hello there,

It's dawning on me that finding a home may be somewhat of a challenge in Zurich. Can anyone with first-hand experience recommend a house finding agent or if they dont exist, a relocation agent?

Am looking for a house near horgen, thawil or maybe meilen. Also, even to apply for a home can you tell me what documents they will likely want to see? If there is a thread on this, can anyone point me in the right direction? this is such a helpful site.

many thanks

Its a shame you don`t look around Baden. I could help you find a place here. Just a little tip, go to your local town hall and ask them for a list of all the Verwaltungen in your area. Otherweise give me a call and I can see what I can do.

Tell 0764306676

If your german is up to it then go on to homegate.ch
I´ve just been there and found lots of property. If germans a problem give me a call and I will try to help you. Questions you should be thinking of are how much can you pay. How many rooms and so on. Shortcake ( