When we touched down in Tainan, our primary goal was to find a rental apartment. In anticipation of our stay, we had booked a hotel room for six nights, fully aware that it might be too short, but we kept the option open to extend our stay if needed. We scoured various rental apartment websites and came across several apartments that piqued our interest. However, getting in touch with the owners or rental agencies proved to be quite a challenge. After hours of searching and sending messages, we managed to secure just one apartment visit.
The morning after our arrival in Tainan, we set out on foot to visit the apartment. The place looked decent, but it was quite a distance away. Since we were relying on walking for transportation, it would take us about 30 minutes to reach the language school and a whopping 50 minutes to reach the city center.
With no other visits lined up for that day, we decided to explore the city on foot, mainly to get a sense of the area and locate nearby shops. We secretly hoped to stumble upon that elusive “for rent” sign for our dream apartment. Old school apartment hunting at its finest! While wandering, we stumbled upon a real estate agency by chance. We debated entering, having had a discouraging experience with another agency the day before that only dealt with property sales. Then, out of the office emerged a friendly gentleman named Mr. Wen, who asked if he could lend us a hand. We briefly explained that we were searching for a rental apartment, and he warmly invited us inside.
Once comfortably seated, Mr. Wen launched into a round of 20 Questions, inquiring about our exact apartment desires, preferred neighborhoods, and more. Right from the start, he emphasized that we were under no obligation to rent through him. If he found a perfect apartment for us, that would be great, but if not, we were free to decline and move on. Began the show-and-tell. The first one was too small, another too expensive, and so on. Then, he showed us pictures of two apartments that looked promising but were similar to the one we had seen that morning— & further away from the city.
However, Mr. Wen surprised us by saying, “If you have some time, we can go visit the first one.” It was indeed a fantastic apartment, though still a bit distant from the city center and our school. “Tomorrow, come back to my office, and we’ll look at the other apartment,” Mr. Wen suggested.
Over dinner, we deliberated and decided that if the third apartment didn’t meet our expectations, we would call the owner of the very first apartment we visited and take it. We were doing what one should never do when searching for a place to live—losing patience. There’s always a perfect place to live, and if you haven’t found it yet, patience is key; the right opportunity will come your way.
The next day, we arrived at Mr. Wen’s office at 10:00 AM, only to discover we’d stumbled into a time warp—our appointment was set for 1:00 PM. Mr. Wen kindly came to pick us up from our hotel, and off we went to his office.. “The apartment I had in mind for today isn’t your cup of tea,” Mr. Wen confessed. “Let’s start fresh.” As we scrolled through the available apartments, after about 15 minutes, an apartment suddenly caught our eye. The price was reasonable, it was larger than what we needed, and the pictures looked like they were pulled straight from a catalog. “Where is this located?” we asked. “Just around the corner. Let me check if we can visit it now. Is that okay with you?” “Absolutely!” Thirty minutes later we thought we had rented an apartment.
The day after we were set to reconvene with Mr. Wen for the significant contract signing. Throughout our interactions with Mr. Wen, he had peppered in some personal inquiries in between discussions about the rental process. Questions like, “What’s the purpose of your visit to Tainan?” “What do you do for a living?” “How much can you put down as a deposit at the contract signing?” “Is there a possibility of making upfront payments for the first three months?” Little did we know, these queries held the key to understanding the nuances of Taiwanese society.
When the apartment owners arrived at the office, Mr. Wen engaged in a conversation with them that felt like it stretched for an eternity. In Asia, including Taiwan, trust forms the cornerstone of business dealings. Following this extended introduction, the owners signaled a glimmer of interest in renting the apartment to us. Soon, all parties gathered around the table – the owners, Mr. Wen, the two of us, and two additional real estate agents. It was like witnessing the orchestration of trust-building once more. Confidence and trust began to surge, reaching the pivotal moment when the question arose: “Okay?” “Okay!” “Okay!”
All discussions, questions & answers were in Chinese & we would especially like to thank Mr Wen for his endless patience with us. We speak some Chinese, but real estate language wasn’t in the Chinese course we had until now.
The story in pictures
If you click on a picture you can see the full picture & scroll through the other pictures.
