It’s been a minute. Or two.

Looking for a place

We finally made the move. To say that it was easy would be a lie, but we’ve been through harder times, as you all know. We learned a lot moving in Penang, a lot of differences compared to the U.S. We started looking for housing like any one would, on the internet. There are a few websites that people will use to house hunt, iproperty.com, mudah.com, propertyguru.com, and Facebook marketplace are some of the popular ones. We had a general idea of areas we were okay with living in and areas we weren’t too keen on. We also had a “check list” of things we were looking for in the place we wanted to rent.

The “Check List”

A good (I use this word loosely compared to our last one) landlord
Accepts dogs and has enough space
“Walkable” – has walking paths, walking distance to restaurants and grocery
The same distance if not closer to work for Scott
2 bedroom and an office or 3 bedrooms.

It seems like a simple list but it’s a stressful one. I think I speak for most when I say, “I hate moving.” When it came to searching for properties it seemed like we could’ve had anything we wanted. There were so many properties that checked all the boxes. I thought this was going to be easy. We would send an email, make a phone call or send a text to the listing agent and we would get a dreadful answer of, “It’s not available.” The listings were click bait used by agents to try and get clients. After so many tries, Scott and I decided to work with an agent that was recommend to us. This is where the class “renting in Penang 101” starts.

The Lesson

For anyone that decides to rent in Penang and decides to use an agent, negotiate a finders fee before you sign a lease agreement! The agent may tell you there is a commission payable by the renter for a rental property – not something we have ever seen in the US. The commission scheme is 1 month’s rent for each year of the lease term. For example: If you sign a 3 year lease at RM10,000/month rent, they will ask for RM30,000 in commission. I’ll let you do the hourly rate math yourself for showing an apartment for rent. We also found out, the landlord pays a commission, so two agents may be getting paid this amount for less than a days work depending on what you see – or the same agent may be trying to get paid twice.

The day after we met with our agent she had a house to show us, we felt excited at the time because we were ready to be out of our current situation. We viewed the house, it wasn’t a bad place but the overall experience felt very rushed. The listing agent was there and would say things like “I have three more showings,” and “Would you be able to sign the lease tomorrow?” After viewing the place we weren’t that impressed with it, but before we could tell our agent, we had a message from her asking us, “would you like a 2 or 3 year lease?” Now, wait just a minute, let’s all take a breath.

The day after telling her we didn’t want the place she told us someone had leased it out – good for them. We have our suspicions because we saw it listed online and drove past it a month later and it was still empty.

I found the condo we ended up choosing online. I asked our agent to call and schedule an appointment for viewing. It was only the second house we saw. She scheduled another viewing in the same building, so it was nice to compare the two. The unit is in a high rise on the 21st floor. We were nervous about our dog but the balcony is very large. What was very nice about the unit is that we met with the previous tenants and the owner. The owner couldn’t have been any nicer – a nice change! He was accepting of our dog and he was open to some negotiations we had with the unit and the lease. The condo checked all the boxes for us.

Now for the lease agreement. Our agent was a nice person but she was definitely looking out for herself when it came to our lease terms. We were willing to sign a 3 year agreement but she also wanted us to commit to another 3 years. That meant she would be paid again in 3 years on a second lease agreement. She did a little negotiating with our landlord but wouldn’t entertain everything Scott wanted to negotiate, so there came a point when Scott decided to cut the middle man out and go direct. As a reminder this isn’t a long term investment for us, we aren’t buying property.

We had a wardrobe put in, the pool was fixed, he let us put turf down for Kova, and there’s some other small print negotiated in the lease that we are happy about. For full transparency, Scott negotiated our lease to RM11,500 a month for 3 years. Negotiations were done and lawyers had the paperwork typed up. Within the paperwork the landlord commission showed up on the paperwork, but the tenant commission did not. Our agent was still asking us for her RM34,500 or ~$8,200 for a rental commission when the landlord was already paying commission. When we asked about such a large commission with no paperwork, we were told, “That’s just how it works in Penang. KL is different, but that’s how it is here.”No paperwork, no payment from us! I know this is starting to sound like a Soprano’s episode, but I promise it didn’t get that bad. We will just say that my husband didn’t get ripped off and nobody got fed to the fishes.

The take away

For some people, using an agent might be an easier route to find a place and there is nothing wrong with that. Just make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into when it comes to payment. Agents like to over charge. The locals call it “white tax” for expats. If you look hard enough you will find some duplexes and bungalows that are “direct owner” only which means they don’t use an agent for finding them tenants. If you want to stay in an apartment or condo, call the management office directly and ask them if they know of any units for rent. More times than not the management office will have a list of units that are occupied, leased out, and waiting to be leased. The office will be able to put you in direct contact with the owners of the units.

You live and you learn. At the end of it all, we are happy (so far) with where we are at. Kova has adjusted to condo life and has become a little princess of her balcony.

Here are a couple exterior pictures of the condo building. I’ll update everyone in the next post!

Sending love from Penang

Scott, Ryan & Kova