IF ONLY

Last week a friend dropped by for a visit. He and his wife wanted to buy a home in our suburb. A few years before they bought the current home, where they are living at the moment, my wife and I advised them to buy into our suburb. After looking around, the wife complained the houses are old and she does not want to live in weather board houses. Other complains were the backyard is too small, the colour is not right or the price is too high. You know the drift, everything is not right and it have to be perfect. We told them, these are small things and could be fixed as time goes by. I advised them, the most important thing is location, location, location. School (one of the top, high scoring public school), train station and bus station, shops are all within walking distance. If you are a leisure walker like me, it all within 10 minutes walk.

Out of the blue, they bought a house about 30 -40 minutes drive from where we live. It is a 5 year house. I got to admitted it is a beautiful house but it was so far from everything. It is half an hour drive to get the kids to school, train station and shops but his wife was very happy. We could not understand them. They complained the houses in our suburb were way out of their budget but they bought the house at A$25,000 more the average prices in our suburb.

The rising cost of fuel, the heavy traffic, the wasted travelling time, the unhappiness over the teaching quality in the kids’ school and their kids being bully with a few other things thrown in, finally changed their mind.

They bought their present home for A$145,000 in Year 1999 and today price is A$220,000. What was the selling price then in our suburb? It was between A$120,000 to 125,000. What is today’s price? A whooping A$400,000 to 450,000 and it is still going up.

They were disappointed because it means they have to borrow heavily to purchase a house in this suburb. It will be tough to service the loan with one income and 2 kids going to school.

My friend remarked, “If only I listened".

Yes, I am sure you and I heard that before “If only”. I heard it so many times and if I had a dollar every time I heard it, I would be rich.

Yes, if only I knew, if only I did this or that, if only. If only, then I won't have to worry.

I must admit I am guilty of this too. If only I could turn back time.