Disenchanted and disillusioned

A small gathering of apartment dwellers stood about in the downstairs car park this morning to see the outcome of the auction for Apartment 1, at the front of the building.

It was something of a non-event; the only two bids were made were vendor bids, the property was passed in and a short time later the board out on the street was changed to read Private Sale.

One of the apartment dwellers, who paid well above this passed-in price of $560,000 for her apartment, was very disillusioned.  She and her partner are now thinking they paid way too much for their place; although on that day early last year, there were five bidders who pushed the price to a record for a property in this block.

As I prepared to go downstairs before the auction I considered that we might now have been done in by the multitude of new developments springing up in the area. By comparison our block is now old, tired looking and frankly, quite boring, in comparison to those with all the latest flooring, kitchens, bathrooms, underground car parks and security entrances.  The fact that we have a garden with mature trees, walls that are not paper thin and spacious rooms, are of very little interest to people looking for the latest and greatest, most fabulous apartment of their dreams.

The disillusionment is the ongoing, never-ending story of the general dissatisfaction some of the owners have with our property manager. Once again the small knot of owners grouped downstairs expressed opinions which I have heard so often in the past; so often, that if I had a dollar for every time I have heard this complaint I could sell up and move into a million dollar apartment in another complex.  And then I could listen to their complaints!

The present debate revolves around the new windows we are getting in the next year or so and how some people don’t think we have enough information about what we will get for our money, which for some of us is a considerable amount.  So a meeting is planned to be held soon and this should help to clarify things.

As for the property manager; we have a committee and if people want change they can get off their bottoms and make it happen. 

Stop whining people and do something.