Ask anyone who has looked for a place recently what the hard part was and they rarely say "choosing". They say the travel: four trips across town, two units already taken, one address that turned out not to exist, and a day gone.
House-hunting is a logistics problem wearing a property costume. Treat it as one.
Shortlist before you move, not while you move
Pick five or six places and do all the desk work first. For each one, get: the exact estate and road, a phone number that answers, the rent and what it includes, and the question almost nobody asks, when it was last confirmed available.
That last question kills half a shortlist before you leave the house, and it costs you a text message each.
Cluster by geography, not by preference
Order the day by where the places are, not by how much you like them. Four viewings in one neighbourhood beats two in neighbourhoods forty minutes apart, even if the two were your favourites, because you will see all four, and you will see them in a state to compare.
Book the whole trip, not each leg
If you are moving by boda, agree the full route and the total price before you set off. Doing it stop by stop means renegotiating at every address, usually while standing somewhere unfamiliar with your bags, in a position where you have very little leverage.
A rider who does viewing runs regularly will be able to look at your list, tell you the order that makes sense, and quote the morning. That conversation is worth having the night before.
However you arrange it, the rule is the same: agree the route and the total up front, and share your live location with someone for the duration.
Take the same notes at every place
By the fourth viewing everything blends. Before you go, write down five things you will record at each one, and record them all, even at the places you dislike:
- Water: is there a tank, and when does the supply actually run?
- Power: which meter, whose name, and any arrears attached to it?
- What the rent includes, and what is billed on top.
- Deposit required, and what would take it back off you.
- Two photographs: one of the main room, one of the block from outside.
Consistent notes make a comparison possible. Impressions make a memory contest.
Confirm availability the morning of
One message, sent to all six the same morning: "Is this still available today?" The replies, and the silences, will reorder your day better than any amount of planning the night before.
What to sort out before money moves
Nothing needs paying on the day. After you have chosen, and before anything changes hands: get the agreement in writing, confirm the account the money is going to belongs to the named landlord or agency, and get a receipt that says what the payment was for: rent, deposit, or both, split out. A receipt that says only "payment received" is the beginning of a problem, not the end of one.
A realistic Saturday
Five viewings in a morning is achievable in one neighbourhood and fantasy across three. What the day actually costs, before you plan it:
- Twenty to thirty minutes inside each unit if you are looking properly: taps run, sockets checked, questions asked, notes written.
- Fifteen to forty minutes between stops in Nairobi, depending on the pairing and the traffic, and more if it rains.
- Waiting. The caretaker has the keys and is at the shop. Budget fifteen minutes per stop for this, because it happens at roughly half of them.
So a viewing is closer to an hour of your day than to twenty minutes. Four in a morning is a good day. Six is a day where you stop comparing properly somewhere around the fourth.
Two scheduling decisions matter more than the rest. Start early, because mid-morning traffic is lighter, the block is occupied, and the caretaker is findable. And leave the last slot empty rather than filling it: the viewing you want to repeat is almost always one from earlier the same day, and going back at a different hour tells you more than a fifth address will.
Before you leave the house
- Confirm every appointment that morning, one message to each: is this still available today, and is the time confirmed? Silences reorder the day better than any planning.
- Get exact locations, not "past the mall". Estate, road, block, unit, and a landmark. Drop each into a map and check they are where you were told.
- Fix the route in geographic order and share it with someone, along with the numbers you were given.
- Agree transport for the whole morning, with a total price, rather than negotiating at each stop while standing somewhere unfamiliar.
- Charge the phone, carry a power bank, and have your own way home that does not depend on anyone you are meeting.
- Take a tape measure if you own furniture you intend to keep.
- Have your questions written down. After the third unit you will not remember which ones you meant to ask.
Keeping the units straight
The comparison fails not because of poor memory but because of unlabelled photographs. Three habits fix it:
Photograph a written label first. Before the first picture at each unit, photograph a note with the estate and unit number. Every image after it is now identified, and your gallery sorts itself.
Fill in the five headings before you leave the compound: water, power, building, money, terms. Standing at the gate, not that evening. The full list of what to ask under each is in questions to ask at a viewing.
Score it immediately, out of five, plus one line on what bothered you. The score you give standing outside the block is more honest than the one you construct at home, and the thing that bothered you at the gate is the thing that will still bother you in month four.
Working with a rider for a viewing day
A morning of house-hunting on a boda is a tour, not a series of fares, and it works far better when it is arranged as one.
Agree three things the night before: the full route in order, the total price for the morning, and the waiting time included at each stop. Waiting is the part that gets renegotiated at the third address, and agreeing it in advance removes the whole conversation.
Then the ordinary safety habits: share your live location for the duration, keep your bag on you rather than on the bike, agree that you are not going anywhere that was not on the list, and keep enough for your own way home whatever happens. The rest is in how to view a property safely.
After the day
Do the comparison the same evening, while it is still recoverable:
- Lay out the five headings for every unit side by side.
- Strike out anything that failed a hard requirement, such as water supply, budget or commute. Do not keep a unit alive because the finishes were good.
- Rank what remains on total monthly cost, not rent: rent plus service charge plus water plus power plus transport. The cheapest rent frequently loses here, and transport is the line everybody leaves out.
- Pick two, and go back to both at a different time of day.
- Only then ask for the agreement, in writing, to read at home.
And keep the notes on the units you rejected, with the reason. House-hunting in Kenya usually takes more than one Saturday, and the second weekend goes much faster when you can remember which blocks you have already ruled out and why.
Common questions
How many house viewings can I do in a day?
Four in one neighbourhood is a good day once travel and waiting are counted. Beyond that, most people stop comparing properly, which defeats the purpose of seeing more.
How do I plan a viewing route in Nairobi?
Cluster by geography rather than preference, confirm every appointment the same morning, fix the order the night before, and agree transport for the whole trip with a total price rather than stop by stop.
How much does a day of house viewings cost?
It depends on the spread of your shortlist far more than on the number of units, which is the argument for clustering. Agree the morning's total with a rider in advance, including waiting time, so the cost is known before you set off rather than negotiated at the third address.
What should I bring to a house viewing?
A charged phone and a power bank, your written questions, a tape measure, your own way home, and someone who knows your route. Nothing that needs paying, because nothing should be paid on the day.
Should I view houses on a weekday or a Saturday?
Weekday mornings are easier for access and traffic; Saturdays tell you more about the neighbours and the block at rest. If you can manage it, see the shortlist on a weekday and revisit your top two on a Saturday.
What is the most common wasted trip?
Travelling to a unit that was let weeks ago. One message the same morning asking whether it is still available, and when it was last confirmed, removes most of them. See seven checks before you travel to a viewing.