Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

My wife and I looked around yesterday, after a 2 month break. We'd found the general area of the city we wanted (near Gunja station). We were looking for Wolse (down money) of around 40,000,000 plus rent of around 900,000 won.

A few months back, we could find some 32 pyung places at 40,000,000 and 1,000,000, and 50,000,000 and 1,000,000. After scouring a few real estate offices in the same area, we were disgusted to see that we were finding less available than 2 months ago.

We did get lucky, however. We landed a 40 pyung place for 40,000,000 down and 800,000 per month.

The good:

It was built four years ago, so it's newer. The owner's daughter lived there and they have spent a good chunk on nice wallpaper with different patterns in each room -- NOT white. There are new appliances (new oven), and flooring. We'll have two bathrooms, and two perfect-sized balconies for this kind of place (not massive space-wasters) which is great.

The bad (and why it's cheaper):

It's an 11 minute walk to the subway (or 3-4 min bus ride from out back). We're in the Jangandong area, and area notorious for prostitution and the recent major crackdowns putting pimps out of business. Luckily, we're nestled between two other large apartment complexes and near some schools, so we're not smack dab in the middle of the motels in the area. No doubt that's why we got such a large place for the price of a newer 25-30 pyung place elsewhere.

One thing you learn is that some real estate people are:
a. Liars
b. Lazy
c. Sometimes fronts for other illegal things (we saw one obvious case of this)
d., one who works his/her butt off calling all over the place to find you something.

You can literally find a corner on a street that has 4 real estate agents within spitting distance of an apartment complex or villa area you want to live in. Three of them will tell you, "no... nothing here at all." The fourth guy will possibly have something or know someone who does. It pays to ask around.

They're like English teacher job recruiters. They'll smile at you and tell you "nothing here" when the truth is that they don't have something for you, but they want to put you in something else.

[Chamchiman]

[mheartley]

[bassexpander]

[bassexpander]

Well, just learned that the family is pulling out of the deal.

Seems they now don't want to offer Wolsae, but will think about it for a week. In other words, they probably want to hold out and see if they can get a higher offer. The thing is, we agree to what they asked.

We're writing them off, and will keep looking.

Typical Korean bullshit. Try to change the deal.

[SHANE02]

interesting. I thought right now most landlords wanted wolsae. Good luck, you'll find something.

[bassexpander]

Who knows.

Apparently, the daughter didn't know that the parents were going to do Wolsae or something. I believe my wife said the daughter wants Joensae.

Maybe they want a big chunk of cash to put down on their next house, or to invest.

Or maybe they found out I'm a waygook, and lost interest.

We'll probably never know.

[Hyeon Een]

[bassexpander]

[Hyeon Een]

[John_ESL_White]

You're in the driver's seat in this situation.

Given the current economy, you can definately barter.

If they back out and then come back to the table, you need to tell them that you found something x amount cheaper but you still like their place and are interested if they drop to X amount....

good luck man

[bassexpander]

HY is right, though... gotta strike while the iron is hot on a good deal!

It sounds like the family will talk it over this week and let us know (while they surely entertain any other offers that come their way). We're just planning to look next week regardless.

As for asking to get a cheaper price -- I'd LOVE to do that, but it's undervalued as it is. We wouldn't get anywhere with trying to negotiate for anything more. I'm angry enough, though, that I'm tempted to have my wife call the realtor and say, "We've decided we don't want to live so close to that bad area."

Oh well.... we'll just plan to look next weekend. Nothing we can do about it now.

[John_ESL_White]

[bassexpander]

Well, we will not pay more than has been offered, that is for sure.

Thanks.

[bassexpander]

Update:

No word from the first apartment yet, other than that they haven't found another deal. It appears that the daughter is counting on Jeonsae (full deposit with no rent) money from the parents to get another apartment.

Interestingly, the realtor called to show us a 32 pyung place a bit closer to the subway. The owner of that place required Jeonsae as well. Sad for her, she's not getting it from anybody -- we don't have it, either. It appears that nobody has the money for Jeonsae, and she's in a desperate situation. She has to get Jeonsae in order to pay back the current tenant, and another bank loan to pay it back isn't something she wants/can afford to do-- but she may have to. So here's a case of someone investing their tenant's Jeonsae money (likely) and losing 50 percent in the stock market, and being unable to pay back the current rentor. Scary.

The 2nd owner considered letting us do Wolsae (rent plus down money), but she can't afford to do it without a large loan that would cost her a lot of money. She checked at the bank, and it seems such a loan will take time -- so she says. In other words, she's trying to delay us too. We just said, "No..." and won't bother even looking at the place. We aren't about to get our money tied-up in that fiasco!

So this appears to be the game right now. These apartment owners (in our price range, anyway) NEED Jeonsae so badly that they can't even consider Wolsae. That seems to be contrary to the things we've read, but at our price range the Jeonsae thing has been our experience.

We'll see how it pans out as we look at more places.

Based on this, I would say that we may indeed be seeing a housing bubble burst in the next year if the economy gets worse. This whole screwy Jeonsae / Wolsae system may cause Korea to suffer badly, IMHO.