on the hunt
I've finally got my ass in gear and starting looking at some real apartments after doing tonnes on research on the Internet. How in the world did people find out if something was good value before the Internet?! I really ♥♥ ♥ the Internet.. hehe~ I'm so glad I surfed around alot and looked at about a kergigabilzillion different options, trying all kinds of configurations of factors online, before I went to the agents directly... it really helped in gauging roughly the market rate for a property based on things like proximity to a particular station/line, distance from the station, size and age of the property etc. But even then, I realise it was difficult to effectively narrow down my actual requirements before I saw anything.
Basically whichever agent I tried, I told them my *ideal* conditions, and that I was pretty flexible on most of them, except a couple which were non-negotiable (i.e. *must* have place for washing machine, *cannot* be 1st floor). The first place I went to was a chain called Room Pia - the lady who helped me was pretty ok at first, but I had to go to work already on Tuesday, so I had to wait till Wednesday to go and view any places. In any case, she kinda 'found' 3 places that sort of fit my conditions, and asked me to think about it and we could take a look after I had considered them overnight.
On Wednesday, I wasn't terribly excited about them, but was prepared to see a couple of those she had recommended. I had also thought through more carefully what I wanted, so I just asked if she could check out if there were any places that had low/no key money (cos it just upsets me that I have to give money away like that for no good reason, even though I know it's the culture here!!) - it's not the amount upfront, but the potential of getting it back - and I didn't mind paying more in the monthly rent if it was a good place. It's like if I give 1/1 Key money/Deposit, it's 1 month straight down the drain, whereas if I give 0/2 key money/deposit, there's a chance I might get back my deposit.
In hindsight, I think she wasn't very happy with me and was probably bitching about me to her colleague, cos I remember now that he was staring and I stupidly thought maybe I had mayo or some sauce on my shirt :P Anyway, in the end, she only found one place to show me, and it was this tiny odd-shaped on the 1st floor of a new building (1st vid). I thought she was going to show me the other 2 places too, but apparently not lor~ Actually I can work with weird shapes so that wasn't a big deal for me and I liked that everything was nice and brand-new. But the 1st floor thing bothered me. Nothing between me and the world except one skinny glass door and one flimsy-looking aluminium grille gate less than 1 foot away. I guess it would be useful if I ever locked myself out - the gate looked easy to climb and the glass shouldn't be difficult to smash.
After we parted though, I felt more and more irritated with her bloody attitude. First, she didn't make any effort to look in their computer database, she just flipped through some files they had.. !!? And when I mentioned that I heard from my friends that the Denentoshi Line is extremely crowded, she said, "well, every line in Tokyo is crowded." (0.o) At least another agent I went to was honest enough to admit that it was more crowded than most lines, but he also knew how to say that it's only one stop from Shibuya, so I only had to suffer for 3 minutes :D And we're talking about the same stop in both cases. And I know what I was asking is rare, but I know they exist, they are just FAR away and a bit more expensive than what I said I'm willing to pay...
I decided she's just the extremely inflexible sort - to the point that when we went to view the place, which was supposedly only 10 minutes walk (it's not really, it's more like 15 minutes) from Nakameguro Station, she said we'll drive there, and then I wanted to get in the front seat of the car, but she insisted I sit at the back. I know it's considered 'polite' but I feel damn weird sitting at the back like you're my chauffeur. Then, best can also tell me the property is quite popular and if I want it I must apply for it asap, because the owner will raise the price in September. The very fact that the owner cut the price by 5,000 yen and dropped one month off the key money means that the property is not moving. You really think that cos I'm a foreigner I'm so retarded is it!!! WTF, stupid bitch.
I figure as the customer I have the right to state my ideal conditions and since I've already said that I'm flexible with everything except 2 conditions, the least you could do is make some effort to find and show me at least 2-3 properties that might appeal to me. Or try to persuade me to change some of my conditions. After all, I still have to pay you a 1-month commission! So, about 10 minutes after leaving the place, I decided not to consider it at all cos I just simply didn't want to give her any business. Plus, doesn't everyone know that the important thing in sales is that the customer doesn't always know what they want, even if they think they do, you have to show them something that will appeal to them and close the sale on that...
