Relocating to Singapore from Texas

[rarkins]

For researching bus routes, you might like https://busrouter.sg/

Just make sure to zoom in enough that you start seeing the stops on the map, and from there it's quite useful.

[sundaymorningstaple]

If you go to google maps, find your condo you will also see busstop markers in the area. That will give you an idea where they are. Then switch to Goggle earth street fiew to see if they have covered walkways, for instance, to your condo or whatever.

[JR8]

Q1 I've lived in places where my commute has been entirely by bus, bus and train, or train alone. It's all about finding all options and considering what works best. There's a journey-planner on SMRT, and IIRC something similar via Google Maps. So you can add them to the other resources mentioned.
Disadvantages? Getting to/from the bus-stops in the pouring rain. Plus buses can get vvv crowded if it is raining. So it's useful having a plan for fine days, and if necessary a plan-B for rainy ones.

Question 2 - I've heard that many apartments are partially furnished. What does that typically mean?

(A cynic replies) -> It means they'll full of the landlord's dilapidated and broken crap and that he couldn't be bothered to pay to get thrown out. And he's still going to keep your deposit if he decides you've caused a micron of damage to it.

What things can I almost always count on being in my apartment?

Appliances, oven, hob, fridge, air-con, plus varying amounts of the above.

I had planned to bring my own couch, bed, etc but I've heard a lot of places already have beds and couches.

I wouldn't take the risk. Most places are likely smaller than what you had space for back home. It's pretty soul-destroying having your home wedged to the ceiling full of your own stuff you paid $ks to ship over and have no space for, and no heart to be pragmatic and now chuck.
The common advice here is buy what ever furniture you need, after renting a place. The useful baseline source is IKEA which seems fine for a few years use. Then when you come to leave donate it to the Salvation Army or similar - assuming it still has some value left in it.

Any way to tell? I find apartments that look good but it seems hard to find out what is actually included and how much it will be since they don't seem to have functinoning websites and you have to go through Agents.

Agents can be lazy. They're still used to the good old days when rentals turned over quickly in the face of stiff demand. So sparse descriptions, no floorplans, and generic 'representative' photos of *any* unit in the building were par for the course. You can instruct an agent and state your prefs re: furnishings etc... might help, maybe.
p.s. not sure who the 'they' [functioning websites] is, if not the agents.

[ef11]

Q1 - Well this depends on which condo you are staying at. Not all condos are located right in front of the bus stops or MRT station. However, bear in the mind the weather here, it can be common that you'll be sweating while waiting for the bus to arrive. I guess most of the members here advise you to take the MRT also due to this, since most MRT stations are air-conditioned.

If you are still keen on taking the bus, then check out which condos are nearer to the bus stop. I noticed that Key Location site also has this useful function whereby you can check how you can travel from the specified condo to another location. Example for Waterbank @ Dakota: https://keylocation.sg/condos/waterbank-at-dakota
You can key in the nearest landmark to your workplace and see if there is bus that can bring you directly to work.

Alternatively, i always love to use Google Map for checking out directions. Just take note that the duration quoted by Google may not always be accurate. So err on the safe side please. Usually I give 50% top up to whatever Google shows (e.g. 8 mins walk stated by Google, I will take it to mean 16 mins walk - which of course depends on your walking speed)

Q2 - this varies from landlord to landlord, especially for rentals. if you don't want to involve agents, then shortlist a few condos and maybe email those owners about what kind of furnishings they be providing. I

Thank you for the reply. As far as the bus goes, I would want to time it where I would get down to the street and only have to wait 3-5 minutes for the bus. If I have to walk to the MRT station, which I believe no matter where I live I would have to, then I would be walking at least 5 minutes and also get very hot. I wasn't aware of that functionality on the site when viewing individual condos, that is nice. Doesn't look like Waterbank shows a bus option. Not sure if that is condo specific or if the website just doesn't allow that as an option. I typically use google maps along with Key Location to get travel times.

When you say email the owners of the condos I'm interested in, the owner of the entire building or the owner of the condo? I'm not sure how I would even find their contact information.

Thank you all!