The Hunt Begins…

Today marks the end of my first week of hunting for the new lair for 2010. After the dramas of housemates in early 2009, and 3.5 years on residences, I've decided that it is time for me to have a bit of my own space, and so the search is on for a nice, cheap one or two bedroom unit in Geelong.

Anyone who has house hunted before recognises that this can be harder than it sounds. Unlike last time I was house hunting (in which I actually had very little say thanks to the other two housemates), I'm on a very tight budget, but I only have to be sure that one person is happy with the place. The other problem is that I'm not currently living in Geelong, meaning I have to catch the bus from Lorne every time there is an inspection I want to go to. The plus side is that I've managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done on these trips!

So far, there's been

• 15 email enquiries lodged to agents
• 5 properties leased prior to inspection
• 4 inspections (3 by me, and one that I coaxed The Muso to go to for me <3)
• 1 application submitted and subsequently rejected

Of the 6 other properties, I have 1 inspection tomorrow (another trip to G-Town!), and the other 5 were either out of my price range or I couldn't make the inspection time due to work. So why did I only apply for one out of four properties inspected?

The first inspection Matt did for me, and I probably would have applied for the place if, when I went past a few days later, I hadn't discovered that the neighbours were having a violent domestic. Yeah, I've lived next door to that in the past, and I'm not wanting to do it again anytime soon.

Inspection two was at an apartment block on Roslyn Road. It also might have been a chance, even though it was basically two bedrooms (the agent assured me one was the living room, but couldn't tell me which one), both with sliding doors onto the external hallway/balcony/stairs, a tiny bathroom, and an even smaller kitchen. Yes, I'd have submitted an application for an apartment that would fit in my mum's living room (or two downstairs Evatt's bedrooms, for those from res), but for the massively sagging, water-damaged ceiling in the kitchen that looked like it was about to disintegrate on my head, and the discovery that the landlord had no plan to fix it, ever. Fail.

Inspection three was the dream unit! One massive bedroom, open kitchen/living, hardwood floors, huge combined bathroom/laundry, fenced courtyard, lots of natural light, one block from High Street shops, 130 p/w. Application submitted and rejected within 24 hours. =(

Inspection four was in the same apartment block as inspection two, actually the unit next door, and I was sceptical going in, but pleasantly surprised. Newly renovated, big lounge, two decent bedrooms, bathroom with actual bath, nice kitchen. However, at $260 p/w, slightly above my price range, and given the location, size and lack of outdoor area, probably over priced by about $30-$60. Only really went to check it out because the agent rang and asked if I was interested in inspecting and failed to tell me the price before I rocked up.

So after a week of trawling real estate web pages, and the paper, and ringing/emailing agents, I've had little luck, but it's still an interesting experience. I won't say always fun, but interesting.