Anyway, I went to try my luck with 2 other agencies so far and those people were MUCH nicer to deal with. One of them is about 3 minutes from Room Pia and the guy showed me 3 different places - two of which were really 'interesting' - one had a loft that was so tiny, the agent himself got a shock when he saw it. The other one felt huge because it had a basement! It'll be damn cool do to a shoot in an apartment like that, even though the space would be pretty tight. I could imagine living there except (i) the walls were sticky; (ii) it was pretty damn far from any train station; (iii) it was about S$150 MORE expensive than the MUCH nicer apartment I saw after that. I could totally see it as the inside of some writer's Parisian apartment.. hehe. BUT I like bright and sunny and clean and new and value for money :D so am trying to secure a place that's about a 10-13 minute walk from the station. Please let the owner like Singaporeans! *prays hard*
I'd like to say "rant over', but on the same day, a couple of my colleagues got on my nerves too. Immediately after the last lesson ended, the other girl who had the same client just before me, started going on to me about "wow, what's with the way she dresses... and omg, her make-up... and what's the whole thing about NOT asking about her job... if she doesn't want to be noticed she shouldn't dress like that." Then another see-gi-na comes along and hears it and goes, "Oh, she's a porn star!" To be honest, I had this client before and the first thing I did when I see the "don't ask about the job" thing was check her name on the Internet. XD Of course it could be a fake name but there's someone else who's a searchable ex-idol/porn star on our client list. I said I wasn't sure she's the one but they are pretty damn sure and continue to bitch about her and I rudely go back to my computer, cos I'd much rather finish up and go home.
Ok, so we have some clients with very interesting/unusual/pornographic backgrounds, but seriously, even if she's a porn star, gravure idol, stripper, hostess, WHATEVER... it's her right to dress however she wants. Actually I also don't know exactly why I felt so irritated with them. Maybe it's because in spite of her appearance, this girl is really sweet and quite serious about learning English. So I respect her more than those 'decent'-looking types who come and spend their 40 minutes giggling with some male instructor and can't string a sentence together after that. And thank goodness I never get booked by such people anymore cos my photo is finally up and it's clear that Julia=female. It's not that I'm being self-righteous and saying that we can't bitch about people, cos god knows I bitch about people all the time *see above haha* but one of you met her for 40 minutes and the other never even met her, so what did this girl do to you guys...
Yeah, it sounds like I'm PMS-ing but I'm not. It's MARS + PLUTO. Look out next month when Mars meets Uranus. Good luck to whoever has to encounter an abrupt outburst. *nyak~
check out last night's crazy thunderstorm~~ i loved it! (though it was a little scary when the floor vibrated as the thunder rolled across the sky...)
(hm i wonder what flickr's compression did to my vid... i had an image through out when played back on my comp...)
Basically whichever agent I tried, I told them my *ideal* conditions, and that I was pretty flexible on most of them, except a couple which were non-negotiable (i.e. *must* have place for washing machine, *cannot* be 1st floor). The first place I went to was a chain called Room Pia - the lady who helped me was pretty ok at first, but I had to go to work already on Tuesday, so I had to wait till Wednesday to go and view any places. In any case, she kinda 'found' 3 places that sort of fit my conditions, and asked me to think about it and we could take a look after I had considered them overnight.
On Wednesday, I wasn't terribly excited about them, but was prepared to see a couple of those she had recommended. I had also thought through more carefully what I wanted, so I just asked if she could check out if there were any places that had low/no key money (cos it just upsets me that I have to give money away like that for no good reason, even though I know it's the culture here!!) - it's not the amount upfront, but the potential of getting it back - and I didn't mind paying more in the monthly rent if it was a good place. It's like if I give 1/1 Key money/Deposit, it's 1 month straight down the drain, whereas if I give 0/2 key money/deposit, there's a chance I might get back my deposit.
In hindsight, I think she wasn't very happy with me and was probably bitching about me to her colleague, cos I remember now that he was staring and I stupidly thought maybe I had mayo or some sauce on my shirt :P Anyway, in the end, she only found one place to show me, and it was this tiny odd-shaped on the 1st floor of a new building (1st vid). I thought she was going to show me the other 2 places too, but apparently not lor~ Actually I can work with weird shapes so that wasn't a big deal for me and I liked that everything was nice and brand-new. But the 1st floor thing bothered me. Nothing between me and the world except one skinny glass door and one flimsy-looking aluminium grille gate less than 1 foot away. I guess it would be useful if I ever locked myself out - the gate looked easy to climb and the glass shouldn't be difficult to smash.
