Mission Accomplished: Sub-24 Hours

April 13th, 2008 by lynnylchan under My Life

I am now officially a tenant. I signed the lease agreement at about 3pm today, after viewing the apartment. The best thing about it isn’t the price, or the location, or the freedom. It’s the fact that I had called the agent less than 24 hours ago.

Yes, despite the plethora of online rental classifieds, the NUS rental database, and Craigslist, the ad that won out was found in the Straits Times Classifieds. Old-skool, much? The agent set up a viewing for today, and that just clinched the deal.

This was the 4th apartment that I viewed, in the space of 48 hours. The first two were advertised on the NUS rental database, which is very useful in finding housemates with the same general interests as you, but not much else.

The 1st apartment was in a good location, but it was pretty dingy and the room was kind of small. After having seen those rooms, I won’t complain about hostel rooms again. I have lots of wardrobe space, a table, shelves and a bed, and that’s standard-issue hostel stuff. Plus the view was nothing to write home about - in fact, if I had done so, my mother would probably have cried over my poor choice of accommodation.

The 2nd apartment was spacious, but the location left something to be desired. Although it was cleaner than the 1st one, it still wasn’t as clean as I’d hoped it would be. Such is the nature of a rental - there’s no sense of ownership, so the place tends to be in worse condition than if it was someone’s home.

The 3rd viewing was for a common room in an HDB flat. I knew it wouldn’t suit me even before I’d seen the place - I heard a child in the background when I called to ask the unit number. However, I viewed it as agreed, but it didn’t suit me. Location was brilliant, but I guess I just can’t get used to living in a flat. But the kid was the real deal-breaker.

By this time, I had already seen everything I was willing to consider. After extensive research, I knew the prices wouldn’t vary by much, and I already knew what to look out for in terms of landlords and other tenants. So it was easy to make the decision to just take it before others did. There were 4 rooms up for offer, so I had my pick of the 4. My new room shares a bathroom with the next room, I can cook as much as I like, and the only other tenants so far are Malaysians. The landlady and agent assured me that future tenants would be assessed for suitability - I guess they’re also quite particular about the kind of people that they take in.

I’m very pleased with myself for getting a reasonably good deal. It’s not a jaw-droppingly awesome deal (like the scam) but it’s within budget, given the location, and it’s very accessible. When you’ve waited for a feeder bus for 15 minutes, or walked for 10 minutes just to get to a bus stop, accessibility goes up the priority list.

The only drawback is that the room doesn’t come furnished, so I am having fun playing house with the IKEA catalogue now. Oh, and there won’t be a housewarming or room-warming, since visitors aren’t allowed. Which is actually a good thing - now I won’t have to show my parents where I live.