10.22.2007

House Hunting Continues

Max flew to Germany for the weekend to help me search for an apartment. Unfortunately, his trip was not time well spent. Finding a place to live in the Rhine-Pfalz region of Germany has not been easy mostly because leasing agents are not in a hurry to return our phone calls. After two days, Max and I saw only three apartments, and not one met our needs.

Now I must continue the search alone. Max returns to the Unites States today so that he can be sworn in as a U.S. citizen. It is an important occasion for him, and I am sorry to be missing it. But duty calls. I have leads on four apartments—two in the heart of Mannheim, one in Speyer, and one in Neustadt.

Desirable rental property seems to be a hot commodity in this part of Germany because of the large numbers of people moving here. Large-scale apartment complexes do not exist, and most properties are renovated houses and townhouses. And the fact is that many of the best properties are rented through word-of-mouth as opposed to advertising through the paper or Internet. Either way, it only takes a day for the best properties to go on and off the market. I've been told you almost have to be living here, checking the paper and Internet everyday to find the best places. So if I don’t get lucky and find a must-have property by Wednesday, I will return home without a signed contract. Always one step ahead of us, Roswitha, our paten, has already reserved temporary housing if we don’t find an apartment we like.

I hope it doesn’t come to that.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry you haven't had better luck. Let's hope the perfect place will turn up today or tomorrow.

Viel Glück!

Tiffany Fairbanks said...

Aw man. I'm telepathically sending you good luckon the homefront.

Me said...

Hmmmmmmmm......the military down there should have a decent list. Unfortunately I don't have access to the website anymore since I divorced the Army wasband....

kenju said...

I'm sorry your search has not been fruitful - especially while Max was there.