Thoughts on share-houses?

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
7Wannabe5
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

conwy wrote:These factors put me into an agony of indecision.
Yes, this can often almost be worse than the problem itself. The four steps recommended in "Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work" are:

1) Widen Your Options
2) Reality Test Your Assumptions
3) Attain Distance Before Deciding
4) Prepare to Be Wrong

I am very good at (1) and decent at (3), okay at (4), but not so good at (2.) For instance, my notion that I have most of the skills necessary to fix up an extremely dilapidated house might be a wee bit optimistic.

You might also try constructing a Doom Loop as described in "Learn to Think in Systems" by Rutherford for this problem. Draw a rectangle in center of paper and label it Living Arrangement Problems. Then draw rectangles to the left and label them with what you believe to be primary cause variable of Living Arrangement Problems. Then draw some rectangles to the right and label them with what you believe to be the primary consequences of Living Arrangement Problems. For instance "Noise" and "Theft" might be primary cause variables and "Work Performance" and "Sleep" and "Destruction/Loss of Property" might be primary consequences. Then examine whether you can link any of the consequence variables to the cause variables, adding intermediate variables if necessary to make sense of links/loops. For instance, as you suffer from increased lack of "Sleep" you might become even more sensitive to "Noise." "Theft" might contribute to "Destruction/Loss of Property" but you might realize that it is a minor negative flow relative to major rental expense reduction inherent in choice of less secure neighborhood/accommodations. Etc.

thrifty++
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by thrifty++ »

@OP - what are the property prices doing in central Sydney if rents are dropping then? Looks like rents are dropping heaps from what I just looked at.

Maybe I should head over there lol. I have always quite liked Sydney. I find the heat hard to contend with is an issue though.

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conwy
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Location: Australia

Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by conwy »

thrifty++ wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:36 pm
@OP - what are the property prices doing in central Sydney if rents are dropping then? Looks like rents are dropping heaps from what I just looked at.
You can check the Buy tab on domain.com.au to get a broad ballpark, then look on gumtree.com.au and/or talk to people to try and find discounts.

Personally I think Sydney buying market is still overpriced (for my purposes), but if you're keen to settle in Sydney, maybe it's worth looking at.

Might be a good time to buy, if you want to buy, and you're in NZ so you can easily migrate to Australia. The travel lockdowns suddenly reducing the number of buyers while the NZ-AU travel bubble is still in place ought to generate a unique advantage for home buyers.

Put it this way... it's a bubble, but it might not deflate in your lifetime, assuming lockdowns eventually end and immigration resumes.

Hmm... I'm almost starting to convince myself to buy a place...
thrifty++ wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:36 pm
Maybe I should head over there lol. I have always quite liked Sydney. I find the heat hard to contend with is an issue though.
Because of the Indian Ocean Dipole, eastern Australia's climate is shifting to a much more wet, humid climate over the next decade or so. This means cooler climate, much more rainy days and some flooding, but also (probably) more agricultural yield, for what that's worth.

This summer was definitely way cooler on average than the last summer (the main reason for 2020 being hotter than average was the brutally hot 2019 summer, but, thanks to the Dipole effect, it's already getting cooler now.

That said, it'll always be warmer here than NZ. :)

thrifty++
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by thrifty++ »

Just read this from today that there are views that Sydney rents are stablising such that rent drops have hit their bottom. https://www.miragenews.com/inner-sydney ... ulent-year. Mind you, depends on how the latest little wave of COVID goes in Aussie. I have been watching closely what is happening with COVID in Aussie each day as our govt announced last year there would be a two way travel bubble between NZ and AUS during first quarter. Given the latest, I doubt that very much. But suspect there may be a two bubble say April/May if the community transmission stops.

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conwy
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Location: Australia

Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by conwy »

thrifty++ wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:57 pm
Given the latest, I doubt that very much. But suspect there may be a two bubble say April/May if the community transmission stops.
So if I start renting a big place now I might have to deal with Kiwi housemates in June :lol:

thrifty++
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by thrifty++ »

conwy wrote:
Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:24 pm
So if I start renting a big place now I might have to deal with Kiwi housemates in June :lol:
haha yes quite possibly!

Green Pimble
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by Green Pimble »

I live in Melbourne, so a similar situation to you in terms of the cost of rental/real estate.

I have always share-housed, except for a brief stint a few years ago when I bought a rural property as an investment and stayed there on my own for ~4 months. I quite liked living on my own, but I also felt my social skills were ossifying and I was becoming fixed in my ways. I wanted the tea stored over there and the kettle should be plugged into that powerpoint. After that time I got a housemate who was a vague family friend, and things worked out well, although required some adjustment on my behalf. I think, for me at least, regularly practising the skills it takes to live harmoniously with others was more important to me than having it my way.

One option I have found has worked quite well in the past is to share-house with people I meet at work. I work at the hospital, so it isn't some tiny office where everyone knows everyone, but all health professionals I've lived with have had similar thoughts regarding living conditions, as well as being above a certain level of social skill/intelligence, which has made conversations about living arrangements easier.

If you do decide to share your housing in future, perhaps some screening based on an industry you know about might be a way of selecting housemates?

Good luck!

thrifty++
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Re: Thoughts on share-houses?

Post by thrifty++ »

OP exactly as I suspected. The drive of increased anti social behaviour in central Wellington and Auckland is due to the large post-COVID increase in social housing in the centre of both cities. https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national ... li=BBqdg4K. I wonder this is the same thing in Sydney? Still doesnt put me off living in central Wellington though.

So, did you end up getting a share place?

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