This is one of the hottest topics in the city. Renting and apartment in Moscow can be a bit  challenging if you want to save some money. Real estate, apartment rentals and commercial property all in all is quite polemic.

I m sure you ve heard Moscow is an expensive city. Yeah, it s true but if you know where to go and who to contact you can save some bucks. To be honest, renting an apartment in Moscow at a reasonable price can be tricky and sometimes stressful.

The first rule is that you have to be ready to pay a one-time downpayment of three times the price of the rent. That s to say, you pay for the first month, the 100% comission to the realtor or real estate agency and a deposit to the landlord. So, if your monthly payment is $1500 you have to pay $4500 to start living here in this case. To start off in Moscow you have to come with money.

Basically, I guess renting an apartment in Moscow happens like in any other country. You see the rent an apartment ad online, then call the agency or person renting, then you check the apartment and if you like it you sign the leasing contract and start living.

Unfortunately life is not so sweet. The trick begins when you want save some money on your rent. You don t want to pay so much but still want a decent place with central location. Well, sometimes you can skip the middleman and that means you can you skip the commission of the realtor or agency. I guess somehow it makes sense. We re talking about the monthly amount you pay for the rent. However, to tell the truth, that s not so simple. When you browse the web, especially in Russian, you see sooo many real estate agents around. It seems they have occupied all the direct offers from landlords / landladies.

One of the most common tricks of private reators to attract customers is offering ideal apartments with very competitive prices and great conditions. These apartment don t really exist. Sometimes, even after talking to the realtors a few times and seeing the pics of the flat for rent, you still have have nothing. There s no guarantee at all that that  dream apartment in the center of Mosocw is yours. The point is that when you come to see promised apartment, they make up a story and say I m sorry but it has already been rented . Then the classic next step after this is offering another apartment that s not so great and is a bit more expensive. That s a good marketing strategy. It makes sense. The best offers sell like hot cakes. So, when people browse the web in search of an ideal apartment for rent they click on those offers with nice photos and competitive prices. The idea is to atract potential customers no matter how.

Another common situation related to saving on apartment rentals in Moscow happens when people try to find the flats themselves by going to recently built buildings and asking around the konsierzhkas (concierges). These ladies have lots of insider info on who is to rent, who s going to move, how much and so on. The only thing is that since they know their info is valuable. They may instantly become private realtors or real estate agents and kindly demand the corresponding realtor s commission. Basically, when you turn to these konserzhkas your goal is to avoid paying the agent s commision or at least to save most of it but as result the story is a bit different. You seem to have been doing the realtor s job and anyway have to pay the comission once you have found the apartment. So, keep it in mind.

When looking for an apartment you ll see in Moscow there are realtors all around. They know about the potential profits behind this rental business.

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Another interesting point is the final destination of you re initial downpayment or deposit. Most landlords / landladies say you will get this amount back when you decide to leave apartment or by the end the renting contract. Of course, there certain conditions here. You ll get the money back if everything is in order. Other home owners prefer not to charge for the last month you re going to live there.

I ve had different kinds of adventures related to renting apartments in Moscow. I remember a few years ago I had been living in an apartment for a year and my landlord told me about his decision of increasing the price of the rent. I was disappointed and unhappy about it and deceided to leave. Since it was the end of the first year renting the apartment and I wasn t planning to renew my leasing contract, I deceided to do some fitting work and bring the apartment into order to get the deposit back.

There was a wall that had been spoiled by my daughter s soup and some artistic  drawings. So, I bought a a paint with the exact color to cover some spots but damn! I made a big mistake. I didn t know that fresh paint on a wall always looks darker for months. So, as result I had some darker areas on the wall painted with the suposedly same color. Then, I went back to that shop bought more paint and painted the whole wall. That was a better decision because the landlord didn t notice and I had painted the entire wall.

The other experience I had was with a landlord that was rather greedy. The thing is we rented his apartment that was not in the best conditions and made some renovation work inside to improve a bit the conditions of the apartment. The initial price was quite attrative for us because it was cheaper than the average price on the market. So, half a year later when the landlord understood he could get more money from his apartment, he increased the price in almost 40%. Well, I just left that place later on when I found a better option. Then, some days after leaving this apartment the neighbour next door called me and said the apartment had been rented by 10-12 Tajiks. So, I can imagine what happened with that apartment after us.

Actually, there are many stories and I m sure my stories are not the worse. When you are in search of apartments in Moscow, you can expect to see all kinds of stuff. I remember when I first came here I had an unusual experience trying to find a cheap apartment for rent. The story began by buying a local newspaper where there are classified ads with some supposedly fresh offers. Then, after several calls I understood that:

The best choices had already been taken by 9 am when I bought the newspaper and began to call.( I was told this happens because some people get the info straight from the horse s mouth. They contact the publishers and get the contacts before the newspaper is printed or distributed.)

Some landlords / landladies are against foreigners of certain nationalities.

Many other landlords / landladies are against families with kids

Some others would just accept a single, Slavian-looking, young woman.

And of course, some are against pets

Anyway, I also gave it a try with the internet contacts from classifieds I had but nothing. Then I grabbed some of those leaflets people stick around but SOS (Same Old Story). Special offers to attract you and private realtors with their comissions. Well, to make a long story short it was about 10:30 pm I still hadn t found anything. Then, called one of the phones I had and deceided to grab that choice. It was an apartment that was rented per hour. I took that offer because the woman promised to help me find a place through her network of friends. The next day she realized it was not so simple and she talked to another woman, a friend, who was a nice person and was willing to help.

I came to her home. She lived with her 3 sons. She told me she understood her situation and that I could stay in her home for free as long as I needed. She said it was ok if I had to stick around for upto 2 months or so. I was very surprised. Not many people are ok about letting a person you don t know to live in your home. Later on that day she said her exhusband had been an expat and she also said she had had some diffulties living in Europe without money. All in all, I had a short talk, said thank you and explained I needed my own apartment and so on.

Well then, I kept searching and on the second day I was ready to pay the realtors comission and the deposit so I checked a few apartments that had higher price than the average and that s it, welcome to Moscow. The higher the price, the easier to find but there are other drawbacks when you rent more exclusive apartments. You often have many conditions in the agreement and also many limitations. For example, I remember a woman who was renting an apartment that had expensive Italian furniture. She had many conditions that turned off most of the possible tenants. She was against smokers, parties and visit of guests to apartment. On top of all that, she said she had the right to drop in any time she wanted to check her apartment. That somehow reminds me the story of this young woman who was renting an apartment in Moscow alone and had unexpected visits of her landlord at late times at night. That landlord was kind of wird but all in all he didn t have bad intentions.

Another common situation that happens when you re trying to save money on the rent of an apartment in Moscow is when you re looking for a roommate. This alternative is quite popular among young people. The more friends, the less the pay but the more problems. I remember the story of these two girls who found a guy on a website of roommates. The guy seemed ok after talking on the phone. The girls agreed to meet him but the first impression was a bit unexpected. He was extremely tall and large. I mean, it s ok but it s just you don t see such giants so often and the two thin blonds had never thought of that choice. Anyway, everything went fine with Gulliver except for one time when the blonds lost their keys and the giant deceided to lock them the next morning because he couldn t wake them up before going to work.

As you see renting an apartment in Moscow is possible but you need to be ready before hand otherwise you can waste a lot of time trying to find a suitable choice. I guess the best choice is turning to an official real estate agency to avoid scams. Good luck and welcome to Moscow!

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