House Hunting in Malaysia...Day 2

Day two started out way different than the first day.  I was able to get up and get moving at my own pace Wednesday morning.  Patric went in to work for a little while.  This was all good since we were both so tired Tuesday night.  I think we were both on such mental overload we barely remembered much of what we did the first day.  Good thing for us we had the presence of mind Tuesday night before we passed out from exhaustion to save the pictures of the houses we liked and delete the pictures of the ones we didn't.  Go us!!  I looked over these while I was killing time (and I posted a blog trying to get caught up).  Then it was time to put on the game face and see what was out there for viewing today.

Shanny was scheduled to pick me up at 12:30 then we were going to get Patric from work.  When she arrived she showed me the list of viewings...eight (yes 8) scheduled for today.  I told you, she is a machine!

Right out of the gate...house number one...we fell in love!  It was  a corner lot, perfect kitchen, perfect master bathroom, perfect everything!  The houses Shanny was showing us that day were different than on day one.  Day one she focused on bungalows.  Day two she was focusing on what is called semi-detached.  They seem kind of like duplexes but muuuch bigger.  This particular one has 3800 sf with five bedrooms.  The fact that it was a corner lot gave it a bigger yard than most of the other semi-detacheds.  This house just happened to be in a new development where there were other similar houses for rent.  Our real estate machine, Shanny, drove around and collected phone numbers of listing agents on other properties in case we decided this was our first choice (duh!) and the offer fell through.  We continued on with the list of properties she had prepared but now we had something to compare them all to...

Even with the semi-d's there was much of the same as the day before; although they definitely fell more inside our budget which worked better for us since the rest would go towards furniture leasing.  On our list were a couple of bungalows but they weren't even a good comparison to the semi-d we fell in love with.  We had pretty much determined that the bungalows are just too much house for us here.  They are really BIG!!!

By the end of the day we were still in love with house number one so Shanny called and made our offer.  It was agreed that she would call us Wednesday night to let us know what the owner of the house said.  I found out from Shanny that it is typically a two week process.  Just because we get a yes today that does not necessarily mean a definite yes.  Once the owner gives the initial yes Shanny will email the listing agent/owner what is called a TA (tenant agreement) which is the Schlumberger agreement.  This is where the negotiations (if any) will take place.  There are some things that can't be negotiated on both sides.  If this can't be agreed on then we don't get the house even if the initial answer was yes.  Bummer...right?  Well, we didn't have to worry about all of that.  We were told no immediately.  Apparently, somewhere along the lines, the owner either wasn't told by the listing agent or decided at the last minute they didn't want our dogs.  Have I mentioned that Malaysia, in general, is not a dog friendly country?  Well, it isn't...

Shanny was awesome on the phone, though.  She is so high energy and has such a "never say die" attitude!  Before she hung up she told Patric she had already spoken with three other agents from that same community from the numbers she had written down and had already made appointments for the next day.  I'm telling you...a machine!!!!  So even though we went to bed heavy hearted from the loss of the house we had hope for the next day.  Still, house hunting sucks!!  And on top of house hunting our morning will be filled with orientation...Thursday will be a loooong day!  But full of adventure so there should be plenty to share with you!!!

See you next time!

Monkey update:  day four...STILL no monkeys...not even monkey droppings.  I'm beginning to think I was lied to...  =(