I've recently been looking for a home in Tuol Kork.

I followed Kid Khmer’s good advice, & used the services of Art the Homefinder. (He has a website if you need him.)

Art quickly found me a nice $270 apartment in Tuol Kork, which he helped me negotiate down to $250:

Two levels, 3 bedrooms (one with aircon), 3 bathrooms, a little furniture, kitchen (sink only), a balcony out front, clean & modern, very quiet street, and very pleasant landlords downstairs. I told them I would be bringing a girlfriend home from time to time, & would install 1-3 poor Khmer friends in the spare rooms: they had no problems.

The owners wanted 2 or 3 months deposit, but I said there would only be one – take it or leave it.

They took it. This is emerging as the norm. (Art agrees.) My last two landlords:

# 12, Street 312
# 48, Street 172

tried to pocket my deposit, so I wouldn’t do it any other way now.

The owners also agreed to put curtains on the north-eastern windows to screen out the rather hot morning sun (which they have now done).

Art translated all this competently. He conducted the business side with apparent transparency. For example he told all parties in front of each other how much commission he was getting from the landlord ($150); also present was the policeman who had found the apartment for him – his TK ‘spotter’ – who will get a cut of $40 from the $150. Art also drew up the contract.

Art talks quite a lot (mainly about how little money he is making out of the deal), and (like many Khmers when doing business) is a bit of a gun-jumper. I told him I was working till 11am on Saturday, and would ring him thereafter to arrange a lunchtime meeting with the owners. He texted me well before 11 to say he was at the house waiting for me! (I told him I was not coming till I was ready.) In dealing with him, I’d advise not being rushed into anything - & making appointment times very clear.

Art only told me one lie during the course of the deal. The first time we inspected the flat I noted a lot of noise coming from the school immediately behind – sounded like scores of desks and chairs being dragged along the hard floors. I asked what it was & he said it was the cleaners moving the furniture around to clean – which was true – and that it only happened one time a week. He could not possibly have known this, and of course it turned out to be untrue: it actually happens twice a day.

There seems to be a lying reflex in Asia: everyone does it, especially in business, and thus everyone expects it and adjusts for it. However Khmer businesspeople do need to learn that lying is a pretty bad thing in barang culture, & that we lose a lot of trust in people who do it (barang or Khmer).

Art fell down on the transparency side once too. I had asked that the contract specify that the deposit count as the final month’s rent. (I.e. that when I give my month’s notice, there be no more rent to pay. I’ve had this arrangement in all my previous flats.) On contract-signing day, when I was presented with the contract, this clause had been omitted. The owners didn’t want it. Fair enough, but I should have been told & my agreement sought first. You shouldn’t spring contractual changes on people at the last minute.

Neither of the above problems were deal-breakers, however, & were pretty minor in the overall scheme of things.

Overall, Art was not only apparently honest but very helpful. After all, his key task was accomplished quickly: in several days of walking around TK I had not found an apartment I liked. He found me one on day one.

BTW, after disastrous construction noise problems at Olympic & now Street 172, I got wise this time & paid the owners $150 (to be taken from the rent) to let me stay two nights in the flat with just a mattress and a toothbrush – BEFORE signing the contract. This was so I could ensure that there were no metal fabricating workshops (or discos or whatever) hidden nearby. If I’d been awoken on Morning One by metal cutters or sledgehammers, I would have been out of there - $150 lighter, but at least not committed to 12 months of noise-hell. There was no hidden noise around, so I signed the contract on Day 3 & moved in.

This tactic results from moving into my Street 172 apartment (to escape the awful noise at my Olympic apartment), only to have ‘renovations’ to the apartments next door AND above me begin immediately. (Sledgehammers from 6 or 7 am till sundown, 7 days a week including all public holidays, for several months.) As I discovered at 172, owners will not tell you the truth about such things, so it’s caveat emptor.

After trying it, I think the ‘trial sleepover’ works pretty well. I’ll be insisting on it for any future apartments.

A final plus for Art is that he is networked with other very useful people. For example the Tuol Kork policeman is now only a phone call away if ever I have any trouble; and the removalists Art knows were cheap, friendly and excellent at their job. ($50 for a houseload from Riverside to TK, total six flights of stairs. I ended up giving them $15 in tips, tho this wouldn’t be strictly necessary.) The man with the truck is Mr Min Mian (he’s in BKK): 012 987 829. His English is not good, so if you can’t get onto the younger brother with good English, call Art to arrange date, time, price, etc.

Thanks again to Kid Khmer for the lead on Art.

John