Spoiler alert – we bought a house. Early into the new year we found another house that we were interested in. It was very much a take-it-as-it-is , fixer upper property but that meant that it was in our price range. And crucially, it was in a good location, zoned for good schools and even close to some good walking and biking tracks.
The seller didn’t provide extras, so we had to pay for a builders report before we put in our offer. And a good thing we did since all of the plumbing was of a type that became brittle over time and needed to be replaced. The house also hadn’t been updated since it was built in the 80’s so every wall was covered with… let’s call it classic 80’s wallpaper. The carpets were worn and faded and the kitchen was a mess, but that all made it affordable.
The other thing that made this house interesting was how it was being sold – at auction. It was the first house that we’d been interested in being auctioned, and even though it was recommended to go to an auction before hand so you can see what its like and won’t be so intimidating, we weren’t able to. Kelly wasn’t able to make it to the auction, so on a Friday afternoon, I left work and took a bus over to Realtor’s office. Luckily ours was the last of three properties being auctioned so I got to watch the first three to see how it worked. Kelly and I agreed on a maximum that we would be comfortable paying beforehand, so whenever someone made a bid, I would just immediately raise it. When it started I didn’t look around or even pay attention to the other bidders (there were only two other bidders), I just tried to project the impression that no matter what they bid I was going to keep raising it until I got it. And I did! Even though it was down to just me and another group, and you could tell they were at their limit, it still came as a shock when it stopped and I had won.
A quick call to Kelly and a few signatures later and I was back to work and we were under contract!
Kiwi Bound 