Our lovely little home in the not so lovely retirement village is now sold and settled. We’re comfortably living in a little rental house, a house which we’d love to buy, but sadly it’s not going to be for sale any time soon. In the not to distant future the owner plans to move in when her circumstances allow. Our rental is on a periodical lease. It suits us not to be tied into a longer lease while we look for something suitable to buy, and it suits the owners because when their circumstances do change, which is expected to happen in the near future, they don’t have to wait out a tenants long lease period. This, of course means we have to find something suitable to buy sooner rather than later.

We hadn’t planned on falling in love with the rental house, we were just appreciative of finding a place to rent. As with any house though, we’ve learnt a bit more from having lived in this one, and have added another ‘must have’ for our next house, and this one is the reason we’ve fallen in love with this house. The house is by no means any palace, but it gets amazing north/east sun through the living area, and it gets amazing air flow through the home when the cool breezes start to blow in the late afternoon. We’ve owned and lived in lots of houses, but never have we lived in any before built so suitably to capture the best of weather. The house is light, bright and airy, which lifts the spirits and immediately makes the place feel like a home. I can understand why the owners are keeping it for their retirement house.

So we look. Hourly we look through the real estate sites searching for a suitable place to buy. It’s definitely a seller’s market, so it’s clear we’re going to have to pounce on anything suitable that comes up quickly. It’s also clear we’re going to have to pay top dollar. Houses are being sold before they even hit the market. We have our list of ‘must haves’, which now includes preferably a north/east aspect for the living areas, but if not north/east, then at the very least an easterly aspect so as to capture the early morning sun. We have our list of ‘wants’ too. We’re trying to keep the ‘must haves’ list small, and to be flexible with the list of ‘wants’.

We thought we had found a potential house yesterday and are due to inspect it along with 20 or more other people tomorrow. However, the house is tenanted until October. Our initial thoughts were that this wouldn’t pose a problem, but after sleeping on it overnight the potential pitfalls have scared me off somewhat. Firstly, the rent the tenant pays is small, so we’d be getting a smaller return for our investment for six months than we’re getting with our money left in the bank. That’s no big deal in the scheme of things, but added to that is losses to be factored in from Centrelink (we get a pension, so are eligible for rent assistance – we’d lose that), again, no big deal in the scheme of things. Then the really scary things came to mine – our rental house is unlikely to be available until October which will probably mean another move. In a market where houses to rent are as scarce as hen’s teeth that could prove to be a nightmare. We could end up homeless.

Next the house is close to the area where we’d like to be, but it’s not actually in our ‘perfect area’. The ‘perfect area’ though is only on our ‘want list’ so is something we’re flexible with. With such a long wait until we can take up residence there, what if something in our ‘perfect area’ became available in the meantime, what if several came up – how disappointed and cheated would we be feeling. Paul says this can happen if we have moved into our new home already, and I have to agree. Somehow though I think I’d feel a lot more cheated if we hadn’t had a chance to put our stamp on any home we’ve purchased. As I said in my last post, ‘wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home’, but I do need to be able to ‘hang my hat’ there.

I’m certainly not known for being cautious in real estate. I’ve always trusted my gut, and we’ve always landed on our feet in past dealings. We’ve never purchased before though in any market that compares to this scorching, hot, ‘seller’s market’. At any time the bottom could fall out of the market. If the market pushes us into a panic buy, this time there’s the potential for us to get burnt badly. This time my gut is telling me to be careful, not to panic buy, to assess the potential pitfalls. Just like jumping into the mighty Murray River on a scorching hot summer’s day, the roots under the surface have to be carefully assessed for safety. Yes, I want that swim, but not at any cost. The scorching conditions doesn’t mean caution can be thrown to the wind – no, I think we need to be extra careful. I think it’s time to pay careful attention to my gut. We need to make sure the waters are safe before diving in.