Apartment hunting via immobilienscout24.de

Hi ya's.

Just found this forum while researching a problem, and now I guess I can contribute something.

In my years as an American in Germany, I have lived a few different places. all of which I found looking on 1 website.

I have learned to speak fluent German from my German friends, and as a result, many times I am helping my english speaking co-workers with local things which they don't quite understand because of the language.

Here is an e-mail I wrote to a friend explaining the use of the popular apartment/house hunting site
http://www.immobilienscout24.de/

maybe it will help you too..
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if the site runs extreeeeemly slow (like it shows the headder but takes over a minute to displaythe body of the page), do the following
Go to your Internet Options
Under the Security tab, at the bottom where the 2 buttons are (custom and default)
Select Default Level. A small slider should appear, raise your setting to High. Then Ok and Apply.
this diables some of the JAVA functions that the site is trying to perform.

To the site
On the home page where it says Wohnen (living) and Gewerbe (office)
You have many choices.

The ones you would be interested in are under Wohnen.
Wohnung mieten (apartment rental)
Wohnung kaufen (apartment purchase)
Haus mieten (house rental)
Haus kaufen (house purchase)

Select one of those and you will move to the 2nd page
Don’t worry about the state selection (bundeslandsuche) because this will search an entire state which could land you far away from where you are trying to live.

Type the city name closest to where you want to be in to the Stadt*: field then click “Weiter� (continue)

Now you are on the 3rd search page,

This is for the preferences.
Umkreis, (radius) this little drag down box displays a number from 1-50. This is the kilometer radius around the town you selected on the previous page. i.e. if I searched Wiesbaden, and made the search Umkreis 20 km, I would also get some results for Mainz because it is within 20 km of the center of Wiesbaden.

The more Km you select the further you Could end up from your target, but you just might find something you like as well. I usually start at 10km then if I’m not happy, then I open it up a bit.

Suchkriterien, (search criteria) this is where you say What it is you are looking for, you DON’T have to fill any of these fields if you don’t want to. But they can narrow your search to meet your needs

Zimmer (rooms.. which may include living room and dining room in the count) Von (min) Bis (max) a good number to put in here is about bis 4.

Wohnflasche ca (aprox floor space) I tend not to fill this field, but if you do, the numbers are the min and max square meters.

Kaltmiete (base rent) this is the range of the base rent. BUT there can be extra costs (and usually are) called Nebenkosten. Nebenkosten is for extra things paid for services like heating, trash, lawn service… but that is all explained in the details. and usually summed together it what is reffered to as Warmmiete

Click Ergebnisse Anzeigen (show results)

Now you have reached your listing.

First, I like to refine my list. You said you wanted to have a built in kitchen.. that is a search refinement. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find a large blue 3 category field called Ergebnisse verfeinern.

Heizungsart (type of heating)

Etagen (floor) Ofen (oven) Zentral (central heating, usually radiator)

Haustyp: (house type)

Bauern (farm) Villa (small house)
Dopple (duplex) Reihen (town house) Sonstige (unique)
Einfamilien (house with only 1 renter/owner) Zweifamilien (house with 2 apartments) Besondere Immobilie (special needs)

Ausstattung/Sonstiges: (layout / other)

Rollstuhlgerecht (wheel chair accessible) Garage/Stellplatz (garage / reserved parking) Einbaukuche (built in Kitchen)

If you have made a refinement here, then click Verfeinern. This just filtered your list.

The List,
The list has a layout as follows
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Description-------------------------Distance from target town
Rooms-----------Floor space------Monthly rent
City--------------City part---------Street.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Organizing the list.

You can sort the list according to a few factors. This sorting can be done at the top of the actual list.
You will se a drag down box that says Nach: next to it. This is the sorter.

Kaltmiete (base rent)
Entfernung (distance from target town)
Zimmer (rooms – not a reliable sorter)
Wohnflasche (floor living space)
Nutzflache (useable space – may include driveways)
Stadt/Kreis (city A-Z)
Stadttile/Ort (city part A-Z)
Address
Scout-ID (internal site stuff)

Once you have selected your sort method, then check
Niedrigster wert (lowest first or A-Z)
Hochster wert (highest first or Z-A)
Then click sortieren.

Happy hunting…
TJF

um... did someone change the title of my post??

Apartment hunting via immobilienscout24.de, English-language help with using this website

I didnt put the name of the site in the title because I didnt wat to appear as if I was advertising.. but hey... as long as people get the info..

The post looks to be great advice, but note, according to an e-mail I received from them, immo-scout plan to update their website during April 2007, so the instructions on use will probably need to be updated after their change.


Yeah, probably, you've been moderated. At least you managed to find your post again, often topics move to seamingly random places...

<moderator-brown-nosing-section>
But without the tireless work of our moderators, where would we be? We do like to bitch a bit, but they do make the site run smoothly.
</moderator-brown-nosing-section>

I've noticed some apartments on Immobilienscout24 titled as a 3 Zimmer show the apartment has 2 Schlafzimmers in the room count and some show only 1 Schlafzimmer. Same thing with 4 Zimmer apt listings showing 3 or only 2 Schlafzimmers. Do some people count the kitchen as one of the Zimmers? Makes it a bit confusing when doing a search.

Stinkweed's tutorial is great, but if you want just a quick shortcut do this:

Go to Google Translate Tools and drag the English box to your Bookmarks Bar. Then, when you navigate to page which is in German (or some other language), just click the Bookmark you added. The page will be translated to English. This does not work on all websites, but you will get fairly good coverage.

Zimmer = room

When you say an apartment has 3 rooms why do you expect the apartment to have 3 BEDrooms?

If the apartment has a separated eating room this might count as a room as well (and the living room being the other one). Normally the kitchen does not count towards the rooms.

In the pictures sometimes there is a sketch/plan of the apartment, it is easier to understand the space distribution from it.

You'll find the answer to that question and lots of other useful advice in Apartment rental - Germany. Happy reading!

Only because the listings I was interested in described no other rooms other than 1 Wohnzimmer, 1 Schlafzimmer and 1 Küche. No floorplans included either.


Yes, I appreciate the link and had read it previous to my question. The article states a 2 room apt would be considered as 1 living room and 1 bedroom. So I apparently made the incorrect assumption that 3 rooms would include 2 bedrooms when no other third room was provided in the apartment description. I will then simply need to contact the renters and ask what they consider to be the third room in their apartments.

I appreciate the help.

Post the scout number and maybe somebody can figure out something.

Well, the third (or fourth) room might not be outfitted as a bedroom simply, but could be a study or office.

Or it could be one Schlafzimmer, one Wohnzimmer and one Kinderzimmer.

Thats a "Zweizimmerwohnung". The "Zimmer" always refers to bedrooms plus reception rooms. Kitchen Bath, toilet and any utility rooms are extra and not included in the room count. Im not sure how much checking immo24 does -. you might be able to put an ad under "3-Zimmer" but only list two rooms.


Yepp.


Whatever the heading say, if only two rooms are listed I would assume its a two room apt. As you say - Ge3t hold of the landlord for clarity.

andy M

... for those amongst us who aren't claustrophobic, I presume!