4 March 2009

Want to feel like a second-class citizen?

Want to feel like a second-class citizen? Easy; move to a small town down the coast of Australia, and work from home with Internet-stuff for a company abroad, and feel the small-town "injernett-whatsi-bobby" pull-the-other-one mindset as you try to just rent a house to live in.

What fun this was. I can't show "payslips" as the company exists in "the injernett", a mythical place where no paper exists, and if there's no paper, there's no traversal of real things that will satisfy real-estate agents. No matter how I tell it or what I write or how I document (even my friggin' contract wasn't good enough because it was just printed off my printer! Unlike their shit?!), unless I'm a bloody janitor or pool-cleaner who gets cash in hand and gives people little receipts it seems I can't get a house around here.

I think this crash between old and new ways of earning a living is biting my bum right now. Anyone with a clue who could help out? (If you got property here you rent out and read this by accident, could you notify your real-estate agents that they truly suck? Thanks) We're in Kiama just south of Wollongong (my wife is from here, and she did indeed warn me of their backwards ways) but I foresee we will have to move elsewhere unless something comes up pretty soon.

Apart from that, things are going great, but more on that later after this silliness is sorted.

1 comment:

  1. When we moved to Australia, we had similar problems when renting: We had not renting history.

    Surprise.

    So the unit managers were pretty reluctant to give us a rent. Took weeks to find one. And at that time I had a job.

    OTOH, it was the Gold Coast. That's where all the sophisticated people live.

    When we had to resettle (unplanned and unwanted) in Austria, I had no job. And even with millions in your pockets (I can be so funny), you have a hard time to convince an [depletive] agent that you will pay the horrendously ridiculous rent.

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