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Q: what comes first when renting an apartment?
Companied my friend to view a lot apartments, but she couldn't find anything. it's exhausting.whenever we got the right neighborhood, the traffic may not good. whenever we found some closer,but the apartments were not good enough. or even both the neighborhood ,traffic are ok,but the rent is too high. it's taking forever to find a right one! So what should come first,according to you ? ?
Firstly. Apartment must be clean, nothing broken, no mold. Furniture in good condition.
Secondly. The entrance, staircase and area around the building must be clean and well kept.
Scandinavian:
oh, a newly built community will have very intense renovation noise for the first years, where older communities will only have renovation noise whenever apartments exchange hands or someone has realized their old renovation was severely crap.
RobertZimmerman:
Definitely need a western toilet, A/C in the bedroom, and reasonably sized kitchen to cook.
Choose several major agents in the area - they will all have the same listings.
Write your requirements out in Chinese.
Go through each point with the agent to confirm understanding.
Verbally go through which points are negotiable and be firm on minimum standards and maximum monetary amounts.
Ask for when such apartments may be viewed and be clear that if you are not shown what you have asked for, you will find someone else.
Just be reasonable - don't expect the French Quarter in Shanghai for 3K RMB/mo. You should have an idea of what's available and what it costs.
The Internet helps...like 51.com - you can negotiate directly with the landlord.
RobertZimmerman:
Well said just add one thing, if you're a teacher its best to rent on your own because some of the training schools have been known to skim off the top of the housing allowance.
It should be simple.
1. Where does he/she want to live?
2. Can he/she afford to live there.
3. If living there actually convienient for what he/ she needs to do, such as getting to work.
I live in the middle of an industrial area. It's not great, but it could be worse. And rental prices are ok for what you get. I work with guys however who live downtown in the city center. They want to live there, and they don't mind the commute to work. I don't like commuting, so I prefer to live local to where I work. I would prefer to make the trip downtown at weekends rather than have to do it every day.
It sounds as if your friend does not know what he/ she wants from the very beginning.
I also think it's important to think of ones carbon footprint when deciding on where to live. I like to keep my carbon footprint low. so living local to work suits me for that.
