The One That Got Away

On Sat, we excitedly made our way to view our dream home, which we'd been alerted to by an email from the vendor's agent. This sort of house - 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, very neat and well presented, and just up the road from Beth's new school - doesn't come up very often.

When we got there, we were stunned to find 20 other people there with the same idea.

Just getting through the house took longer than usual because there were bodies spilling out of every room. Which made it really hard to remain detached enough to form an objective opinion of the place.

On our way out, we stopped to speak with the agent, and learnt that the place is already Under Contract. Unless something happens to prevent the buyer from fulfilling the conditions of the contract (e.g. his financing falls through), it looks like we'll have to carry on hunting.

To expand our options, we went to have a look at display homes and land availability at Manor Lakes, Moorookyle and Claremont Park. The sales persons were really helpful, and each one taught us something we didn't know.

Like why it's better to buy your own land and then find a builder, instead of buying a House & Land package.

Like what to ask your builder.

The ideal facing for your living area.

Why a corner block is cheaper.

Or why an onsite childcare centre/school is not necessarily a plus.

One thing CA and I are definitely agreed on: there's greater emphasis on recreational amenities back home. In Sg, a HDB town centre would usually have a sports complex with an Olympic size pool/s, NTUC Club gym, badminton hall, running track. These amenities are generally accessible to everyone and easy to get to by public transport. And practically every private condo comes with pool, gym, tennis courts, spa etc.

Here, you have to buy a home in a master planned community to access such amenities, and even then, what you might get is a really tiny recreation club with a gym that holds just 7 exercise machines and at best a 25m lap pool. And that's for an estate with 10,000 homes.

In fact, most new estates don't even have a pool, tennis courts or spa. What you get are generous blocks (anything under 400 sq m for a block would be considered on the small side, as the average block size for a family home is 500-600 sq m) and access to parklands, wetlands and water views, such as an artificial lake or creek.