Not Getting Hopes Up

Friday was apartment shopping. It was a blast! It was truly some red carpet treatment.

They picked us up at 9:00 am with our personal Benz driver who took us to the property office. After a short orientation (most of which I already knew, but was beneficial for AC) we went off to look at properties.

Real estate shopping in Hong Kong is an experience like none other. For anyone who has complained about the San Francisco real estate market, come live in HK for a while and you'll long for the affordable prices. Sticker shock is issue numero uno. The cheapest place we looked at was just a shade over 1,000 square feet and it was a steal at $55,000 HKD per month (~$7,000 US). I guess it helps when the company is paying for it. I don't know how people who live here regularly actually pull it off.

The second weird thing is they don't do anything to the apartment until they have a tenant. This means the old tenant (or sometimes owner) moves out and they start showing it. For the most part, they were all a complete disaster -- messy, smelly, run down, wore out. You really have to picture what they are going to look like cleaned up. Some of them, we couldn't help but laugh our heads off they were so bad.

Because we were greedy awful Americans, our agent assumed we would want to see huge places. Most of the apartments we looked at were 2,000+ square feet. At one point, AC finally said, "I'm sorry -- this is just too big. What would we make out of this room, a dance floor?"

Lastly, there is the issue of the maid's room. We call it the slave's quarters. It usually consists of a microscopic room, usually the size of the closet. They commonly had a separate servant's entrance and the room was always off of the kitchen. The also have a separate bath with a hand-held shower that is directly over the toilet Amtrak style. Some of the beds were so short, there is no way a human being over eight years of age could stretch out properly. They say this is a concept that you warm up to, but I just don't think I'll ever feel right about it.

In the end, we made an offer on an apartment that took me about 32.2 seconds to fall madly in love with. First, it's right in the middle of the SoHo area, which is rich with countless bars, restaurants, shopping, and what I suspect is the world's longest escalator. Secondly, it was luxury! They had a wine and cigar bar right in the building. We wanted to look at the gym and pool, but they said it was too exclusive and they wouldn't let us in (damn them!).

Lastly, the apartment. It was actually the smallest and cheapest of everything we'd seen. The view (from the 37th floor) was nothing short of breath-taking -- especially when you looked down to the street level. When I walked into the second bath, however, I was sold. There was a TV screen in the shower. A TV SCREEN IN THE SHOWER!! I'm sorry, but that has to be the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. There is also a TV in the master bath (opposite the toilet -- heh heh) and in the kitchen as well. Everything was brand new and pristine. Then we noticed the security cameras throughout the apartment. I was told you can log onto the Internet and check what is going on when you are not home (meaning: check to make sure your slave is working hard). There is even one in the guest bedroom. To anyone coming to visit: you have been warned!

Though small, it was completely perfect for us. Tater even has a room to his own (the slave room of course). Our only conditions were that they let us have the dog, and they knock down a wall and turn it from a 3 to a 2 bedroom.

So even in writing this, I am getting my hopes up. There is already an offer on the unit, but our agent is going to try and make a better offer to one-up them!