Oct. 25, 2003Budget Apartment Hunting,
Moscow StyleA Practical Guide
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A rough draft is all I can offer you at the moment. Share your story, information, or insight into the subject..
First impressions
Great news for a budget traveller! Moscow has a glut of $80/month rooms and $250/month apartments! Such may be the first impression based on reviewing notices glued to lamppoles, fences, or bus shelters. Iz Ruk v Ruki ("Hands to Hands"), Moscow's biggest advertising daily that will print ads from the public for next to nothing, lists hundreds of apartments in the $250-350 range. The Moscow Times classifieds will contain a few $500-600 offers of "western style" apartments right in the center of the city. Not bad at the first glance!
A selection of "Room for Rent" and "Apartment for Rent" notices from just one lamppost on Sherbakovskaya street (east end on your way to Izmailovo)
One room apartment for rent, $250/month, urgent.
Apartment for rent,
one room, this area.
Room for rent, $50/monthOne room apartment
for rent.
This impression, is, however, is not totally accurate. Telephone numbers supplied with these attractive offers will take you to "rental agencies". Very soon you'll find out that "Apartment for rent, $250/month, close to Metro" is but a advertising gimmick.
Agencies: information sellers and apartment brokers
I don't know why the market is dominated by agencies but 98% of apartment offered for rent in the public information realm are handled by go-betweens. The answer, I suspect, may lie in psychology: the majority of Russians have an ingrained distaste against going public. Let's concerns ourselves with the mysteries of the Russian soul elsewhere and concentrate on the business of apartment hunting.
Some of these are "information" agencies, which means that they will provide you with a list of apartment and rooms. It will be up to you to call the owners. The list will typically cost $30-50. Most numbers there will no longer be valid. I don't know of anyone who successfully found an apartment trough by this method.
Then there are agents and agencies that will charge you an equivalent of one month's rent on successfully finding you an apartment. The price will not be as good as you hoped to get but they will offer you something reasonable.
ThereTheir main job will be to keep you from meeting and making a direct deal with the landlord. With very view exceptions, working through these agencies involves a succession of meetings in front of buildings and other conspiratorial tactics.
Not recommended agencies: information agencies, most brokers....
Problems with apartment brokers - their main concern is to keep you from direct contact with landlords, thus prepare for a lot of "let's meet by the entrance to the building" arrangements. Not fun in the February wind....
How to look for an agency.....
Specific recommended agencies?.....
Realistic expectations
....
By-passing agents
- ask around
- place your own ad
- state "no agents" or else you'll be overun with calls
- review of our experience
Russian vs. foreigner prices
Largely a misconception. Standards. When it pays to be a foreigner. What type of foreigner.
True and false economy...
How we can be of assistance
Insert our sales pitch here.
Think of collaboration with Oxana???
The segment of the market we know......
Where to look and what you'll find
The Moscow Times market
Traveller bulletin boards (see my Russian Links page) ... too will mostly have offers of short-term accommodation starting at $50/night, some real deal can be found, apartments are passed on and landlords learn to prefer western renters.
Iz Ruk v Ruki, Moscow's biggest advertising daily - may be misleading but can be used... our positive and negative experience with Apartment Wanted ads. Language and cultural problem with the Iz Ruk v Ruki culture. ....Newspaper ads will not deliver the sort of information an average American expects. Over 90% of them are by agents whose job is to keep you from coming into direct contact with the landlord so that they can collect their fee that is equivalent to one month's rent. You can almost forget about the For Rent section in the classifieds.
Conclusion: the best way to proceed
...urge people arrange for short-term accommodation, come here in person, and then hire me to facilitate the process.
The market for $250-500/month units is difficult and unprofessional, and it makes no sense for us to muck in it. Our mission, however, and the sort of relationship we've developed with clients as a group, requires that we come up with a positive response of some sort. Thus this step-by-step set of instructions on how to go about finding a $300/month flat in this 4th most expensive city in the world, according to some estimates.
Newspapers
Ask all your contact if they have anything available. Moscovites who travel may let you have their flats very inexpensively. But it is you who must show the initiative.
Running your own apartment wanted ad may work very well. In my case it got results on two or three occasions. The most widely read advertising paper is Is Ruk v Ruki, www.izrukvruki.ru but it is Russian only and there is no easy way to submit an ad when you are overseas. Realistically, you need to be here to ask around for inexpensive vacant units and to run your apartment wanted ad.
...
.....
Questions one may naturally ask about this segment of the market....
If you want to tough it by going local, you need to remember... (mention hidden expense, unreliability, aggravation).
How we can be of assistance
Examples of what we can do: placing ads, inspecting place on your behalf, sending you LOTS of photos, a critical overview of the place and the neighbourhoo.
What we can't do: we can't play the role of apartment brokers.
- end -
PS.
Links on the subject of apartment hunting and apartment living
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97nov/moscow.htm - Thin walls, bad neighbours. Jeffrey Tailer of The Atlantic Monthly, November 1999.
More stories from the press, internet..
Where you can place apartment wanted ads that will be seen by your fellow expats and foreigner rip off professional like me: see my links page www.unclepasha.com/links.htm, proceed to the Bulletin Boards section.
Also leave a note in my Guestbook
