Apparently a complete secondary education isn't strictly necessary in real-estate agents, either.

I've moved house many times in the last four years. Each time I get a whole lot of headaches and sore muscles, but there are some problems that are worth noting for future reference.

This time I'm looking for a place with Scroop. Fortunately he's been doing all of the initial leg work hunting-wise - for which I am eternally grateful. I am hoping against hope, and against a lot of past experience, that this hunting experience will be quick and painless.

The biggest problem I've found is separating the chaff from the grain. No place is really as good as it looks in the ad. There are certain things that look good on paper, and people building investment houses often make sure their house has them. Unfortunately it's like the hotel 'star rating' system. Sure, a hotel may have the separate bathroom, air conditioning, television, etc that qualifies it for a four-star rating. It's another thing entirely to organise the bath, toilet, sink and shower in the same room while keeping mindful of those of us with elbows. And there is a world of difference between ducted reverse-cycle remote controlled air conditioning and one of those brown boxes you just have to knock out a few bricks to install.

I remember looking at a house once where the owner obviously had some qualification, though very little skill, in the area of architectural drawing. The house looked like an Escher drawing, with the second floor being mostly balcony, from where you could look down upon the most boring part of the bottom floor (the overly wide hallway that took up way too much room). The cracks in the walls near twists in the curious design were a testament to natures own protests against this abomination to structural design. It looked good in the ad though.