After we parted though, I felt more and more irritated with her bloody attitude. First, she didn't make any effort to look in their computer database, she just flipped through some files they had.. !!? And when I mentioned that I heard from my friends that the Denentoshi Line is extremely crowded, she said, "well, every line in Tokyo is crowded." (0.o) At least another agent I went to was honest enough to admit that it was more crowded than most lines, but he also knew how to say that it's only one stop from Shibuya, so I only had to suffer for 3 minutes :D And we're talking about the same stop in both cases. And I know what I was asking is rare, but I know they exist, they are just FAR away and a bit more expensive than what I said I'm willing to pay...
I decided she's just the extremely inflexible sort - to the point that when we went to view the place, which was supposedly only 10 minutes walk (it's not really, it's more like 15 minutes) from Nakameguro Station, she said we'll drive there, and then I wanted to get in the front seat of the car, but she insisted I sit at the back. I know it's considered 'polite' but I feel damn weird sitting at the back like you're my chauffeur. Then, best can also tell me the property is quite popular and if I want it I must apply for it asap, because the owner will raise the price in September. The very fact that the owner cut the price by 5,000 yen and dropped one month off the key money means that the property is not moving. You really think that cos I'm a foreigner I'm so retarded is it!!! WTF, stupid bitch.
I figure as the customer I have the right to state my ideal conditions and since I've already said that I'm flexible with everything except 2 conditions, the least you could do is make some effort to find and show me at least 2-3 properties that might appeal to me. Or try to persuade me to change some of my conditions. After all, I still have to pay you a 1-month commission! So, about 10 minutes after leaving the place, I decided not to consider it at all cos I just simply didn't want to give her any business. Plus, doesn't everyone know that the important thing in sales is that the customer doesn't always know what they want, even if they think they do, you have to show them something that will appeal to them and close the sale on that...
Anyway, I went to try my luck with 2 other agencies so far and those people were MUCH nicer to deal with. One of them is about 3 minutes from Room Pia and the guy showed me 3 different places - two of which were really 'interesting' - one had a loft that was so tiny, the agent himself got a shock when he saw it. The other one felt huge because it had a basement! It'll be damn cool do to a shoot in an apartment like that, even though the space would be pretty tight. I could imagine living there except (i) the walls were sticky; (ii) it was pretty damn far from any train station; (iii) it was about S$150 MORE expensive than the MUCH nicer apartment I saw after that. I could totally see it as the inside of some writer's Parisian apartment.. hehe. BUT I like bright and sunny and clean and new and value for money :D so am trying to secure a place that's about a 10-13 minute walk from the station. Please let the owner like Singaporeans! *prays hard*
I'd like to say "rant over', but on the same day, a couple of my colleagues got on my nerves too. Immediately after the last lesson ended, the other girl who had the same client just before me, started going on to me about "wow, what's with the way she dresses... and omg, her make-up... and what's the whole thing about NOT asking about her job... if she doesn't want to be noticed she shouldn't dress like that." Then another see-gi-na comes along and hears it and goes, "Oh, she's a porn star!" To be honest, I had this client before and the first thing I did when I see the "don't ask about the job" thing was check her name on the Internet. XD Of course it could be a fake name but there's someone else who's a searchable ex-idol/porn star on our client list. I said I wasn't sure she's the one but they are pretty damn sure and continue to bitch about her and I rudely go back to my computer, cos I'd much rather finish up and go home.
Ok, so we have some clients with very interesting/unusual/pornographic backgrounds, but seriously, even if she's a porn star, gravure idol, stripper, hostess, WHATEVER... it's her right to dress however she wants. Actually I also don't know exactly why I felt so irritated with them. Maybe it's because in spite of her appearance, this girl is really sweet and quite serious about learning English. So I respect her more than those 'decent'-looking types who come and spend their 40 minutes giggling with some male instructor and can't string a sentence together after that. And thank goodness I never get booked by such people anymore cos my photo is finally up and it's clear that Julia=female. It's not that I'm being self-righteous and saying that we can't bitch about people, cos god knows I bitch about people all the time *see above haha* but one of you met her for 40 minutes and the other never even met her, so what did this girl do to you guys...
Yeah, it sounds like I'm PMS-ing but I'm not. It's MARS + PLUTO. Look out next month when Mars meets Uranus. Good luck to whoever has to encounter an abrupt outburst. *nyak~
check out last night's crazy thunderstorm~~ i loved it! (though it was a little scary when the floor vibrated as the thunder rolled across the sky...)
(hm i wonder what flickr's compression did to my vid... i had an image through out when played back on my comp...)