The Hunt is On

The hunt for apartments, that is. Though I’ve spent large swaths of the past week combing the seedy back-alleys and twisting corridors of that series of connected tubes we’ve come to lovingly call the Interwebs, I’ve now officially expended me search into a multi-lingual, multi-platform campaign. That is to say, I’ve enlisted a Chinese friend to look at Chinese sites, and help me view the actual housing available.

Why would I do such a thing? Quite simply, it became obvious very early into this miniature crusade that searching myself was not my best option… and was quite possibly the worst possible option. Consider: for all intents and purposes, I can really only read English. Thus, I’m restricted to the English-based housing sites, which I’m certain beyond any doubt the real-estate agents view as their own private pond of solid-gold Koi.

And so I enlisted the aid of Coco, Nancy and my mutual friend from Wenzhou who came here last year to make her way in the big, wide world. Though we’ve had some difficulty finding mutually-free time in our schedules (her schedule is that of a regular human: weekday days; mine is the bizarre upside-down-world schedule of a private English teacher: evenings and weekends), we were finally able get together with an agent last night at 8:00 to show me a few apartements.

My requirements had been pretty easy: it needed to be a reasonable (read: walking) distance from the Line 1 Metro Line, and also needed to be a reasonable distance from my work. I’d done my homework and determined that one of the better areas to look was a district called Xujiahui, which effectively splits the distance between my job, and downtown where everything a nocturnal being would want actually is.

So we followed on foot a guy on a motorbike to three different potential domiciles. The first two were in the same complex, though different buildings… and so it was no real surprise that both were equally dumpy, tiny, and overpriced. They reminded me very much of the teeny hole I called “家” last year. I’d only stayed in that place because it was free… and even then there were many a moment where I regretted the decision. Feel free to refer to my various posts of there being no hot water/water turning colors/neighbors yelling at me/etc. Suffice it to say, if I’m actually going to have to pay my own money for a place, I’m shooting for a far-sight better than that!

The third (and final for the day, sine we were closing in on 9:30 at this point) was something else entirely. Though certainly no penthouse, the layout and generally welcoming feel of the place made the relatively modest 65 sq. meters feel bigger… and given that the first two, in addition to being rat-traps, were 46 and 53 respectively, it really felt bigger! It was nicely painted and with and very nice view of the city from the enclosed balcony. All in all, I walked away liking the place and saying we should keep it in mind.

The issue at this point is price. The quoted price was 3800/month, which, considering my salary, isn’t that bad… still, I’m confidant that something like 10% can be knocked off. That’s damn near standard. The issue arises because of the up-front nature they like to be paid. Not only is there a month’s payment as a security deposit, but they also expect 3-4 month’s rent up-front, plus the agent was 1/3 of a month as commission. All in all, at 3500, that works out to over 15,000 RMB, or roughly US$2200. Ouch. That cuts, and cuts deep. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility, mind you… it just that since I won’t get my first paycheck until Sept. 31, that’s an enormous bite out of my money. Fortunately, Nancy’s willing and able to help me some, and it will ultimately work out…. After all, I won’t have to pay rent again until December or January!

Regardless, Coco’s found other places as well, and tomorrow night we’ll make yet another feckless jaunt into the night to look at more empty rooms spaced throughout the city.


(CS) TAW Out.

I want to live in a wooden house