Fri 15 October 2004 - Money
Why I love plastic currency: I can find $15 that I’ve put through the washing machine (like I did the other day), and it’s not only intact, it’s unaffected apart from a few drops of water. Shake them off, and it’s ready to spend.
Tomorrow there’s an auction. It’s next door. I might have a look, purely for interest’s sake. The house is lovely, but way beyond my price limit, and too big for what I want. (What? 5 bedrooms? Who’s going to clean them all?) It’s at 11am. If my morning hair is still intact, I’ll just open the bedroom window and listen-in from the comfort of bed. Shouldn’t be too hard to hear. Auctioneers love shouting.
More money. I also posted an entry called “Money” to geekrant.org this morning. Synchonicity.
October 15th, 2004 at 5:40pm
Was that a single $15 note Daniel? If so, maybe you are not so lucky.
October 15th, 2004 at 6:12pm
Before Dutch currency changed to Euros, we had twenty-five guilder notes and two-and-a-half guilder coins. Touchingly idiosyncratic.
October 16th, 2004 at 1:00am
Will you be able to bid from your window too, just in case it’s going cheap?
October 16th, 2004 at 11:59am
Hendo: It didn’t go at all. There were no real bids. Any illusion you were going to get a bargain was lost when the auctioneer started at $550k, Following a meaningless vendor bid at $560k it was passed in.
One guy asked if the auctioneer would take bids below the vendor bid but he refused.
It’s as if the buyers have put a ceiling on the price of houses around here. Whereas 12 mths ago even weatherboard houses sold for $570-580k, these days no one seems willing to pay over about $500k for a 4br house.
Peter
October 16th, 2004 at 1:31pm
Well, no commodity is worth more (or less) than the market is willing to pay for it.
October 16th, 2004 at 2:15pm
I attended the auction. Disappointed not to meet Daniel. Looked over the back fence and saw the famous trampoline (resting on its side) against the fence. Noticed Daniel’s long grass; time to call the mowing boys again methinks. Only 35 people at the auction, and not one bidder. Auctioneer pleaded with us saying if anyone bids they have post-auction bargaining rights, but still no-one stirred. Nice house, with a good blend of old & new. T shaped kitchen/family/dining was a bit limited though. Couldn’t see anywhere to put a telly.
October 16th, 2004 at 6:41pm
Oh great, so now I have a stalker. Just what I needed. (I know “P”… I don’t know “Peter”). Yeah the mowing boys are coming tomorrow.
I listened from the comfort of bed, a cup of tea and the newspaper at hand.
Agreed P, just more than the market will bear at the moment. The people who bought it 6 months ago to renovate must be kicking themselves.
October 16th, 2004 at 8:42pm
Yes, renovating isn’t making much sense at the moment.
The worst example i saw was an auction 6 mths ago. House East Malvern, but on Dandenong Rd (Mistake #1). Vendors paid about $450k. Spent about $150k on reno (mistake #2). On small block, made smaller by extension of the house so over-capitalised (mistake #3). Vendors were hoping for $700k, passed in approx $600k.
So a big loss if you include stamp duty, etc. But if it was around the corner in a quiet street, the reno was more modest and completed earlier the project would have been a success.