Moving House

The last seven days have been full of surprises!

Last weekend we had that wild flash flood on our street but the bigger problem was our growing mold problem. We had seen it coming for about a week or two but by Sunday, it was out of control. We had mold all over the ceiling and the walls and covering the blinds, and the bathroom was getting disgusting. I swear, I've never seen anything like it. People keep saying "Oh, use bleach" as if this mold was like every other kind of mold and could be destroyed like any other mold, but no. It's not that kind of mold. This mold is eating our house.

We have this really great mold cleaner here called Exit Mold which is really good actually. Especially for the shower tiles--you just spray it, let it sit for about 3 minutes, and then wash it off and everything will be gone. But it won't keep it from coming back. Nothing can do that. This is super mold.

So we pretty much bombed our house with the stuff over the entire day (poor Jeremy--it took him 3 hours to do the blinds!) and given the lack of ventilation in our apartment (no opening windows, no truly working fan), the Exit Mold left a very noticeable chemically smell throughout the house. It was pretty thick... I seriously worried when I went to bed that night whether or not I would wake up in the morning because it's some serious stuff. Exit Mold is the heaviest cleaner I've ever seen in the grocery store...

But we did wake up! And the next day, we decided some things really have to change. Our lease is up on July 13th so we decided we would only renew on the condition that the owner fix the bathroom fan and buy a dehumidifier for the house (they are out of our budget--around $500). So I called the agent who manages the property while our owner is overseas but couldn't connect. And the next day, I got a letter in the mail from her on Thursday saying our rent was going up $20 to $380 per week in August. That was a big no-go for me, and the house hunt began Friday morning.

First I got a hold of the agent and to my surprise, she was actually really helpful and on our side of things. She agreed that the price was unreasonable for the size of our unit and the nature of the unit--no opening windows, no car space, no balcony, broken fan, broken dishwasher, etc.--but said the owner was not being cooperative or open to her professional advice. In fact, the word she use were "greedy", "nasty" and "unhelpful" to describe the owner. Apparently the owner initially tried to raise the rent by $50 a week!!!! That's just absurd and seriously out of touch... Thankfully the owner talked her down to $20 but said she didn't think the owner would listen to her anymore and asked me to write an email detailing what we think we could elsewhere at that price and what would be needed to reflect that value in our current unit.

I ended up saying that we would stay at $360 a week (our current price) if she would fix the fan and buy us a dehumidifier because they are essential given the ventilation problems. But if she really wanted to raise it to $380 a week, she would have to also fix the dish washer, put in a ceiling fan and give us the car space in the garage (which I suspect is let to someone else in the building). And I cautioned that until we heard from her, we'll be looking for other places.

Honestly, I don't think she'll meet our requests (though I really do hope she does--I think the dehumidifier could do the trick in our place). Truth is, she probably could find renters willing to pay $380 a week for this mold hole. It looks nice and it really is in a GOOD location (yes, that deserved all caps), but no one will be happy here long term if the mold problem isn't addressed.

So I hit the streets on Friday to schedule inspections for other units and scour the market. I must have walked a good 7 miles or so throughout the course of the day but really didn't have much luck. I managed to get one inspection (most inspections are on Saturdays so no one was going to show me that day) but the apartment was too small for us. I was feeling pretty grim about the whole thing by the end of the day.

One thing you have to understand about house hunting in Sydney is that it is COMPETITIVE. There is a major housing shortage in this city which is why the rent prices are seriously through the roof. I've seen studios rent for $400 per week and one bedroom apartments go for $600. Yesterday I came across this property which seriously rents for $5000 a week. Yeah, it's a nice place--a really nice place--but worthy of $20,000 a month? No. Housing here is out of control.

What kind of places are in our price range? We can afford between $300-$400 a week (though $400 is really stretching it) and these are our general options:

• the studio deceptively listed as a one bedroom in our budget's upper limit (can't do two in a studio--not possible)
• the older, cheaper place far away from public transport (a no go for people with no car)
• the questionable older place in a good position but at a suspicious price
• the taken property in your neighborhood which may have been good
• the old place with no photos at a very suspicious price 

Most of these places turn out to have tiny kitchens, no internal laundry, old, nasty bathrooms, and stained carpet. Yesterday, Jeremy and I went to extreme measures to find a decent place close to transport and near the city; we started looking in Redfern and Chippendale.

Those suburbs aren't really very far from where we are now but they are really dodgy. I mean really dodgy. This is where the majority of inner-city crime takes place and all the guide books tell you to not venture out on your own at night. It's kind of scary and kind of run-down.

But we were there to look at apartments--good ones. Those rare gems on the market at the moment that not only look clean and modern but they also fit in your budget. Jeremy went here and I went here.

Jeremy's place was in the scariest part of Chippendale. Along the way, he walked past a public housing development which he said was clearly identifiable by the 20 people sitting on crates in the lawn doing nothing but drinking beer and watching the street at 11AM. When he got to the apartment, he found that this place was probably even worse than our current one despite the photos (which look kind of nice). Apparently there was a plumbing problem about six months ago and a huge mold breakout occurred inside the wall to the point where it bubbled out and the paint started falling off. The agent assured him that would be fixed but honestly, why wasn't it fixed six months ago? We're not interested in dealing with any more mold. He left in a hurry and didn't take an application.

Back at my place, the front door to the apartment looked like a good place for people to pee or else a good place to commit a crime. But the pictures of the apartment kept me waiting--it looked really good. So good that about 50 other people showed up to look at the place too. The inside of the building was surprisingly nice and the apartment was every bit as nice as the photos--a much appreciated gesture. The place had high ceilings, skylights, a beautiful leafy balcony over the complex courtyard, hardwood floors, enough room for a dinner table, a large closet, solar tubes, and internal laundry. Not to mention it's near the police station (good for this neighborhood) and within 500m of the train station (which has every train line pass through and an extra bonus because the neighbor hood isn't well connected by buses). It was pretty much the golden egg of Sydney real estate (in our price range, that is).

So I did my best to talk to the owner and make good conversation (he was also the tenant) in hopes that he would remember me when he came across my application. Luckily for me, most people did not make the effort to talk to him which means Kortney +1 and the rest of Sydney 0, and conversation went so well that once Jeremy showed up (he ran from the other property which was scheduled at the same time), the owner was so interested in talking to us that we stayed past the inspection and were the last ones standing! First in and last out means you will be remembered most. (I have a whole lot of Sydney house hunting tips for an upcoming post.)

But, as I said, about 50 people showed up. We may have made a good impression but there are still lots of reasons not to choose us. For one, we only have one year's rental history here. Two, I don't have a permanent, full-time job. Three, I don't even have a substantial visa. Let's hope we get it, even if it's in Redfern.

We saw four properties on Saturday which was difficult to do in two hours since we don't have a car but we hope it won't take too long to find one. There aren't a lot of options on the market right now in our price range or that meet our expectations so we'll have to be very vigilant in getting mid-week inspections and making a good impression at the Saturday ones. Wish us luck!

(And thanks for reading if you actually made it this far.)