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After this administration rally on Thursday I stayed at home, on Friday I went to the city to eat with Zoli who now studies in Helsinki (MA) and stayes at a brand new modern student dormitory in Jätkäsaari (6-8 mins walk from where I work, so maybe we can meet more). He showed me a kirpputori, which is on the way between the railway station and my work, and is really cool, there are also useful furnitures in good condition, e.g. sofas for 30-60 euros and good chairs for 5-10. I think I will come here in January after having a rented flat.
But let's talk about this, to get a flat for January (and later). On Friday I left my application at Sato, I asked if it is possible with having my ID number only in the future, she said ok, and after I filled the (quite long, you can specify many filters what kind of flat you want, but the more filters you specify the slower you get anything) application form, she said that they will only offer me anything after I have my ID number and tell them. So I felt like I did it for nothing.
But the day after I again slept so long that an sms woke me up at around 10am, I was quite surprised who sends me sms (not so many people even know my number ...), it was Sato, that I should check my email, they sent me an offer. And really, it was there. There was also the number of the current tenant, that I should call her to arrange a viewing. I did, and today I already did the viewing. Well, the flat is small. It doesn't surprise me a lot, because the only filter I specified was that monthly rent should be under 850. But I expected that for this price there will be only small or far away (or both :) ) apartment. The flat is 23,5 square meters, it has a not so modern room, a very modern and cool bathroom, a very small (maybe 1.5 sq m) but modern kitchen and a storage room (maybe 1.5 sq m also). The neighborhood is very nice, forest is a few steps away (where skiing routes also go), a lot of families live there. And the bus station from where it is 25 mins to my work without change is 10-20 meters away. Also, there is commuter train five minutes walk away (through the forest). The flat is 9 kms on bikeroad (according to Google's bike route planner) from my work, and part of the way is by the sea in a park. So everything is cool, just it's very small. I don't know if I should hope to get a bigger one in similarly good area, or not.
Theoretically I have time to decide till 14th, but practically the current tenant said that there will also be an other person to see the apartment, which is very strange, on Sato's homepage it says that they only give chance to see and rent a flat to one applicant at the same time. Also, if they give to multiple, then why is the deadline? So I don't fully understand the system, and Sato's emails always imply the use of google translate (although I indicated on the application form that I want to communicate in English), this doesn't make me undertand things more easily either :)
So today I wrote an email to them that if they anyway give one flat to more applicants to see, then why not give me more at the same time also :) Sato works on 6 days a week, let's see what will happen tomorrow at 10am ...
You dear reader might ask yourself (if you are shy to ask me): why only Sato, are there no other companies? Good question, the reason is that other companies, just like private landlords as well, typically ask for 2 months rent as deposit, and signs the contract for a year. Both are problematic: I don't have 2200-2400 euros (deposit + first month rent approx.), and I don't want to sign for a year, what if I get a better flat, or a loud idiot moves to the neighboring flat, or if Julia finds a job in the opposite side of the Helsinki area... flexibility is good.
Sato writes the contract for 2 months (it's the minimum, of course it only ends if you indicate that you want to move out), and asks for 250 euros as deposit. Which means approx. 1000 euros payment in the beginning. Also, with Sato after renting a flat you can immediately apply with stronger filter (price, area, location, sauna, no of rooms, etc.) and wait, and if you get one, move at the end of the month. So it's simply good.
On the picture the flat I saw today.
