The First Step
The first step in our little adventure is finding a place to buy. Our requirements at this stage are that the place has to be within our budget and in a location that is on the verge of gentrification. In addition, we’re hoping to find an apartment for sale on a street or preferrably in a building where other apartments which have been renovated are going for significantly more than the purchase price (duh).
We’re starting our search in the Lod/Ramle area. We are using the internet as a starting point and researching apartments on www.yad2.co.il as well as www.homeless.co.il. Those 2 sites seem to be leading us to the Ben Gurion neighborhood in Lod. R has asked me to make arrangements to view some apartments and maybe even call an agent to see if we can find one who can help us with our plan.
With an agent, I’m hoping that explaining what we’re trying to do and asking for help with provide us with someone who knows the area and can really plug us in to what is going on in the neighborhoods we’re looking at. The risk is that the guy will play us for suckers and try to pawn off a piece of shit property that he can’t sell. But a smart guy (I’m using guy in the inclusive form – it could and probably will be, a woman) will see that we could give him a lot of repeat business if he does good for us.
I believe that we should buy something closer to ground level since this will be our first job and we’re not exactly in quite the right kind of shape to be lugging hundreds of kilos of building supplies up and down staircases. If the place has an elevator, chances are it will cost more initially, though perhaps it will be easier to sell.
I hope to photograph whichever apartments we see both for this blog and for our records. I’ll post ‘em when I got ‘em.