Renting in Muscat

Right so it's been a long time since I've posted anything because as always I'm super busy. Last month was all about moving out and this month was all about moving in.

So I guess I'll start from the beginning which was last December. Cush and I had had enough after 4 years of our apartments general decay, things leaking (I never thought water would be so plentiful in the desert, for real), things breaking and our landlords general asshole-ishness and decided to say that we wanted to move out in 4 months and could we have proof of cancelled rent check for the last 6 months of our contract, or cash or whatever.

We knew our landlord wanted to raise the rent to 850 OR/month so we didn't see what he had to lose with us going.

And he said we could go so Cush and I started contacting agents and viewing properties.

I'll make a list of agencies and websites at the bottom of this post.

There are some real strange houses out there, and some real strange agents.

One experience with an agent that really stands out is when we met an agent from Taif Realty who took us to 4 properties, 3 of which had already been rented out and there was no point in going to see them. She was a real piece of work. I was following her in my car and she put her left indicater on and turned right, swerved all over the road while talking on her phone and she was 3 hours late to our appointment but called every hour to let me know that she would be even later, so I guess at least she was courteous.

We also met with 2 other agents, both were excellent but we didn't find anything that we wanted.

There really are a lot of strangely built homes in Muscat and oddly decorated too. I've seen kitchens without room or a plug for a fridge, guest toilets with a sink, then another sink when you come out of the toilet and then yet another sink outside backing onto the washroom. I've seen houses with stained glass windows with the characters of rabbits and mushrooms. Kitchens with tiled floors, then with the same tile on the walls and again on the cupboards with ox blood coloured cupboard fronts and ceiling. I've seen opulent and plain, and even one with an elevator in a single family home.

The whole process was indeed facinating.

A month or so went by and Cush pressed the landlord for some sort of proof that we were going to get our second rent payment back, afterall it was in his best interest to let us go. He could then raise the rent to whatever he wanted.

Instead of that our landlord then told us we could only get our money back if WE found new tennants. Well, I wouldn't wish that apartment on anyone, and as we finally moved out things got much worse. Another post for another day I suppose.

So flash forward to August and we started looking again. We contacted the agents we had used before and set up some viewings. I also contacted some new agents that I hadn't been in touch with before, but I left out Taif because even though they look like they have good listings, I wasn't about to waste another day driving around to other peoples houses and being given the run around and neither should you! (if you're reading this looking for advice that is)

The agents I contacted were Engel and Volkers, Savills, Better Homes, Cluttons,and Gulf Property World.

I went into the search that even while I had preferred one agent from the last time, because she was both professional and personable and Cush knows the guy who I think runs the office (but I'm not really sure what his job is) that there can only be one winner and I treated it as a contest...in my head, I didn't tell anyone else about this theory.

Here's how it went (click the company name to get to their website):

Cluttons: I filled out a few property inquiry forms from the website and was never contacted. How disappointing.

Savills: I went with an agent to see a property but it just wasn't the right one for us. The agent said she would then call me back later in the day but I never heard from her again.

Better Homes: I filled out a few property inquiries online and was emailed back and asked to provide more details, I was then told an agent would contact me but no one ever did.

Hampton's: This was actually a really good one. I had seen a few properties back in February with a really nice lady, who as it happened doesn't work there anymore but I met with another nice lady who took me to a house which was already leased (this seems to be common) but she called me often to see how the search was going and to let me know that she was still looking for me.

Gulf Property World: These guys got off to a really rocky start with me. I first set up an appointment to see a house with a man who left me waiting and eventually never actually showed up at all because he forgot about our appointment even though we had made it the previous afternon. I was pissed. We were then passed along to 2 more experienced agents who took us to a house but didn't have the key and then couldn't get a hold of the landlord so we couldn't see it. But then they took us to one of the most beautiful houses that I've seen and it came in under our budget. It had a beautiful tiled yard, huge kitchen, gigantic beautiful built in wardrobes and a jacuzzi tub in the master ensuite. It looked like The Chedi as a house. We decided to take it if the landlord could wait a month. He said yes and Cush and I told all our friends about it. Then we decided to go back at night and see what the neighbourhood was like and as we pulled into the driveway which was a bit of a slope we heard Cush's car ground out on the slope. Yes he has a sports car but it's not lowered or anything different from any other car. We thought if his car ground out mine would too and that would leave only the 4x4 to be parked in the drive way and that's no good. We thought about ways to work around it but then the landlord said he didn't want to wait a month so we nixed it.

Engel and Volkers: This was the winner! Our agent Alexandra was amazing. I can't say enough good things about her. She showed us lot of houses both in the first round and in the second, some of which were just not right for us and finally found us our home. She was very active in calling us to see houses, emailing and texting to confirm viewings which is awesome, especially with the experiences that we had thoughout this process. Even after we moved in and had a few outstanding items of work from our landlord she totally went to bat for us with him.

There are of course lots more agents out there and different ways to find places lo live. You can drive around looking for for rent or to let signs on houses in neighbourhoods that you like, check notice boards in grocery stores, classified in newspapers, ask your friends and then there's also the Facebook group Muscat-Property.

I guess that's Part 1 in the moving saga, stay tunned for Part 2, yes there is more.