13 June 2006
The house hunt begins!
I thought it was about time to write a little bit about the looming house hunt. On Sunday, I took a ride on the tube out to where most of the expats from Houston have lived throughout the years, up to Harrow. It was a nice area and had everything shopping wise that I would need, as well as a tube stop and close to work. However, when I was there, I decided that the area didn't feel like London....it wasn't appealing enough for me. So, I decided to expand my search.
I asked the question around the office "If you cold live anywhere in London, where would you live?" and the consensus seemed to be a quaint area just south of the office called Chiswick. So yesterday after work, my coworker from Houston and I tubed down there to check it out. And we were not let down for sure! I loved the area! It had tons of trees, a beautiful park right out of the tube stop, and a great High St (every area in London has a High St) with tons of great shopping!
After chatting with the HR guy this morning, I got the low down on how renting a place in the UK works. It isn't like home where you can pick an agent and see all available properties. You can only see the properties that are listed by that particular agent. Basically it just means you have to make appointments with several people in order to get a handle on what is all available in the area. Right away I picked the three agents that had the most available from what I saw online and emailed them with my requirements (price, location, furnished). Right away I got responses from 2 out of 3 and have appointments set up with both tomorrow already! I figure why wait...I would like to get out of the hotel soon...but I also want to see as much as I can and choose wisely.
So my search begins. It should be exciting....I really do like looking at real estate. This time will be different though because they will be furnished, so not only do I need to like the place, but also the furniture...wish me luck!
I asked the question around the office "If you cold live anywhere in London, where would you live?" and the consensus seemed to be a quaint area just south of the office called Chiswick. So yesterday after work, my coworker from Houston and I tubed down there to check it out. And we were not let down for sure! I loved the area! It had tons of trees, a beautiful park right out of the tube stop, and a great High St (every area in London has a High St) with tons of great shopping!
After chatting with the HR guy this morning, I got the low down on how renting a place in the UK works. It isn't like home where you can pick an agent and see all available properties. You can only see the properties that are listed by that particular agent. Basically it just means you have to make appointments with several people in order to get a handle on what is all available in the area. Right away I picked the three agents that had the most available from what I saw online and emailed them with my requirements (price, location, furnished). Right away I got responses from 2 out of 3 and have appointments set up with both tomorrow already! I figure why wait...I would like to get out of the hotel soon...but I also want to see as much as I can and choose wisely.
So my search begins. It should be exciting....I really do like looking at real estate. This time will be different though because they will be furnished, so not only do I need to like the place, but also the furniture...wish me luck!
# posted by heather @ 9:05 AM 
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woohoo!!! sounds exciting.. good luck on your search... and good on you for trying to find a place that will be more "culturally enriching"
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