Sorry that house already taken LA!

One thing that I didn’t want to do for a 3^rd 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 4^th 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!”

There is one rule of this house.. there are no rules!!

Working in the IT industry for all these years, I have always hung around with engineers. One of the things that engineers love to share is their experiences of living in a college hostel during their university years. There are always stories about being ragged by seniors, binge drinking, being caught while cheating in an exam and of course first girlfriends. It’s the happy life they lived before renouncing everything and submitting themselves to life in cubicles.

I have never really had a chance to live in hostel or live away from home while I was studying, infact I never got a chance to do it even when I started working. It’s only now at the age of 29, I have moved out of my home town for the first time and living in a new country. One of the most important parts of life away from home is made of people you live with. I have heard from friends how difficult life could be if you don’t get to live with the right kind of people. Fortunately, I got a chance to live with really cool people. Even though my experience doesn’t equate to life in a university hostel, but it’s still an awesome experience!

After living with an old South Indian couple for the first 4 months, I was desperately looking for a new place to live in. I didn’t care how far the place was from the city, or how far it was from office, or how was the neighbourhood. All I knew was I can’t live with a family again, and had to look for working professionals to live with. Luck favoured me and I got in touch with a friend's friend on facebook, who was to move back to India in a few weeks and was looking for someone to take his place in the house. The house was far from city, it would take more than an hour for me to travel to work and didn’t have much to do in the neighbourhood. However, the only thing that appealed to me is that he shared the house with 2 other Indian guys who were working professionals.

I decided to visit them on a weekend to see the place and also meet the guys. After struggling with the GPS to find the exact block I reached the door. I got the first sign of a bachelor’s house, the door bell didn’t work. There were flyers of laundry service, property agents, lock smiths, etc all over the outer grill that no one ever bothered to remove. I had already started to get a feeling that I have found my dream house! After multiple calls, the dude finally picked up the phone and opened the door. It was a Sunday afternoon and he still looked very hung-over and had just dragged himself out of the bed. The house was huge, with good interior and surprisingly clean. The kitchen had a few empty bottles of whiskey and the dustbin had a few empty cans of beer! That was the second sign that I was at the right place and should take the room. However, I was more interested in the people, than the house itself. He knocked on one of the rooms and I got to meet the first guy.

First sign of a Geek - He came out wearing a full sleeve shirt and shorts. I wasn’t surprised to know that he was in the IT industry. The story followed that they all studied together at the university, been in Singapore for many years and living together for past 3-4 years. House mate 1, looked like the guy who could spend hours in front of a computer and solve complex networking problems. He was introvert and didn’t bother to ask many questions. That’s definitely an easy guy to live with. In a while the other guy came home, and he walked in with a Chinese girl. Two things struck me – this guy has got a Chinese girlfriend and it’s cool to bring girls back HOME!!!!! I am sure at the right place!!!! House mate 2 looked a little more extrovert and inquired about my job and stuff. The first question he had to ask was – Do you smoke? Well, I am trying hard to quit, but I don’t mind my house mates smoke!!! I think in 10 minutes I had already decided to live with these guys, it was only upto them to accept me.

I got a call from them after a few days and they offered me the room. In a few weeks time I was ready to move in. One of the guys left for India and I took his room, so it was three of us sharing the house. When I moved in the house, I asked them if there were any rules of the house that I should follow.. I was told.. there is only one rule.. there are no rules!!!

It was a refreshing change after spending 4 torturous months with a family. I didn’t have to rush into my room after getting back at home and avoid annoying tamil soaps on TV. I didn’t have to worry about closing my room door a little hard. I didn’t have to bother about cleaning up the dishes immediately after dinner. I could come back at home and have my dinner in the hall room in front of the TV like it was my own house. Some time my housemates would join me to sit and watch TV together.

While I got to know them better, they also introduced me to their circle of friends. They have a big circle of friends from their university days. I met the group a couple of times for a few drinks on weekends and had an absolutely hilarious time listening to them recalling past events and revealing outright disgusting and embarrassing stories about each other. They kind of knew intrinsic details of each other’s binge drinking stories, visits to dodgy bars and the extreme stories involved loss of virginity!! The most hilarious was when they started bragging about who had the highest capacity to jerk off the most number of times in a single day!! I had never know men could be comfortable about talking such stuff.. These were guys who had lived together through their teenage years and now in their twenties, all of them earning a living, some of them married! They still share a strong friendship, but they also don’t let a chance slip to dig into each other’s embarrassing past...

It didn’t take me much time to learn the trends of the house. There were some typical bachelor’s house trends. A maid visited every 2 weeks to clean up the house and the day I had fist come to see the place was after the maid had just left. So I was deceived by the clean house. Sometimes there would be dishes in the sink for weeks, expecting it to be cleaned when the maid comes next. I have seen some shirts hanging in the drying area for 3 months straight, it’s been drying for so long that there could be cobwebs inside it.. I am not even sure if it’s their shirts or from a previous tenant. The dustbin would get full and overflowing, but no one would bother to empty it.. till I moved in :) I always eagerly wait for the maid’s visit.. However, there are some good trends too, which makes it easier to tolerate the not so good ones.. We live in complete faith and trust. The room doors are left open when we are not at home.. not that there are valuables to steal.. but the fact is that there is nothing to hide. At the same time I can be in my room the whole day with the door shut, and know for sure that I wouldn’t be bothered. One of the funny things is that when they have to say something to each other, they don’t knock on the door, but they text each other. I have got texts like “Dude, do you have some Maggie”. It’s also great fun to just sit on the couch and watch some movies on HBO and have beer together on weekends. It’s like the perfect blend of having a good time with house mates, but also getting enough privacy when needed..

Unfortunately, I know it’s just a temporary phase in life and will pass soon. One of the guy's got a promotion and got posted in the US for 3 years.. He moved out recently.. The other one has been in a steady relationship for a long time and has plans of marriage early next year.. It’s just a matter of time I would have to move again.. I am not sure where life’s gonna take me next. But my first experience of living with house mates has been a memorable one..