The Rules of Flat Hunting
So in the last few weeks I have unexpectedly ended up on both sides of the flat hunting divide: looking for a room, and now I’m advertising a room. It seems to me that basic flat hunting skills are non-existent in many quarters. So this is my thinking of the…
…Rules of flat hunting:
When you are looking for a room:
If you are looking for a room in an already occupied flat, start looking about a month before you need to move in or have things sorted. I think that’s when people advertise. If you are looking at agencies, start looking far more in advance. They tend to have things a couple of months earlier.
Read the advert carefully. Work out if the room and flat will be suitable for you, and if you are suitable for them. If it says they would like a female, and you’re a guy, you might want to cut your losses. Same if your working status doesn’t match with their ideal.
Does the rental price match the room? If it’s a fancy looking room with a rental price half of normal, it’s a scam. Don’t go there. Gumtree is full of this. It also has a lot of genuine adverts, so you have to work out the wheat from the chaff.
If you do decide to write to them remember this is their first impression of you. Write in proper English, i.e. with sentence structure and grammar. While I understand that for some foreigners, putting the words in the right order is not always easy and there can be slippages, but surely capitals at the beginning of sentences and full stops at the end is a basic thing you could remember?
Be polite. Think of it like an audition. Would you let a rude person who obviously hasn’t read the advert properly into your flat? No, I didn’t think so.
Put in a bit of information about you. I found that when I started doing this I got a lot more proper responses. How old you are, why you need to move, whether you are a student or professional and a BRIEF statement on how you live, like are you sociable, out a lot, introvert, keep yourself to yourself? I don’t think interests are that important, especially as people always tend to put the same stuff like, “I’m happy to be in with a book”, or “I’m an active sporty person”. That’s great, but it doesn’t really affect me.
Pictures. A picture of you in a room wanted advert is a hard thing to do well. I’ve seen people in outdoors, obviously being all healthy, pictures of you in a club, gurning, taken on a phone and possibly with friends (actually those are the ones I mind the least), and my favourite disaster so far, a picture of a would-be flatmate and Ross Kemp. Sorry, but no. He was unsuitable anyway, being male, 39 and with bad spelling, but that just put the icing on the cake.
Lastly, when you do write, proof read! It’s unlikely your enquiry is long (if it is, that’s not good) so just give it a quick look over and get the spellings right. When I was flat hunting, I ended up creating a standard enquiry email with my personal details and when I was available for flat viewings. That way I knew it was already fine, and then I would add in any specific information or questions I felt relevant, in particular stating I was willing to pay council tax if the flat was currently occupied otherwise by students.
And now for a quick P.S on this: the Ross Kemp guy has just sent me a very rude reply to my refusal. I didn’t get a good impression of you before. What the hell do you think that’s going to achieve?
When viewing the flat: take your time. Have a look round the RELEVANT rooms (i.e. the room advertised for you, and shared areas but not anyone else’s bedrooms.) Speak to the host, who should ideally be the person(s) you will live with. Ask questions about anything you are not sure of, such as who owns the flat, is it a private landlord or letting agency? Also try and see if you can have a more random chat with the host about something not directly related to the flat building. I know this is strange advice, but it’s probably the easiest way to figure out if you’ll get on with them. This can be what they do for work or study, whether you maybe have friends or a situation in common.
Be fairly honest about what impression you have and how interested you are. Don’t say to them you hate the place, no way I’m going to live here, even if that’s what you’re thinking. If that’s you’re thinking, just say “thank you for showing me round, I’ll let you know” (and when you are likely to let them know).
After doing all your flat viewings, weigh up your options. There should hopefully be ones you like, ones you really don’t and middling ones that might do. Realise that generally it’s time sensitive, you need to be the first one in the door if you want somewhere. Get in touch with every viewing you did so they know where they stand (if they don’t get in touch with you first). To those you don’t want, just text or email saying you won’t be taking it, and that you hope they find someone soon. To those you want, express how keen you are by stating you can get the deposit and rent together as soon as needed. Then wait. If you haven’t heard anything in a day, try again, preferably by another method of communication in case the first didn’t work for some reason (if you texted first time, then email, or vice versa). If they politely refuse or say someone else has taken the room, then reply thanking them for their time and move on to the next option. If they say yes, then well done, and you can start discussing procedures to secure the room.
If you are advertising a room:
Be detailed about certain things. I’ve seen random things put in adverts such as detail about the sofa, such as it sits 3 people. I don’t really need to know that. Pertinent details include: what the actual room you’re getting is like, and picture if possible (unfortunately I’ve failed to produce a picture yet, as I can’t til I move in). Details about shared areas such as the kitchen, lounge and bathroom. I personally would like to know how modern the fittings are, what the shower situation is and an impression of the size of the place. Who currently occupies the flat, as in ages, occupations (including if it’s 9-5 or shift work) and possibly where you are from? Is the room available full time, or Mon-Fri only? Are bills included in the rent? If not, how much are bills roughly, and what is it comprised of? What council tax band are you? (Students don’t tend to know this for obvious reasons.) Is there internet? What kind of flatmate you would like: Whether you’re expecting to socialise a lot with your flatmates, or whether you’ll stay in your room, do they have to be a certain sex, age, occupation and how flexible are you about this? I’ve seen adverts where people say they are happy to have almost anybody, but in reality they’re not, so be honest from the start.
Write it in proper English as much as possible. Text speak is definitely a no-no. Try to be friendly in tone, but still business like in terms of details. Don’t be brusque. One advert I saw had in capital letters (the rest was normal) something along the lines of DON’T BE OFFENDED IF I DON’T REPLY QUICKLY, I’M A VERY BUSY PERSON. Not a great impression. I understand why she wrote that, but still, you do want people to live with you.
When people reply to your advert, be polite and let them know when you’re doing viewings. Actually that’s a point, only advertise if you know when you can do viewings, and that it is in the next week ideally. Otherwise you’ll probably lose people’s interest. Try and space the viewings out and have one person or couple at a time. It can intimidating otherwise, for both you and the viewer.
Tidy the flat for viewings. Obvious maybe, but still. When someone arrives, shake their hand, give good eye contact and ask how they are and if they found it ok.
When showing someone round the flat, don’t rush them round. Make sure they’ve happily seen each room before moving on to the next place. I for one will be appreciating that it is hard to say much about rooms sometimes. At one point I saw four places in one day, and there really isn’t much variation on “that’s nice” or “it’s a good size” before you start going nuts.
Ask them if they’re happy they’ve seen everything, and whether they have any other questions. Answer questions as honestly as possible. They’ll probably head off after this, so ask them to let you know whether they’ll take it or not, and escort them out the door.
Take a breather, and start again.
I’m doing flat viewings on Tuesday, so I’ll try to bear my rules in mind.
