Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I need to find an apartment

mattrighetti.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 319 posts

Re: I need to find an apartment

#51

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

novocantico wrote: post #43
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

You gotta get creative. Walking down the street I met this one guy who's like 70, eccentric, military vet, owns the house, and rents it out individual rooms for $550/month. He's paid off the mortgage, just needs to pay taxes, and he's clearly making a profit since he's retired and constantly has new projects working on the house. For context that's 1/3 asking price out here.

How is getting lucky walking down the street "creative", exactly?

Re: I need to find an apartment

#52

Post by ClumsyPilot »

aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

Population of Berlin has hardly changed in the past 30 years, it grows at an annual a rate of like 0.2%. How is this madness possible?

Edit: There were 3.5 million residents in 1993. It is projected to reach 3.6 million residents in 2029 [1]

It's got to be something to do with financial markets and foreign investment

1 - https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/204296/berlin/population

Re: I need to find an apartment

#53

Post by b20000 »

TillE wrote: post #47
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

You pretty much have to buy an apartment in Berlin, that's been the case for the past 10 years or so. Landlords took them off the market and put them up for sale. You might still be able to find something decent for around 100k euro, I'm not sure.

why did landlords take their units off the market in berlin? because renting out is no longer interesting?

Re: I need to find an apartment

#54

Post by candiddevmike »

Government should provide apartments, free, in the center of the city, for anyone who needs one. Housing should be a human right. You can pay extra for a better place, but then landlords would actually have to compete for your business instead of the other way around.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#55

Post by kreetx »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #51
novocantico wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta get creative. Walking down the street I met this one guy who's like 70, eccentric, military vet, owns the house, and rents it out individual rooms for $550/month. He's paid off the mortgage, just needs to pay taxes, and he's clearly making a profit since he's retired and constantly has new projects working on the house. For context that's 1/3 asking price out here.

How is getting lucky walking down the street "creative", exactly?

He perhaps asked every person that walked by? That would be more creative than looking at the post popular ad site.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#56

Post by b20000 »

codewithmatt wrote: post #18
mattrighetti wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't actually, I'm trying to save as much money as possible at the moment and while a broker would be a good solution it would be a bit pricey for me. Maybe when I'm older and willing to spend money on relocating that would be a better solution for sure!

I'm not sure how Luxembourg works, but in the US the "seller" or landlord in this case pays a fee. Obviously this may be drastically different in Europe, but it's worth having a conversation with an agent/broker. My wife is a realtor here in TX and when she is in-between home sales she helps people find rent houses and apartments. The seller pays a pre-agreed amount of 30-40% of the first months rent as a type of com…

the buyer pays, as the seller adds this to the price

Re: I need to find an apartment

#58

Post by TillE »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #38
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

This sounds like rent caps.

Rents have absolutely skyrocketed over the past 15 years or so (3-4x), despite mild controls, so no not really.

Re: I need to find an apartment

#59

Post by sl3232323 »

jthrowsitaway wrote: post #46
novocantico wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta get creative. Walking down the street I met this one guy who's like 70, eccentric, military vet, owns the house, and rents it out individual rooms for $550/month. He's paid off the mortgage, just needs to pay taxes, and he's clearly making a profit since he's retired and constantly has new projects working on the house. For context that's 1/3 asking price out here.

It's great that worked out for you. It'd be great if people didn't have to get creative to find basic housing.

Since when did housing become a right?

Re: I need to find an apartment

#60

Post by closeparen »

sonicggg wrote: post #49
aqme28 wrote: post #34

I'm currently searching in Berlin and the market has become insane. Here's a response I got yesterday: "With more than 1200 prospective tenants, it was really difficult for the landlord to make a decision. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the landlord has decided on other prospective tenants. Thank you for your understanding! "

The pandemic allowed remote work to flourish. Why are people still crowding the cities? And of all the places, specially Berlin. Not even that great of a city. A lot of my friends fled the city.

Any place I can’t walk on well-traveled sidewalks to a coffee shop, restaurant, grocery store, etc. is a place not fit for human habitation.
Post reply on HN