I think we've been bitten by the bug...
So we pretty much gave up on the condemned house. The more we hear about it, the worse it looks. Our agent got some paperwork on the red-tagging today. Apparently the large room out the front used to be a car port, and enclosing that was done without a permit. There's also a standalone room out the back that has had a bathroom added without a permit. Apparently the owner is getting fined $2,500 a day by the city until it's either brought into compliance or reverted. No idea if that's actually being paid, or who's responsibility it would become in the event of a sale, so we'll just quietly back away from that whole mess and pretend it never happened.
Sarah was poking around Redfin again last night and found this property, for less than what the condemned house was going for (granted, this is a condo, not a house).
We got our agent to show it to us today, and we really liked the look of it, so we're going to put an offer in on it and see what comes of it.
We have to spend about three hours with our agent tomorrow morning going through paperwork. Wee.
It certainly seems like a good time to be buying. Interest rates are low, the AUD is high against the USD, and prices are down.