The past few days leading up to our departure date have been eventful. Attending the wake, having a family staycation, meeting up with friends, packing, more packing, scrambling to find a new tenant, eating too well.
To be doing all of that plus make it in time for the move became a near impossible task. I say near impossible because it would have been possible if we just went at it non-stop for four or five days straight. Easy stuff.
Since we didn't want to take the easy way out doing that, we decided to push our flight back by exactly a week which gives us a lot of breathing room to get across the finish line comfortably rather than crawling , bleeding and begging for it to end.
Time Extension! ~ Daytona Commentator
It was definitely a risky call since my PR expires on May 26 and an expensive one at the same time but I'm glad a more rational decision prevailed. Even if the flight gets postponed, we still have 11 full days to turn it around before we're locked out. That's plenty (I hope this doesn't become famous last words). And even if the postponement was pricey, our first paycheck in Sydney would easily cover both the postponement costs.
So far the pay off for having this additional time is well worth it. We've screened and secured a new tenant (Story below), packed more of our house and luggages, scheduled in time with family and friends, and we're breathing and sleeping a lot better without that pressure we used to have.
Side track to tenant story:
So we initially held viewings for three people who could meet our very high rental ask. There was a clear winner out of the three - A single guy from New Zealand who works for a global tech company. The thing that sold it for me was when he said was that he had no friends here since he just moved from New Zealand. No friends = no parties.
We brought him in for a second viewing, had lunch with him, got to know him a little better. He even teared up when Sarah was telling him about a child's wish. Like is this guy for real?
After that, he helped write a reference letter recommending me to the HR team for one of the jobs I was applying for from his global tech company account which was really nice of him.
A few days later we received a hand delivered book in our mailbox which turned out to be a Sydney guide book and a card from him wishing us all the best over there.
Like everything checked out. He seemed like a genuine, kind hearted, no friend tenant. So we said yes to having him rent our place.
The property agents got in touch, spoke to him a couple of times, he sent across the necessary documents for rental like his employment pass and passport. And then nothing.
He completely ghosted us.
No reply to emails. No reply to messages. No apology. No answer on his phone. And this was 14-days before we were scheduled to leave.
To find a new tenant, hold at least two viewings, sign contracts, and not ghost us on top of everything we had to do was just crazy timelines.
Anyway, thank God we managed to get that tenant stuff sorted out. And no, we didn't send a nasty note to the ghoster. Maybe we will in quarantine when we have time to hurt his feelings. But not cool man. Not cool at all.
Back to the post:
The additional time will eventually go by and we'll be right back on T-Minus 1 day which will be scary but I think we will both be as prepared as we can both mentally and luggage wise when the time comes.
Seven additional days isn't much but there's a lot we're doing within those seven days. And in the meantime, let's hope Singapore or Sydney doesn't go into lock down.
Comments