For many years I've been trying to get away to Far North Queensland where the weather is warm and the crocodiles are friendly. While with every year the urge has become more urgent, it is no longer to get somewhere where the weather is warm and the crocodiles are friendly, but somewhere where I won't have to do much grasscutting.
Not only has it been difficult to find a buyer for "Riverbend", it' has also been difficult to find the right floorplan to accommodate my extra-large collection of books. The floorplan shown below would be an ideal one:
There is a house in the village across the river — and just across the recently sold old church — which not only has the right floorplan with plenty of space for my books — in fact, twice as much space as at present — but which would also allow me to stay close to my old neighbour, the river, not from my doorstep but from a great height.
Unfortunately, it is not for sale. Not yet, but I am waiting for it. It was for sale in August 2010 when it sold for $660,000, and again in August 2021 when it sold for $815,000. In 2010 I was still dreaming of going north for the warm weather and the friendly crocodiles; by 2021 I had already begun to adjust myself to go almost 'anywhere' as long as there wasn't much grass to cut, but somehow I wasn't quite ready yet to commit myself to a second property while "Riverbend" was still unsold.
Today I would be ready to price "Riverbend" well below market value for a quick sale, if "PIXIE" became available, even in the unlikely event of it now being put up for sale at twice the price, because — and here's an interesting fact for those who keep banging on about real estate being an unbeatable investment — the $815,000 I didn't spent in 2021 but left invested in shares have since then also more than doubled in value.
And so I keep checking realestate.com.au in the hope that it may come up for sale, in which case I would, as they say, "be away with the PIXIE".
P.S. But not today! The share market giveth, and the share market taketh away, and today it took away all the gains it had given yesterday, perhaps as a belated reaction to Trump's latest folly in the Middle East.
