Finding apartment and avoiding agency fees. Is it possible?

[Andrea.dispe]

I live in wudaokou since one year aloready and wanna change apartment with a cheaper one. Right now i pay 3200 kuai and look for something at least at 2500 kuai. But what I really would like to avoid are the agency fees. Is there any way to avoid them?

[Tianjin42]

You could look at classifieds on thebeijinger.com where you may be able to find what you need directly, thus without any agents involved. There are a few agents on there though so choose carefully.

[abcdefg]

I avoided an agency fee here in Kunming by the good fortune of having a friend who in turn had a friend with an apartment for rent.

 

When I tried renting through classified ads, most of the places I looked at had actually been listed by agents even though the listings were disguised to looked like private listings.

 

(I don't have any useful experience in Beijing.)

[anonymoose]

What do you do when registering with the local PSB when you're supposed to show them a contract?

[abcdefg]

I have an actual lease contract and my landlord went with me the first time (last year) to give the 派出所 (PSB) her information and make my registration official. This year I was able to just go on my own and tell them everything except my new visa was the same.

[roddy]

Dodging agency fees is possible, but tricky. Word of mouth, ask around in the apartment complexes you want to live in, keep an eye on classifieds sites. Trouble is the agencies really do push everything else out, and watch out for bait and switch with the classifieds - you'll contact a 'genuine landlord' and somehow end up talking to an agent. 

[Lu]

As mentioned, ask around, as widely as possible. Assuming you want to find a room in a shared apartment, there are always people looking for a roommate, you only need to find them. Or put out a classified ad yourself (online I mean, no need to go pay for it).

[陳德聰]

The guy who moved into my apartment after I left avoided agencies fees by me giving him my landlord's number. He simply called my landlord near the time that I was going to be leaving and said "I'm 陳德聰's friend and I would like to rent his apartment and if you're okay with it we can both avoid paying agency fees." That proposition worked.

[Andrea.dispe]

thank you very much for your detailed experiences. This is going to be usfeul