Yes I know I have said that many times before but I really hope that this time I am right. If you have been following my story you will know I have had 15 different addresses and now I have one more. This last move was from Spoon Bay to Bateau Bay, only a matter of just over 4 kilometres but very hard and traumatic.
We have lived in Spoon Bay for 8 ½ years, since we first arrived in Australia in fact. We loved our home and it’s proximity to the beach and had no intention of moving but unfortunately the owners daughter and her husband were coming to live on the Central Coast and so our landlord asked us to vacate. They gave us three months notice and a very good reference. But that did nothing to ease the panic we felt. There is a shortage of reasonably priced rental properties here on the Central Coast and as we do not have unlimited funds we were very concerned. We realised that at our age we are more desirable tenants so we decided to go and “sell” ourselves to all the local estate agents. We went to just about every agent in the area, and there are plenty; we told them that we were the tenants that they had been looking for. We were too old for wild parties, did not have any young children to write on the walls or break the windows, we did not have any pets to soil the carpets or dig up the plants. Neither of us smoked and we were both only very moderate drinkers. What more could they ask for? While most of the receptionists were friendly and smiled at our cheek they said that they no longer kept lists of likely tenants as the demand was so great. They told us to go onto the Internet to a web page called Real Estate.com and check each day for the new listings. Or we could call in to the office as often as we liked to see if any homes had been added to the list.
Real Estate.com was a real boon. Goodness only knows how people who do not have Internet access manage. I suppose they are all sleeping on the street by now. I don’t know how anyone would have managed to call on all those real estate agents every day to see what had become available. On Real Estate.com we were able to list all our requirements and the computer would send us an email message when houses that were close to the requirements were listed.
We did not restrict ourselves as to where on the Cental Coast we wanted to live but we did require that the house had some form of garage or workshop as my husband has a lot of tools and equipment. He enjoys his workshop and we certainly did not want to get rid of all his stuff. When a likely prospect was listed the web page showed you a picture or two of the property and a short description. If you clicked on it you would be asked to please drive passed the house to make sure that you liked the area it was in and if you were still interested to attend a public showing on such and such a day at such and such a time.
We drove passed quite a few. Some of them were just about falling down, some did not have a garage but only an open carport and some were in areas that we would not like to live in. One of the first houses we looked at was in Terrigal, a very sought after suburb. The house itself was not at all bad but it was not fenced, was on a busy road and the garden looked like a nightmare. It was large and on a very steep slope. Not a lot of flowerbeds to maintain but the grass was of a very thick course type that would have been a problem to cut, it would have needed a brush cutter, it could not have been done with our mower and as tenants we would have been responsible for that. Even with all these faults we did think of applying for it but when we were told that they were only willing to give a six months lease as the owners had plans to demolish the house and build units on the land we decided to give that one a miss. Another house we looked at seemed suitable but it looked as if the neighbours might have been a problem. Their garden was full of rubbish – empty tins and bottles, refuse bags in a huge pile, broken toys and equipment – strewn around and two large aggressive sounding dogs and not a proper fence in between the houses. We were getting a little desperate by then so we made a note of the time and date of the showing and thought we might attend.
Before the day of that showing I saw an advert for a house in Bateau Bay at only $240 a week. I thought ‘at that price it has to be a dump’ and as there were no pictures of it I was sure it must be a dump. But when I looked at the address and saw that it was only a short distance from our house I told Jonny about it and said that I thought we aught to look at it ‘just in case’. It was listed as having three bedrooms, a garage and dual access to the property. We hopped into the car and drove down the street. It was an old house, there was no doubt about that but it did not look too bad. But wait a minute ‘where was the garage that they had promised?’ We couldn’t see any garage and without a garage or at least a large shed we could not take it. Just as we were about to drive away I remembered that the advert had said that it had dual access. There had to be a back lane, which is not very common in this part of the world. We drove around to the back and found the lane and worked out which house was the one we were looking for and lo and behold there was a garage after all. When we got back home again I quickly logged on to Real Estate. Com to find out the time and date of the public viewing.
