House hunting

Ok, I wasn't going to announce our house hunting here until we've actually found something, but I have a thing about service and that is really what I want to discuss.

So yes! For about the past two or three weeks we've been looking at properties. It's amazing how quickly you can get sucked into it. You think you'll just start out slow, looking here and there, nothing too serious. But contact one or two agents and they're all after you to sell you something. And I find it hard to say no. What if that one property I didn't feel like viewing was THE one. So we have a pretty high stack of brochures already lying on the table!

But back to service. I've had some shockingly bad service from certain agencies who I will mention in a later post. But I wanted to start off positively with the very first agent who showed us the very first house. That house by the way is still on the market with a stunning kitchen and modern bathrooms including an en suite.... sigh...

Oh yes, about service. The agent who showed us this house is from the estate agency Carsons. After seeing that first house we told him we can't possibly buy the first house we viewed and need to look at more before making a decision. He has called once to show us another house and after that left us in peace to view more properties. I've been meaning to contact him just to say we're still here when he called me just now to check how our search is going.

I explained that Andre has ruled that house out because of the internet speed in that area. At the moment we are getting 50Mb. In South Africa we got something like 384kbps or 512kbps. I don't know much about these things but I know that's not even 1Mb. Half a Mb if you're lucky! But hey, we had internet over there and were even able to upgrade from dial up to DSL.

So the agent from Carsons said he's going to do some research and call me right back.

Only a few minutes later he called back to say he has contacted Virgin (our current super fast cable internet, tv and phone provider) and they're not planning on installing cable in that area probably ever. He then also phoned his dad who actually lives just a couple of houses down the road from this house with the pretty kitchen and bathrooms. His dad is getting 8Mb internet speed.

I'm now waiting to hear what Andre thinks about this. But I just think that this is such excellent service. Sure he wants to sell the house, but he actually did some extra effort to get us some more information about things that are important for us (I mean for Andre...)

It's the little things that makes a huge difference. We would very much like to buy a house through someone who has put in some extra effort to understand us and what we need.

Oh, you're curious to see the house? Just look at this kitchen. Open plan with huge sliding doors going outside. It has those glass panels that fold all the way open.

And an island! I so want an island in my kitchen! And that shower style mixer tap is a bonus too!

Did you see the his and hers built in ovens? That's for when I want roasted butternut which Andre doesn't like. Then he can make his chicken schnitzels and chips in his own oven.

Oooh and look look! A wine cooler! We don't drink much white wine, but I could keep some sparkling wine cool in that fridge.

Other pros for this house:
- It's only 10 min to Andre's work
- It has heli hovering space in the garden and heli flying space in the park right behind the house
- And it has a kitchen, bathroom, en suite that I love.
- Open plan living into the garden which we both love.

Cons:
- Slower internet (doubt I will notice a difference though)
- No Virgin cable tv which means no TiVo box (saves us money. So does slower internet.)
- Quite a small garden so no veggie patch. :(
- Not rural, which we would have liked.
- No pantry for storing food. We've gotten very used to a walk in pantry.

Anyway, I really wanted to give Carsons, and specifically Alun from the Earley branch who is helping us in our search, a thumbs up for their great service. I didn't mean to go on about the house so much. I guess I really like it. What do you think?