So we´re finally here and have spent the last week looking for apartments. We´ve done Segundomano, both the paper version and online. We´ve pounded the pavement of every neighborhood from Ibiza to La Latina. Either the places don´t resemble their description, or no one calls you back, or the owner is on vacation until September or it´s already rented, or the neighborhood seems unnecessarily iffy.

I guess I just want someone to tell me we´re not crazy or hopelessly idealistic. We want a minimum of 50 m2, preferably 2 bedrooms and have established a budget of between $800 and $900. We fell in love with La Latina, but Bilbao/San Bernardo was nice too. Arguelles/Moncloa apartments appear to all be geared to students and are fully (and often horribly) furnished. We have some stuff coming from the US so we´d prefer an empty place.

Are we nuts? Is there anything else we should be doing?

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Are we nuts? Is there anything else we should be doing?

yes, waiting till sept.
it has been said many times on this board that july and august are dead months here as 90% of madrileños are on vacation.

saludos,
jer...

Jer - how many consecutive days have you spent living with your inlaws?

We found a place in August and had a lot of the same problems. You'll need to keep hounding the people who don't call you back, but eventually your persistence will pay off. Your budget isn't impossible in La Latina, but it's getting tricky as rents rise. You also have to factor in the "comunidad," which is included in some rents and not in others. Good luck!

(Lurking from the US, am I ever homesick for Madrid...)

I agree with Mariposita.

Keep insisting on all of the numbers you are calling and do not call you back right away.

Most landlords are on vacation and / or out of town but will come back to Madrid the last week of August to rent there places and settle everything so that they can go back on vacation for another two weeks.

Keep using the print version of the Segundamano, buying it twice a week and check all of the free websites that you can, like www.loquo.com and www.campusanuncios.com plus all of the expat sites, housing sites, and finally you might want to try contacting one of the Relocation Services like the ones listed in the BroadSheet magazine www.tbs.com.es to see if you can see what resourses they use to find their rentals. The average people use the Segundamano but there might be another listing for the upper crust people they have or listed at the US or UK embassy for people they bring over here.

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and finally you might want to try contacting one of the Relocation Services like the ones listed in the BroadSheet magazine to see if you can see what resourses they use to find their rentals.

i'm afraid they will not share that info with someone who just calls up or walks in as that is their industry secret and how they make money.

they would be a last resort as they charge 1 months (min.) finders fee too put you with an apt. and tend to work the high-end stuff as you said Rocco.

also, i would not call those out-of-town landlords too many times and leave messages since the "landlord" is an odd creature and can smell desperation on your breath even on an answering machine

landlords here can be VERY cocky and always have that "you need me but i don't need you attitude"

saludos,
jer...

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Originally posted by jer:
landlords here can be VERY cocky and always have that "you need me but i don't need you attitude"

saludos,
jer...

They develop this attitude if they have something really good that everybody wants all of the time or every year at the end of August through October when there is a high demand and they can force people to sign one year contracts for their crap flats that will last just long enough for the next high demand period one year later where they can cop this attitude and do it again.

Trust me. None of these landlords have this bull crap attitude when they call me in Januaray, May, June, July or early August desperate for me to send them people.

It is a funny business. There is always an overwhelming supply of places when there is no demand and there is nobody ever here to take advantage of the landlords when they are at their weakest and friendliest.

It also is bad for my business as there are two clear seasons: one of too many housing offers out there so nobody needs a short term place to stay for 1 to 4 weeks to find their place and the other months where nobody is moving into Madrid or visiting and do not need either a the short term 1 to 4 week rooms that I can get them or even the long term place they would find on their own.

I don't know how any native spanish can afford to live in Mardid, the cost of housing, rent or buying is crazy. How can anyone afford a place on the wages they get

its called 'sharing', usually with 5 -10 other people in the same flat.

Thanks for all your input. I was beginning to think we were way off with our budget or other requirements. I can´t see shelling out $1000 a month. And it did seem very strange to us that the agencies charge a month´s rent fee to the renter - isn´t the service being provided to the landlord?

