I am currently in the process of looking for a piece of property (to buy-to own). Exciting, yes? Scary, yes. But it has been a long time coming, with scrimping and saving and renting. Owning my own home has always been a dream of mine, and I never wanted a man to buy it for me, (i.e. my husband---he can buy me my dream furniture if he wants to}. So finally comes the time, when I am secure enough to be able to, so we begin the search process.
I'll give you a few examples.
There was a duplex/split villa for sale in Mubaila. Agent takes forever to meet us (I am saying, over an hour). I didn't want to wait. I think that is rude, since he knew we were coming and at what time, but my husband waits. Agent arrives. Agent doesn't seem to know where the house is either. He drives us around for forty minutes, and at every house with a for sale sign stops to check if it might be the one we'd asked to see. Loser. Finally, he calls an Indian man who built the house to show us all where it is. Two hours gone from my life I can never get back, just driving around Mabaila.
We thought a property scout agent would be better for us, you know, since their comission for the sale comes from us, not the owner. This was a villa for sale in a farther away from Muscat end of Mabaila. HE DIDN'T SHOW UP AT ALL! But described it to us, in a way that begins with, it is just behind pizza hut, and doesn't add "then driver forever and a day on a road out to nowhere," "take a turn on a dirt road". You will see the house. But you can't drive TO the house yet, because it is built in a wadi. Um yeah. I refused to get out of the car. "is the house still on water tank or does it have government water?" My husband asks. The house would need a 4x4 water truck to get to it. Of course, it doesn't have water! 'Screw property scouts,' I thought.
Back in Muscat, we saw two beautiful, stunning flats. We agreed to take them both with the agent. We take time out of our busy schedules to go and draw the papers up, and guess what? The flats that were shown to us for the price we were told, are actually not for sale, but are the same design as the flats that are for sale, only difference being, they had penthouse situated views of the ocean on all sides, and the flats were almost tricked into buying?: walls. As the old real estate adage goes, location, location, location, locations. Wadis, water trucks, and walls will never spell out home for me.
What about for-sale-by-owner?: there was an older home in Muscat, one storey. The owner agreed to a quick cash sale. But, wouldn't give my husband the plans for the property. Why, because the house is not built to support an added-on-second story as it was pitched. So it is worth a good 20, 000 OMR less. No sale for us, we're not stupid!
So annoyed right now!
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