At the appointed time we joined the queue of other prospective tenants in Barry Street. The road seemed full of cars and the line of people stretched form the front door down the pathway and into the street. People of all shapes and sizes, men and women, young and old, boys and girls, fat and thin all waiting for the viewing time to start. After a little wait the door opened and a young woman allowed the first five groups in to look around.
It was not the best way to judge a house, it was full of boxes and the vacating tenant’s possessions were in the throws of being packed. I noted that there were three bedrooms as promised that it did have a garage and that it was very old and in need of a fair amount of tender loving care. Not really my dream home but I knew the state of the rental market and asked the young lady from the estate agent how I should go about applying for the property. She told me that we had to fill in a form and that she would get me one from her car as she had already given out the 50 that she had brought with her. We heard one man telling the agent “I am going around to your office right now to put in these forms, I want this house and I’m putting in my application straight away”
I am a great believer in the power of pray and I had been praying since we were given notice that we would find a suitable house. When I looked at this old house I felt that we should apply for it but I was a little uneasy about it. Was there something better in the offing for us or were we meant to have this one? So I put it into the hands of the Lord, I prayed, “Lord if you want us to have this house please be with our application forms. If there is something more suitable and we should just wait then please don’t let us to get it”.
We took home our forms and spent the weekend filling them in. On Monday morning I rang the agents to find out when the forms had to be in by as there were still some documents that they required that I did not have yet. The young lady said “Please put your forms in straight away, you can get the other documents to me later. I have already had some applications in and I would like to settle this as soon as possible”. So I drove passed her office on my way to work to drop off the forms and she told me that we would be contacted with the decision within 48 hours. I got a phone call from her at 2.00 pm that afternoon to tell me that a decision had been made and that we had the house. I never did give her the missing documents.
Well now we have been in our new home for three months and I have to admit I really like it. It does not have the good view of our last house but we have open land in front of us so we do not feel closed in, the rooms are bigger and we have a much larger garden. Once Jonny has got it into shape we will have space to grow a few veggies and we have space to sit out in the sun.
Yes it was not a voluntary move but it worked out well in the long run. My prayers have surely been answered.
We have lived in Spoon Bay for 8 ½ years, since we first arrived in Australia in fact. We loved our home and it’s proximity to the beach and had no intention of moving but unfortunately the owners daughter and her husband were coming to live on the Central Coast and so our landlord asked us to vacate. They gave us three months notice and a very good reference. But that did nothing to ease the panic we felt. There is a shortage of reasonably priced rental properties here on the Central Coast and as we do not have unlimited funds we were very concerned. We realised that at our age we are more desirable tenants so we decided to go and “sell” ourselves to all the local estate agents. We went to just about every agent in the area, and there are plenty; we told them that we were the tenants that they had been looking for. We were too old for wild parties, did not have any young children to write on the walls or break the windows, we did not have any pets to soil the carpets or dig up the plants. Neither of us smoked and we were both only very moderate drinkers. What more could they ask for? While most of the receptionists were friendly and smiled at our cheek they said that they no longer kept lists of likely tenants as the demand was so great. They told us to go onto the Internet to a web page called Real Estate.com and check each day for the new listings. Or we could call in to the office as often as we liked to see if any homes had been added to the list.
Real Estate.com was a real boon. Goodness only knows how people who do not have Internet access manage. I suppose they are all sleeping on the street by now. I don’t know how anyone would have managed to call on all those real estate agents every day to see what had become available. On Real Estate.com we were able to list all our requirements and the computer would send us an email message when houses that were close to the requirements were listed.
We did not restrict ourselves as to where on the Cental Coast we wanted to live but we did require that the house had some form of garage or workshop as my husband has a lot of tools and equipment. He enjoys his workshop and we certainly did not want to get rid of all his stuff. When a likely prospect was listed the web page showed you a picture or two of the property and a short description. If you clicked on it you would be asked to please drive passed the house to make sure that you liked the area it was in and if you were still interested to attend a public showing on such and such a day at such and such a time.
