THE BACK UP PLAN

Sometimes in life, it pays to have a back up plan.

That way, when things don’t turn out as you wish, you will always have something to fall back on.

Case in point: real estate.

As I’ve blogged before, Mum (Iris) has sold her home in The Nong.  She’s looking to downsize to something a little smaller, and she’s moving up to the country, closer to me.  Yeah.

So, we’ve been looking at the property market in the area for a couple of months now.  Actually, for a lot longer; watching what’s moving and shaking to get an idea of what’s going in the market, so we’re all ‘learned up’ when we’re ready to buy.

Iris has found the perfect unit.  Just lovely.  Exactly what she’s after. *insert round of applause* However, and typically, she picks the one that every other bastard in Victoria wants as well. 

*sigh* And so the games begin.

So we’ve put forward an offer (and I say ‘we’ because I have to do it on Mum’s behalf, which I’m cool with, as the whole thing stresses her out), we now have to wait and see if the vendor accepts it.  Like that doesn’t test ones patience.  Thank God I comfort eat, otherwise I would go mad waiting.

I suppose too, that this is where you really need to have your head around the current market, and have a full understanding of not only how far you are prepared to go to secure a property, but how desperate you are for it.

I love buying cars.  I love researching them, test driving them, researching the values of my depreciated, driven into the ground cars and haggling and negotiating with dealers over prices.  I love it.  And you know why?  Cos at the end of the day, if I don’t get what I want, I can walk away.  And why can I walk away, I hear you ask? Because there are many other dealers out there with the same damn thing on offer.

However, real estate doesn’t work like that.  Unlike cars, finding exactly what you’re after can be rare.  Finding the perfect property is like finding a ruby in a mountain of rocks (to quote the great Meatloaf).  Anyone that as ever bought a house, would understand this.

So, insert The Back Up Plan.

To take the heat off ourselves, we have a second choice as well.  Another perfectly acceptable unit, that is our fall back if ‘the perfect’ unit falls through.

I think this gives us a little more bargaining power, if only mentally.  You see, if the negotiating process for ‘the perfect’ unit turns into an unrealistic head fuck, then we can just walk away.

Have you ever seen a real estate agent when a live buyer is about to walk away? You can see them mentally slamming their fist against the ‘CODE RED! CODE RED!’ button, and all chaos breaks loose.  It’s quite amusing really (I’m nothing if a little sadistic).

As I sit here typing this, Milo the cat sitting beside me, happily farting (nice), I wonder how far we will be pushed… how far will we have to go to win? Will we have to walk away? Will a miracle occur (thank you everyone for your prayers) and the agent will call me any minute to tell me that Iris is the successful bidder?

Will I win tattslotto, and solve all of our problems?

I doubt it.

So, insert The Back Up Plan.  We may need to yet.

I’ll keep you posted (literally).

Peace out.