Meet you back here in half an hour.
What are you going to do?
What I always do - stay out of trouble... Badly.

All Real Estate Agents Must Die

So yesterday they call me up to tell me that the property has been taken off the market and offer me a new lease.

And today they show up unannounced to show prospective buyers through.

Kill.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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There Really Is A (Thunder) God

Back in 2005, you may recall, I was forced to move house twice. I rent, and in June the Pixy Central of the past seven years was sold. I'd been thinking of moving, so this didn't upset me overly, but moving after being in one place for that long was something of a disaster.

For New Pixy Central I was offered the usual twelve-month initial lease, but a few days later - after I'd started arranging things for the move - the real estate agent called back and said that the initial lease was only six months. I assumed that this was because the units were brand new, but it turned out to be because the unit I'd selected (one of five available at the time) was on the market to be sold, something the agent neglected to tell me. And three months after I moved in - just after the last remaining rental unit in the complex was occupied - it was indeed sold, and I had to move out by Christmas.

Not a happy Pixy.

Fortunately, another new complex had just been built immediately behind New Pixy Central and the first two units were available for lease right at that time. One of them suited me just fine, so in November I put in an application for it, and was approved.

And then I waited for the lease to be ready for me to sign.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For five weeks, until, in mid-December, the agent admitted that they had no idea when that unit would actually be ready to occupy, but the other unit - the one that I didn't like - was ready now.

Which became New New Pixy Central. The one advantage of which is that the main bedroom is on the ground floor where the air-conditioning is. (Admittedly, given the weather in the two summers since then, this has been a major advantage; but Old New Pixy Central had a balcony off the main bedroom where I could set up my portable air conditioner.)

Aaaaanyway.

Along comes Christmas '06, and I receive a letter advising me that my lease had run out, and that the owner was happy with my tenancy and wanted to offer me another twelve-month lease. Given that this was when I was starting to work full-time on Minx and mee.nu, moving house was the last thing I wanted to do, so I accepted.

And then I waited.

And wondered if something was up.

And was going to contact them again to see if everything was going okay, just as soon as I finished doing some on-site tech support work (have to pay the bills somehow).

And the day that I finished doing said work, the agent called me and said that the unit was being sold, and that he knew I had a lease and they'd make sure the sale complied with the lease, and so on. Except that of course I didn't have a lease, as they would have found out once they looked at the paperwork.

So. I could wait it out, or I could move to the unit that had just opened up next door (there are a lot of fairly new townhouses in my immediate area). I chose to wait it out, through four weeks of having people wandering in and out every Saturday afternoon.

And last Saturday I was discussing with the agent showing the property about how I'd already had to move twice recently, and he sympathised, and told me that the owner didn't really want to sell, but business had been slow recently and he needed the money. So I asked what business he was in, and it turns out he owns a company that specialises in repairing hail damage to cars.

And business would be slow for him, because Australia has been in the grip of drought for several years now, and there hasn't been a decent storm in Sydney for ages.

And I joked that given his occupation, I should really hope for bad weather.

And in the past week, the area has been hit by three major thunderstorms. The owner has at least six months worth of new contracts, the property has been taken off the market, and the agent is preparing a new lease for me to sign.

So, sometimes, things really do work out.

Oh, and if you happen to meet Thor, tell him Pixy says hi.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:51 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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