE NEAR the CBD. No wonder we have our 20 and 30-somethings complaining about 'affordability'. 

In Brisbane, where should a typical first home owner, in 2011, buy their home? It isn't going to be any of the 'leafy' burbs, not the Indooroopily corridor, definitely not the CBD, not St Lucia, not Kangaroo Point, none of these places are for FHOBs. 

Young people need to get a grip on reality and realise that home ownership is rarely about living where you want to, but rather a compromise between four main factors: distance to work, the suburb 'age', the size of the property and the entry cost. 

1. Distance to work: As in the article, the closer the better, but this needs to be balance with other factors. 

2. Some suburbs, like those popping up near Ipswich at present, are new suburbs with new homes. These come at a premium. Some more established suburbs, say, Oxley, have generally older homes, but are a tad closer to the city. 

3. The size of the property is always a factor, and as the typical back yard becomes smaller and smaller (read 250 square), a premium is paid for the 'larger' lots.

4. Entry cost is probably the most important factor for FHOBs. The market dictates the overall value of a property, considering ALL factors related to the 'livability' of a property, and this is continually forgotten by many many people. Entry cost dictates basically where you will live, but FHOBs can not enter the market with a $700,000 inner ring home. The article talks about stress etc., imagine what it would be like when you need to make the repayments on something like that, AS YOUR FIRST HOME. 

Ciao.

A relative bargain 3 bedroom home

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-tas-invermay-107524471

I have been keeping my eye on this suburb mainly because I have one of these in my portfolio, but this one seems just that little bit nicer. A bargain I think, and probably a little bit negotiable.

UPDATE: Well what do you know, it's under contract!

Contract on PPOR

After a quick calculation of funds, and having frequent visits from mouses and rats at our current govy rental, we have put a contract on a suburban home in Toowoomba. OK, it will mean a 40 minute drive each way to work every day, but it's still a lot better than many, and it also opens others doors for my little family (which by the way, is expanding to 4 members).

It's a nice house, an ex rental with a bit of work to do, but as I posted earlier, the smaller block will mean less maintenance and allow smaller internal and external projects to materialise. I have recently acquired a nail gun which means I will be having a go at a deck and external feature screens and other Better Home and Gardens pieces.

We played what I like to call 'halfsy-halfsy' with the agent. Negotiations went:

On market for $268,000, which was already a drop from the initial $274,000.

We offered $250,000 (which we thought was a reasonable low offer)

He/they countered with $260,000 - (first halfsy)

We countered with $255,000 - (second halfsy)

They countered with $257,500 (third halfsy)

At this point we stayed resilient, as every thousand saved here, was money that could be spent on renos. So we said $255,000 we believe is a good price. (A firm halfsy resistant counter, based on the other halfsies.)

He/they countered with $256,000, which we accepted.

I believe successful negotiations, and the right price for this property, in this street, in this suburb.

I'll write more when the contract finalises.

The Great Aussie Dream....or is it?

My mind often wonders off at little tangents and this morning, I contemplated home ownership, which, as most of us know, is often referred to as the "Great Aussie Dream." Home ownership is great. It's your little world, yours to mould into whatever you desire, a reflection of how you want to live and the things you like. On the other hand, I really do wonder about the modern version of what this so called "dream" really is.

While Australia has suddenly, since 2000ish, been at the receiving end of economic prosperity, a lot of people now call Australia home, but I contemplate what sort of home.

For example; a lot of people, especially new immigrants, rent. The Aussie dream is not alive for these people. Those fortunate enough to have bought and paying off a mortgage, the dream is coming to life, but what sort of dream? I mean, seriously, what is the average dream property for Australians? To me, it seems to be the 3,1,1 (3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 living area), or the 4,2,2 (4 bedroom, bath/ensuite and 2 living areas) which, on the face of it, seems great. The part I have trouble with is the size of the land. I mean seriously, does the Great Aussie Dream (GAD) involve a 600 square block of dirt, or even worse that I have seen recently, 420 or 330? What about terrace living? I mean, who really wants to live in a place where you can't go outside to have a fart or burp, without 8 of your neighbouring house dwellers hearing it? That is my definition of virtually no provacy. It's hell.

You see I have a problem with this. Australia is a vast, untapped country, with cazzillions of acres right across each State. So why do we end up in a house with a backyard where the dog has to strategically pick where it shits just so it doesn't step in it when walking around? And further, guess how much we are paying for these blocks, just for the convenience of urban living? Big money...

On the other hand, I have just completed, for fun, a little research in areas that are not in urban hell, but in a place where the GAD can become a true reality. For example, you can buy 100 acres in outback Queensland for about $150,000....with power and a bore. Why are these sitting there idle, no interest and no one buying, yet a 600 square hell block for 250K in urbania gets snapped up faster than I can say, STOP!??? I mean, I myself do the same thing, but why am I scared to buy in rural areas?

Have we became a fully urban nation? Is the convenience of having things at your fingertips that important? Obviously, or I wouldn't be having this rant. But I challenge the need for 99% of the population to live in suburbs rather than Aussies spreading their wings and looking for land. There is soooo much out there, un-used, left alone, forgotten.

The GAD, is living in hell. The GAD is dead. Long live land.