I promised a bunch of people for an update...

[rtn]

Great house - I like that style of architecture. How are real estate prices there compared to the UK or US? I have enjoyed reading all of your posts.

 

[Thor]

YES !

That house is friggin SICK!!!

Congrats on everything man, good to hear from you again.

Buselmo it is great to hear from you again and please keep us in the loop, I am VERY happy for you ! :headbang:

 

[buselmo]

thanks guys

How are real estate prices there compared to the UK or US? I have enjoyed reading all of your posts.

EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!!!

90% of the building materials we get is chinese crap. the prices of land inflate like crazy every 6 months months (2 years ago, 1 square meter [around 10 sqft] would cost around $160, today it costs around $290... in a couple of months, it'll hit $320)...
the house (building itself) value drops considerably every year, but the value of the land goes up to compensate.
and the place i live in is considered new (the neighboorhood has only been there for 2 years, and there's only 1 supermarket, 2 restaurants, and a bunch of material stores around... no schools, no parks, no major businesses, no shit) so it's much cheaper.
the house with the land (you own the land when you buy the house) cost me around $330K.
and the $330K is for the land, and the slab of concrete... it's not like the states where some houses already have heaters, A/C, a kitchen... etc.

I had to pay around $30,000 to install the A/Cs, satellite dishes, telephone and DSL, TVs, furniture, water heaters, kitche... etc.

so... yeah... they rip us off big time here... the real estate business is fucking corrupt and dirty here... a few people "control" this shit and they control the prices... it's not a calculated figure or depends on demand...
there are houses that haven't been sold for $250,000, a year later they cost $350,000 for no good reason.

basically it sux

 

[Jello]

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!
when my wife saw "samira" she said "WHAATT??? IS THIS GUY JOKING?!" loooool.... samira is a really corny name around here ... we're thinking of jenna (it's actually an arabic name too! it means she brings good fortune or something like that)... or lyan
and if it's a boy... i wanted to call him rashid (not rasheed ) but due to technical difficulties (wife doesn't want to )... we've settled for the typical "Aziz" LOL... but it's not final yet... we'll wait til the little suicide bomber comes and see if a name pops up

as for the "mansion"...LOL! this country is so messed up and the population is so out of control (people having 5-6 kids is the norm) that they consider a 3700 sqft house very small... everyone i know kept telling me "man, that's too small... it's like a shack... you'll regret it later"... a small house here is 5000 sqft... medium sized is 7500 sq ft... and a good sized house is 12,000 sqft and over.
to explain how bad the situation is in this country when it comes to housing (less than 40% are home owners), building houses and shit with contractors, and our general outlook on what a house should be... i can write a whole fucking book. it sucks... it sucks really bad.

It's not often that I read a post and actually makes me laugh out loud, but this one made me do just that.

Congratulations on the new house and child, definitely going to be a year to remember