Okay so we went to see the first apartment today. Tomorrow we'll go look at two more. Today was a bomb. The place was 4 rooms with a large balcony and one room in the basement for bikes and storage, 104,00 m² (1,120 sq ft) and 900,00 EUR with NM (approx. $1,300 so on the low end of our budget which was my incentive to look at it) but of course you still have to pay for heat, cable, electric, etc. on top of that.
Good things:
- Located on a great street
- Rooms were all very spacious
- Ceilings were extremely high
- Located in a gorgeous old building
- Lovely entrance doors to the apartment
- Great balcony off of the kitchen
- Massive windows
- Bathroom had a new sink + toilet
- Gorgeous white Swedish ceramic corner stove (that works if you pay to have it cleaned out)
Bad things:
- Current tenants smoke so much I imagine I'd be cleaning for two years
- Carpet (eek!) though there is wood beneath and the landlord said we could rip it up but that would all be our expense and we don't know the condition that it's in
- Windows have dark wood trim inside
- Bathroom long and very narrow, like a bowling alley
- Strange bookcase in the entryway that was once a doorway or something, it's just odd
- Located on the first floor so you have to deal with listening to hallway traffic and slamming doors all day
- One the first floor so all of your windows in the front look out at the street and cars parked there.
- Extremely smoke-filled
- Not so keen on the fact that the 4th room was very long and narrow and that would be my office
- Not sound proof, you could hear normal conversations in the apartment out in the hallway with the door shut. I like to have some privacy, ya know?
Okay so in addition to all of this, I was really unimpressed with how the landlord held the whole "open house". For one, the woman left her INFANT out in the hallway in a stroller that was completely covered over by a blanket, as she showed the apartment for over an hour. I was appalled by this. The baby was sleeping but at one point start to cough and she never even bothered to come out and look after him. This made me very upset. I also did not like that she only showed the apartment to one couple at a time and there was a line of at least 15 couples in front of us when we got there at 1:15. The open house was from 1-2. We had to wait 40 minutes until we could see the apartment. This was very, very odd to me.
When we went in, and perhaps I was a snob, but I did a quick once over of all of the rooms and thanked her and bolted.
So, one down, three more to go tomorrow. I couldn't photograph the space today because the tenants were still living there and it was just odd to take photos of a place I hated anyway... but the door is shown above. He he.
(image: holly becker)
Comments
Sorry to hear this apartment wasn't that nice, but at least you now know what you want.Your narrowing down your search and have a clear idea of what you would like. I shared an apartment with two guys that smoked non stop even though I asked them to stop, it is so horrible the lingering smoke seems to stay around forever everywhere particularly with the carpets. Best of luck 2moro looking forward to reading your posts on 2moros finds
All things nice...
Btw, when I was looking, I found it very helpful to create a no-no-list: no flats on the first floor, no flats with carper, no flats with a shower cabin only etc.
Looking forward to tomorrow's report!
Sounds like a poorly run 'open house' - a good indicator of what sort of landlord you'll likely deal with, ugh! also - good thoughts on the first floor noise concerns. Stefan and I both work from home, so quiet is paramount! =) We have to go up more stairs now, but it's worth it for the peace!
also - flooring: I wouldn't freak too much unless it's a really old house. Putting in new flooring (if you know you're going to stay for a long time) is something that can be fairly reasonable over here since it's a common thing to do w/all the renters. Of course, it's still a chunk, but if you know you'll be there for a long time....
Enjoy the hunt and hopefully it won't take too long!
So the baby outside in the hall sounds very similar to what happens in Denmark...people leave their children in their strollers outside all the time - it's a cultural norm. Not sure if it made sense in this case though.
good luck with the house search.
I wish you all the luck, and you will find that right apartment. My husband is from Germany, and I don't know if you are looking around in the city, but he said you might look away from the big city and have better luck. We both wish you the very best.
And the baby thing - I think it is a european thing. I heard the same thing about babies in strollers being left outside while moms shopped or dined in restaurants. I even heard in one country that they roll the stroller outside if the apt has a balcony - even in winter - so the baby sleeps in fresh air!
I'm glad that you take the time to make a list of the pros & cons - it makes it much easier when all the facts are right in front of you. For this apartment in particular, the choice was obvious! :)