Friday, May 12, 2006

We might have a place to live...

We looked at a place this morning that is 100% what we're looking for. It could not have been any better. Perfect location, perfect size, well within our budget. Perfect. It's almost too good to be true. In fact, it actually just might be too good to be true - the German gentleman who owns it is very hesitant to rent to an American. I'm guessing he probably had a bad experience with an American family in the past, who knows. When the German rental agent called Natascha (the German woman who works at the housing office on base), he initially told her that the landlord would not rent to Americans. However Natascha told him that I'm not in the army, I'm a civilian, that I would be a great tenant and that she's met my wife and that we're both extremely nice people and would not give them any problems, please give us a chance, yada, yada. They agreed to at least meet us and show it to us, which they did this morning. It turned out to be everything we were hoping for. The landlord's daughter actually showed us the place and she speaks a bit of English The landlord speaks no English and is apparently concerned that we will make no attempt to learn any German at all. I did my best to charm him and allay his fears by using what little German I know every chance I could. We had the immobilien agent explain that I lived in Italy for 6 years and learned Italian and that I lived in Germany for two years before that.

Anyway, they seemed to like us and said that we should each take a couple days to think about it. I told them we didn't need a couple days, we wanted the place for sure but they said to take a couple days anyway just to be sure. I'm kind of worried that they're stalling, hoping that a German family will come in and take it. But, I went to see Natascha after we left to do the application and when she called the immobilien rep, he informed her that it appeared positive for us.

We're supposed to get an answer by Monday or Tuesday so it will be a nerve wracking weekend. If we get the place I'll post some pictures and a description to make you all jealous. If we don't get it then maybe I'll just post a picture of me sobbing uncontrollably...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow dude that's good news! I hope you guys will finally get a good house. It's been long enough already ;)

And hey, with you finally having a fixed address, we can finally start planning that reunion ;)

Anonymous said...

Rik, as you know i lived in Germany for 10 years, i speak a great German, if you need someone to speak to them and tell them something to convince them, let me know. I know you will be learning German since you also learned a good italian here. For anything, let me know and i'll call them!

Anonymous said...

is the housing office picking up the immobilien tab?
mark