Finding a Home

A home is very important. I used to think the commute was important, but the priority is the home itself. You need to have peace of mind at home. It should be your base, a place where you know that no matter what difficulties you faced outside, you can breathe a sigh of relief once you arrive. A noisy neighbor is a source of torment.

The neighborhood is also important to me because, in my opinion, if your neighbor suffers, you cannot enjoy the money you have earned. This means you are paying not only for the house but also for your neighborhood.

Even simple things like ordering food were important to me. For example, if you are on the 4th floor without an elevator, the courier who brings the food must either bring it up, or you have to go down, which is a pain in either case.

Finding a house is not like finding ordinary commodities where 1,000 or more of the same thing are produced, allowing you to compare them easily.

A house is like an NFT; there is usually only one of each with its own unique characteristics. If you find something that has 80 percent of the features you want, it is fantastic.

At first, I thought you could go on Divar, enter the specifications you want to reach your desired house, bookmark the ones you like, sit down to compare them, and finally get an appointment for the best one.

But this approach was completely wrong because the houses you bookmarked would disappear. Why? Because good houses don’t stay on the market long enough for you to examine them this way. A good house is gone in a day or two.

First of all, you need to see in which neighborhood you can afford a house. For example, your budget might not be enough for Saadat Abad, so you shouldn’t waste your time there. If you decide to get a house and the neighborhood is determined—for example, you want to get one in Poonak—you have to go and see all the neighborhoods inside it: North Poonak, South Poonak, Sardar Jangal, Hamila, Blvd Adl, Bagh Feiz, etc. In short, you need to understand where you like.

There are a number of parameters to consider for buying or renting a house. For example, if you are a student or want to use public transport, you should check how the access is. Is it close to a taxi station, metro, or BRT?

The layout of the house was important to me. Everything should be in its place. If there are two of us, it should be two bedrooms. The bathroom and toilet should be separate, accessible from the living room, and not located inside the bedrooms. The rooms should be balanced; one shouldn’t have a much better view than the other.

Lighting was also very important to me. The view was also important, but it’s a very luxurious thing. I wanted to see greenery, and I succeeded to some extent, but as I said, it is a very luxurious parameter and mostly a matter of luck.

There are also tips regarding filtering. For example, if you filter by rent and deposit, many options will disappear. Which options? Options that are convertible. For example, if your budget is 200 million deposit and 9 million rent, this is equal to 500 million full deposit or 15 million full rent. When you filter, some items disappear. That’s why you shouldn’t filter by price; you should enter the main feature that is important to you, for example, “two bedrooms,” and then convert the price yourself and even negotiate it with the landlord.

The facilities of the house are also important. Elevators and parking can be important to you; if they are not, you can use them to lower the price of the house.

The year of construction also affects the price. Old houses have old cabinets, sockets, and doors.

The price you see is not the final price. Real estate agents often give a lower price than the owner, and in the meeting, both parties negotiate, and often it becomes more than the price you saw in the advertisement.

They don’t give a house easily to single people. If they do, maybe that house isn’t that good.

When you take delivery of the house, the light is your own responsibility. Other problems that exist upon arrival must be solved by the landlord.

Cleaning the house is also your own responsibility. It is also logical because people might come for visits before you and perhaps after you, so it cannot be cleaned every time.

The first thing you need to get for the house is a refrigerator and a mattress; the rest is solvable.

Originally written in Nov 2, 2023.