Buderim sunset

 

Christmas lights lit bright

This is one of the many Buderim houses that we didn't buy while house-hunting earlier this year. 

It was rather a good house. One of the reasons we didn't buy it was the knowledge that it came with its very own Christmas lights, and you'd be expected to put them up and be part of the show.

It turns out that Rainsford Place is one of Queensland's absolute preeminent Christmas Lights Streets! Checked it out the other night. Not at all sure whether the agent's enthusiastic mention of this was meant as an endorsement or a statutory warning! (It sold eventually, by the way, and for a good price.)

Eggmolesse Environmental Park

I'm still discovering little pockets of preserved wildness around the place, often astonishingly close to home.

The Eggmolesse Environmental Park is in that part of lowlands Buderim that adjoins the grounds of the Immanuel Lutheran College. It's got tracks and boardwalks (some still under construction), and labels to identify some of the rainforest trees.

Eggmolesse, by the way, seems to be a name associated with blackbirded kanakas ('sugar slaves') of 150 years ago. The land in question here was donated by George Eggmolesse in 1988.

Choice Coastal Cafes #7: Coffee Club, Buderim

 

It's part of the ubiquitous Coffee Club chain, but bear with me. The coffee's always good, the food's good too, and in this case, you're right next to the gorgeous Buderim Village Park.

Yesterday I had the Eggs Benedict with salmon and spinach, and it was, unexpectedly, one of the best I've ever had!

Buderim's Pioneer Cottage

 

It's a fine little heritage-listed homestead in Ballinger Crescent, in the heart of Buderim village.

It's well worth a visit. It's run by the Buderim Historical Society.

It was built around 1882 for John Burnett and family, who became big in the local sugar milling industry, and after whom nearby Burnett St is named.

A very nominal fee gets you admission.

 

Buderim's other population

 

 

 

 

The scene the other day in suburban Buderim's Janderra St.

Another day, another auction.....

Keeping in practice today, attending yet another house auction in Buderim. The market is said to be cooling slightly, but this one went well for the vendors. 

I took a special interest in this one. After four months of looking, we've finally identified a house we'd really like to buy. The auction for that one is in two weeks time. We've hired a buyers agent to assist, as you do. The seller's agent, after all, is there to work for the seller, trying to maximise the price. Our chap will cost quite a bit, but the gamble is that his know-how could save us many times more. The sums involved are enormous.

The Big Watermelon??

Is this a failed attempt at a 'Big Watermelon' tourist attraction?  Went broke because it clearly just wasn't big enough?? It's in Wises Rd, Buderim.

Buderim's big auction 'event'

The Ray White real estate group held a one-off  'auction event' the other evening, in a Buderim church hall. This was partly because the very wet weather of late makes on-site auctions more of a gamble than ever.

I was there, furthering my real estate research project. It was a full house, with a claimed crowd of 123. Sometimes at auctions the actual bidders are numbered in the low ones and twos, the curious neighbours are there in the dozens, and the estate agents, buyer's agents, auctioneer's assistants, and other hangers-on can outnumber them all. So it was hard to say quite what was happening.

They sold six of the nine houses offered, and say they're confident the others will soon go too now.

Lesson 1: There's still quite a strong real estate market.

Lesson 2: Though most of the properties sold on the night, prices weren't quite as high as they've been trying to suggest.

Lesson 3: It might actually be worth hiring a buyer's agent. I found myself sitting next to one, and I have his card. He might cost $20,000, but if his negotiation skills were to save us ten times that, then I guess he'd be worth it!

 A good evening's work!

More auctioneering

 

I've attended a few more Buderim auctions. Not ready to buy yet, but it's always an education. This one was the second that day to be 'paused' and passed in, with none of the real bids from those present being enough to outweigh the conditional offers we were told were waiting in the wings. 

The conditional offers are said to generally be from developers, awaiting development permissions.

Buderim's E J Foote Sanctuary

Buderim's on a hill overlooking coastal Maroochydore and Mooloolaba, and much of the previously rainforest hillside is now covered in houses making the most of the magnificent views.

I'd been wondering how much of the hillside was still in a fairly natural state, and whether you could access it and make your up through the bush.

Well, one place you can do this is the E J Foote Sanctuary. Sergeant Foote was a war hero from WW2, whose family owned the hillside. They donated the land that now forms this very pleasant reserve.

Heritage tramway

 

For a couple of decades early last century, there was a tramway connecting the main line at Palmwoods with Buderim, on the hill overlooking the Sunshine Coast. Part of the track, in the Mons area, is now kept as a heritage walk. I checked it out this morning. More on the tramway here: Wikipedia article

Who wants to be King of Buderim?

 

This is the view from the top of the scaffolding tower they built. It's to show what you'd see from your palace. What you get to lord it over if you buy the block and build there. It's flat and it's big, and it's at the very top of Buderim.

Only trouble is, nobody at the auction the other day was appropriately impressed. Offers of over $2 million had been rejected, they'd said. The bidding started with a vendor's (ie fake) bid of $1.8 million. A real person responded with a real bid of I think $0.58 million. The auctioneer tried to laugh it off. Nothing much else happened after that.

Being a potential buyer of Buderim land in the near future myself, I rather enjoyed this fun little show.

Open Homing

 

Today's open home investigation was of this rather grand modern mansion in the lower reaches of Buderim. It's won design awards, it's brand new, it's on a nice big block of custom-manicured rainforest garden. Probably way over our budget, but the research has to be done. No ocean or mountain views mind. That's no good.

Carpeted!

 

Queensland is rather well known for its carpet pythons, and I met my own the other day while checking out real estate.

There's a somewhat interesting block of land for sale in Buderim. I went up there for another look, especially at some of those interesting mountains to the north and west.

And right next door, under what is probably its favoured mango tree home, was a magnificent carpet python. What an asset to the neighbourhood that would be!

Buderim Forest Park

 

Approaching here from the lower entrance. There's a cafe and a 600m boardwalk, then it gradually gets slightly slippier and harder, before arriving at the waterfall, also accessible from the upper entrance. 

It's a fine little forest reserve, this one. A bit wet this morning though, like everywhere else on this supposedly 'Sunny Coast'!