Can you guys recommend me any real state agency to find a house to rent in Zürich?
My problem is that finding a flat in Zürich takes a lot of time, as tons of people seems to be interested in every flat in the center and therefore you need to visit a lot of them, which is just too time consuming to do while working... so I hope an agency can help, any recommendation?
Not sure if any agency is really going to care about how many people are booked to visit a given place. In any case, a place where you may find interesting C2C opportunities could be www.gratisinserate.ch . Use any web translator if you get into language trouble. If there is a specific village you like on the Lake, then just check the local Migros or Coop for they probably have a full bulletin board with postings from locals.
Has anybody any direct experience, good or bad, with Mata Dienst?
Upon visiting their office:
- they request 50chf up-front to take your search criteria
- they refused to demonstrate, convince or sell their claim that they "have private access to apartments not on www.homegate.ch or the internet". Wouldn't even show me locally on their computer in front of us, not to mention visit an apartment together that is not listed on Homegate or the Internet.
- they charge 75% of 1 month rent, if you choose an apartment.
The "75% fee" appears in-line with industry standards internationally, but the absolute lack of interest in giving me a reason to believe them was astounding. If they really have such strong private relationships with apartments/landlords, why are they so reticent to demonstrate the value of their service?
I'm very skeptical of such brokers, due to previous experience. Schweizer Relocation, a similar broker, assisted a friend of mine a year ago... and simply set a search profile on www.homegate.ch , received a daily email, and would repackage the apartment details in a .pdf file and email it to me. I was already getting the same apartment results a few hours earlier in the daily Homegate email subscription that I HAD SETUP!
Also had a similar experience in Paris, paying an up-front 50-100eur for a broker to search, only to receive a couple off-target offers over the course of several WEEKS.
I would LOVE to believe Mata Dienst is different. I would love to believe they have the Swiss keys to the kingdom. I would love to be "sold" on their service. But they're not interested in "selling".
So your positive/negative feedback is most appreciated!
Hi, our company uses a lady called Barbara Hofer ( http://www.toprelocation.ch ) She's found two of my colleagues flats, and they were both happy with her services. She speaks fluent English which helps.
Try upping your budget. My experience was that fewer people applied for the more expensive flats, so you have a better chance of getting it. We had no chance of getting the CHF 1500 a month flats but we were the only one applying for the CHF 2700 a month flat. Still cheaper than our hotel room.
True. We were looking for 2-room apartments, without any luck. Then we decided to go for 3 rooms, and we got the first one we applied for. It costs a bit more, but saves you months of searching-stress and it's nice to have an extra room for junk, guests etc.
I just had a very bad experience with Mata Dienst today!!
So I call them on the phone, and they tell me that the flat is still available, that I have to go to the office and the only thing I have to pay is 75% of the first month rate.
Arrived at the office... and they tell me there is this 50 CHF fee. First very bad impression of people starting to cheap you on the first contact...
Then, they, indeed, totally refuse to demonstrate that they have a database with nice stuff. OK, I was there, 50 CHF is not a big deal: I paid.
Then the guy started to relax, be unprofessional, and gave me the address of an "sehr sehr ruhig" flat, extremely quiet, what I am looking for. And it happened to be 50 meters from a motorway and 50 meters from the train station!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my opinion, owners who list their properties with agencies that charge the tenant a fee to lease the apartment are just cheap. Why should a tenant pay a fee? It is the owner who will be collecting the rent. There have been other discussions about agencies other than Matadienst, including Max Immo. MAX-immo: Has anyone heard of them or used them?
Another one to avoid.
In many cases these agencies never step foot in the flat. They take what the owner says at face value. It is just a waste of a tenant's time and money.
If you are going to pay anyone to help you find an apartment, do try and find someone who represents your interests.
Sure. I think I'll be going going for http://www.swiss-relocation.ch . It cost 3000 CHF do visit 10 flats, 50% should be paid first, 50% after the dream flat is found.
10 flats! Is it really possible to find 10 flats to show someone that could potentially fit their needs? I have never shown anyone 10 flats. That sounds like a total waste of time and just a way of justifying charging 3000 chf.
The reason to visit 10 flats is not because I might not like some of them, but because there is so much competition for flats in Zurich that one needs to apply to a lot of flats to get one. Doesnt it make sense?
If your relocation consultant is worth their salt (and what you are paying them) they should have contacts within the rental agencies who should be able to get you to the top of the list. Otherwise, what is the point of the exercise anyway? You could find out most (not all, I concede) places to rent yourself and make appointments to visit. If you are shelling out 3K just for that then you are being screwed....
LOLLLL I'm just reading through this old post and not surprisingly having the same problem. A Swiss friend suggested using Mata Dienst but their website is so ghetto that I have a hard time taking them seriously, and an even harder time paying them 1750CHF or more!... and to hear that they are potentially racist, that just takes the cake. Looking for an apartment in Zurich is truly awful. If anyone has come up with any tips or tricks since this post was started, don't be a stranger.