MeghanIsMe

Our lease is ending on the last day of August and we're looking for a new place. We can definitely do at least as well for less.
We're not really using our second bedroom other than for Miriam to lecture and do research interviews in, so I suggested finding a large 1 bedroom with nice features instead and setting up a desk and backdrop for video in the bedroom.

However, when I looked at 1 bedroom options, most of them were not big enough and with nice enough features to justify the cost, which seemed surprisingly high to me. I've been asking myself how much extra I would pay for simply having a non-shared entrance so I don't have to put the damned mask on every time I have to take the dog out. If we could have found a 1 bedroom with a large bedroom and some combination of private entrance, in-unit washer/dryer, and area that doesn't suck (basically anywhere outside of north central it seems), we'd consider it. But we could not find such a place.

We have viewings of a few places booked for the 19th. There's two units in duplexes (1 southeast of Broder's Annex and one in Harbor Landing for local folks) and a house with a backyard (Broder's Annex, I think?). We also have a spreadsheet with a bunch of other options and will be scheduling more viewings. Our current lease converts to month to month after August, so we could stay another month or two if necessary, though I'd like to move somewhere cheaper since the rent is going up significantly at that point.

Regina is so small that location relative to other things isn't that big a deal. It would be really nice to be in what passes for the queer part of town, but that doesn't seem likely based on listings.

We've learned, looking at reviews, that the company that has the units with the lowest prices for comparable features (Avenue Living) seems to be completely awful, so we've ruled them out. (Lots of bedbug complaints, among other things. No more bedbugs. Never ever ever again.) It's annoying to keep opening up the occasional listing that seems like a great deal and finding out it's one of theirs.

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.