Housing Bust Goes Boom!

Housing Bust!

It started with our first trip out to visit Townerville [see Week 1 entry]. We now call this place Downerville. Anyway, we had the next Saturday afternoon lined up with a reputable realtor - reputable in that her agency is recommended by Accenture Singapore for executive placement. Furthermore, she was from Iowa so she understood our situation, could give us some relevant tips, and there would be no language barrier. Unfortunately, Holly must not have read my answers to her questionnaire because although I specifically said "no apartments," the only properties we saw were, you guessed it, apartments. She was concerned that we wouldn't like a place more than 5 years old. Have you seen our places! The Arlington apartment was built in the 1930's, the OC beach house was built in the 1940's, we clearly don't mind age. It wasn't a total disaster in that we got to drive around to several different areas. We were able to rule out places where we wouldn't live, but at the end of the day, we had no prospects.

We tentatively made plans to go out the following week but for various reasons that never happened. That ends our time with Holly. Melissa and I did our own snooping and found some places that met our requirements and our price range. Unfortunately, those two don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. Our requirement, simply put, was for a landed property. Landed property in Singapore is extremely rare to come by and it comes at a premium. The worse the shape of the property - age, upkeep, location, etc - the more affordable the price. I visited three properties Friday afternoon all at an affordable price, and I wasn't keen to visit any a second time. Still no prospects.

So with two major outings and no prospects, I hit the pavement. There were neighborhoods/areas that I knew we'd like to live. Close to Orchard Rd and the city, but not stuck in a vanilla, all inclusive high-rise. Following my last viewing, I was in one such neighborhood so I just walked around. Following my little stroll, I had 4 legit leads and a full weekend ahead.

Down to the Final Two

I started Saturday morning with a flurry of calls to realtors setting up viewings for the day. [Another interesting thing about Singapore is that very few people use voicemail on their mobile phones. At first, I thought this was rather strange. You could never leave a message for anyone. But then I remembered that all call plans have at least 500 texts pm included. So what do people do... text! Trying to coordinate with so many realtors in a short period of time, I was getting multiple texts at a time. Its like I'm a Gen-Yer.] A couple of the leads from Friday fell through, i.e. really out of our price range. The ones that did not, they were legitimate prospects. The way the day lined up, each visit was going to be better than the previous.

The final two we visited ended up being the two we'd decide between. One was a two-story apartment with a huge open 2-story patio that could not be surpassed. It was like a little play yard 7 stories up. It was great; it even included a pond with fountain. Totally Asian style. The apartment also had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and was in need of some serious maintenance - more space than we needed [or could ever use] and it wasn't going to be ready in time for our move-in. The apartment was not marketed, and admittedly, the realtor had been sitting on it for months because the owner wasn't interested in fixing it up without an interested tenant. Very different approach when dealing with a couple of American landlords. We found this place through friends who live in the same building. We saw their place and immediately loved it. We based every other place we saw on, 'did it match their apartment?' It made sense for their family consisting of 2 kids and a nanny. For us, we weren't completely sure.

The second place was Melissa's exact wish before moving to Singapore - a traditional colonial black and white in the 'heart of it all'. I found a older two-story terrace house among a series of row houses that had all been modernized. Sound familiar 870 3rd street! The apartment maintains the old world charm with the detailed designer tile flooring downstairs, dark hardwood floors upstairs, white plaster walls, exposed teak dark-wood floor joists and staircase, and an overall grand room feel with 14' ceilings. On the surface, this one felt like it could be our place. To top it off, it's a nearly identical floor plan to our house in Melbourne. A couple of drawbacks: a kitchen that is always 'outside' and the noise from a major construction site just across the street.

What started off as a housing bust has turned into a housing options boom. This all happened on Saturday. By Tuesday, we had worked both realtors to the same price point - the apartment with some concessions but nothing too dramatic on our end. We couldn't decide. We'd discuss one, feel like that was the choice, then reconsider. Each morning I woke up with a different preference. This was becoming an emotional choice for us. The answer: a third and impartial vote. It just so happened that Leela was in-town for work so we brought her along to see both the apartment and the terrace house. Her reaction was dramatic after seeing each property, but to her the choice was clear. As we walked Leela back to her hotel, we put it to a vote. Majority wins. In the event of a tie, Leela would be the tie breaker. Were we crazy to give her such a power, or were we confident in her ability to make a good choice for us? In the end, it didn't matter, it was a landslide, unanimous, almost no contest. The winner: the terrace house. See slideshow on the left.