Skis and Real Estate

Hhhmmmm. Well Joel and I went shopping last night. Quite keen to buy some skis. There are some sales on at the moment. So we both got some, Joel got 2 pairs actually, cross country and downhill. Might have paid a teeny tiny smidge over what we thought we would when we walked into the shop...but nonetheless we will be enjoying our fabulous skis long after we've forgotten about the fortune we paid for them... :)

Also I went to a real estate seminar last night. Very interesting. Some quirks about buying/selling real estate in Norway:

1. It is most common to sell your house within 2 weeks of putting it on the market
2. There is usually ONE public viewing, and most houses are sold within 24 hours of that, bids begin virtually immediately after the viewing.
3. You have 5 years to make a claim if there is unexpected/undisclosed damage to the property after you have bought it, claims can only be made if damage is over 5% of the price you paid for the house. 1 in 5 buyers make a claim, and of those about 11% are awarded 'damages'. Avg damages awarded 300,000NOK (AUD$64,000), 80% of claims are for leaky bathrooms. This has spawned a new insurance industry - sellers can hand over the risk to the insurance company who would cover a payout, and buyers can get insurance to cover them for the legal costs of pursuing a claim!
4. Property price rises in Stavanger were the highest in the whole country, they rose 29% during 2006
5. Once you put in a bid you can't withdraw it, no such thing as a 'cooling off period'.
6. 8 out of 10 Norwegians own their own home

It was a good seminar, I learned a lot.

So hope everyone has a great weekend, we'll cross our fingers for some good weather for skiing so we can give the new skis a good workout, YAY!

Emma.