iamthecreaturefromuranus

That's because they won't know what a faucet is. Tell them the taps leak and they will be round in a flash.

Lord_Farquar

Those Americans hey! They don't even understand the difference between a spigot and a faucet.

c.1400, from O.Fr. fausset "stopper," perhaps dim. of L. faux, fauc- "throat." Spigot and faucet was the name of an old type of tap for a barrel or cask, consisting of a hollow, tapering tube, which was driven at the narrow end into a barrel, and a screw into the tube which regulated the flow of the liquid. Properly, it seems, the spigot was the tube, the faucet the screw, but the senses have merged or reversed over time. Faucet is now the common word in Amer.Eng. for the whole apparatus.

Japonica

Considering they've stood in front of them, taken pictures of them, poked them, twisted them, said, "Ah yes, I can see how much it's leaking, we'll get someone out here," you'd think they'd have an inkling by now...

And this was three different agents. I swear these are the most photographed TAPS in WA.

Japonica

If I see an American, I'll point it out to him...Hmm...spigot hey?

Oh and in true Canadian fashion, we used both "faucet" and "tap" interchangeably at my house...

comet555

Me too, although I probably say tap a lot more.

thedons

Well todays the day let's see if we can grab a bargain !

Japonica

Good luck. Let us know how it goes...

paularn

We are definitely going to buy a house. We can't wait to buy.

We rented for 3.5yrs when we moved back to Canada...and then bought our own home. Can't tell you how it used to piss me off paying off someone else's mortgage. And of course, we are renting again, here in North Queensland.

To hubby and I renting IS dead money. As for the argument about interest being dead money as well...interest is a part of life and unless you can afford to pay for a house, a car, a boat, furniture, uni fees, etc etc outright....you will ALWAYS pay interest. There is no way around it if you are borrowing. So I don't see it as dead money....and I don't look at it as a valid argument either.

As someone else mentioned about renting and being able to hang pictures, we have the same thing. We have to get permission and then they wanted a mud map of where we were going to hang the pictures. IF this was my house, I could do whatever the hell we like and answer to no one!!!

I do agree that renting can/will give you more money in your pocket...but....

To us, there is a satisfaction knowing that we own the home we live in, may take us years to pay off and we'll pay way too much in interest, but at the end of the day it WILL be OURS!

ABCDiamond

Not necessarily...

A renter leaves the place after say 7 years, and they get nothing back, often not even the bond.

Most home owners, when they leave a place after 7 years, normally get a lump sum of extra money back, unless they bought in Sydney 7 years ago


Would I buy now ?

Maybe in Sydney. The prices there have been low for so long, that they are due to rise eventually.

But anyone buying a property at the moment MUST really check things carefully, and avoid overpaying. There are still bargains out there, just as there are disasters to be bought.

Some houses have gone up by 20% in my area recently, but some have dropped by 20%. I have recently checked actual property sales where the same property has sold 2 or more times in the last 2 years, to get to these figures.


An interesting comparison:
Average Property Increases from 2002 to 2009: UK and Australia locations:

Kooky.

I'm with the "putting up pictures" brigade, and that's basically a term for wanting to own my home, feel at ease in my home, not have to ask somebody else to fix up my home and wait months to have him do so, etc. We've done that for 8 years now and are over it. We've paid $620 - $640 a week for the last two years to live somewhere with peeling paint and an incredibly tight landlord; we warned him about a year before it fell down, cracked the patio and nearly took out all his patio doors (and me and 3 cats) that the pergola was dangerous.

We exchanged on a property a few weeks ago, and expect to complete in early June. If the market crashes, so be it. Life is about choices and we're prepared to pay to avoid all the above.

And the LL is going to have to do some serious work on the property if he wants to make $640 a week on it, not least because over the road recently turned into a building site.

Broad Shoulders

I think you need to be more careful in buying in North QLD than in Sth East QLD for instance. Depending where you are you have to remember that a lot of the house prices are supported and inflated due to the mining boom and like any place that is supported primarily by one industry it can all come crashing down a lot easier than other more spread out economies

Cheetah7

We have rented all our married life and have had obstructive landlords when it comes to decorating and repairs. Not to mention the thought that when the landlord wants you out you have to go and then the next property might not allow pets.

I like knowing we can improve our house without asking, our animals can live there without anyone stopping me and whilst I pay interest to the bank, the only landlord I have to worry about is me.

It's our home and I'm paying my mortgage and not someone elses for them.

Kooky.

Very good point, PP - pets make a huge difference. We considered renting for a year in an out-of-town location, just to see how we liked being out there before buying, but it proved impossible.

Geelong Gent

I am staggered by such ignorance

Cheetah7

I am at a stage in my life where I am tired of asking someones permission to do something in what I perceive to be MY home and finding somewhere to rent with my cat and dog wouldn't be easy and not what I consider to be ideal, as my colleague found to his cost last month when he was given a month to find somewhere else for his wife, dog and family - several applications later and he only found somewhere on the 11th hour and his dog is living with friends for the time being. So in reality it is only your home until the landlord wants it back.