House Hunters International

The furnished place we're currently living in was only for 3 months.  We had through the end of September to figure out where we want to be after that.


So, it's time for some international house hunting.

We started with figuring out which part(s) of town we wanted to be in.  We are currently in the former east.  Jason's job is in the west and the boys new school is in the west.  Even before moving out to Berlin we knew we'd probably ultimately end up somewhere in that part of the city.  Oh, and we needed a "4 Zimmer". Here they count the living room as one of the rooms so it's a 3 bedroom with a living room to get a "4 room".


So, we got to looking.  First up was this, hmmmm, we'll call it Charlottenburg Charmer. 
Built 1894. 120m² = 1292 square feet


The building was beautiful and over 100 years old. The couple that owned the flat lived upstairs and had been there for 30 years. They were looking for very long term renters. Even if we'd have said "5 years" they preferred longer but nothing was out of the question. So we gave it a look. (Can you believe that ceiling?! Gorge!!!)







One of the huge selling points was that this place was fitted with a kitchen. Over here, most of the time the flats come empty...not even a light fixture and certainly not a kitchen. You'll find them every once in awhile but it's probably not standard. However, you can imagine the expense and inconvenience of moving into a flat without a kitchen. So, this place already had one!





Lots of cabinet space and storage (for Berlin anyway) but the eat-in area was on the smaller side and there wasn't another good place in the flat for a dining table.



Another compromise is that this flat only has one bathroom:



And just the shower there, no tub. We are a family of 5 that came from a house with 3 bathrooms and sometimes all 3 were in use at once. Thinking about someone being sick or the kids getting older (more privacy) and trying to get ready for school/work was a lot to consider.

However, there is another major selling point of this Charlottenburg Charmer and that is: "provisionsfrei". The "provision" is a commission you pay to whoever might show you the flat. It is usually about 2.38 times the cold rent (so, if you had a place that was 1500€ then the provision is over (3500€ ~ $4600!!!) and it's so stupid because, we found all these places ourselves. It's not like a real estate agent who shows you around or negotiates with the seller and helps with inspections or whatever. It's really just someone who unlocks the door for you and hands you the application and really doesn't seem worth having to fork over such a commission if you ask me. I'm sure there is way more to this job/position that I don't know about but as the renter, $4600 for what they do is absolutely ludacris). So this Charmer with it's one bathroom had the fitted kitchen and because it was owned by the couple upstairs it was also provisionsfrei. Huge selling point. Seriously, if you think about having to pay to fit a kitchen, pay a commission, and then you have to do a sort of security deposit (they call it a "caution") as well which is always "3 months cold rent". The cold rent is the monthly price without heat. That is a bunch of money all at once!!!

Here is a walking tour through this place . . .


I also had small issues with the quality of the flooring. While parts were lovely, there were also parts where they had to cut into the floor and then just did a haphazard patch job. I know Berlin is an old place and it was definitely an old building, but coming from a house that wasn't even as old as Dalton, it's hard to want to agree to such squeaky, patchy floors. Oh ... and there were replacement fuses on many of the radiators. Makes me think there's a need for that, right? I was just picturing Jason traveling for work and there being issues with a fuse. Groan. However, it was above a shop so the kids could run and jump without downstairs neighbors. They were excited about that idea!

It was the first place we'd looked so I couldn't for sure say, "No way!" without seeing anywhere else . . . what if it was the best choice? Fitted kitchen a huge place, provisionsfrei a major consideration, great location, beautiful quiet street but quick subway access, great grocery options . . . but one bathroom, shoddy floors and fuses, tiny dining area . . . we decided that wasn't our new flat.

Moving on.

The Immediate "No"
Built 1900. 149m² = 1604 square feet
The next place we saw was a group showing where they just set a time for, like, an "Open House" and whoever is interested comes and walks through and takes applications. The place had 3 bathrooms! Another gorgeous building:


These pictures are very misleading.
















You can see the hot water unit just hanging all unfinished looking out of the ceiling here.



This place was a "no" for Jason right off the bat. They were still doing work in there and a wall was missing and, perhaps they were doing more work, but baseboards were missing and holes cut in walls and the bathrooms were kind of gross.

Here is another link to more from that flat. I can't figure out how to embed this one for some reason.
This might be harder than we thought.

"Voldemort's Place / The New One"
Built 2014. 91m² = 980 square feet (yikes! Our house in Colorado was about 230m² / 2400 square feet plus a yard, a shed, a two car garage, a basement...)

Place three was a flat we'd been looking at online since before moving to Berlin. We call it "the new place" because that's what it is: New. Or "Neu" as you say in Deutsch (but it's "noy" rhymes with "boy"). Anyway, this place was still being finished inside. A 4 room like we wanted wouldn't be ready till Oct 1 (when we'd need it . . . so, no worries!) but, because it was a construction site, they wouldn't let the kids inside. Jason and I had to take turns seeing this one. The guy that showed it to us was named like, "Waldemar" but we secretly called him "Voldemort" because you, of course, pronounce "W" as a "V" in Deutsch so his name sounds more like Valdemar. Anyway . . .

This place was beautiful. They took us to a "model" unit that was only 3 rooms but enough to sort of get the gist and then they took us through the unit in progress.









The kitchen in the 4 Zimmer is U shaped, though, not like you see there.

Apparently the open floor plan is a little off putting to many of the Germans (according to Voldemort, anyway)



2 beautiful bathrooms!







So, it came fitted with a kitchen which was great . . . but this place was tiny. It had two balconies which is lovely . . . but we hear that counts in the total square footage (meters squared) most of the time. It was beautiful inside. So great. But so small. And pricey. Was it worth it? To pay a commission and that rent? But it was so pretty. So so pretty and new. I've never lived anywhere "new" before.

The Pink One

We checked out another place that was called a 4.5 Zimmer. That was cool . . . a half room? Could use it maybe as an office or something? I only have pictures of it that I took myself though:





It had a fitted kitchen too!





But the kitchen was grubby. With strange things like scorch marks on the wall:



And it lacked a freezer.

But it had two bathrooms which had become a new "non-negotiable" for me:





Like the kitchen, the bathrooms were kind of "tired" and grubby.





The "half" room:



We called this "The Pink One" because that's how it was (it's a little hard to tell in the pics). But, we would get an allotment of money to repaint it all in the colors we wanted! However, we'd have to do it ourselves as there wouldn't be enough money to have someone do it for us. Yuck.

Then there was this flat:

The How-Do-I-Feed-Us?
Build 1996 (remodeled just now). 102m² = 1098 square feet











It also has a fitted kitchen. A nice one! With a microwave!!!





And two bathrooms as well (but there is only a pic of one):



However, this flat isn't terribly close to any decent grocery shopping. And, the closest subway stop doesn't have a lift either . . . so even if I took my trolley on the subway to collect food, it would be a pain in the bum to get them home.

After seeing these 5, only two were even in consideration: Volemort's New Place or the one without groceries.

Which do we choose? Tune in after the commercial break.

Ha ha ha.