Buying A House

Whilst writing this book my family and I rented a house in a Wellington suburb. It was high on a hilltop with delightful views of the surrounding hills and with a glimpse of Wellington Harbour. The views were great and so we thought was the house, for which we paid NZ$220 per week. It had a very generous sized lounge, with big windows facing the Harbour. It was ‘U’ shaped with a dining/kitchen facing the hills (at the back of the house).

The large attractive bathroom had all-day sun, with a separate toilet. The back bedroom which was only a single also saw the sun for most of the day, and overlooked the hills at the back. The middle (slightly larger) bedroom only saw the sun in the early morning and the large main bedroom had a small window that only caught the early morning sun, with a large window overlooking the Harbour which was totally sunless. The warmest place in this house was undoubtedly the bathroom, and on cold days I could often be found sitting in there warming myself! My eldest daughter had even tried it out for saxophone practice!

As a result of this experience, I would always check now to see how the sun affected a property.

The windows in this house were very badly warped and seldom fitted properly. This meant that when the wind blew – and that was fairly often – the curtains would billow without the windows being opened!

Also, the house wasn’t insulated. Consequently the rooms that saw the sun only briefly were cold and dampsmelling, especially in the winter, with mildew on the walls.

Rainy Days Are Best!

Whilst selling real estate I acquired a client, a dear old lady, who had been looking for the ‘right’ place for some time, but was in no hurry. I rang her one day with news of a very nice property. The day was fine and sunny, a real estate agent’s dream, and I conveyed the good news.

To my disappointment she said the day wasn’t ‘right’. I enquired why, and she said she would only go looking on rainy days! I was surprised at this response, and asked why. She told me that lots of houses looked good on warm, sunny days, but it took a special place to look good on a grey, wet day! I rang her the next ‘bad’ day, and along she came dressed in her gumboots and wet weather gear!

 

Who Stole The Third Bedroom?

There have been many cases of people buying a house only to put it straight back on the market again. This may sound strange, but when people don’t take the time to visit a property more than once, before buying, errors of judgment can occur.

One couple were in such a hurry to buy, the husband being a very busy man, that they only saw the property once and then bought it. Were their faces red when they couldn’t find the all important third bedroom, as it was only a two-bedroomed house!

Single And Double Storey

Houses can be single or double storey. Double storey houses quite often have garages on the ground floor, with a laundry, rumpus room (games room), possibly a workshop and maybe one bedroom. All the living and sleeping areas are on the first floor.

• If the advertisement just says ‘house for sale’ with no mention of two floors, then you can expect this to be a bungalow, i.e. with everything on one floor.
• Units are semi-detached, or can be found in blocks of four or more, single or double storey, on small sections.
• Townhouses can be one or two storey, free standing or attached by a garage on a small section. Some real estate agents advertise townhouses as being ‘joined’ (semi-detached). Townhouses are usually slightly more upmarket than units.