TIPS ON POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING YOUR CONDO UNIT

In the past week, I have caught news that four of my friends, from university or school, are getting married! I guess everyone feels pressured into making a commitment once they start hitting an age-milestone. Either that, or they realize that it is time to start a family, and buy their own home.

Staying on course with the posting, if you are looking to buy a condo unit, here are a few reminders and tips to buy the right condo unit for you. Not that there are any wrong units - of course the developer is set on selling every single built unit - but you might want to hear me out (or read on) to find out how you can avoid getting less than what you deserve:

Here are the questions you want to ask the salesman or developer when asking about a condominium unit you want to purchase:

1. Where maintenance units are located
This includes the garbage chute (that is available on every floor), the garbage bin (it's usually at one of the corners), the TNB generator room etc.

2. Where the staircase / lifts are
My unit is the second closest to the emergency staircase and because we live on the first floor, we usually take the staircase instead of the lift (which is in the middle of the building) to our car at the carpark. If you think I'm lucky, imagine how terrible my moving day was (glad that's over). Oh, and it is not really good for your front door to be facing the staircase, bad luck for the owner, not that there is no way of rectifying it, one fengshui matter or another, but if you can avoid it...?

3. Where the facilities are:
Particularly where the swimming pool is because it can be really really noisy during the evenings or the weekends since that's when the kids will come with their visiting cousins and college bros to try out the pool/jacuzzi. Invest in really good sound proof windows and/or doors if this is unavoidable.

4. Where your balcony or living room is facing.
For high-rise dwellers, the view is something that is really really important (why else would I pay this much for? Conversations about the weather?). Even if at the current time, your counterpart units at the ground or first floor are facing a back road or undeveloped areas (hills and forests), that can change really quick within the next four to five years. The unit I got is already blocked by another apartment so my view is shot even from the day I bought my unit. My neighbours who had a nicer view facing some greens in the other direction are a bit luckier - but not for long as they are building another condominium unit that will totally screw up the view all the way up to at least the fifteenth floor. Part and parcel of owning a condo. Remember this rule: If there is space for development, there will be.

5. Details that might not seem important when you are buying the unit, but are.
~ where is the condo facing in relation to the sun (If you don't think that is important, you definitely have never been awaken by the hot sun shining down with vengeance on your eyes)
~ what you are getting from your developer (the tiling of the bathroom all the way to the ceiling, water heaters, dryers, floor tiles, Astro satellite connection policies, etc)
~ Maintenance fees (how much, when payment is due)
~ Parking lots and vehicle entry cards (are the lots covered or not; how far are the lots from your unit; if you get two, will they be placed together?)
~  (for security purposes)
~ Security policies (How easy or hard is it for friends or strangers to gain entry)
~ Visitor parking (are there any?)
~ Where the mailbox is
~ Renovation rules (some condos are very strict with what can be renovated and what can't)

House hunting is no laughing matter and I wouldn't know what I'd do without my husband and his discerning eye (and gut feeling) for good property buys. But with the right questions asked at the right time to the right person, you can minimize the risk of investing in the wrong property. Best of luck.

Mama Sing

Sort-of Book Review: Only Time Will Tell

I have always been a fan of Jeffrey Archer's books. With the exception of The Gospel According to Judas, which I've just noticed after reading through his list of works to confirm that I have read all his books, I have almost read all of his books, which includes his latest, Only Time Will Tell aka The Clifton Chronicles.

I finished reading this in two days, which I also did with the last Harry Potter book 

...but with more enthusiasm and satisfaction

I like Archer's storytelling. He makes every sentence count. I say this because in most of the books I read, I usually skip physical descriptions of the characters, the environment, the negligible room where they are going to have sex in... my point is, it's all pointless, serving no use except to be page fillers. My idol doesn't do that and even though almost all other novelists do that (for whatever reasons except practical ones), he simply does not give a *bleeb* and tells his own story his way.

Back to the review: 

It's almost impossible to 'spoil' Archer's books, because the fun in reading it is the journey and not just a single point in the last chapter which wraps everything up. Nonetheless, his signature twist-in-the-tale has always been a novelty that I look for in novels, of which (unlike a certain film-maker who has lost the ability to put in to his movies no more), Archer never fails to use blow everyone's mind.  

But in this book his twist takes a backseat. It's an amazing piece of work, showcasing ingenious story telling skills and his ability to get into the minds of so many of his characters that you find it hard to believe that they are not alive somewhere in the world. 

One thing I can spoil for you is that he retells various parts of the story; you will be reading about repeated scenes and issues but it will be fun, because it is from different points of view. And I don't mean like in an OCD way where there are several points of views in the same sentence, or in the same paragraph, or even the same page. Everyone tells their POV in chapters, and because Archer does his homework, none of it clash [Yeah, I am challenging you, yes you, to find flaws in his book]. And nobody can pull that off, but Jeffrey Archer.

What started out as a boy's journey to figure out what happened to his father who went missing from his and his mother's life one day, without a trace, would spell out a series of events that would leave him and you speechless. [It's a fairly new book and honestly, I do not want to ruin it for you, and I swear this on my hard covered Only Time Will Tell, which set me back about 100 bucks but it was worth it.]

*But if you still want a review on the book rather than trust my word for it (good move), here's a review from Pam Norfolk.*

And now for some good news: this will be a five-book saga (it ain't called a chronicle for being a 386-page book), with the second book The Sins of The Father well into its eighth draft, and supposedly picking up where the first book left off.

I can't wait!