[b]How did you find your current place of residence? Word-of-mouth? Newspaper? Real estate broker? We’d like to know!
Click on the POST REPLY button to submit your comments.[/b]
We found our apartment through Tsui Ma-Ma, the non-profit housing service. Their Web site is at http://www.tmm.org.tw (it’s in Chinese).
For a nominal fee you can get printouts of potential rental apartments according to area, price, size, type of building, etc.
This service is definitely worth checking out if you want an alternative to housing agents who will charge you a half to a full month’s rent as their fee.
I have used TMM twice… And I found great bargains both times.
Requires some legwork though.
I found both my places, in Hsintien and in Muzha through people seeing my ads here on this site when it was still oriented.org. I didn’t even have to contact them…they contacted me.
TMMT.org.tw
Seldom do ads deliver. Try walking around a neighborhood you like, looking for “To Rent” signs.
[quote]Click on the POST REPLY button to submit your comments.[/quote]Thanks for the tip 
. Like Moggy said, just sneak around your dream neighbourbood and check out the red signs. Generally have a phone number and the monthly rent written on them. They’re everywhere mate.
i found mine through tsui mama too, i highly recommend them! one of the good things they do is screening landlords for asking for no more than a two-month deposit, among other things.
the red signs are good but many are put up by real estate companies who will try to get the month fee (on signing of lease) from you. sometimes you can bargain them to a half month. that’s alright if you can accept that but i’m sure you’d rather not. another good source are the ads put on signboards by some organization, one spot is on shida road at the corner of the night market alley (wall of shida university dorms), another on a “little blue” truck on wenlin road at zhongzheng rd (NW corner, next to church)
Tsui mama is second to none for finding apartment rentals. Its that simple. No other agency can even come close to the service they provide.
How I wish there was a similar group involved in actually buying and selling property – I’m sick to the back teeth of lying, devious real estate agents!
For an apartment just go around and ask the security guards at all the buildings that you quite fancy. I don’t suggest going to any agents offices, they tend to have jacked up prices for their cut. Perhaps all the security guard needs is a red envelope.
I’m sorry to say that we can add tmm.org.tw/ to the long list of foreigner-unfriendly services–their Big5 guest page requires an ID card number and will not accept ARC numbers. Aargh!
I do understand that this fine organization has assisted many foreigners, and that I can go there in person.
Yeah, the website is not very user-friendly to non Taiwan ID-holders, but that’s just down to poor site design, I think.
They are certainly not discriminatory toward foreigners if you go in person – they’ve always been extremely helpful and friendly on the four occasions I’ve used them.
All you need to do is put “A1” in front of your Social Security number, for instance (for Americans). The system takes it just fine.
With a little research and a WHOLE LOT OF LUCK!
TMM 2 times (2 great bargains), connections once (here in Yangmei) and a real estate agent once.