Ninety seconds is enough if you know the order. Here is what to do, roughly in the sequence that matters.

Before you enter the room:
- Note where the room is relative to the kitchen, the entrance and the laundry. Those three generate all the corridor noise.
- Look at the shared bathroom, even if you are taking a private one. It tells you how the building is run.
- Smell the corridor. Damp and old cooking smells are immediate and honest signals.

In the room, in this order:
1. Open the window. Does it open, what does it face, is it a real window or a slot facing a wall two metres away.
2. Sit on the bed and check the length. Especially if you are tall.
3. Turn on the aircon and the heater. Confirm they work and ask whether they cost extra.
4. Check phone signal. Some interior rooms and basements have almost none, which matters more than people expect.
5. Open the wardrobe and look under the bed — that is your entire storage.
6. Look at the bottom 50cm of the walls and behind the furniture. Damp and mould live there.
7. Stand still and listen for ten seconds. You will hear what you are going to hear every night.

Questions to ask while you are standing there:
- 관리비 따로 있어요? (extra maintenance charge)
- 에어컨 따로 돈 내요? (pay separately for aircon)
- 청소 얼마나 자주 해요? (how often are shared areas cleaned)
- 거주사실 확인서 써 주실 수 있어요? (will you issue the residence document for immigration)
- 퇴실할 때 얼마 전에 말해야 해요? (how much notice to leave)

The last two are the ones people forget and both matter later.

And the single highest-value thing you can do: **arrange at least one viewing for 08:00**. The building at 8am — bathroom, kitchen, noise, how many people are moving around — is the building you will actually live in. The 2pm version is a showroom.

Take a photo of the room and the corridor on your phone. After three viewings they blur together completely.