Move to USA - an update

lostintransition SG

BTW, have you drop by Popular Book shops to get english and taiwanese recipe books?

They got great ideas for making lunch boxes aka Bentos. Asian style.

i've got tonnes of cooking/baking books that i don't even know if i'll be bringing them over this time round.....so have stopped myself from buying anymore stuffs! =) but yes, i do love those taiwanese recipe magazines...they are the only things that i buy when i visit taiwan!

viciouskitty74 SG

Pack them up, send for scanning services.

Same for your photo albums.

If possible, scanned up as much documents that you have, which you are bringing to the states.

Same with your music CDs & favourite DVDs.

jojobeach SG

we've been checking around for rentals and we found this nice ranch style home (3 bedroom) with oil heating. it's $1.2K/month and they will pay the electric bill but we would need to pay the oil bill. we've been told that the oil tank will be full when we move in and we would have to fill it when we leave. coming from the tropics, we are obviously clueless about all this. is this a common rental term? roughly how much will the oil bill come up to per year? how do we fill up the tanks? is oil heating a good option in MA or are there other types of heating that's more efficient and cheaper?

Here's a link you can research on. Home Heating Cost QnA

and another one about oil heating

If they are paying for the electric.. then I recommend using electric space heaters :P

Usage depends very much on how warm you want.. how big the heating area. How well insulated are the walls. And how much winter clothes you want to wear while in your home.

Oil heating prices are tied to crude oil prices. So it will fluctuate like the prices in gas stations.

Types of heating.

Selecting heating fuel. Department of Energy.

Natural gas is a betta option base on my personal preference. but got solar lagi best lor !

Arapahoe SG

Oil heating.....isn't that expansive. Talk about MA your winter last for at least 6 - 8 months.

Just curious for $1.2 a month can you not look for a suburban single house? That might either have Coal heating or Gas with a fire place?

Coal you just have to prevent carbon poisioning.

viciouskitty74 SG

I still cannot live without a bolster.

Will need to go get one tomorrow.

jojobeach SG

Oil heating.....isn't that expansive. Talk about MA your winter last for at least 6 - 8 months.

Just curious for $1.2 a month can you not look for a suburban single house? That might either have Coal heating or Gas with a fire place?

Coal you just have to prevent carbon poisioning.

fireplace is very inefficient way of heating a home lor.

But the location for that ranch home is probably in rural area hor... so every month have to have a oil truck come and top up the tank lah.

Anyway.. all heating methods have it's short comings lah.

Even electric heating also will have problem when they experience rolling blackouts.

It's always best to have a alternative heating .. just in case.

da-vid SG

I haven't been to the US since I was in elementary school, so basically all I can give you is some tips on American language.

Dozen = 12

Also, "drink driving" as it's known here is known as "drunk driving", DUI (driving under the influence), or DWI (driving while intoxicated).

Plus, I'm sure you know that many words have an American spelling. For example: color, favorite, criticize, realize, center, theater, ton, etc.

Also, an "inch" is roughly 2.5 cm. A "foot" is roughly 30 inches. A "yard" is roughly a meter. A "mile" is roughly 1.6 km.

LOL, I don't know if any of that helps.

Another thing: if you want to use your Singapore cell phone in the US, you have to sign up with either AT&T or T-Mobile. Sprint and Verizon use a different technology (CDMA) while AT&T and T-Mo use the same as Singapore (GSM).

lostintransition SG

hey da-vid, thanks for the language and cellphone tips!

so...the weeks have been passing in a flash...all i've been doing is learning to drive, packing, cleaning up my apartments to get ready for selling/renting.

we've also been busy on the internet looking for houses to rent and looking at some cars...

someone has recommended us this car website called http://www.intlauto.com/ has anyone here used it before? we've spoke to them on the phone and the service/prices seem really decent. they can arrange for lease at reasonable cost even without any credit history.

as for housing..we'll probably need to view them in person before deciding but we've shortlisted a few that are available for rental at our budget. is it normal to use one real estate agent to help look for rental? or do people contact various estate agents to check on their direct listings? typically what's the agent commission like? we told a lady that we are looking around and have contacted several agents based on what they've advertised and she told us off saying that she doesn't want to waste her time on us since we are also working with other agents??!! maybe we aren't that familiar with how it works over there...but i thought she was quite rude.

lostintransition SG

I still cannot live without a bolster.

Will need to go get one tomorrow.

i too cannot sleep without a bolster....am so tempted to bring my old saliva-stained bolster over to the US in my suitcase...but husband threatens to divorce me =PPP

jetta SG

hey da-vid, thanks for the language and cellphone tips!

so...the weeks have been passing in a flash...all i've been doing is learning to drive, packing, cleaning up my apartments to get ready for selling/renting.

we've also been busy on the internet looking for houses to rent and looking at some cars...

You can ask an agent to let you look at the rental hot sheet. That's what I did when I moved here.

Typically you should only use one agent. Just because this agent will get paid for his/her efforts.

jetta SG

i too cannot sleep without a bolster....am so tempted to bring my old saliva-stained bolster over to the US in my suitcase...but husband threatens to divorce me =PPP

They sell body pillows here now. They aren't cylindrical though. Think of it as an extended version of a regular pillow.

jojobeach SG

Use a single agent if you are only looking at a limited region. Because they usually go to the same MLS to do their homework.

If the agent you use not up to speed.. or they try to oversell you.. then you change. Most important is that agent gets you exactly what you want.. but you have to be very specific what you need.

Go for the agent who works or live in the area you are looking at. They will be able to provide you detail information about the area for you to make a well informed choice. If the area of your search is much bigger..then it's ok to have multiple agent.

Read this about MLS

jojobeach SG

According to the Better Business Bureau

International Autosource as listed scored A -

Assuming it's the same one... because the address is a bit different.

100 vs 175 crossway park.

So if they are same company.. then it should be rather dependable.

However.. please read all the terms and conditions before you sign on the dotted line.

If the price is too good to be true.. there's always a catch.

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