Nangang park
You can’t take anything a landlord or agent says at face value. Do your own due diligence when it comes to issues like noise, who your neighbors are, building amenities, the age and condition of appliances, etc.
I’m value oriented too. wouldn’t say cheapass, but I ain’t gonna pay an arm and a leg for a shoebox apartment. my life is too messy, for a 2 year lease.
@RBE thanks for the advice as usual. but yeah, given i’m new this is an L I will probably take or I’m prepared to take. in ideal world, I would get a short term lease first to feel the place then extend. but given language barrier and just being new to a place - things happen.
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I think almost all are 1 year leases. , moving companies are pretty cheap compared to usa if you choose to move about just beware some will offer a short lease but with an inflated price.
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and how long, does it take say after meeting with landlord etc to get everything finalized. in the us it’s usually 3 days for a good apartment. and with me being new here, I wouldn’t know what to go off of.
If they want the money bad enough it can all be done in the same day. The contracts are pretty much standard. Have someone you trust read it if you can’t. I’d say that typically 2-3 days is average. If you need it translated that can take a day or so. Others can chime in.
You may need a chop/ stamp as some landlords don’t like signatures. This can also be made quickly.
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Same day or next day
I dont think there are credit checks or references needed here… i had my gf take care of it . We got two generic contracts at 7/11 and they were hand written maybe stamped but definitely id’s we’re required, if you need a stamp there are places that can make them for you but i think foreigners get a pass most of the time …
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and is it preferable to rent via agency or straight with landlord, as a foreigner. because, right now seems most landlords just list their phone numbers on 591. and of course me, not speaking mandarin, it might be an issue. I have gone for the texting route, let’s see how it turns out.
Im not trying to be rude or pushy. But you need to buddy up with a couple people especially to help with Taiwanese culture.
I used interpals before a came here and met some friends. Tinder ,bumble ,tealit,or whatever works just post that your looking for friends as you are new in tw.
Were you doing this in qt? I think there still maybe foreigner meet up groups about ( not only foreigners locals show up also)
I cant speak chinese so i cant help much. Im sure many locals would love to meet you and help you !
I came here and had only one good friend that was a life saver, without this friend i would have struggled.
Yeah, I have connected with a few ladies on bumble 2 foreigners and a couple of local ones. but I ain’t gonna hang out with them this week due to CNY. a couple of them traveling down south. but yeah thanks for the tip. never heard of tealit before. is meetup a thing here ?
also this forum has really been helpful a lot. read it up a bit before even deciding to come here. so props to everyone!! 
Taitung has great air. These days Taipei is very bad, worse than South these days a bit odd for winter as Kaoshuing has good air in Spring and Summer but last two winters as far air has been much better.
went to view some apartments today in Tamsui, really nice place. thanks for the heads up @gmu. However, what felt weird was the agent wanted agent fee before signing. she was like you pay agent fee, then she will talk to the landlord. I didn’t pay, since it didn’t make sense. at the same time, not sure about the process. like why would you pay agent fee before signing the lease.
I asked a local gal, I met on bumble too, and she says yeah you pay agent fee on signing. maybe I miss understood the agent.
Iiuc it is a common practice.
Bumble girl is right. Never pay an agent anything until you have a lease signed. If an agent is asking you to pay money before this, they’re pulling a fast one.
Also, don’t provide a deposit for a place before you do the lease signing. Sometimes unscrupulous agents/landlords will try to convince you to put money down ASAP on the basis that there’s supposedly lots of interest in their place and unless you provide a deposit, you could lose out. Most of the time they’re BSing you.
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Yeah, that’s what I noticed. the agent was really insistent on me paying her the agent fee.
and funny enough, today she contacts me saying the landlord is not in the country. like, you wanted me to pay you, and yet you were not even sure about the landlord’s location. glad I was hip to the fast one, she was trying to pull.
and the apartments she showed were really affordable too. and crazy thing is you will see those same apartment listed on facebook groups meant for foreigner at 2x to 3x the rent. Ahh, I guess the locals must think foreigners are here for the taking.
And with whatever is happening to Hong Kong, I believe Taiwan has a lot of potential. but anyways these are just my observations in my short time here.
Wow 2-3x thats nuts
You should tell her that you’re reporting her to the authorities.
If the price is too good to be true…My guess is that she was looking to scam you out of the “agent fee” and if you had paid it, she would have either disappeared or given you some BS excuse about the apartment no longer being available for rent because the price she told you was not accurate.
She might not even actually be a listing agent for the property.
591 is such a pain in the ass
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