If this is your first time looking for a flat (or you haven’t done so for a long time), in this post we are going to give you some very useful tips and tricks so that you can find a rental that suits your tastes and needs.

Our first recommendation is to be patient: searching for a rental is a process that can be frustrating. There are a multitude of pages and applications, which also have different formats between them, and adapting to each one can take a while. In addition, there is not always a very high offer, so it may be that we exhaust all the options and find nothing that convinces us.

Here are 5 tips for finding a rental apartment in Spain:

1. Use different websites and applications

Combining the use of different platforms can help you have more options available, since some apartments are only offered on a certain platform. The most used platforms and with a better filtering system are Idealista and Badi. Both also allow you to search in a differentiated way: Idealista is the best search engine for renting entire apartments and Badi is specialized in renting rooms.

It is very important that you pay attention to the publication date of the ads. Some may have been inactive for months and will waste our time. You also have the possibility of activating notifications so that when new apartments that fit your characteristics appear, they notify you by email or by the application. Do not hesitate!

2. Look at the details

Each ad has a certain structure and paying attention to the details will allow you not to waste time and not be surprised. The details that you should pay attention to will depend on your requirements and your expectations in the apartment or room that you want to rent.

Some examples you should check:

• Does the building have an elevator?
• It has heating and air conditioning?
• Are the expenses (water, gas, electricity, internet) included?
• Is it required to pay a month of agency?
• How much is the deposit?
• Is it delivered furnished or unfurnished?
• How many other people live in the flat? (in case of sharing a flat).

3. Choose the area well

One of the greatest comforts that can be asked for in an apartment is that it is well connected. How well connected it is will obviously depend on your needs. For this reason, we recommend that you open Google Maps and enter all the streets of the apartments that interest you and evaluate the distances between that location and the points where you usually carry out your life: work, gym, places where you go out, places where your family and/or friends live, etc.

From here, especially if you live in a big city like Madrid or Barcelona, you should study the transport combinations that work best for you and the nearest metro and bus stops.

4. Filter by price and be wary of bargains

One of the fundamental tools of apartment seekers is the filter system. The most important is the one that defines the price: if we don’t do it, we could be looking at apartments that are out of our means and we wouldn’t be taking advantage of the search. In addition, once the maximum price we can pay is defined, we can order the ads from the lowest price to the most expensive to try to find our best option.

Do not trust the bargains! If you see a spectacular apartment, remodeled, very clean and new, at a very low price… It’s not true! These types of flats do not exist and it is most likely a scam. Be careful!

5. Always visit the apartments

If you do not personally know the person who wants to rent the apartment to you, it is mandatory that you visit the apartment. First, to verify that it exists and is true and that it conforms to the photographs; second, to see if in person it fits the idea we had with the photos and still interests us. Many times, the perspectives with which they take the photographs are tricky and the apartment is smaller than it seemed.

Never pay in advance without having seen the apartment and without having at hand a document that certifies its reservation.

Conclusion

As you can see, looking for a flat is a tedious and complex task, which depends on many factors that we often cannot verify. In order to get a flat that we like, we must be constant and search conscientiously, paying attention to details.

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