For foreigners, at least, realtors are also property managers. Each of them only has a set list of properties that they will show you since these are the properties they also manage. If you want to see something else you have to find a different realtor. However, in reality, our first realtor had more than 50 properties to show us and we only looked at 10 before I reached overload. They were almost all really great and choosing between them was the biggest challenge.
Pyeongtaek and the surrounding area has been up until now primarily a farming area. Most Koreans live in cities, but the Americans that are moving here is large numbers generally prefer a less urban environment. So the most preferable houses around here, according to our realtor, have a view of either a rice paddy, gardens, or an orchard.
Our rent will be paid up front in one lump sum each year we live in the house. This payment will include all utilities, appliances, as well as internet and yard care. If I understood correctly, Koreans pay rent much differently: they pay between 70-100% of the value of the house and then get the money back when they move out. Needless to say, Korean's don't usually rent houses! We did have to pay an extremely small down payment to secure the house: only $200
More things are negotiable in the process of forming the contract than we would be able to do in the States. We can negotiate on the yearly price and any furniture we might want to have. We can request renovations can be made to the house. For example, we need more bookshelves, so we can ask the landlord to build some for us. Korean ovens are very small so our realtor will see if we can get a bigger one installed. If the standard super-fast internet is not sufficient we can ask for even faster internet. If we need a new washer and dryer the owner will install them for us. All of these things (if the owner agrees, and he or she would be unlikely to disagree) would be done under the same yearly rent we pay. There would be no extra charge.
Update: As it turns out, the owners pushed back a bit more than we expected, or we didn't negotiate well enough. We did get the fastest internet and a new washer and dryer, but did not get bookshelves or a bigger oven. However, the owners did come by in June to plant flowers in our yard and they came back in October to give us a super nice air filter (an absolute necessity here) and also a dehumidifier for one of the rooms that was developing a mold problem. So all-in-all, not too bad.
Now that we have settled on a house our realtor helped us create a list of things we would like done to the house before moving in. He cautioned us that we might have to wait to move in in order to get it all done. But 'waiting' meant we couldn't move in this weekend (today is Friday) we might have to move in Wednesday instead. Since we can hardly get all the U.S. government paperwork done in that time we weren't too concerned!
Here are some initial pictures:
Now that we have settled on a house our realtor helped us create a list of things we would like done to the house before moving in. He cautioned us that we might have to wait to move in in order to get it all done. But 'waiting' meant we couldn't move in this weekend (today is Friday) we might have to move in Wednesday instead. Since we can hardly get all the U.S. government paperwork done in that time we weren't too concerned!
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