Monday, August 21, 2006
Apartment hunting
I'm looking to upgrade.. My rental term in my apartment expires next month so I'm looking for something that gives me a bit more bang for my buck, since the place that I'm staying in right now is about 120 sqft and costs nearly $700 a month.. not cheap.. so I've waded into the arena of Japanese real estate agencies. But you may ask yourself, why does he need a real estate agent if he's not buying anything? Well, this is Japan and the old rules no longer apply. Apparently you need to go through a real estate agent in Japan. But wait, if gets weirder. The real estate agents are allotted apartments to rent by unit, not by building, so for a given apartment building, there may be 4 or 5 real estate agents all renting apartments out.. at different prices..
So what else could possibly be more confusing? Well the rents for one; I said that my place was about $700/mo, well that's not entirely true. My place actually costs about $500 a month.. Where's the extra money come from? Well, I need to pay about $200 for a "negotiation fee", $260 to the real estate agent for services rendered (which to date has consisted of filling out the contract, collecting my money and saving me $2 on a train ride by driving me here on my first day), add on $100 deposit and probably a cleaning fee, or lock replacement charge and voila, instant rip-off.
So I've decided to move, not exclusively because of the cost, because I knew how much it would cost before I came here, but more of the size.. I don't have space to put a desk in, which I would really like to, cause I'm tired of studying on the floor.
In any case, watch this space for more exciting adventures of the habitationally challenged.
So what else could possibly be more confusing? Well the rents for one; I said that my place was about $700/mo, well that's not entirely true. My place actually costs about $500 a month.. Where's the extra money come from? Well, I need to pay about $200 for a "negotiation fee", $260 to the real estate agent for services rendered (which to date has consisted of filling out the contract, collecting my money and saving me $2 on a train ride by driving me here on my first day), add on $100 deposit and probably a cleaning fee, or lock replacement charge and voila, instant rip-off.
So I've decided to move, not exclusively because of the cost, because I knew how much it would cost before I came here, but more of the size.. I don't have space to put a desk in, which I would really like to, cause I'm tired of studying on the floor.
In any case, watch this space for more exciting adventures of the habitationally challenged.
# posted by WorldWideWonder @ 9:13 AM 
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no.. I mean 120 sqft.. any way you measure it, its small. Probably the size of an average sized bathroom + a hall closet or two..
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