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Bob and Susan are going to get married soon, and they want to find an apartment where they can start their life toghether. They began to look at apartments last week. Now they are at their friends’ place, and talking about their plans to find a nice flat.
Susan:
Bob and I looked at several apartments last week.
Bob:
We looked everywhere – in the city, in the suburbs … and we can’t decide. If we rent a house in the suburbs we’ll have to drive. And you know the price of petrol nowadays!
Susan:
We looked at every kind of apartment – one bedroom, two bedrooms. I can’t even remember all the apartments we saw. I’m also quite confused, I don’t really understand terms like security deposit, leases, utilities.
Tim:
Wait a minute! Before you start looking at apartments, you should decide what kind of apartment you’d like to rent, and where you’d like to live. If you know what you want, it’ll be much easier to find a place!
Susan:
I’d like a small house in the suburbs, three bedrooms, with a dishwasher, air-conditioning, and a swimming pool nearby.
Bob:
Sure! And I would like a villa by the seaside. Susan you know that we can’t afford such a big house.
Tim:
Did you make a budget? Do you know how much you can afford?
Bob:
Well, actually, we didn’t.
Tim:
First of all, you have to decide how much you can afford. The rent of an apartment and the utilities should cost less than one third of your monthly budget. Then you should decide what kind of apartment you want, how many rooms you want, you want it furnished or unfurnished. After you decided everything, you can start looking at apartments.
Bob:
Do you have any idea where we can find out about apartments for rent?
Tim:
First you should decide where you want to live – in the city or in the suburbs, which neighbourhood. Then get a newspaper and look at the classified ads.
Susan:
You mean the want ads?
Veronica:
There are other ways to find out about apartments. Drive or walk around the neighbourhood you like and look for ’rent signs’. Pop in the local esate agent’s, they generally have a bulletin board with notices about apartments for rent. But be careful, if you use apartment rental services, the agency may charge a fee!
Peter:
Talk to your friends and people at work. They may know about apartments for rent. At last, but not least you can surf property portals on the Internet to find apartments for rent. They generally show photos of the apartments as well.
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