Korean Job Discussion Forums

[potin14p]

I'm leaving my current school 6 months into my contract. however, when i started I had to sign a year-long lease on my apartment. supposedly, the Realtor is looking for someone new to take over, and I say 'supposedly' because nothing has been happening at all. and really, what motivation do they have? they don't care. if they don't find someone, I have to keep paying rent. either way, the landlord still gets his money.
this leaves me in the sh*t. I do not want to have to keep paying rent for a place i'm not living in . but I also want to get my housing deposit back.
any ideas? do i get a friend to ring the realtor to get them moving?
do i disappear off the radar so as not to keep paying rent, and lose my deposit?
or, is there any way that i can get out of my housing contract , citing a change of circumstances? hell, its not as if other contracts are binding, why should mine be?

please help! =)

[RACETRAITOR]

Welcome to Korea.

[the eye]

Get a different realtor?
They all work on commission, so another one will be motivated to find a new rentor.

[potin14p]

can i do that? i thought that because that realtor first found the apartment for me, that i could only use that one. i will investigate this asap. thanks,

[moosehead]

[Corky]

What realtor did you use? I tried to use short-rent, filled out the questionnaire that took about an hour, contacted him several times and never heard back from him.

Craig's List Seoul is a good place to put an ad, so is English Spectrum and Worknplay. If you're looking for another realtor, you could try short-rent, Eden Realty, or Mandy Kim.

Just google any of that and you can get the info.

[maeil]

Is the school hiring a teacher to take over for you? Perhaps they will need a place to stay.

[the eye]

[victorology]

Find a new realtor. Or ten. That's what landlords do when they need to rent their place out. They contact every realtor in their neighborhood.

The landlord may not have incentive to find a new tenant but the realtors do since they work off commission. For example, if there's a 10 million won deposit and 500,000 won monthly rent, their commission would be 480,000 won.

Also be aware that if you are leaving the contract early, the landlord will probably make you pay the real estate agents fee. The new tenant pays half of the fee while the landlord pays the other half.

[billybrobby]

I thought that if you want to leave a place early, you tell the realtor and promise to pay a fee (around 200 bucks, I guess) if they can find somebody. And then the person they find pays also a fee, so it's a good incentive for them. I don't think there are any exclusive contracts between realtors and landlords, so try as many as you can.

[hari seldon]

There's a lot of useful information in this thread. Thanks for posting it. I face a similar situation--breaking a lease--but it's taking the realtor so long to find a new tenant that now I'm thinking I won't move.