stormdog | (no subject)

From Danae's Facebook, here's a choice we're trying to make that's been stressing me out a lot today since she was able to talk to someone from the group in Amsterdam that does apartment-hunting for expats.

Chris [Stormdog] and I have a very difficult decision to make between two options. I'd really welcome some advice, and input into this.

(1) I leave September 17th. I live in temporary housing which costs about 1800 per month. I work during the day and in the evening and on weekends I search for a home that will work for me, Chris, and our cat, Seregil.

Advantages:
-I'm able to start work in person.
-I will be covered by my Dutch health insurance, so no need to add me to Chris' American insurance for a month.

Disadvantages:
-I will miss Chris immensely.
-Chris has to deal with selling the condo, our remaining possessions, and shipping what we're keeping to Amsterdam, on zir own, which is stressful.
-Some people have suggested to me that a private Amsterdam rental search can take 2-3 months. I have no idea if that number is accurate, but it's got me scared.
-I have to do all the work of searching for a home on my own, in a city with which I'm unfamiliar, while working full-time
-Temporary housing is going to cost me ~ $1800 per month.

(2) I'm in touch with a certified expat housing broker. His company has a ton of positive reviews from both renters and landlords. He would do the search for us, including video tours of apartments and filling out applications on our behalf, so I would stay here in Illinois until he secures a place for us. They get paid one month's rent when they secure us an apartment. If we cancel the contract before they've had a month to look, we pay a cancellation fee of 200 Euros. I would have to start working from home on September 16th.

Advantages:
-The agent does most of the work for us
-I don't have to separate from Chris
-I can handle selling the condo myself, which frees up Chris to focus on other things like packing our possessions.
-Supposedly, the agent has connections that give him access to some units before they are listed publicly. So working with him may broaden the pool of apartments we can look at.
-No paying for temporary housing.

Disadvantages:
-The agent said they usually only take clients who are looking for units that cost at least 1500 Euros/month, but sometimes make exceptions to that rule. During the conversation, I felt pressured to increase our monthly budget, and it's hard to tell if he was pressuring me to do that because he truly believes that 1250 Euros/month is unrealistic, or because the higher I go, the easier his job is and the more money he's paid.
-When we find a place, not only do we need money for the deposit, but we will also need a month's rent to pay the real estate agent.
-Since I'd be here in Illinois a little longer, we'd need to pay to sign me up for Chris' health insurance.

As I told Chris earlier today, I am afraid that a private independent search by me will not be successful, or will take 2-3 months. In my initial search for apartments, I found 14 units within my budget, 9 of which were approximately 30 minutes or less of a commute to work, and the remainder of which were more like an hour's commute. I emailed every single one of them asking if cats are allowed (among other questions). I got very few responses back, and I can only assume that's because either they don't allow cats and didn't want to waste their time responding to a person who couldn't rent from them, or because they had already rented it out. Amsterdam is, after all, supposed to be a very fast-paced market.

Chris, on the other hand, is concerned (rightfully, I think) that the real estate agent will push us towards more expensive units, and we'll end up paying more over the course of our two year stay than we save. I need to do some mathing.