Fly away hair and drive-bys

Smallsteps went and got a haircut today for the second time in her life. We took her to the same salon but since the hairdresser who did it last time was booked for the next month, it ended up being the owner who cut it. Weirdly, I have spent a lot of time around hairdressers in my life and saw from the outset that this person really didn't care that much about what she was doing, and once we got home I had to clean up the back as it was uneven with a few chunks of longer hair there. I have been cutting my own hair for about 15 years as I had got tired of paying a premium to end up finishing it myself. I can screw up my hair for free!

As I said in the last post, my wife is looking for houses and when she "framed the idea" this morning, I already knew she had something in mind. While there was no showing until Monday evening, we went for a drive past it to see what the suburb is like and if there are services around. We could of course manage pretty much anywhere, but where we are is pretty ideal as Smallsteps' grandparents are only a 5 minute walk away, and that makes it very easy for them too. We also would have to change daycare for her and whie that is not a problem for the most part, where she has been has been relatively understanding and attentive of her dietary needs.

The suburb is old and a bit rundown in my opinion, but as it isn't too far out of the city, it is likely going to see some upgrades in the next decade. The house itself looks to be (from the outside and pictures) in good condition and the neighbouring houses are also. This is something to pay attention to when buying a house in my opinion as those people next door aren't likely to move anytime soon.

So, now that we are investigating the possibility, we have to make sure that we are able to get a suitable loan and that requires getting our current apartment evaluated so we have a ballpark on what we could expect to get for it in the area. We have some collateral in it, but there are factors that have changed in the area that will affect prices. We have a real estate agent coming tomorrow to have a look and provide some pricing.

I do not have a lot of faith in real estate agents in general as they have incentive to skew opinions early on to get the contract, and then incentive to sell for less as the difference to their commission doesn't change that much whether it is 5% more or less. But, that kind of difference does matter to the seller - and the buyer.

I think that we are more likely to sell the place ourselves though, because I do not really see the value of the agent in selling places that are relatively easy to sell anyway, but this depends on the market. These days however, most people do their own leg work as online buyers and then contact the agents directly. When I sold my last apartment, the commission for the agent was over 7000€ and she did two open houses and it sold in less than three weeks - She didn't even take the pictures - I did.

One of the things that I am excited about if we do move into a house is that I can have a space for an office and fingers crossed, a garage that has the possibility of a workshop. While not overly handy or good at it, I love playing around with random things and building stuff with my hands. I think this has some genetic component from both sides of the family tree. Creating things is great as it forces investment in and therefore, the value of something is higher, even if the quality isn't - much like the results of cutting my own hair.

Obviously, there are lots of roadblocks and risk considerations to evaluate before doing anything, but it is nice to have a different kind of project to think about for a change - Even if it ends up being a non-event.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]