We drove passed quite a few. Some of them were just about falling down, some did not have a garage but only an open carport and some were in areas that we would not like to live in. One of the first houses we looked at was in Terrigal, a very sought after suburb. The house itself was not at all bad but it was not fenced, was on a busy road and the garden looked like a nightmare. It was large and on a very steep slope. Not a lot of flowerbeds to maintain but the grass was of a very thick course type that would have been a problem to cut, it would have needed a brush cutter, it could not have been done with our mower and as tenants we would have been responsible for that. Even with all these faults we did think of applying for it but when we were told that they were only willing to give a six months lease as the owners had plans to demolish the house and build units on the land we decided to give that one a miss. Another house we looked at seemed suitable but it looked as if the neighbours might have been a problem. Their garden was full of rubbish – empty tins and bottles, refuse bags in a huge pile, broken toys and equipment – strewn around and two large aggressive sounding dogs and not a proper fence in between the houses. We were getting a little desperate by then so we made a note of the time and date of the showing and thought we might attend.
Before the day of that showing I saw an advert for a house in Bateau Bay at only $240 a week. I thought ‘at that price it has to be a dump’ and as there were no pictures of it I was sure it must be a dump. But when I looked at the address and saw that it was only a short distance from our house I told Jonny about it and said that I thought we aught to look at it ‘just in case’. It was listed as having three bedrooms, a garage and dual access to the property. We hopped into the car and drove down the street. It was an old house, there was no doubt about that but it did not look too bad. But wait a minute ‘where was the garage that they had promised?’ We couldn’t see any garage and without a garage or at least a large shed we could not take it. Just as we were about to drive away I remembered that the advert had said that it had dual access. There had to be a back lane, which is not very common in this part of the world. We drove around to the back and found the lane and worked out which house was the one we were looking for and lo and behold there was a garage after all. When we got back home again I quickly logged on to Real Estate. Com to find out the time and date of the public viewing.
At the appointed time we joined the queue of other prospective tenants in Barry Street. The road seemed full of cars and the line of people stretched form the front door down the pathway and into the street. People of all shapes and sizes, men and women, young and old, boys and girls, fat and thin all waiting for the viewing time to start. After a little wait the door opened and a young woman allowed the first five groups in to look around.
It was not the best way to judge a house, it was full of boxes and the vacating tenant’s possessions were in the throws of being packed. I noted that there were three bedrooms as promised that it did have a garage and that it was very old and in need of a fair amount of tender loving care. Not really my dream home but I knew the state of the rental market and asked the young lady from the estate agent how I should go about applying for the property. She told me that we had to fill in a form and that she would get me one from her car as she had already given out the 50 that she had brought with her. We heard one man telling the agent “I am going around to your office right now to put in these forms, I want this house and I’m putting in my application straight away”
I am a great believer in the power of pray and I had been praying since we were given notice that we would find a suitable house. When I looked at this old house I felt that we should apply for it but I was a little uneasy about it. Was there something better in the offing for us or were we meant to have this one? So I put it into the hands of the Lord, I prayed, “Lord if you want us to have this house please be with our application forms. If there is something more suitable and we should just wait then please don’t let us to get it”.
We took home our forms and spent the weekend filling them in. On Monday morning I rang the agents to find out when the forms had to be in by as there were still some documents that they required that I did not have yet. The young lady said “Please put your forms in straight away, you can get the other documents to me later. I have already had some applications in and I would like to settle this as soon as possible”. So I drove passed her office on my way to work to drop off the forms and she told me that we would be contacted with the decision within 48 hours. I got a phone call from her at 2.00 pm that afternoon to tell me that a decision had been made and that we had the house. I never did give her the missing documents.
Well now we have been in our new home for three months and I have to admit I really like it. It does not have the good view of our last house but we have open land in front of us so we do not feel closed in, the rooms are bigger and we have a much larger garden. Once Jonny has got it into shape we will have space to grow a few veggies and we have space to sit out in the sun.
Yes it was not a voluntary move but it worked out well in the long run. My prayers have surely been answered.
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