Job Discussion Forums

[jerseyblue]

My landlord is pretty nonexistent, which is great, but I am paying a lot of money to live in this apartment, and the few little things I have asked him to fix, he has completely ignored.

Aside from that, he not only tried to get me to transfer my rent money over to him again (claiming that he didn't get it the first time I sent it) and even once demanded that I pay him the rent two weeks in advance (because he forgot that I pay my rent on the 14th and not the 1st of the month) I am a little sick of his games. I know things could be a lot worse, but as it is, I would rather just live in a month-to-month temporary place.

I put a $1,000 deposit on this place, which I doubt I would get back even if I did stick out the contract here. I am hoping that that deposit can be my last month's rent as I wish to move out and break the contract.

In my last month here (which will probably be in a month or two) I will be looking for a nice hotel to live at.

Does anyone know of any nice hotels that I can live at, pay by the month, have honest and good cleaning services, and are (hopefully) not in too bad or noisy of a neighborhood? For instance, I have no desire to live in PNL. Even something in District 7 or District 2 would be acceptable, central location is not exactly necessary.

I'd like to pay cheap rent ($250/month) and I'd need to have good wifi.

Thanks!

[bobpen]

Typical, classic rip offs of Vietnamese business.

Housing options around a city that has some 8 million people (and presumably a growing market of foreigners after Vietnam's entry into the WTO) are surprisingly disappointing. One might not know it but very decent guesthouses with full service (daily cleaning, coffee in the morning, cable TV, a/c) were available from $100 to $150 less than 5 years ago. Now the same guy will stick 10 fingers (two hands) in your face when you ask "how much", meaning you could try to bargain him down starting at $1000. With inflation adjusted I'd say $200 is fair.

You're basically going to have to put on your best pair of jogging shoes and literally use a full day to walk through the district you are interested in, being prepared for lots of headaches and attitude, and hope that one or two suit well enough and offers a good price with security and respectability. There is no decent advertising service otherwise, unless you call the "Mr Phung" housing scam websites worthwhile.

For such guesthouse arrangements, I'd recommend paying perhaps two times a month (no, NOT every two weeks, as you would not be getting a full month for your full month's rent -- just another classic Vietnamese scam), and definitely no deposit. Let them know that they need you.

[inhanoi]

bobpen: "Typical, classic rip offs of Vietnamese business."

Why, why, why do some people feel compelled to tack on these global condemnations of Vietnamese people?

In my very extensive experience with landlords in Vietnam, I have had only one case where I felt slightly ripped off. All of the others have been gracious and generous. One even returned my entire deposit in dollars without even inspecting the house.

Such comments only cause new arrivals to be unnecessarily suspicious, which can lead to self-fulfilling problems.

[mark_in_saigon]

This is another topic that would be great to keep active, it has been discussed many times, and updates on it are very helpful. It would be nice if we could just bring it back out, and see the older posts on it. The enlightened posts on this subject are still of value.

I find hotel prices to be fairly reasonable at the low or middle range. I totally agree it is tough to find a good deal (even a fair deal) on housing, especially a house or an apartment. A big part of this is because of the craziness of the housing market. Most of the natives do not really qualify financially for the kind of places we seek, and the elite here builds housing for their own wealthy sector. Those owners are not really interested in renting a floor (or house) to us. I see countless nicer houses sitting empty, or mostly empty. We are mostly stuck in the middle, and there really should be a mid range market here. I recently got inside one of these situations. A fairly nice house was �given� to a less fortunate family member, who rented half of the house to me for his main income. The true owner has a freaking mansion down the block, which is sitting empty by the way. I think he is finishing the current mansion, have no idea what he is presently living in, but obviously the true owner of all this does not need my little rental income. This is all in a fairly low income area, but the houses are very nice, and mostly unoccupied. My belief is that houses are a storage of wealth for the elite. Meanwhile, the masses are sleeping on mats with no aircon and 1 bathroom per floor.

Craigslist is a real pain to use here. Not impossible, but it is pretty awful trying to deal with the folks who are advertisers. If you really flog it, you can eventually find the occasional honest landlord or something, but mostly you are stuck with these agents who all have to swim in the same pond of deception. Amusingly, a lot of agents have starting using the phrase �real pictures� in their ads, as it is considered a given that pictures are not of the actual unit in ads there on CL.

With reference to global condemnations or whatever the phrase is/was, I gotta say, real estate here is one of the dark spots to the experience. I would never say every VN is trying to rip me off, but I would also say some aspects of the experience here are certainly worse than others, and certainly worse than what we are used to in the west, and seeking housing is one of those areas. It can take a year of looking around to actually find a decent deal on housing in HCMC. One can go thru a lot of craziness to find it. I know a guy who has moved out of HCMC for a while but is actually continuing to rent his house just on the chance he may need it again. He knows how hard it would be to start over looking, and it is his preference to pay an extra rent just to have the option to move back.

As with so much of what we do here, I think the key to success is your VN assistant/partner. If you do not speak the language, you are always at a big disadvantage in trying to manage your affairs here. I think having an honest, intelligent VN partner or assistant is the number one factor that will determine how your daily life goes here. If you have enough money, yes, you can pay top dollar for everything and probably get by okay. If you want to take advantage of the low prices on most things here (and housing should be one of those things, but as presented to the expats, usually isn�t), your VN helper is the key. I would absolutely not give more than one month rent on deposit. They know what is going on with your unit, if you are destroying it or something, they can get you out plenty fast. The higher the deposit they want the more I would worry about the deal. I read that in China especially, the big deposits are being used as an income generation scheme. I would not be surprised to see the same thing here. Most of us rent our houses out on the other side of the world with 1 month's rent as deposit, I don't see why they need 2 or 3 when they are in the same block or even the same building.

One can usually find a decent enough price on a hotel in a day of looking around. I suggest we always consider the per square meter price on an apartment or house. The closer you can get to 50 cents a square meter, the better you are doing. 30 cents is still out there, and the owner can be happy with that price, it does not have to be like a brother in law deal, but finding it can take a very long time. Hotel prices can be okay, but you are usually getting a much smaller place. I spent plenty of time in hotels or apartments that were like hotels, they can be okay, and cheap enough, just too small.

When I would go around with my partner, we would stop at a hotel, I could understand the price of per hour, per 2 hours and per day by their sign. Then she would go in and talk, then come back out and tell me the price. The price per day was always higher than the price on the sign. What�s up with that? She tells me, oh, that per day price on the sign is a late check in and early check out. Me: what kind of deal is that? Her: that is for people coming in just overnight. Oh, I get it, that is a �boom boom� day. The real day they are renting for is not a 24 hour day, it is a boom boom day (or night actually). If you want a 24 hour day, that is something different. In HCMC, every day is a boom boom day. Funny, but it illustrates how goofy the markets are here. I do not notice this boom boom day advertising in the north, but I am sure they do the same kind of thing.