House-hunting began when I received news of the location of my housemanship posting. Remaining physically in Perak while searching for a house to live in Kuching has proven to be tough and challenging.Although there was help from various friends living in Kuching, most of the searches were done online. Browsing through property websites and skimming through classiified ads, one can get quickly confused about the definition of an ideal home.
1. "Must be near hospital, cannot be too far. House must be, haha, cheap la, just started working where got money oh. But basic things like furnitures, fridge, washing machine must have la. Building preferably new one, old property later got problem headache also. Since there are 5 of us, the porch in front of the house must be able to park 4-5 cars......."
I believe that people looking for houses to rent like me and you, freshly started looking with a certain picture in mind, a level of standard and expectations to be met. Unfortunately, most will be quickly disappointed by the difficulty of searching for fantastic deals in the property market. Houses that are clean, newly renovated with the smell of fresh paint and fully furnished are often managed by investors who enjoy cash in their pocket every month. Houses that look a bit dirty, worn-down, unfurnished or partially furnished are often managed by people who doesn't have time to deal with the house and would like to be rid of the problem of vacancy thus willing to compromise rental rates. Don't get me wrong, great deals are out there, just that it takes time and a bit of luck to find. Otherwise, like a pack of wolves on a small piece of delicious meat, other people will most probably have taken the deal already.
Judging from what I have learnt so far, if you need a house, do your research and choose one. Don't be the guy who sits on the fence and watch as the parade goes by, or the picky guy who is searching for his perfect wife forever.
2. Ever been to the section of the supermarket where they sell biscuit and cookies, and as you push the shopping trolley and take a stroll down the lane, you wonder which cookie or biscuit that you have never eaten before will taste good? And how to judge which cookies to buy? Yes, we will consider the wrapping first, whether there is a box, whether it is wrapped by some attractive, high-quality, recyclable paper rather than the noobish-looking plastic wrapping. Next, we see the picture on the wrapping, if the drawings make our saliva drool. Then we see the price of the cookie. If the price is fair or expensive, probably it's worth it. If it's cheap then probably it's garbage. Yes, i don't know about you readers, but I myself do that ALL the time.
Browsing through the net, looking at those house-for-rent ads, I saw many of the advertisers put up photos showing the interior and exterior of the house. Looking at some of those photos, I told myself: "Hey, the house looks really clean, neat and new. I can live inside one like that." It happened so that there was one double-storey house which is located really near the hospital that me and my friends are going to work. Price is affordable. But the advertisement of the house does not come with pictures showing the interior of the house. So, i enquired the help of my friend living in Kuching who also happens to be a professional house inspector. In he went, interviewing the house owner and the tenants who currently still live there, taking pictures with his phone. And my gosh, the pictures that were shown to us are terrible. The living room has cans of opened soft drinks scattered all over. The kitchen under low lighting appears dark and gloomy. The backyard shows untrimmed tall grasses. The bedrooms are messy and the toilet seat looks absolutely awesome. After some pressure from the house owner for answers, the house was quickly rejected.
But, if the house were to be vacant. The owner would have hired a maid to clean the entire house. Photos posted online would show sparkling clean kitchen under good lighting. Bedrooms will be tidy with beds made up neatly. Emphasis will be on the brand new toilet seat, zoomed in to hide the ugly water markings on the wall surrounding it. Photo of the living room would been taken at an angle that shows both the tv-set and the air-con. The backyard photo will be gone missing.
In the end, a house for sold or rent is just another product that requires packaging. It is also important to have ourselves or a person representing us to have a look at the house before any decision is made. Then, emphasis will be on the flaws instead of only the shiny, sparkling part.
We humans packaged ourselves as well many a times. Ever seen a guy driving to school with his brand new car even though he lives literally just beside, and because the weather is absolutely hot that he can't walk or cycle for 3 minutes? Ever seen a guy macho-ing up in front of a girl he admires even though he is just a small kid inside. It's natural for us to try and hide as many of our flaws as we can and socially blend in, but the packaging itself should not change our identity. A doctor who only earns 7000 ringgit a month need not struggle financially to drive BMWs and live in high-class residential areas.
Well that's it for now. Back to house-hunting.
(Imported from facebook)
No comments:
Post a Comment