Apartment in Mellieha

redmik wrote:

toonarmy9752 wrote:

My advice - dont go anywhere near Frank salt in the village if you can help it...--- waste of space....

Well I can't question that Toon, perhaps because they operate mostly out of main offices? A bit like a main city bank branch as opposed to a rural one?
I also know that one should beware of some smiling, friendly agents.

Frank Salt have offices all over the island - they must be one fo the largest if not the largest estate agents here..so that can hardly be an excuse


100% true of both agent and landlord....now they truly abide by camerons "we are all in it together" mantra

we have tried using them several times and now we avoid them like the plague..... we only went with some friends last week to look at a few properties and they failed to even keep an appointment - no phone calls or nothing...their office staff are abysmal.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

it is indeed sad that i cannot recommend even one estate agent here..

On that basis and acknowledging your experience I will delete my post. I can't really say as we found our place ourselves.
For what it's worth, I scoured every internet site I could advertising apartments and then e-mailed the owners direct.
Must have sent a fair few and had lots of internet chats with them but got a great one in the end.

redmik wrote:

toonarmy9752 wrote:

it is indeed sad that i cannot recommend even one estate agent here..

On that basis and acknowledging your experience I will delete my post. I can't really say as we found our place ourselves.
For what it's worth, I scoured every internet site I could advertising apartments and then e-mailed the owners direct.
Must have sent a fair few and had lots of internet chats with them but got a great one in the end.

sadly Red...it is what it is...and it pains me not to be able to do so...

it is a fact here that most agents websites are not/never updated and are months if not years out of date. its also not a good state of play in terms of newbies looking for property when the vast majority of properties advertised are simply not available...ultimately wasting your time and theirs tooo..... but then if they took them off the agents would have empty windows and websites.


welcome to Malta

mada3 wrote:

We would like to thank you all for the help. We've read many good advices in the forum throughout the last half year

Well,now we know that we should avoid using real estate agents.
But to take up the subject on mold again, is it harmful? Because it sounds like it is very difficult to avoid (and unpleasant)

Hi mada3

There are some interesting 'tips'....

Here.......

........and here

Don't let it be a showstopper......the plusses way outnumber the negatives.

Enjoy

Mike

MikeInPoulton wrote:

mada3 wrote:

We would like to thank you all for the help. We've read many good advices in the forum throughout the last half year

Well,now we know that we should avoid using real estate agents.
But to take up the subject on mold again, is it harmful? Because it sounds like it is very difficult to avoid (and unpleasant)

Hi mada3

There are some interesting 'tips'....

Here.......

........and here

Don't let it be a showstopper......the plusses way outnumber the negatives.

Enjoy

Mike

yes they still do despite some of my more negative rants...

pgl wrote:

Here's the thing that puzzles me. There's obviously a gap in the market for a decent, reliable real estate agent that everyone would recommend. Let's say a company that asks for no commission from the tenant, and one month's rent from the landlord. (I know it's not normal practice, but if I owned one of the 55,000 empty properties on the island, I'd be more interested in renting the place than saving 300 EUR.) One that enforced customer service, put down ground rules for its agents and actively solicited feedback from tenants and actually acted on complaints.

If that existed, they'd explode - everyone would recommend them, every prospective tenant would want to rent through them, they'd own the market.

Is there simply not enough people looking for this to work?

couldnt agree more - now theres a novelty - the first ethical estate agent in Malta - what a selling point that would be  - and a blooming miracle if it came to fruition.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

yes they still do despite some of my more negative rants...

Give over.......you are one of the most positive posters on here (and a proper realist t'boot).

Right.......off t'pub to watch my team in their annual relegation battle.

Wish me luck

Mike

mantonas wrote:

I am sure that 15 days should be more than enough for you to find an apartment...best of luck!

In regards to the primary school, I also need to register my 4 years old son. I am thinking going there within the next few days and I will also give you a feedback about the all process as soon as I have more details.

Cheerio,
Antonio

It will be interesting to see if they insist on your ID number before you can register you child at the school.

Terry

tearnet wrote:

It will be interesting to see if they insist on your ID number before you can register you child at the school.
Terry

Probably they will but let's see how it will go...hopefully by showing the tenancy agreement and explaining that I already applied for the eResidence, they might understand. Will keep the fingers crossed

SillyPennyP wrote:

This has turned out to be a great post for me to read... thanks everyone.

We haven't decided on where we want to live yet, it will all depend on which school we like as to the area.  However, I have a few questions re renting...

What is the norm for renting, does the estate agent take a cut from the renter or the landlord, or both?  One/two months deposit?  Anything to avoid particularly?

Thanks

Hi SillyPennyP

take a look at the following post where 'toonarmy' put together a fantastic list of do's and don'ts  and things to look for when finding an apartment in Malta.

Great advice.............copywrite 'toon'

Add it to your check list.......

Mike