I am a devout reader of the Saturday auction results in the newspaper. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get yourself hooked here. There are no auctions over the quiet Christmas and January period while lots of people are away. Understandable but it is torture to me who literally considers the auction results property porn!

I love trawling the results; passing opinion on whether I think properties sold for too much or were a bargain, pouring over floor plans looking for capital growth opportunities, or just ogling those sort of properties I can’t yet afford!

I scroll down the list looking at suburbs I am interested in, or even ones I haven’t heard of and wondering where they are. The results only list the type of property (h = house, t = terrace, u = unit, etc) and number of bedrooms… I do wish it included number of bathrooms and carspaces too.

Sometimes the price is published and sometimes it isn’t. If it isn’t, sometimes if you click on the link to the property it will display the price in the ad. Sometimes if you click on a similar property advertised and scroll down to the bottom of the page to similar sale results, it may be listed, although sometimes you have to wait a few weeks.

And then excitingly it tells you how the property sold; A = auction, S = Sold and then you get the exciting outcomes such as W = withdrawn (i.e. the vendors changed their mind, or there were no interested parties in buying), PI = Passed In (i.e. it didn’t sell at auction because the bidding was not high enough), and so on.

I find a few properties I am intrigued by and click into their ad for further details. I first look at the floor plan, deciding how liveable the property is and whether there is scope for improvement. If its a house I then consider the land size and the width of the house, as terraces in particular can be very narrow, under 4m is claustraphobic in my opinion! If its a unit I always check the facilities and strata fees to see if they are reasonable, which is a discussion in itself. And then I look at the pictures, but am always wary of those properties furnished with rental furniture. I know it helps some people visualise the space but I think it just looks like mutton dressed as lamb.

This week is a bit light on but I did find one property I was intrigued by… Leichhardt is a great inner west suburb, family friendly, close to the city with good public transport, with a lovely community and Italian influence. When I was looking to buy my house over five years ago, I always thought Leichhardt still had a lot of value. However I think that ship has sailed! This 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1 carspace workers cottage sold for $1.075 mio, which is Paddington prices (although you wouldn’t get the extra bathroom and carspace!). A closer look shows the block to be very narrow and long – sure you could extend but you’d end up with a lot of hallways and even narrower rooms. It has been renovated nicely and has great storage in the lower ground level, but who would buy this house? A couple not looking to have kids, downsizers…? It’s a hell of a lot of money for not much.

What other properties did you find interesting in this week’s auction results?