The Real Estate Game

November 2, 2006 - 2:30 PM by Allison

There is absolutely a flourishing genre of Israeli blogging called “the desperate Tel Aviv apartment search.” Nun Bet has the latest installment:

Here’s how it works. One, all the “good” apartments are already taken by friends of friends. People offer apartments to their inner circle first. So the apartments that make it to the ads online are either offered by friendless people or none of their friends wanted that apartment. Once the apartment hits the online ads, the wildfire begins. People are literally sitting at their computers refreshing the ads waiting for the newest one. The ad goes up and then it’s a race to be the first one to see the apartment. Usually the first person to see the apartment has dibs on it. The good apartments go fast. The second person there is usually out of luck.

This part of the game is no problem now that I know the rules. It is a real pain in the ass though that I have a life and that life is in Jerusalem. When a good apartment is advertised, it could be very well gone by the time I get down the mountain. Grrr!

The most frustrating part of the whole experience is defining our limits. Y and I started out looking for a two bedroom apartment for $850. We wanted it to be somewhat renovated (no leaks, no crumbling walls, AC) and generally in nice shape. Soon we found ourselves being pushed upward by this market momentum. Now we’re looking at $1000 apartments with views to parking lots through broken windows! We saw a lovely apartment last night for $1100. It’s a 2 1/2 room job with central air, very well renovated, with a view to a nice garden. But it’s tiny! We’d have to make lots of lifestyle compromises to live there. Plus the current residents are taking their built-in oven and dishwasher. We’d have to buy these items in order to fill in the holes. Y and I haven’t had these kinds of conversations before. So each apartment we see presents opportunities for us to figure out what’s important to us. While we’re debating, someone else is signing the paperwork.

We did have a very interesting experience on our first trip out to see apartments in Tel Aviv. We made an appointment to see a 2 1/2 room apartment in Old North Tel Aviv. Y and the woman that answered the door recognized each other right away. She asked, “How do we know each other?” From high school! We stepped into the apartment and she offered us water. There was another woman eating lunch in the kitchen and she introduced herself. Y turned to me and said, “That’s the Prime Minister’s daughter.” We saw the apartment of the Prime Minister’s daughter! It was a lovely apartment. Huge balcony. Nice rooms. Great street. I was ready to take it. However there are two people in front of us. The first person said that they would only do $1100. The second person offered $1200. Here Y and I stood with pretty good protexia, but that doesn’t seem to be enough these days in TLV real estate market. These ladies are moving out because their landlady is raising the rent from $900 to at least $1100 a month. That’s the kind of market increase we’re talking about.

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