Auction!

While checking that the weeds had been killed (seems like they haven't), we also decided to go have a look at Metricon's display they were auctioning off for charity just four streets up from my block.  It was more or less the same build, but slightly bigger - a Delta 24 on a 12.5x32m block.  Most of it was much the same, though the electrical throughout was very basic, with tiles rather than timber.

The auction was a bit of a sad state though - not only were there only about 10 groups of people turn up, many really were there just to have a look.  One of the sales agents had a bit of a chat with me, and asked how much I thought it would go for: "Oh, probably around 386, give or take".  "Give or take?  That's a very specific number".  :)

As for actually bidders?  Only a single bid at $380k, so I felt sorry for her.  To put in any specific number and then not have anyone willing to challenge it basically means you could have said less.

Says a lot about the current market though since this one only just managed to sell.

The road is complete!

I'll have a bit more of an update with some pics on what we got up to today a little bit later, but the good news for now is that the road the connects things like the shopping center and my street, and everything else of importance, is now open!  There was no clear indication of when it was open, but we decided to go that way today just to see if it was, and boy does it make a difference.

For example, previously to get to the Hume Freeway, it was a 7km detour out on to another main road (and through a few sets of traffic lights), and then back up again.  Now, it's more like 3km (if that), but I can also use a main boulevard to get straight there without having to take detours etc.
That's certainly going to make checkout out the build much easier, and moving in as well.

Settlement Complete

Well, that's that out of the way.  Just got the call to confirm that the settlement on the land is now complete, so I now actually officially own my own little patch of soil.
Or the bank owns another patch of soil.  Whichever.  I'm going to pretend it's the former :)

Oh, and I've a few photos to share from the snoop around on the weekend that were taken over the weekend... soon.

Aston

Obviously whenever given a price, it's best to at least look around and see if you're getting an okay deal.  The prices I'd been given for Highlands were all over the place - a similarly sized block could seemingly vary anywhere between $180k and $235k!  I didn't understand why, so kept digging.

During my digging, I came across the Aston estate.  I'd seen the stage 3 release, but then one day happened to visit the site while I was at work.  What's this, a stage 4 release open soon (18th Feb).  But this is strange - there's a complete list of prices.  And these ones appear more reasonably priced.

I called the rep, and found out what was going on - to say it was a bit of an "oh crap" moment on their end would be an amusing understatement.  The short version was he wasn't aware they had been published, and had to then chase up getting them removed from being publicly listed :D

Being me, I of course copied all this info down before it disappeared, so I was looking at info a bit more like this:

Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 410	333m²	14m	$184,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 411	313m²	12.5m	$175,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 412	313m²	12.5m	$175,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 413	350m²	14m	$185,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 414	350m²	14m	$185,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 415	350m²	14m	$185,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 416	313m²	12.5m	$175,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 417	313m²	12.5m	$175,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 418	350m²	14m	$175,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 419	400m²	16m	$165,000
Release Stage 4 Round 1		Lot 420	350m²	14m	$169,000

Much more reasonable prices to work with.  But more importantly, prices I could go back to Highlands and talk about with.

Craigieburn

Because LendLease were the developers of Atherstone, I decided to poke around at what other developments they had going.  Caroline Springs was the obvious location I had heard of, but had no idea of what kind of prices to expect.  Needless to say, when things were floating up around the 550k range, I headed for the first link out of there.

One of those links ended up being Craigieburn.

Years ago my mates and I used to hang crap on Broadmeadows, for no other reason than because the name could not more accurately describe what you could find there.  Much of nothing.  How that's changed, and it's now all developed.  After all those years turning my nose up at places like it, I now found myself looking at living further past it!

I made some enquiries, and it took a few days for LendLease to get back to me, but ultimately I was told "we don't really have anything for you at the moment, but I'll call you in a few months when we have our next release".
In the meantime I kept it in mind, and kept searching.