The Apartment Search - Day 2

Our first viewing was at 9:30. The apartment was in Mosman Park (a suburb south of Perth – not within walking distance). We had decided the night before that we would rent a car, zip down to the viewing, rent the property, zip back to the hotel, check out and then move into our brand new apartment. Simple enough, right? Nope. It is rare that a plan, without accounting for error, can be executed as designed. This became evident very quickly.

2006 Ford Falcon Ute.

We awoke bright and early, had breakfast and made our way to Hertz to ‘hire’ a car (Australians don’t rent things, they hire them). Unfortunately, they would not have any cars available until 10:30 as the cars needed cleaning. However, the people at Hertz were kind enough to suggest trying Budget, just around the corner. So, we made our way around the corner. Budget, unfortunately, did not have any economy class vehicles available, but were willing to hire us a larger vehicle for an outrageous price. We politely declined their offer and made our way back around the corner to Hertz. The new plan was to take public transit to the viewing and back. We would make a reservation to hire a car from Hertz at 10:30 and use it to move our possessions into our new apartment. The hotel required us to check out by 11, so this plan, again, relied on things running unrealistically smoothly.

The reservation was made and we set off to ride the train to Mosman Park (an in depth report on Perth’s public transit system will be discussed in a separate blog). Mosman Park is a suburb south of Perth’s central business district and takes about 15-20 minutes to get to by train. The apartment was located on Fairlight Street, Mosman Park. The trouble was we had no idea where we were and didn’t have a map. Instead of trying our luck, we asked for directions and made it to the viewing with plenty of time to spare.

There is more paperwork to be processed for one to rent
as opposed to buying a property in Australia.

Up until this point, it did not seem as difficult to lease an apartment as per the warning shortly after out arrival. We soon learned, first hand, that there is a ‘process’ and it is competitive. The process involves filling out an application, providing personal references, bank statements and a $300 deposit. The competition lies in the fact that multiple applications can be filed for the same property. Furthermore, the quickest an application can be processed is within 24-48 hours. Until then, we were to remain homeless. This was troublesome. However, we had no choice, but to play the game.

Upon completing an application it was evident that it would be impossible to make it back in time to (a) pick up our rental vehicle and (b) check out of the hotel. At this point, it was also time to start considering the possibility that we might not be in an apartment by the end of the day. We made a couple phone calls, cancelled our car rental (with no cancellation fee) and booked another night at Ibis Hotel at the discounted rate. There was also a hostel close by that offered rooms for $412 per week. The hostel’s daily rates were nearly equivalent to the hotel, so for short stays the hotel was a better option. We were still optimistic about finding an apartment quickly and agreed that we would spend one more night in the hotel before moving into the hostel.

We had three more viewings scheduled for the rest of the day. The viewings were in Wembley, Shenton Park and East Perth. The realtor that showed us the Wembley property was also scheduled to show us the Shenton Park property. It was her opinion that, if we did not like the Wembley property, then we would not be pleased with the Shenton Park property. We took her advice and cancelled the Shenton Park viewing, but held onto an application for the Wembley property just in case the earlier application was denied. On our commute to the property in East Perth, we passed by a number of real estate offices that were advertising rental properties in our price range. We left our contact details and a message that we were looking to sign a rental agreement immediately. A couple hours later, just prior to viewing the East Perth property, we received a call from one of these offices and were able to schedule a viewing for the next morning at 11. This was great news because the East Perth apartment didn’t tickle our fancy and it was nearing the end of the business day. It would be nearly impossible to set up anymore appointments before the next day.

We were exhausted from a long day of apartment hunting. A few more e-mails were sent before bed in an attempt to schedule viewings by early morning. Our spirits were still high, despite not having found a place we could call home, and we fell asleep hoping that we’d have better luck the next day.