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Best Advice for Apartment seach upon Arrival to Taipei?

 
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IamtheWalrus



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 20
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2003 6:18 pm    Post subject: Best Advice for Apartment seach upon Arrival to Taipei? Reply with quote

Ok, so we know not to sign contracts before coming to Taiwan as far as teaching positions go.

So my next question is housing.

What is the best advice if you are arriving with out a job? I imagine one scenario is to arrive and stay at a hostel for the first week. Start looking for a nice apartment. Once found, find a job close by where you live.

Questions with this are:
**How do you find a "nice"apartment, affordable when you don't speak chinese?
**What are some good areas that are not too expensive, but offer good job possibilities...and close to MRT i suppose is a good thing, right?

**Any other apartment advice?

Thanks to all!

Mark
San Francisco
Arriving in June 2003
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taiwan boy



Joined: 11 Feb 2003
Posts: 99
Location: China

PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2003 11:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think maybe it is better to find a job and then find accommodation nearby. It is no good having a great apartment just so you can walk to a terrible job in five minutes!

I suggest these two ways to help you find an apartment:
1. Ask the school were you work to help you. They can call landlords and enquire about apartments for you. Any good school should be happy to give some assistance with this.
2. Check the ads on forumosa and tealit for accommodation.

Another thing. Don't go to a real estate agent. They are expensive and you will pay much more than you need to. Also in Taiwan you often need to pay two months rent as a security deposit (usually refundable) and one months rent in advance before you move in. This can be a sizeable amount of money!!
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ophion



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 10
Location: DC Metro Area, USA

PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2003 2:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I second the advice of finding a job first.

It is also interesting that many housing contracts in Taiwan have pro-tenant clauses that would never be found in a Western housing contract. For example, many have the clause that if the tenant breaks the lease, the landlord gets to keep the deposit (rather standard, that, but notice that there are no lease buyout fees, etc.); if the landlord breaks the lease for some reason, the tenant receives double his or her deposit.
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MissusFish



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 16

PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:30 am    Post subject: agents Reply with quote

Agents don't charge you unless you rent through them, so you could always go to one just to get a look at some places & get an idea what's out there. Sneaky, yes, but so are they.
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IamtheWalrus



Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 20
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 5:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So do you recommend staying at a hostel until you find a job, then, once you find a decent job to find an apartment around the job area?

How much time on average would you think it would be to find a good job? Just trying to figure out if living ina hostel for any time would be too much of a inconvenience...


Are there people in taipei that will help you who are not agents? Just hire them for the day to speak chinese for you and communicate to landlords in the apartment search?
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ophion



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 10
Location: DC Metro Area, USA

PostPosted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

IamtheWalrus wrote:
Are there people in taipei that will help you who are not agents? Just hire them for the day to speak chinese for you and communicate to landlords in the apartment search?


Find a job first. Any reputable school will have someone who will help you with the apartment search, and you will not have to hire him or her. Staying in a hostel will be a bit inconvenient, but will pay off in the long term. Really, don't take much with you--most things you would want will be readily available in a metropolitan area.
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