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Writer's pictureEka Hassan

The 8 Things That You Will Never Know You Need When Renting A Room

Updated: Apr 17, 2021


A white-sheeted double bed with yellow heart-shaped plushies with the title of the article '8 Things that you never know you need when renting a room'

Moving out of your parents' house is a dream come true. Living on your own, being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want. So, are all your stuff already packed? Boxes after boxes, countless luggage, and the biggest smile on your face.


Don’t get too excited just yet. You’re not quite there yet. Before moving out, you obviously need to make sure you have a place to live.


Finding a place is easy. But finding the perfect place and finding the perfect place for you to live is not.


Not to mention how when you already rent a place and realize you hate it when you start living there. Nobody wants that.

Have you ever done something and wishes if you could redo it over? Yeah, you really don’t want that feeling.


So, in order to avoid that is by making sure you have a list of stuff that needs to be checked out before you agree on a place.


There are several things that most people overlooked and ignored when it comes to moving into one’s new room or house. Some of the stuff that bothers you might be small or even tiny, but if it bothers you, then that when the regret feelings will come to you.

You don’t want it to happen when you are already settled in, and notice how you missed some things that you didn’t know you needed before renting. And these things are usually stuff that we never really thought about until we’re actually there.

Thus, there are 8 things that you will never know you need when renting a room;


1) Free Wi-Fi

We are living in the 21st century where the internet is everything. Nowadays. People preferably use mobile data which they can use basically everywhere.


However, in today's circumstances, we are living with a pandemic; COVID-19. People are advised to stay home.


With all the staying at home, people are now asked to study and work from home. This is why there has been a huge demand for home Wi-Fi ever since the quarantine started.


There is some home Wi-Fi that people can consider such as:


Nonetheless, buying and setting up Wi-Fi at your home takes a lot and a long process. Not to mention the contract that you will be bound onto for at least a year. Signing up for Wi-Fi isn’t as easy-peasy as the commercial said it is.


The hassle of registering for a Wi-Fi plan is usually unexpected. It will need to be in a contract where you will then be bound to it. The contract will then make sure you pay the bills on time or you will be blacklisted.

A woman frustrated with her bills sitting on the kitchen counter while holding a phone with her right hand and holding a bill on the other hand. She also seems to be talking to the phone on her hand.
By Tyshchenko Photography via shutterstock

Bills are another thing you need to worry about. Since you are now living at your own place, the utility bills, your mobile data bills are now your own. So with Wi-Fi bills making onto that list, you will be overwhelmed. Since now that most unlimited Wi-Fi plans costs over RM100.


Thus, when you’re not able to pay the bills, you might be blacklisted. When that happens, you’ll then be in another problem.


All of this can be prevented if only the place you are renting provides you with home Wi-Fi. Better yet, a free Wi-Fi service.


You won’t need to face any of those struggles and you’ll have a worry-free life at the place you are renting.


2) Flexibility In Tenancy Agreement

When you are renting a room, there will usually be a number of rooms that you can choose from to be in. Therefore, sometimes you might have the feeling to switch your room to another one.


The reason could be anything, like the old room might have a bad view from the window or maybe the heat in the room is too much to handle, or your housemates are just intolerable.


Because of these reasons, you might want to change your room, therefore as a tenant, you should have the choice to change rooms whenever you want to.


On the other hand, this is very similar to another situation where you want to move out of the room and live somewhere else. This should not be a problem with your landlord/s.


This is more on the tenants’ choice because some people like to spice things up from time to time. Thus, being able to move out into a new place shouldn't be a big deal and put into a contract. But I guess that is just on preference by the landlord/s.


Another big factor for tenants moving out is the safeness of the place. Some people prefer to live in a very tight security place in a good neighborhood.


Hence, the tenants should have the flexibility to move out or change their rooms when they want to.


3) Cleaning

Living on your own is a whole new step where you need to do most things on your own. Talk about being independent.


So, when you have to manage everything on your own, cleaning is also one of them. You don’t want to live in a house where it is super messy and there’s nowhere for you to sit down.


Did you know that leaving the mess in your place is an early sign of depression?


But how can you take the time to clean up when you work most of the time and the kitchen is usually a mess when you’re in it. Plus, the thought of cleaning the bathroom is such a sore.


So if you have these thoughts, it is better for you to rent a place where there is such a thing as a cleaning service like they have at a hotel.

Utopia Co-Living Instagram post about free daily cleaning services
via Utopia Co-Living Instagram Post

When there are cleaning services at the place you’ll be living in, it will make your life 10x better. For instance, whenever there is garbage in the trash in the kitchen, whenever you forget to throw it out, the cleaning lady will do it for you.


In fact, you don’t even need to do it in the first place!


Thus, if you are the kind of person who dislikes cleaning, staying at a place with a cleaning service will save up a lot of your time and energy, and of course- your boredom.



4) Minimal Deposit

Whenever we are moving into a new place, there will usually be a term and conditions with some agreements between you and your landlord/s.


