Ah... this brings back memories. A few years ago I wrote this article https://funnybretzel.com/datamining-a-flat-in-munich/ when I was searching a flat in Munich.
Some time has passed since then and meanwhile I've enhanced the process quite a lot, just like OP I'm currently searching for a place (a house) and I'm using quite the little bot farm to massively automate things.
I'll post the results if it converges to something useful. Meanwhile, all the luck to OP and excellent write-up! :)
I need to find an apartment
141–150 of 319 posts
Re: I need to find an apartment
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is hunting for an apartment doomed to be this messy forever? It seems like an area that is ripe for disruption or a better option, but what would it take to actually solve this? I hesitate to say it, but there is already a solution to this, and it has been the one that New York has had for years: you hire an agent. A good agent will sort through all of that for you, and streamline the process to the point where you…
That solution is bad. You have no idea what you’re missing out on by using an agent. You might think you had a good agent, but unless you’re already really familiar with the market, you could have missed out on significantly better matches and you wouldn’t even know. You know how we know this is a solvable problem? Listings for places to buy don’t have nearly as many problems.
Like I said, there are bad agents. There are also bad plumbers. There are bad doctors. There are bad housekeepers. This is not a problem unique to real estate, and tools exist to help you find reliable service professionals.
> You know how we know this is a solvable problem? Listings for places to buy don’t have nearly as many problems.
Just as OP said, there are tons of sites out there that claim to "solve" this, but don't. So no, I don't know that this is a computer-solvable problem.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#143If I have time, I always prefer to walk around the neighborhood I want to live in an see if there’s signs or hear from people if a place is available informally. That’s where you get the best deals.
If you find the seller, you usually get a better deal. If the seller finds you, …
Re: I need to find an apartment
#144I'm in the middle of an apartment search. I was reflecting the other day on how much searching for an apartment has changed over the last 10 years. Conclusion: it hasn't changed much at all. It's still necessary to search on a myriad of sites. Most of the time, by the time you inquire, a place is gone. Or the ad was misleading and that "$2000 2BR" is actually "$2000 for the cheapest Studio we have, but we also have 2…
> Is hunting for an apartment doomed to be this messy forever? It seems like an area that is ripe for disruption or a better option, but what would it take to actually solve this? I hesitate to say it, but there is already a solution to this, and it has been the one that New York has had for years: you hire an agent. A good agent will sort through all of that for you, and streamline the process to the point where you…
This doesn't work in all US markets unfortunately, as I discovered recently when considering that very option you suggest. In some slower towns a few agents are willing to do this on the side as a source of income, but then in places like SF the home buying market is so hot, that it's comparatively bad ROI for agents to spend any time on most rentals. I'm curious how NYC manages to pull that off.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's sort of a meaningless comparison though. A huge amount of self-selection goes on before an application to an elite university is even filled out.
> A huge amount of self-selection goes on before an application to an elite university is even filled out Probably a lot less self-selecting out than you think.
I must say the list is a little bit surprising to me. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-accepta...
I guess I would have expected a few top Ivies to have significantly lower acceptance rates on the grounds that one could imagine a lot of average-ish students putting one of those schools down just in case they hit the lottery.
But actually, the top Ivies, MIT, West Point, top music schools, and a couple of schools I've never even heard of (!) are all in the 5 to 10% admissions range.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who just jumped through all the hoops to find a new apartment, the pain is real. I think the main issue is that the incentives are misaligned from the perspective of the seeker. Where I'm currently at (the Netherlands), the market is dominated by agents. Using an agent makes sense from the perspective of the apartment owner — they will take care of managing the ads, initial screening, arranging viewings et…
The question, though, is: why doesn't this converge to a single monopolist agency, like in the rest of capitalism?
Because it's a mostly unregulated market. A new competitor has minimal government regulations to satisfy in order to start and everyone and their dog can start doing this job (and believe me, I've met some interesting agents when looking for the best deals both looking for rent and renting out my property). The big centralised agencies don't really have a way to stop smaller agents offering cheaper services and serving different markets (even if they're just different neighbourhoods) is hard.
This is how capitalism works when there is no government helping monopolies to form in the name of security / justice / anti-money laundering / insert-politician-buzzword-of-the-day.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who just jumped through all the hoops to find a new apartment, the pain is real. I think the main issue is that the incentives are misaligned from the perspective of the seeker. Where I'm currently at (the Netherlands), the market is dominated by agents. Using an agent makes sense from the perspective of the apartment owner — they will take care of managing the ads, initial screening, arranging viewings et…
Housing website https://funda.nl is pretty dominant in the Netherlands. Why would you need to search many agent's websites when nearly all inventory shows up on funda.nl ? I find it much preferable to North American sites like https://realtor.ca that think that number of baths is more important than floorspace (which to my utter amazement is often not even available).
That has always shocked me as well.
Even houses can be difficult in many cases.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
What information? “This apartment exists at LOCATION and will be available for rent at DATE?” And you think the tenant is entitled to stop the world from knowing that because the tenant is residing at that location before DATE? Goodness. I should give the First Amendment a hug.
I didn't make any of those claims at all. I just pointed out that if there is a privacy issue, it's not the lister's privacy at stake.
I'm still not sure renters really have a reasonable expectation of privacy when the place they are living in is listed for rent or sale by someone else.
In most places renters are only granted 24 hours notice to have complete strangers come walk through their living spaces while the space is shown off. They have no real right to refuse to allow that.
If people start knocking on their door asking to come look at the place they are free to refuse, or ignore the doorbell or anything else. Of course they have a freedom against being harassed, so if people persist they can get police involved. That seems like a separate issue to me from having their address posted online in a rental listing.
Re: I need to find an apartment
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who just jumped through all the hoops to find a new apartment, the pain is real. I think the main issue is that the incentives are misaligned from the perspective of the seeker. Where I'm currently at (the Netherlands), the market is dominated by agents. Using an agent makes sense from the perspective of the apartment owner — they will take care of managing the ads, initial screening, arranging viewings et…
Housing website https://funda.nl is pretty dominant in the Netherlands. Why would you need to search many agent's websites when nearly all inventory shows up on funda.nl ? I find it much preferable to North American sites like https://realtor.ca that think that number of baths is more important than floorspace (which to my utter amazement is often not even available).
+1 to https://funda.nl. In fact as a new immigrant I bought house completely through funda. They have nice tie-ups with all the regulatory/certificate providers such as construction report etc., Fantastic experience overall.
Selling though is a completely different story it's almost impossible without an agent. And they do provide a valuable service; like photo session, publishing on funda and others, taking care of house-viewing etc.,
Re: I need to find an apartment
#150I'm in the middle of an apartment search. I was reflecting the other day on how much searching for an apartment has changed over the last 10 years. Conclusion: it hasn't changed much at all. It's still necessary to search on a myriad of sites. Most of the time, by the time you inquire, a place is gone. Or the ad was misleading and that "$2000 2BR" is actually "$2000 for the cheapest Studio we have, but we also have 2…
> With all of the modernization and streamlining that has happened in other parts of our lives, apartment hunting remains unstructured, messy, frustrating, stressful.
If multiple candidates compete over the same apt, no searching method in the world will resolve the issue. Either you have high supply of apts, or a super intelligent city software that matches people to available apartments based on their socioeconomic and professional profiles.