House Hunting Part 1

This past Saturday (Jan. 9th), I went to Siheung to look at apartments and neighborhoods.  I had some vague ideas about where I wanted to be in Siheung and this first round of apartments helped me further decide where I want to be.  Here is the area that I am looking at for housing:

Originally, I wanted to be closer to the subway station but I looked at three that were about a 3 minute walk from the subway, and decided against that.  Looking at the apartments, I noticed that they were almost all studios, which means that they will be full of students.  This means that it will be loud and I don't really want to live that close to my students.  Obviously, I understand that I will live near students, it is a college town after all but this area was definitely going to be more college students than other areas that I looked at.

In addition to the three apartments near the subway, I also looked at three apartments that were in the middle between the subway and my school.  These seemed more family oriented areas, and a lot more relaxed.  I actually liked this area the best of the two that I looked at and think it is where I would like to end up.  If not a little closer to the school.

Now, I looked at a total of six apartments on Saturday, all studios that were either newly renovated or brand new.  However, because of this, they were extremely small.  I did see two that had space but they were in a location that I did not like (too student oriented).  This got me to think about what I am looking at for an apartment.  I want space and light.  Those are the big things for me, so I may have to change what I am looking for because the studios will not give me the space.  So, next time I go house hunting I will be looking at 1.5 room and 2 room apartments (1.5 room = 1 bedroom with kitchen and living room together; 2 room = 2 bedrooms with living room and kitchen).  I am hoping to find a nice 1.5 room apartment because I don't really need a 2 room apartment because it is so big but we will see what happens.  The realtors know what I am looking for and hopefully I can find something in my budget (which I was told is high, so "I must be making a lot of money because I am willing to spend so much").

In addition to changing from looking at studios to looking for a one bedroom apartment, I also was told to wait to look.  The city I am moving to is small and therefore different from the Seoul market.  In Seoul, you have to look for apartments at least 1 month in advance to get what you are looking for.  The three realtors in Siheung told us that they do not really have the inventory for Feb. 27th or Feb. 28th move ins.  So, instead of looking for housing this month and getting everything out of the way, I will now be looking for housing about 10 days before I have to move.  Which is super scary for me but this is Korea and this is how so many things work.  So last minute at times.  For now, I will wait and think about things before I go back for my apartment hung on Feb. 13th.  Hopefully I can find something awesome on that day, so I do not have to go back on Feb. 20th.  Here is hoping and I will keep you all posted on this process.  This apparently short process.