Those terms usually come with a deposit that you need to pay in order to move in.


Deposits in order words would probably mean, secure money. The landlord/s usually set an amount towards tenants whenever they want to rent their place to ensure that the tenants won’t leave the house suddenly or when they don’t want to be responsible for something they did.


Thus, some landlords put the deposit on a high price, which sometimes costs 2-5 times higher than the actual rent. Which will sometimes annoy the tenants as the deposits need to be paid before they move in.


So, they had to collect a lot of money to move in instead of just a minimal amount before the actual rent.


Hence, a minimal deposit is a must when you want to rent a place. Imagine being scammed by your landlord with a huge amount of money and you can’t do anything about it since you’ve signed a contract with them.


Nonetheless, with minimal deposits, it will help you to be able to move in quicker since it is cheaper.



5) Gender-Specific Room

There is a saying where when the opposite genders are living together, a lot of problems could be caused. You could find a lot of experienced people comments about this matter.


The thing about renting a room is that you don’t really know who your housemates are. Whether they are good people or they could be murderers for all you know. But I’d doubt that since some rental company did a background check on their tenants.


However, there are also issues about living with different genders in a household. This is supposedly a big issue within the Muslim region.


Muslims are advised to live with the same gender when they are living under the same roof as slander can be caused if males and females are living together.


Therefore, it might be a problem if the room you’ll be renting does not have a gender-specific house.


On the other hand, some people, not just Muslims, really do prefer to live in the same gender house since some guys are tough to live with.


However, there is also an issue where Muslim women prefer to live with Muslim women. This has become an issue because there are some opinions that stated women can’t show their aurah towards non-Muslim women even though they are the same gender.


Hence, a Muslimah-only house is a must especially in Malaysia since the majority of the population are Muslims and women.



6) Flexibility To Switch To Room

As humans, our interest changes from time to time. This is why if you are renting a room, supposedly, it needs to have the option where tenants can switch rooms from time to time.


This could be caused by many reasons, some of them being a budget constraint. At first, you might think that you could afford an RM900 room with your RM2000+ salary. However, that could easily change if you are unable to manage your money wisely.

Rooms from Utopia Co-Living. One is a room with a double decker beds where it could place 2 people meanwhile the other one is a master bedroom with a queen bed with a desk what seems to be put close to the winder to get some sun.

Which it could be helped if you are able to switch to a cheaper room which costs less. By then you won’t need to worry about your budget.


Moreover, in other situations, you might want to bring over a friend to live together with you. In this case, you would want to change to a bigger room to ensure both you and your friend are comfortable in the room.


Bigger rooms might cost more but this time you have a friend to share it with which will help you with the rent.


Some landlord/s do not give the option for tenants to switch their rooms and it might be trivial for them. And sometimes when they do, it will cost the tenants a lot of money as if they are new tenants although they have been renting there for a long time.


Therefore, the free will to switch rooms should be an option for tenants to have. This will make their lives so much easier rather than they have to look for other rooms.



7) Reliable Repair Support

When you are renting a place, you will expect everything to be handled by yourself. Since the place could now be called your own now, every fixable thing is considered under your responsibility.


This might be a problem for some people as some things cost a lot of money to be fixed, for instance, air-conditioner, toilet leaking and many more.


Having those facilities is nice, but the repair is uncanny. The thought of having to fix them might cause you a migraine.


This is why it is better to rent a place where they provide repair support where you don’t have to call any plumber or maintenance since the place you’ll be living at will provide it for you.

On the other hand, having the repair service being free is an extra bonus. Although it might cost you a bit on your monthly rent, it is actually on the bright side for you.


Especially when you spent most of your days at work. You could just get back from work and the leaking toilet earlier that morning is now fixed thanks to the repair service by your landlord/s.


8) Quality of Housemates

The thing about renting a house or a room, you’ll live with other people, well, unless you’re able to pay your monthly house rent on your own, you need to share your place.


So in this matter, you’ll have housemates, or even scarier, roommates. Although it might sound fun having friends and you live together, it might not be the same as living with strangers.


Living with strangers can cause multiple dilemmas if you’re not ‘vibing’ with them. This is why the quality of housemates is important to ensure you’ll be living in a good household.


3 over 5 people usually have conflicts with their housemates. This can be caused by many reasons, which some are, cleanliness, safety, noises or even some simple misunderstanding.


When living with housemates, you need to be on the same page most of the time as you’ll be spending a lot of time together.


Thus, the quality of housemates, whether they are your friends or strangers, needs to be top-notch.



Conclusion

Make sure you ask your landlord/s about these concerns before signing any agreement. Ask them to make sure the pricing of the room or house is close to what they have to offer.


Thus, these 8 things are really important to make sure you’re leaning in the right direction to have a good place to rent and enjoy it to the fullest. You can always checkout Utopia Website for a room rental in Kuala Lumpur.


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