Cheap living

Earlier this year, just as the housing boom in the US was beginning to bust (and during a lesser boom here), we bought our apartment. Apartments are very popular in Asia, especially in countries with crowded cities and most land given over to farming, like the one I live in.

Buying the apartment was pretty bizarre. There was no escrow, no inspection, no assessment, no banks, no insurance, no nothing! It was like buying something at a yard sale. We looked at it on a Saturday, decided we wanted it, paid a $5000 deposit to what passes for a realtor here the next day, and on Monday showed up with the entire balance in cash at the realtor's office. The current owner showed up with the keys. The realtor served green tea, and everyone got to work counting money on a little table, with the realtor's kids running around in the office. Eventually the owner scooped up the entire sum, the equivalent of about $145,000 in US dollars, put it into a brown paper bag and handed us the keys. We all signed one sheet of paper, in triplicate (us, her, and the realtor) and that was it. Then we finished the tea. It was still hot.

A few days later, she moved out and a few days after that, we moved in. We took our copy of the paper we signed to the tax office responsible for our new area, paid about $3k in one-time taxes, and we have been living here ever since. Property taxes are about $150 per year. All other expenses, including heat, electricity, gas, water, and 'management' fee are no more than $140 a month - usually less.