I have seen apartments even a rat would not want to live in it. 
It is important to tell the agencies your requirments beforehand and ask lots of questions before you go to look at it, this will save you lots of time. Just plain tell them that you are not interested in old places, also contact different agancies at the same time. The best is if you can find a agancy who is recomanded by other foreigners (i suppose you are?) then they know what you want. Good luck with your hous hunting.

Well, I saw one not to long ago that was basically an old hotel "converted" into apartments by adding hotplates. The guy said 7,000 kuai. I laughed. He then said "Well, how much would you pay?" I said "nothing, I wouldn't live here for free."

An agent showed me an apt that had JUST had a fire and everything was chared to high hell. If I'm not mistaken, either a body or body shaped piece of furniture remained. The landlady and realtor said that many people were looking to take the apt, so I need to quickly decide and pay. They were asking for 6k per month and that they had cut the price because they would "fix a few things"

The worst one I have seen had not been lived in for over a year and during that time most of the windows were left open.  Absolutely everything was covered in at least an inch thick blanket of dust.

When we walked through the apartment every footstep sent up a plume of dust.  When we viewed the kitchen, there were 2 decaying rats laying in the middle of the room.

My wife, ever the optomist, turned to the owner and asked, "How long would it take you to clean this place up?"

The owner replied, "Why do I need to cleant it?"

Even my wife's optomisim couldn't keep us in that apartment a minute longer.