Personal experience: how an immigrant to rent a house in the USA and not become a victim of fraudsters

This was the ideal apartment option. Absolutely everything suited me: location, price, conditions. The only thing is that I looked at this apartment on the Internet. The owner asked to send her money on the card, and only after that she would hand over the keys. It's good that I didn't do this.

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Finding housing is one of the first challenges people face when moving to another country. In the end, I found an apartment in Washington. And surprisingly, it turned out to be easier to do than in Kyiv, writes Ostap Yarish for VOA.

First steps

I knew practically no one in Washington, so the task of finding housing here was “with an asterisk” for me. I started my search in Ukraine: I wanted to figure out the prices, study the city map, and understand what was offered here in general. Where to look? Friends from America suggested several options. The first and most obvious is Airbnb, as well as Craigslist and Zillow. I was also advised to join local Facebook groups (something like the Kyiv “Housing Search without Realtors”), where you can find a room or apartment without intermediaries.

In the end, I decided to rent a room for the first period. In Washington, monthly rent costs on average from 800 to 1200 dollars, and a one-room studio apartment can be found for 1500-2000. The connection to the capital was not so important - many people live here in the suburbs, in the states of Virginia or Maryland, but the distances are not so great - there is even a subway service there. To make it clearer, it’s about the same as Irpen, Vyshgorod or Brovary near Kiev.

Often, owners prefer signing a contract for six months or a year, but I did not want to be attached to one place for such a long time and was looking for a monthly rent. And what if in a month I realize that I don’t like the area? Or it turns out that housing conditions are not as comfortable as it seemed at first? Or a roommate will be annoying or untidy? In the new city, it was important for me to leave room for maneuver for myself.

After I decided on the main criteria, I began a real search. In the Facebook group itself, I wrote that I was looking for a room. On Craigslist revised all before the last announcement and sent messages to those who interested me. And on the first day I received several offers.

The best option

At first I was convinced that it was important to find permanent housing before I moved - but in the end I realized that it was useless. Essentially, I was flying to the USA without yet having an apartment. Such uncertainty was a little scary - but it was better than buying a pig in a poke. In fact, I almost didn't do it.

One of the first to write was the owner of a two-room apartment - of all the advertisements, I liked her the most. Downtown Washington, new building, 10 minutes walk to the White House, 15 minutes to work. Price per room: $900, including utilities, a very good deal for such conditions.

The letter was painted in great detail. I would say too detailed. The owner said that earlier she trusted the question of rent to her realtor, but he was dishonest and deceived her, so she decided to do it herself. The woman said she now lives in a neighboring state and is engaged in restoring a family business that in the past has suffered from a hurricane. At first she wanted to sell her apartment in Washington, but then decided to rent it out to someone decent. For this, she asked to tell in detail about herself. All this at first caused confidence, but at the same time it was surprising. Why so much information that is not directly related to the case?

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After I talked about myself, the correspondence continued. The woman said that in the other room there will be a girl who plans to check into the apartment two weeks later. By a pleasant coincidence, she was also a journalist, besides my age. The tenant said she was very neat and suggested that we would have many common interests with her. So far, everything looked very good.

Then the landlady offered to sign the contract by e-mail. But with the only condition: after that I have to send her the 900 card for the first month + the same amount of deposit, and then she will send the keys to the apartment to any convenient address. She said that I can look at the apartment in the photographs, or come into the house and inspect the new building from the outside. No, it’s impossible to see the room inside with your own eyes until I drop the money.

Puss in the bag

This alarmed me. On the one hand, transferring such an amount in advance is very risky. On the other hand, I didn’t know how it works in the USA. Perhaps this is normal practice here and there is no need to worry? Moreover, we sign the contract, I will have all her data. Well, Americans are apparently decent people, and the law enforcement system here works differently. In a word, I found myself in a situation in which I had to make a choice: either take a risk for the ideal option, or continue searching for housing, which could drag on for who knows how long.

Nevertheless, I decided to offer the apartment owner a compromise. I am ready to rent a room, but with the possibility of a preview. I asked if she could send the keys to her friends or neighbors so they could show me the apartment. Or, as a last resort, I can wait until my neighbor moves in and come and see it then.

Usually the woman answered my letters within a few hours. But after this message she just disappeared. Two days later I wrote again. No reaction. My friend, who has been living in the USA for many years and who leases apartments himself, decided to take a look at the announcement.

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“The address of the apartment is in a new building, but this house cannot have such a layout and interior. The photographs show a private or older house, and definitely at the wrong address. This is most likely a scam,” he said.

The “owner” of the apartment never wrote: the advertisement turned out to be a fake. As they explained to me later, this could happen in the USA. Fraudsters deliberately offer attractive conditions at a very reasonable price - they cast a fishing rod with bait. The ideal candidates for them are foreigners who are moving to America and, having no experience in finding housing here, fall for a lucrative offer. Fortunately, I did not become one of them. Saved $1800 and my nerves.

Pitfalls

What else should you pay attention to to avoid unpleasant surprises? First of all, always come to view the apartment in person. This means that it is better to look for housing already on site. Moreover, this way you can see not only the premises, but also the area - and here this often plays a greater role than in Ukraine.

This is what happened to me during my search: in the photographs there is a very cozy apartment, but the block turned out to be one of the most crime-prone in Washington. In the United States, there are databases describing each area. Information can be checked, for example, by postal code. Demographics, crime rate, prices - in a completely unfamiliar city, these data helped to understand which place is good to live and which is better to avoid.

The designation of the number of rooms in the USA differs from the Ukrainian one. A one-room apartment is called a studio. A two-room apartment is one bedroom apartment, a three-room apartment is a two bedroom apartment, and so on. People here are generally more mobile than in Ukraine and do not settle down in one place: they often move from state to state and from apartment to apartment. Therefore, the housing may be unfurnished - the previous residents can take their bed, armchairs, wardrobe, table from there when leaving. Moreover, this is taken for granted and is not always mentioned in advertisements. And when you come to the viewing, they tell you: “Oh, and by the way, we are taking away all this furniture, so the room will be empty. We leave only the bedside table. No, the rental price will not change."

A separate point is utilities. Typically for a room or small apartment in DC it costs an additional $100-$150. In other words, approximately 10% of the rental price - in Kyiv I paid approximately the same portion for utilities.

If in Ukraine tenants often demand payment for the first and last month, here it works a little differently. In the USA, they ask you to pay a deposit, that is, a deposit that is returned after leaving the apartment. It is usually equal to one month's rent. So, if the price indicates $1000, you will need to pay about two thousand for the first month. Of course, all this is individual, and there are exceptions. In general, tenants look at your bank credit rating: the higher it is, the lower the deposit amount will be and vice versa.

But despite all these points, finding housing in Washington turned out to be easier than in Kyiv. Upon arrival in the USA, I spent four days on this - during this time I visited six apartments in different parts of the city, and on the fifth day I moved in. In Kyiv, some of my friends could not find premises for a whole month, or even two. Either there were no good offers, or the excitement was too high, or the owners set inadequate conditions and prices. During this period they had to live in hostels. In the States it would be significantly more expensive than in Europe - in Washington, a night in a six-bed room costs about 30 dollars, in New York at least 50.

Before moving to the United States, the mere thought that I would have to look for accommodation myself had caused discomfort in me. But it turned out, not everything is so scary. If you look, be prepared and do not rush to the first good option.

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