Tips on how to find the perfect apartment in Nuremberg Germany!
From experience in the States, finding a new place to rent is a little annoying. But once you know where you would like to live, how far you are willing to commute, and how much you would like to spend, the rest is pretty simple. It took us a week to find the perfect apartment for 3 college girls, nice neighborhood, not too far from school, and big enough but still within budget. When moving to a new country it is a wickedly different story!
We have been working with a relocation agency ICU.net and although we love our agent (and without her we would have gotten no where) they do not know how drastically different apartment hunting is in the US to understand the difficulties in transitioning.
BIG HEADS UP! We were not explained this until 2 WEEKS AFTER arrival. You cannot buy a car until you have a leasing contract signed, and you cannot apply for residency or work visas until you have an apartment. Don’t waste your money at a hotel for a month while the paperwork takes it sweet time either, MAKE SURE to set up apartment showings the day after you land NO MATTER WHAT!
The process so far:
Tell the agent your specifications.
In our case we are a little picky, but for all justified reasons. Most clients of theirs are not so picky and that works in their favor, so they can show them the listings of their partner realtors and cash in the money, but these are typically over priced, out-dated, and in middle-to-lower class neighborhoods. If the plan is to live in one location for a few years, I say your allowed to be as picky as you want, but if you only need a temporary location for whatever reason, take the first apartment you like, because housing is on and off the market here within DAYS! I am not kidding either, we find a new link or posting Monday and it is rented out by Wednesday, so you need to decide quick!
Our requests are:
Modern – We cant live in a grandma house, sorry just cant.
Higher than ground floor – Harder for burglars to intrude and for bugs/rodents to get in.
Has basic electronics (Oven, Fridge, Washing Machine) – This is not normal apparently. Most places we saw that were furnished were without an oven or washing machine and had a fridge that is 2 ft. squared.
Has storage – most places have this, but ASK TO SEE IT! I refuse to go into a basement that looks like it has been unintentionally renovated to resemble torcher chambers.
Grade A electricity – This is something I am definitely not used to coming from Florida. The quality of electricity is graded and scored based on the consumption and environmental effects. If it is a new building or recently renovated, it is normally an A, but some older buildings have a grade C or lower and that will end up costing you in the long run on electricity bills.
Is under 600€ warm rent – another new term “Warm Rent” is rent including maintenance fees, garage, etc. GEZ is another term you will get to know, which no one knows how to explain expect that it is a mandatory tax on TV and Internet… no matter if you have either, both, or none. We are trying to stay to a budget under 800€ including electricity, Internet & TV, heating, water, and GEZ whish is more of a challenge than originally calculated.
Located on the North side of the Nuremberg old city walls – Because of a 30-minute commute to work each day, it would be nicer to not have to add to that with traffic just trying to get around the wall. Besides that “Nicer” neighborhoods are up there.
All simple requests right? WRONG.
The average price of rent seems to be about 10€ a square meter, any more than that and you are getting screwed over! If you can find an apartment for that price and furnished and you like it, SIGN RIGHT AWAY! After selling all of the furniture in the apartment in Florida, flying over here, and looking for a furnished apartment in Nuremberg, we realized we were dooped. Our agent told us that it is rare to find an unfurnished apartment, and that we didn’t need to bring any of it, so we listened thinking “She knows what she is talking about, I mean this is her job!”. DON’T SELL! Pack it into a cargo ship and bring it, we would have been moved in 2 weeks ago if that was our case.
I do however recommend using an agent, especially if you do not speak the language. There is a pile of paperwork involved with everything, and without someone who knows where to go or what to fill out, it would take months instead of a week.
Once you find a place you like, get to the paperwork asap! They will say everything is non-negotiable, but that is never the case. Try your hardest to get the most for your money, whether that is a deduct on rent, or parking spot included. We were able to knock a whole month off of rent AND a deduction in price.
Beware though, it is not uncommon for landlords to want to meet with you before renting. Which is understandable to an extent, but we have heard stories of landlords coordinating a group lunch with ALL applicants to determine the person/family they would like to live in their apartment (weird!). We have had so many back and forth’s that we have now been at the hotel for 48 days! Don’t let that happen to you.
