House Hunting

How do people do it? Move OS with a pack on there back find work, start a new life etc etc. I only ask because looking for a job they want to know where you live, applying for accommodation they want to know where you work. We decided finding a place to live was our biggest priority and the agents looked at us a little funny when we said we had no jobs. So I decided to take a different tact. “What if I pay 6 months rent in advance?” There eyes lit up and they grinned and said “yes that should speed up the process”. It’s funny being on the other side of the renting process, having never formally rented a property before I can see why so many of the tenants I interviewed all seemed disheartened before they even walked in the door. We are competing against a university semester starting, greedy landlords renting out there 500 a month places at 300 a week to festival goers and a slim vacancy rate. Luckily we can commit to 6 months which is considered a long lease and not many students are in a position to offer up that sort of cash in advance.

It’s not all doom and gloom, we managed to find a decent estate agent, instead of the usual 'meet you at a place at a certain tim'e he was nice enough to drive us to two places. The first place was a bit out of the city but it was a great flat, one of the best views I have ever seen (looked over the firth of fourth, love saying that) had an en suite (very rare in these parts) a lounge room with big double doors to close it off and a spare room for the many guests we expect. But we decided it was just too far out and looked at the second one, not as nice, no real view to speak of but its location was pretty good 12 minute walk to the city centre, huge supermarket across the road and next to a major train station. It also backs on to what they call an entertainment centre which has a huge cinema (prices are actually cheaper then Australia) a gym, a brewery, a casino and 8 minute walk to what was described as Edinburgh’s 'girly corner'. We put in an application and hoping we are successful tomorrow. We also looked at a little 1 bedroom flat that smelled like an old shoe that a cat had used as litter tray and was rather green, dingy and had a drier in the middle of the single bedroom. We are looking at some more tomorrow in case the other one falls through, but we are hopeful, apparently it is up to the landlord not the agency, but as a landlord somebody offering to pay me 6 months in advance would often get the house.

I’m now transferring a large sum of money into our British bank account to cover what is needed to pay the rent in advance. One of the sad things is if I had transferred the money only 4 days ago it would have cost $400 less, amazing how quickly currency values change.

It is odd we are both sunburnt, I even put on sunscreen both days and still got pink, no body here has a hat either. All in all it's not going to badly.