House hunting

Our lease with our current apartment is ending soon (next week) so we have spent the last two or three weeks looking for a new apartment. Blah. We were looking for something a little bigger, but even if we did not really want to move, we would be forced into it as the landlord is looking to sell the apartment to take advantage of the higher prices. Many people are looking to sell right now. Part of it is that the Chinese government is trying to take steps to cool the housing market a little bit so that there is no bubble, and so people are trying to get the most money that they can from it before it goes into effect. There is also a higher demand right now, both for rented and bought apartments, so prices were a little higher. Someone told us that if we had looked 2 months ago, we the prices were a little lower. C'est la vie.

We did find a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in the same complex as we live now, for 5300RMB/month. It was a little higher then we wanted to spend, but was the best apartment that we could find and like. This new apartment is on the 27th floor and has an awesome view!

But before we found this apartment, what a wild ride (and annoying) time it was. First, Realtors like to post low prices of apartments, then say something "like it was just rented yesterday" or "They changed their mind". You would think that if it is rented or no longer available, the signs would come down. Nope. They use it as a tactic to get people to look at similar (but slightly more expensive apartments.) Again part of the problem is that prices recently went up, so they are scared if they have posters with the current price, people will be scared to look. Its annoying, but at the same time I kind of understand it. The realtor is trying to work in the interest of two people - the landlord and the renter. They also are working for themselves, as they want to get higher commissions. On the other hand, it had given us a false idea of apartment costs right now, which was a huge pain in the butt. We had to rework our budget a couple of times. We can afford 5300/month, but we wish we could have had a little more extra money in our budget.

When we started looking, we the realtor (who acts as de facto landlord) about apartments and gave her a price range. She told us that she would look and let us know. We also told her about my time constraints with work, and the area we would like to live in. Every few days (but not very often it seemed) we would get a call asking if we could see one, but it was often in an area we did not like, or at an inconvenient time, or kinda of a dingy apartment that we would not want to live in. She was doing her best to stay within our price range, but we later decided that we would have to increase our price range. We also did not just stay with her but also tried a few other companies. They showed us some, just none that were really great.

We almost signed with one of them as we liked it when we first saw it. But because it was one of the first ones we saw we did not sign then and were thinking about it. We are glad that we did not take it even though it was only 4800/month. Part of it was that when we saw it again we did not like the colouring (we did not really notice it the first time) and also the fact that we would have had to pay two deposits because the landlord moved to a different city and had already signed a contract with the company for them to act as the landlord, and this company requires two deposits with this situation.

Another apartment that we looked at (close to where one of friends live) was OK, but out of our price range. That was another annoying thing - we would tell them a price range, then they would show us ones that were way above it. But anyway, we were going back down the elevator and at first the doors did not close right. they pushed the open door button and re-closed the doors and the elevator started going normally. All of a sudden, a bell rings, and it just stops. Yup, stuck in an elevator with 6 adults and 1 baby. It also had a glass back to the outside so it was getting HOT! We were only in there for 10 minutes or less, but it felt like longer. We also got really lucky as it stopped right by a floor (only a little step) instead of in the middle of the floor.

We are really happy with the apartment we got. We were hoping to move in this week, but the landlord went on a trip to another city, right before we wanted to sign the contract. He also would not let us move our stuff in on Saturday before we sign the contract - don't know the reason why but nothing we can do about that one. So we are going to sign the contract Sunday night, and move in Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday is also the day our current contract ends, so it just means it is a busy couple of days. We will post pictures once we move it. We really like the place.