Today's weather: High = 25 Low = 19
Cloudy
There is no great rush to find a new place, nor any desire to cut my current lease -- you lose the 1 or 2-months deposit if you break the lease before the year is up. The deposit system is mainly an economic punitive system to discourage people from leaving, as opposed to an actual damage deposit. Locals would totally agree with that last statement as they even told me so. The system only works too well. T
The place I'm living in now is not necessarily bad or anything, it's actually a rather a good deal which is why I picked it in the first place. The problem is that there are many better places out there which I'm discovering after the fact. Unfortunately, the housing situation in Shanghai is a HUGE deal, and it matters more than I would have imagined.
Actually I've lived in 15+ apartments in China over the years but precious few of them have been 'above satisfactory' or places I would want to stay in for any long period of time. Part of this may be due to my own pickiness, but I've noticed a recurring pattern in house hunting that I want to put a stop to.
The first thing is that there is a lot of shitty housing out there, and I mean a LOT, and especially in terms of what foreigners are being shown. This is what pisses me off the most, in that upon arrival to a new job or location in Shanghai or other parts of China, the expat will be shown a bunch of crap -- mainly by agents or connections directly to the empoyer -- and then asked to pick something quickly, where the rent is invariably more expensive than what the locals would pay. The whole process takes a matter of days, and most expats will pick a place quickly because they don't have the time or the knowledge to do otherwise. Even experienced people get bitten by this, as the whole process has a sense of built-in artificial urgency, both from the foreigner looking for the house and the people showing various places.
I don't think anybody wants to move into a shithole, but the fact of the matter is that low quality dominates in China, and the NORM is for housing to be poor quality here and with a whole host of negatives. It's not just housing, this applies to practically every Chinese product out there. Sad to say, my Chinese friends would agree with this. In this culture, they cut corners in production and accept a certain level as 'just ok' without going above and beyond the standards to produce something of quality that surpasses the basic minimum. Frankly, this attitude is why China will never become a developed country.
So going back to housing, if you want to find something good, you're gonna have to look your ass off and compare places before the fact. Blaming the agents or the system doesn't work, even though the way they work to 'rush you into a lease' is infuriating. But as they say, buyer beware, or renter beware. My local friends all tell me that they spend months looking for a new place, and they research the area in detail, making a list of requirements, then going from agent to agent and shopping around. Negotiation also takes a long time, and they are very picky. None of my local friends buy into the bullshit that the agents say about places being few and far between, this deal can be snatched up quickly, the price is already cheap, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, foreigners do buy into it, including myself because it seems that the "opinions" offered are authoritative, when in fact they are a bunch of hot air. Again, hate to say it, but Chinese people have a low reputation and are famous all over the world for lying, stealing, and cheating and making an art out of it. Local friends would be the first to agree with this, and THEY are always the ones telling me to be careful and offering good stern advice in a motherly tone. The locals who care by offering such advice are also the locals who distrust and hate their lazy fellow countrymen masses for keeping their country in the shits when it could otherwise have so much potential.
Back to housing, what my local friends also do is use a variety of personal contacts, especially people already living in the area of choice, and get references, etc.. Then if there is a house they are keenly interested in they don't show interest (I always do, big mistake) and what they do is ask to make deals where they can "check it out" before signing anything. This might simply be staying in the place for a week or so which is highly recommended because you can then spot most of the negatives you wouldn't otherwise see on the initial showing of the room. For example the place might have noisy neighbors, there could be trains running by, or what they say is "close to a subway station" could be in fact a 15 minute walk to get there. Fail.
The next step that the locals would do is then meet the landlord and socialize/chat/whatever to see if there is a good vibe or they get along with the person. If so, then the lease negotiation begins and let me tell you, the locals will nitpick over every little detail with both the agent and landlord present. Generaly speaking, they go for long-term leases, at least 2 years, since they can "lock in at a lower rate" and it makes up for all the time and effort in searching for a place to begin with.
So if this is how the locals do it, then why are the foreigners not doing it. Great question. It seems that the locals can use such an approach as mentioned above because:
a. They know they'll be in Shanghai for awhile and want someplace good to stay while there
b. They are staying elsewhere while looking for new places and the process is not urgent
It's about time I started learning from he locals.
