Year by year finding a decent flat for good price in Berlin is getting harder and harder. I can not count, how many times I have heard horror stories from the people, who were constantly moving from one short-term rental to the another. Never fully unpacked, struggling with finding the apartment for 6 months or more. I consider myself very lucky to find my apartment in the area I wanted, just a couple of weeks after coming to Berlin. So is there something we can do to help our luck?

Key actions

Start looking for the flat early.

You won’t find an apartment in a week. this process takes some time. Without a doubt, you will have to go through a couple of visits and interviews before you will find the one. Of course the bigger budget you have the faster you can get what you want. However, if your means are limited, you better start looking early. In this way you will save yourself some stress.

Be prepared and have all the papers ready.

German law is very protective of the tenant, once the landlord let people into the apartment, it is not so easy to get rid of them, even if they are not paying the rent. For that reason, landlords try to protect themselves from dishonest people by asking for a countless number of the documents. We need to prove that we are a good fit and more importantly that we are able to pay the rent. It is very unlucky that you will manage to go through the selection process with missing Schufa or other papers. So do the work Nomad and go to the meetings prepared.

Ask your friends to ask their friends.

I know, this advice sounds obvious. However, lots of people tend to forget that often the world can be really small place. Don’t be shy Nomad and not only tell all of your friends that you are looking for the flat, but also ask them to spread the word and share a Facebook post about it. You will be surprised where that can take you. Not to mention the fact, that everybody would trust more person that is recommended by somebody they know.

Check websites regularly.

Berlin is full of people looking for hunting for the perfect nest. You still can find a good flat in decent price. However, these offers are disappearing quickly, you need to act fast. Check the websites and do it frequently to be sure that you didn’t miss a thing. I would say do it twice a day. ( You don”t know where to look for the flats offers? Take a look here.)

Go social and check FB groups.

Like it or not but almost everybody is nowadays on Facebook. Thanks to possibility of free advertising the same applies to flat offers.  Many of locals use multiple Facebook groups to advertise a room or apartment for rent in Berlin. Of course, in this case, I recommend you to be more cautious about scams. However, the Facebook groups are still pretty useful and feature legitimate listings. At this point, doing anything and everything will help you in your search.

Go professional.

I know you can get tired just by reading this post. What if you don’t have time for all this hustle. There is an easy way out- big housing companies and cooperatives. They usually a big number of flats and very often, they put only a fraction of the free ones on the intent.

Good luck Nomad!