We did see an attractive place on Saturday, but it´s furnished (2 sofas and a dining table in a small room!) so I guess we´ll keep looking. It was a relief to finally see something we´d be willing to live in.

In the meantime, we´re enjoying the fiestas castizas and we´ll keep checking the Segundamano and the internet. Thanks again to all!!

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And it did seem very strange to us that the agencies charge a month´s rent fee to the renter - isn´t the service being provided to the landlord?

Coco, often times you can negotiate this. when i rented my apt. 6+ years ago, i went directly through the landlord but when i rented my office in puerta del sol for example, it was an agency that handled it. i knew it was before i called as the for rent sign was one of those with the real estate agency logo on it. when i called and went to see the place with the agent, i told them that i would take it only if they charged that months fee to the landlord. it worked, they called the landlord and he accepted. i think it was empty for like 4 months before i took it. i was also able to negotiate a 6 month instead of a 1 year contract so i think the landlord was a bit desperate.

it can often depend upon the market at the time you are looking. as Rocco said above, if the landlord needs to rent badly, there is more room to negotiate and that included any possible negotiations with an agency trying to get a months rent out of you.

however, if the landlord has 10 people interested in the apt., then odds are you will not be able to negotiate much and would have to east that 1 month fee.

all in all, that 1 month finders fee can be...

- paid by the renter.
- paid by the landlord.
- split between the renter and landlord.
- reduced to half months rent and paid by the renter.
- reduced to half months rent and paid by the landlord.
- reduced to fraction of a months rent and paid by the renter.
- reduced to fraction of a months rent and paid by the landlord.
- waived alltogether.
- etc.

... so NOTHING IS SET IN STONE.

saludos,
jer...

It sounds like looking for a decent (and not too terribly expensive) place to live in Madrid is difficult at this time of year, and on into September and early October. As things are working out for me here, I should be arriving in Madrid in early January. Will apartment hunting then be easier than it appears to be now?

Marsha

hi Marsha.

as stated by Madrid Insider above...

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Trust me. None of these landlords have this bull crap attitude when they call me in Januaray, May, June, July or early August desperate for me to send them people.

so yes, january is a lot easier as long as you wait until after the 6th (kings day) which, for most purposes is xmas here. there is a "little" vacation for holiday cheer from early december to mid january (yes, they take xmas VERY seriously here ) and many landlords may not be reachable or respond to your calls until after jan. 6th.

from my experience, a lot of renters (temporarily here in madrid) head home (to their home villages if they are spanish students or their home countries if they are foreigners) for the holidays, leaving a LOT of apts. available. the landlords usually do not try to rent in dec. and just break for the holidays but in jan. (after the 6th) it is a prime time to snag a good place.

saludos,
jer...

Finding a room in a shared flat will be easier in January than now, but not necessarily finding your own place.

The months students and more transitional people come and go are August to October arriving. May to the end of June leaving.

If you are planing on being in Madrid for a while the smart thing to do would be to get a room in a shared flat to start off at and stay there long enough for the demand to shift and then once the market is in your favor make your move to your ideal place where you will stay indefinately. Of course you will have to keep your eye on and study the market. It is all too easy to get lazy once you are settled into your temporary place and waiting for the right time to switch. You can go into the public library and look at the Segundamano for free and look at the classifieds section each month of the In Madrid. You will easily be able to tell when the supply blows away the demand. Then go out and buy the Segundamano once a week and take your time looking at places when the landlords are more friendly towards you and they are the ones who are desperate and not you.

Speaking of negotiating - we have no financial problems with an aval or nomina. And we´d really like to find a place to stay for 2 years or more. Are those going to have any weight with a landlord? Or is there just too much demand at this time of year for those things to make a difference?

Also - is it frowned upon to do your own painting (assuming we will do an excellent job). Victor hates yellow and 95% of the flats we´ve seen range from mustard to canary. Why yellow with all this heat?

Thanks again!