House shopping

Last week was a very hectic week for me. Decided to hunt for my own place to call home. Set out with a friend on a mountain bike. Up and down we went, along the highways, along the alleys, through tunnels and across roads. Checked out an area near to the most inflated properties in Klang valley. Supposed to be an area where inflation hasn't creeped in too bad yet..or so I thought. Initially I thought it might be a good buy for investment as well.

After checking out the general area, looking at condos from outside, I spent the next 2 days contacting real estate agents and the various managements to look at the units inside the various condos. Yup, they were completely new and bare. This is not the problem. The problem is with the really poor finishings. For the price range I would expect some decent furnishings. They do not even supply proper PVC pipes for the kitchen sink. The paper thin piping practically disintegrated on movement. And 3 condos we saw uses the same type of piping, obviously from the same supplier.

Then there was this management agent who tried to push something we didn't want. He probably hiked up the price 40% for an obviously "nobody wants" unit facing the busiest/noisiest highway in Klang valley and said he'll give us 10% discount and throw in a free carpark. And he was rather rude ticking me off for asking if water and electricity has been connected. He replied "How can CF be issued if no water or electricity?" Damn bloody cocky. If his unit was the last unit on planet earth I would not buy from him. Act as if we owe him a living. I'll be damn.

The launch price of a particular unit was <200K for a 1100Sf unit and he is quoting RM350K AFTER discount for a developer's untenanted unit. With that attitude and poor finishings described above, forget it man! A new condo unit near the area with also 1100sf is going for almost 400K. With nothing at all, completely bare except the disintegrating kitchen sink.

Another condo was going for a more reasonable price. Keys handed over 1 year ago with a launch price of RM140K for a 800sf unit but a similar developer's unit now is going for 200K. But with the disintegrating kitchen piping as well. A 1000sf unit would be 280K.

Oh yes and there is a maintenance fee of 25 cents per square feet monthly.

Sigh, I think I'll save my money for somewhere outside Klang valley. Talk about economy crumbling...developers and agents still try to keep up a facade of "highly sought after" and artificially pushing prices up . Perhaps they rather leave it empty, as most units I saw were empty, than to push the prices down. Hope they don't run out of cash flow haha.