Hey hey kids,

After 2 days of looking and asking ... i'm on the verge of giving up and going back home! ha!

Whats the best way to look for an apartment, I'm probably after the same thing that 10,0000000000000000000000000 other people want - fully furnished, modern, 1/2 bedroom in XuHui or Yangpu.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

well get a chinese friend for starters. took me and my chinese gf to find our apartment in luwan.
12 real estate agents and about 25 aparments later.

damnnnn ....... yeah I'm heading into them with a collegue, we walked and walked and walked .... all of them are either (A) No, nothing available, or (B) We have something but not sure if you will like it, so wont bother showing you.....

I actually want to see some (so far, after 2 days have only seen 1). Whats the best/polite way to do this .... and another thing that irks me is people always asking who is living there, what they do for a living, etc etc .... is that needed, do i need to disclose that?

Thnx again

if you are doing it yourself try
http://sh.soufun.com/
http://rent.online.sh.cn/

Unfortunately it is in Chinese. I'm sure there are English version website around but starting prices are much higher.

well some people do not want shanghainese living there or expats living there.
depends on your age. i saw some pretty messy places rented by expats and
some that were super clean so i think their generalisations not warranted.

First find an area you want to live - eg near work with 20 mins walk or
if you have other needs use that as the criteria. then find walk around to
all the real estate agents and get your collegue to tell what you want -
ie old or new, 2 bedroom, size in sqm and what you want to pay.
then if they have nothing give them the collegues number and
they can ring when they have something, most of the time you may have to
sit around for 15-20mins while they ring the guy who knows a guy who
has a friend that has the key and willing to turn up.

good luck it isn't that hard you just have to find two or three agents willing to
do some leg work. depends on what you want - if you want cheap go to the small
hole in the wall shops if you want something nice go to the large guys they
have more variety and often more than one in a buiding

Get an agent.

If I understand your post, your current process is to walk around, find a building you might like, then enquire at the gate or office?

works in the US....not here.

you almost have to have an agent to show you around before you will be able to see apartments. Without an agent, very few buildings will think you are serious...hence the stonewall on trying to see apartments.

Note: the agents fees should be paid by the landlord. Not you.

Shanghai Craigslist - Apartments

check some websites

What we did was: first find the area that we liked . Then went to a local Real Estate company with my chinese friend and ask them for availability in the area. They showed me few apartaments, negociate the price, sign the contract and pay for it. It took like 4 hours to get all the paper work ( I don't think they comunicate with each other) So finally after 4 hours of collecting signatures, money, they gave us the key and we where able to move next day.

p1atl10 wrote:Get an agent.

Wrong

Get many agents.
Doesn't sounds very ethical but this place is a jungle so go for it.

As mentionned, find a place you like and consult agents in the neighborhood.
I would stay away from the larger rental companies.

Keep in mind an agent is useless after you signed the contract with the landlord. Forget about any service or support afterward.

^ Good point.
Getting a quality landlord is almost as important as getting a quality apartment.
- Make sure you meet the landlord if possible
- Understand who will actually be managing the aprtment is things go wrong. Absentee landord with an agent or a "nephew" doing the day to day can be a horrible experience if something goes wrong.

housing agents: get a few and tell them the same criterias you are looking for...

found our apartment in one day with a good agent, we saw 8 and loved the last one

http://cityspace.shanghaiexpat.com/

I just typed in a search
XuHui
less than RMB 7500 a month
Apartment
For Rent

Got back over 40 listings.

Still good idea to get an agent that knows the area you want to be in.. they know the good deals and the good deals are gone with a day or two.

Hi guys, thanks for the info - I need to be in Yangpu 2 days per week (near Jungong Lu) and I need to be in Xuhui the other times (Fu Xing Lu) .... I received advice to look around places in between the two districts, any ideas on an area -- i'm not too familiar with the surrounds =(

Thanks again!