House Hunting Round 3

So, we've wrapped up week three now of house hunting in Sydney with nine inspections this week (though we've only applied for three). But in the process, we've come to realize a few things that might be the cause of our lack of success.

1. Real estate agents are looking for couples where BOTH have permanent jobs.
I've come to know this older woman at work who told me a story about how her daughter was in school and looking for an apartment and months had gone by and no one would lease to her. She finally asked her friend who is a real estate agent what they were doing wrong and he said it was her lack of income and rental history. Nevermind that her mother (who has a fairly senior position and makes really, really good money) was going to be paying for her rent. It all came down to who was actually going lived there. How did they eventually find a place? This woman made up a bogus job for her daughter saying she had been her secretary for years (it worked because they had different last names) including bogus pay slips, and then got a friend to say she had rented from him for years as well. Her entire work history and rental history was made up. But she got a lease--and quickly too.

This is the second time I've come across people who've made up jobs and rental histories in order to get into an apartment in Sydney, and I suspect it happens so much more often than that. The competition for rentals here is just that fierce. It makes me sad though because the ridiculous expectations here are forcing people to be dishonest and if the only way to get small things in life like an apartment is to lie, cheat and steal, then there is no place for me here. I will admit that when this woman then offered to lie for me too and say I had worked for her for years, I was tempted. But I feel like my word and my honesty is worth more than that. I really do value truthfulness. But how do you overcome that stuff? I really hope that some agent out there values truthfulness too and gives us a chance.

2. Other people are doing whatever it takes to be noticed.
Another lady from work told me a story on Thursday about how her friend would bake cupcakes and bring them in to real estate offices after applying for apartments, hoping to literally sweeten the deal. Did that work? I have no idea but I find it believable because as far as I'm concerned, most agents are crooks anyway. The ridiculousness isn't lost on me though. I'm thinking about doing thank you cards.

What are we doing now? Well, we've been putting together nicely bound folders with clear covers and color title pages with pictures of the unit we're applying for on the front. They also have a very professionally written cover letter plus all supporting documentation (ie. pass ports, rental receipts, work contracts, gas bills, etc.)--and it's all indexed. All of this is put together in advance so that it can be handed in at the inspection without fuss, without question and without wondering if the agent actually got it. For the most part people's reactions have been good and a little surprised by the amount of work we've put into it but we still haven't had a call back for a single apartment. It's starting to feel like wasted time... Maybe we should throw in gift certificates?

3. Renting can be a bidding war.
I was at an inspection the other day for a really nice place in Surry Hills and took the opportunity to chat with someone while we all waited for the agent. We talked for a bit about how difficult it is to find housing here and his guy I was talking to started bragging about how he usually submits a letter a long with his application offering to pay $10 or $20 more than the asking price. He figured that would give him a better chance. And it probably will. But it seriously disgusts me. You want to know why one bedroom hobbit holes rent for $500 a week in Sydney? It's because of idiots like him. I feel so ethically against that idea and I told him so. I said, "Don't you realize that people who do that kind of thing are the cause of their own problems? Rent prices are too high as it is and those kinds of practices will only make them higher." He kind of furrowed his brow with uncomfortable thought and then pretended to take a phone call. Maybe I was a jerk for saying that but I don't really care. I have very little respect for those kinds of people. They think they are just doing what they have to do to get a place but it's a bit on the unethical side of things if you ask me and the damage they are doing to the housing market is real and noticeable. Those people should be hung upside down by their toe nails.

4. Our rental ledger has a mistake on it.
This doesn't really apply to the housing market as a whole like the points I mentioned above but it's probably one of the reasons why we haven't had much luck. Yesterday, Jeremy had to drop in to our agent's office to pick up our rental ledger (kind of the historical document of our tenancy in this unit) for an application and he found a mistake on it--it said we received termination notice in August last year which is just not true. Why would they have allowed us to stay 10 months past? It's probably just and entry error but it has potential to ruin everything. If some office aid or agent other than the one we work with were to take a call about our rental history from somewhere we've applied to, they would probably look at that and just read off what it says, oblivious to the error, because they wouldn't know us or what our case has really been like. And you know, it's actually quite likely that this has happened because the agent who manages our property is the senior property manager at Raine and Horne and she's likely to delegate out small tasks like that. As you can imagine, we're quite pissed off about this. Jeremy didn't try to correct it right then because he was in a hurry to meet me for another inspection, but we'll definitely be calling them first thing Monday morning! I can hardly believe the bad luck we've had.

5. Your availability date matters.
To top off all of this, we're nearing the end of our lease with just 13 days left. The terms of our lease are that we can give 14 days notice within the lease's contractual terms but if the lease laspes and we move onto a rolling month-to-month contract, we will have to give 21 days notice before we move. It's nice that we won't be kicked out come July 10th but I'm really worried about having to give 3 weeks notice. So many apartment owners are either looking for someone who's immediately available or someone who's available in 2 weeks time. If it's between us and someone who can move in on the day the unit is emptied, they will always choose the other person because we represent a lost profit.

What's likely to happen is that we'll have to sign a lease for a new place commencing in two weeks' time while giving three weeks notice for our current place. That means we run the risk of having to pay rent for two places for one week if new tenants for our current place are not found and arranged by the time we leave. That's not a pleasant thought. We're talking about the potential of spending all of our savings just to get a new place. How is that? Because to get a place in Sydney you're asked to front 4 weeks rent as a bond/deposit plus two or four weeks rent in advance. For us, that means between $2,880 and $3,520 at our ideal price of $360 per week but we've been looking at much more expensive places than that--our absolute limit is $400 per week. That mean at our upper limits, we could be spending up to $3,960. Sure, part of that is returned with whatever we get back from our current deposit (it'll probably be around $1,200) but that's not really enough to make it all feel good.

Can you see how this adds up quickly and how this is stressing me out like you wouldn't believe? I had to have a few good cries about it this week when it just got to be too much. We've worked so hard to save money to come home and it's about to disappear... Some days I just absolutely hate Australia and how difficult things are here. I'm trying to stay positive but this housing stuff is consuming me--it's invading my dreams almost daily. I'm not sleeping well and I'm noting working as much as I want to (or as productively as I want to) because I'm always leaving work early to go see an apartment or I'm having to take time away from my job to call agents and arrange viewings. I'm actually loosing money because of this.

It's so tempting to just say screw it all and sign another lease here but I know that would be a mistake--I know it! Just yesterday, after that massive mold clean we did a few weeks ago, we found more mold growing on the blinds again and on my beautiful red heels. We just can't keep on top of it. Who knows what it's doing to our health. We can't stay here but leaving is proving to be a much more difficult task that I expected and almost more difficult than I can handle right now.

I miss Korea. I miss just putting $600 cash on the table and walking away with keys. Life used to be simpler.