Aussie Bloggers

Even though I am not thinking of moving right now I often browse the real estate sites looking at houses for sale, I hope to make my “sea change” in the not too distant future. If you are planning on moving house or just enjoy checking out what is available you may find these sites of use.

Suburb View

This site aggregates the properties for sale or rent which are listed on the major Australian Real Estate sites, including Real Estate Agents, domain.com.au and realestate.com.au.Suburb View allows you to perform comprehensive searches of properties for sale or rent, in the areas you are interested in. Rather than just visiting one site to look for houses, you can search all sites at once. Search results are viewable on a map and also in Google Earth. Further classification is immediately viewable on the map with different colored markers for the type of property (house, unit etc) and the number of bedrooms. Hovering over the markers show the property price, if available. Clicking on the link pops up information including links to the Real Estate site or sites that are advertising the property.

Old Listings

Old Listings is a sister site to Suburb View which gives you details of properties that have been sold.. Properties are searchable by suburb and by street name. Results show the list price, type of property and number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

StreetAdvisor

StreetAdvisor is intended to help people find the best place to live via user submitted reviews, photos and videos of streets, cities and neighbourhoods. Search features, which include Google Maps, allow readers to find reviews of streets and areas they are interested in. They can also participate in the forums and read the. guidebooks. There are incentives for posting reviews. Those who have added the most valuable contributions in a city or town can become “Local Experts”. This creates exposure for those who want to generate leads for their business or traffic to their website.. Prizes are offered from time to time.

When I actually come to making my move these sites may come in handy.

PTY Property Auctions

You do not even need to attend an auction to purchase a property these days. At PTY Property Auctions you can bid on properties and watch auctions online.

Connect Now

I have not needed to use this service but will do so when I finally make my “Sea Change”. Connect Now is a free service that organises your gas, electricity, water, telephone, internet and pay TV to be connected on your behalf. You are free to choose your providers, apart from for your water. Connect Now then liaises with your chosen service providers to organise connection.

However modern, well maintained or renovated a house is there there is always something that needs to be done to get it the way you like it. If you can’t or don’t want to do it yourself you could give the following a try.

Service Central

If you need a tradesman or professional service you can list your requirements on Service Central, which then connects you with people in your area who are qualified to do your job. Having recently needed to fixi my roof and replace fencing I have found this service very handy.

Archicentre Repair and Maintenance Service (Melbourne Only)

An Archicentre service that offers guidance in what needs to be done and which tradespeople you should speak to. If you don’t have the time to manage the work yourself they can co-ordinate and manage repairs and maintenance for you.

The step from browsing for interest and settling into a new place now seems daunting. You have to go and look at properties, make your current home and garden pristine for selling and even consider home staging. Then there is all the packing and unpacking. Perhaps I will stay where I am a little while longer.

My girlfriend and I went out to the relatively new DFO out in Fyshwick (Canberra, ACT) on the weekend for the first time since it opened in September last year.

At first it seemed to be the same size as the Brand Depot out near the Canberra Airport – until we discovered a whole new section still being fitted out which makes the whole complex at least 50% bigger than Brand Depot. I’m not much into bag and shoe shopping so wasn’t interested in about 70% of the shops but there were a few decent shops there which meant I actually enjoyed this shopping trip and bought a few things – unlike my first trip to Brand Depot.

There’s a big Clive Anthonys electrical retailer out there – washing machines, fridges, ovens and all that. I think they had TVs and computers too plus some fancy De’Longhi and Saeco espresso machines I was eyeing off.

There was a JB Hi Fi which I was hoping would have an impressive music CD collection but I was disappointed. They had about half the selection of the Civic store.

Other interesting shops was two Made In Japan stores – one selling ceramic dishes, tea cups and things with the other door selling furniture. All Japanese stuff. I bought a few nice dishes.

There was a kitchen store but it was fairly average. Decent selection of pots and pans but that’s about it. Didn’t end up buying anything.

An outdoor camping, fishing and barbeque store; a massive Rivers store, a small bathroom accessories and storage store – that was about it. Plus the usual brand name clothing stores which I wasn’t particularly interested in.

The new section only has five stores at the moment – two furniture stores plus the second Made In Japan store, JB Hi Fi and Clive Anthonys – but Snooze is moving in soon and there’s probably room for another five.

Anyway – if you live in Canberra go check it out if you haven’t already!