One thing that I didn’t want to do for a 3rd time in less than a year in Singapore was hunting for another house. After the tough experience of living with an old South Indian family in a shared apartment with one single bedroom for myself, it was a refreshing change to move in with my house mates, but the whole experience of hunting for a house was not easy.
With less than 2 months to go before end of contract it was upto my housemate and me to look for a new accommodation. I was keen to find a place without an agent. After, all the hard work I do of searching houses on the internet, what should I pay an Agent for?? So I set out all the selection criteria – Budget, 2 bedrooms, at least one master bedroom, single bus journey to my office, locations, furnishing and ofcourse NO AGENT.
The Search: Religiously everyday for 2 months I used to search for houses on the internet. It started with a dedicated 1 hour a day. Initially it was only social websites which has more listings posted directly by the owners than the commercial websites. After one month of searching the conclusion was – Agents are more social when it comes to posting available rooms. Out of every 100 ads posted maximum 1 is from an owner and out of every 10 owner postings 9 are conmen! I think Singapore would be one of the few countries in Asia were services starting from application for driving licence to buying grocery, everything is available online. However, somehow nothing explains why people don’t want to publish their available house for rent on the internet but prefer to engage an agent. So after one month I removed a point from my list of criteria “NO AGENT”
Now both my housemate and I were daily spending a few hours searching on the net and sending emails and SMS to every ad which fit our criteria. The first thing I realized was that we don’t fit the conditions put by the owners. Only family, Only girls, No Indians, No cooking, No visitors and the most bizarre we heard was, No poster or idol of any God! Not that we are religious or have any idol or poster of God in our present house, but this condition was most outrageous. So from a simple house hunting exercise it had now turned into a marketing exercise where we had to sell our self as suitable tenants to get responses from agents and owners. My SMSes to agents now included “We are very clean, polite, educated and professional individuals. We also get maid service every week to clean the house!!” I think a few more years, and people will have to send their CV to the agents to be considered as suitable tenants. It would be funnier than profile postings on Indian matrimonial websites!
The viewings: Finally we started getting some positive responses from agents with only 4 weeks left to our deadline. We set off on a Saturday afternoon for viewing. The first place was good - a empty house, very clean, good flooring, nice kitchen, very much in budget, but no furnishing, no bed, no TV, etc. We decided to give it a pass and see the other places. We reached the second place 30 mins before time. As we reached the building we saw a crowd of 10 to 15 people, most of them in tie and wearing the agent’s batch. While we thought it must be a really good apartment, as so many people had turned up for the viewing. The fact was that none of them had seen the apartment even once. The practice is to provide the actual unit address just before opening the doors for viewing. By the time the viewing started there were almost a 100 people in the building lobby. As the doors opened, there was queue outside the elevator and it looked like participants of the Amazing Race! My agent gave a healthy suggestion to avoid elevator and walk up. What she really meant was –screw the elevator and just RUN to get there first! Just as we reached the 4th floor, panting, the apartment surely took our breath away.. It was a stinking, dark, small, over stuffed, dilapidated apartment.. There was enough space for only 2 people to walk in a straight line. With the Singaporean culture of following a queue everywhere, the crowd automatically formed into a queue and it was like a two-way traffic of people walking in and out. We must have spent a total of 45 seconds inside the house to see it, and were almost pushed out of the house by the waiting crowd. The ordeal continued with the next few places that we saw. Every house had a crowd waiting. One of the worst places we saw was a house shared by 5 men. This house didn’t even have enough space for 2 people to walk. Each bedroom had 3 beds and a centre table with a zillion laptops, hard drives, head phones, mobile phones, wires, chargers and what not. The floor had a layer of dust and I really couldn’t identify the original colour of the walls. My agent gave me a sympathetic look, but all she said is, these are the kind of place that you can get in your preferred locations and your budget. I thought I would rather live on the streets of Singapore than living in these kind of houses. After spending 4 hours viewing pathetic places, we realized the first house we saw was a steal for the money and immediately called the agent. Guess what the agent replied.... “Sorry that house already taken LA”! It was taken in a matter of 4 hours. It was the most disturbing end of the day.. We of course ended up drinking over the day’s disappointment but, setting our expectations right and making further changes to our criteria – Budget, single bus to office, location, furnishing. Now the list was 4 walls, 1 roof, 2 bedrooms, 2 beds, 1 fridge, that’s it. But we just needed the house to be in good shape to live in!
The final hunt: With less than 2 weeks to pass, we were getting a little desperate for the house. We saw many more shit holes but also saw some good places and made an offer for them. In most cases someone outbid us and we again heard the golden words “Sorry that house already taken LA”. Most days ended in disappointment lead by those words. One of the agents called me about a viewing on a weekday afternoon. Considering the fact that it was a weekday afternoon, I expected less people to turn up and so that would mean more probability to get the place. When I reached there, I was shocked to see the huge crowd even on a weekday afternoon. It was the same race all over again. However, the house was fabulous. Good furnishing, high rise, good breeze, spacious rooms, everything that we needed. I decided I had to get the house at any cost. I made an offer higher than the owner’s expectation and even before my housemate could see the place. Then I saw something happening that had never happened before. The owner’s agent announced – People, whoever has made an offer below xxxx amount Please Leave! Then we were lined up like a criminal identification parade in front of the owner. After all the weeks of struggle, I had no ego left and stood in the line holding a sheepish smile, expecting the owner to like me! The agent introduced each one and mentioned their offer. When it came to me, I realized the agent added adjectives to our profile like he was over selling us..... highly educated........... working for big companies... uses maid service.. and of course they have offered a higher rental than others. Later I realized, my agent had an agreement with the owner’s agent so that they get the deal together. Finally the 2 months ordeal ended and we were picked as the suitable tenants over a huge competitive crowd. This time it was our turn NOT to hear the golden words but I am sure we were the reason that lead to a few others to hear it– “Sorry that house already taken LA!”
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