Cloudy
There is no great rush to find a new place, nor any desire to cut my current lease -- you lose the 1 or 2-months deposit if you break the lease before the year is up. The deposit system is mainly an economic punitive system to discourage people from leaving, as opposed to an actual damage deposit. Locals would totally agree with that last statement as they even told me so. The system only works too well. T
The place I'm living in now is not necessarily bad or anything, it's actually a rather a good deal which is why I picked it in the first place. The problem is that there are many better places out there which I'm discovering after the fact. Unfortunately, the housing situation in Shanghai is a HUGE deal, and it matters more than I would have imagined.
Actually I've lived in 15+ apartments in China over the years but precious few of them have been 'above satisfactory' or places I would want to stay in for any long period of time. Part of this may be due to my own pickiness, but I've noticed a recurring pattern in house hunting that I want to put a stop to.
The first thing is that there is a lot of shitty housing out there, and I mean a LOT, and especially in terms of what foreigners are being shown. This is what pisses me off the most, in that upon arrival to a new job or location in Shanghai or other parts of China, the expat will be shown a bunch of crap -- mainly by agents or connections directly to the empoyer -- and then asked to pick something quickly, where the rent is invariably more expensive than what the locals would pay. The whole process takes a matter of days, and most expats will pick a place quickly because they don't have the time or the knowledge to do otherwise. Even experienced people get bitten by this, as the whole process has a sense of built-in artificial urgency, both from the foreigner looking for the house and the people showing various places.
I don't think anybody wants to move into a shithole, but the fact of the matter is that low quality dominates in China, and the NORM is for housing to be poor quality here and with a whole host of negatives. It's not just housing, this applies to practically every Chinese product out there. Sad to say, my Chinese friends would agree with this. In this culture, they cut corners in production and accept a certain level as 'just ok' without going above and beyond the standards to produce something of quality that surpasses the basic minimum. Frankly, this attitude is why China will never become a developed country.
So going back to housing, if you want to find something good, you're gonna have to look your ass off and compare places before the fact. Blaming the agents or the system doesn't work, even though the way they work to 'rush you into a lease' is infuriating. But as they say, buyer beware, or renter beware. My local friends all tell me that they spend months looking for a new place, and they research the area in detail, making a list of requirements, then going from agent to agent and shopping around. Negotiation also takes a long time, and they are very picky. None of my local friends buy into the bullshit that the agents say about places being few and far between, this deal can be snatched up quickly, the price is already cheap, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, foreigners do buy into it, including myself because it seems that the "opinions" offered are authoritative, when in fact they are a bunch of hot air. Again, hate to say it, but Chinese people have a low reputation and are famous all over the world for lying, stealing, and cheating and making an art out of it. Local friends would be the first to agree with this, and THEY are always the ones telling me to be careful and offering good stern advice in a motherly tone. The locals who care by offering such advice are also the locals who distrust and hate their lazy fellow countrymen masses for keeping their country in the shits when it could otherwise have so much potential.
Back to housing, what my local friends also do is use a variety of personal contacts, especially people already living in the area of choice, and get references, etc.. Then if there is a house they are keenly interested in they don't show interest (I always do, big mistake) and what they do is ask to make deals where they can "check it out" before signing anything. This might simply be staying in the place for a week or so which is highly recommended because you can then spot most of the negatives you wouldn't otherwise see on the initial showing of the room. For example the place might have noisy neighbors, there could be trains running by, or what they say is "close to a subway station" could be in fact a 15 minute walk to get there. Fail.
The next step that the locals would do is then meet the landlord and socialize/chat/whatever to see if there is a good vibe or they get along with the person. If so, then the lease negotiation begins and let me tell you, the locals will nitpick over every little detail with both the agent and landlord present. Generaly speaking, they go for long-term leases, at least 2 years, since they can "lock in at a lower rate" and it makes up for all the time and effort in searching for a place to begin with.
So if this is how the locals do it, then why are the foreigners not doing it. Great question. It seems that the locals can use such an approach as mentioned above because:
a. They know they'll be in Shanghai for awhile and want someplace good to stay while there
b. They are staying elsewhere while looking for new places and the process is not urgent
It's about time I started learning from he locals.
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