玩偶姐姐

So i've been here 5 or so months and am enjoying the town again. I'm looking for a house to rent but am coming up with some strange demands from realtors.
Almost all are asking me for between 3 & 6 months rent up front. They say this is 'how it's done' in DN, but i've not heard of this before. I'll add that i've lived in VN for almost 9 years so am wary of scams etc.

I rented a house in Saigon before and had to pay 2 months deposit but paid rent monthly. Being asked to pay 6 months up front is ludicrous, i'm not a bank offering credit/loans to potential landlords...
-@departed00

It will be helpful if you look at the situation from the point of view of the landlords because times (and seasons) have definitely changed here in the 膼脿 N岷祅g/H峄檌 An area.

Landlords are no longer willing to commit their house or apartment for short-term rental and miss the opportunity of someone else coming along and wanting a long-term rental.

You see this all the time on social media, people saying they are coming here in June or July and they want to rent a house or an apartment for a month.

It sounds as if you want the freedom to handle things month to month, but landlords want you to commit to something.

Otherwise, there are always those converted hotel/apartments studios with a refrigerator microwave and hot water kettle that can be rented month to month.

Just keep in mind that for any long-term rental negotiation, you really must be willing to

1. Make a reasonable counter offer

and

2. Be willing to respectfully walk away if your counter offer is not accepted.

Most of them will only give you their best offer if they are truly convinced that you are ending negotiations.

I'm also assuming that you are trying to rent a nice place and not a dump.

The nicer the place in this region, the greater the demands of the landlord or agent will be.

One month deposit and one month rent in advance is likely the best deal you're going to get on anything anywhere, and even that will be rare, and probably not high quality.

Right now, landlords are thinking in terms of seasons, so recently they have been hoping to rent places through September, because many houses and apartments sit empty from October through March, especially during the worst parts of monsoon season.

ironically you probably could have gotten a really good deal if you had been willing to commit to 3 months or 6 months or 1 year 5 months ago, when you started staying here again.

Now you are negotiating in high season and landlords are much less motivated to give you a great deal if you are not willing to commit.

Our landlord wanted 1 months deposit and 3 months rent in advance on a one-year lease last October.

We countered with 3 months in advance and rent payable every 3 months with no deposit and 鈧�1,000,000 VN膼 monthly rent reduction, and that was accepted.

if you are willing to pay a chunk of rent in advance, you can probably get the deposit dropped but that will be up to you and your respectful negotiating skills.

if you have any thoughts about wanting to stay here long term, you might think about trying to rent a place through the end of September.

if you decide you want to remain here full time, you can then negotiate a lower rent for the entire year starting in October.

Hopefully that's helpful for you with the local market here.

Please give us some feedback here about your search results.

Send me a PM when you are coming to H峄檌 An & we'll meet for c脿 ph锚.

Cheers!

O.B.

Thanks OB. I'm prepared to potentially sign a 2 year contract although would prefer 1 year as you never know here with things like construction and things like that popping up next door.

When we walk away we sometimes get a call later that day offering 3 months up front plus one months deposit which is better.

I'm presuming agents get a cut of whatever they can secure up front so perhaps that's another reason why they try to get as much as possible.

Housing market in DN is still fairy hot i'd say with good units going quickly. 10-12tr seems to be the sweet spot for housing here if you want something reasonably modern and a good size. Of course i see the same properties advertised on different sites for a lot more, so you have to do your research.

Thanks OB. I'm prepared to potentially sign a 2 year contract although would prefer 1 year as you never know here with things like construction and things like that popping up next door.
When we walk away we sometimes get a call later that day offering 3 months up front plus one months deposit which is better.

I'm presuming agents get a cut of whatever they can secure up front so perhaps that's another reason why they try to get as much as possible.

Housing market in DN is still fairy hot i'd say with good units going quickly. 10-12tr seems to be the sweet spot for housing here if you want something reasonably modern and a good size. Of course i see the same properties advertised on different sites for a lot more, so you have to do your research.
-@departed00

Yeah, you seem to have a good grasp of the current situation for leasing decent places 馃槑馃憤

if I were in your shoes and they called me back like that I would probably counter offer one more time and say 3 months in advance but no deposit.

Most of the agents simply get one month rent on a one-year contract and having a deposit doesn't affect their commission as far as I know.

I would highly advise to only pay the deposit when you are in the presence of the landlord and not in advance to the agent.

If the agent demands something to hold the property till signing, offer 鈧�1,000,000 VN膼 at most.

Knowing a little more about your plans now, I would definitely suggest only signing something through September.

You will not only be in the position I mentioned--being able to get a lower rate for a full year, if you decide to stay in the same place--but you will be able to look around in September and many places that are not available now are definitely going to be opening up then.

That really is the prime time to be shopping here locally for an affordable one year lease.

By the way I remember us talking about your need for high-speed internet.

We were recently having a lot of problems in the evening and then also problems during the daytime.

We insisted on getting a brand-new, out of the box modem from Viettel, and we are now getting a half a gig download speeds from the 膼脿 N岷祅g server.

We had also insisted on not using the landlords Wi-Fi account but making sure that we had our own private account, that we've had through an ancient modem since October.

The service is incredibly different now

Hello

What sort of internet speeds (up and down) are you getting to international sites such as to the USA? When I checked a few years ago, all the providers said they had very fast speeds however that was only inside VN. When asked about international speeds you usually said something under 10Mbps download which is very slow.