My New Friend Richard Peter

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I did get your response concerning the ADVERT i posted on Craigslist.com The house is still available but I'm not around presently. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa and fortunately i won the bidding so i have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because i will still have to rebid for it in the next 8 years. I came over here with my wife (Felicia) and my Daughter (Kim), we both bought the house when we got married. As soon as we settle down here i had a thought of selling the house but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. Later we decided to have the house rented out. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard market price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the absolute care for our property. I know there is no way i can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won't be able to meet in physical before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the house. But i just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you believe you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then i will be more than happy to let you rent the house.
.....
Regards,
Richard Peter


A while after arriving in Sydney, while Aaron was still in China, I began researching the rental market in Sydney. Before we left Vietnam Aaron and I discussed briefly what we were looking for and how much we would be willing to pay. However we did this in a hurry with no idea about the housing market in Sydney. Unfortunately there turned out to be a few factors playing against us. Firstly the Aussie dollar is currently very strong at the moment, so when we converted our estimates from apartments we rented in the US over a year ago, it was pretty unrealistic. Also the Sydney housing market is insanely competitive right now.

I began my search online to compare different suburbs. Friends in Sydney recommended domain.com and gumtree.com. Looking on those two websites, in our price range, I only found shared accommodation, studios and ... a parking space (going for $250 per week)! I tried looking at craigslist.com, a website I used in Austin and found some cheaper adverts. Some looked too good to be true and I thought they could be scams, but others looked more realistic and might just be private landlords who are saving money not going through an agency. Well, I thought, what's the worst that can happen, so I contacted a few (using an email address with only my first name). Out of the four I emailed I got three responses....

I posted the start of the first reply above, which on reflection looks rather amusing! He went on to say that we could drive by the apartment, but couldn't go inside to view it till after we sent a "refundable" depsoit abroad to him and then he would send the keys...hmm a likely story! The other two replies were also blatant scams. No more craiglist in Australia for me!

Aaron and I had a few conversations over skype trying to readjust our expectations to what's realistic here. One went something like..."well I know you said ideally we'd like a two bedroom apartment, but near the city I've just seen one for around $650." Aaron, "$650 a month, that's a good deal!" Me, "....actually it's $650 a week .... So I was thinking we should look for a one bed or a studio..."

Comments

sly said…
Ouch! Sounds like New York City! What gives? Is there a moratorium on apartment building??
15 April 2011 at 08:06
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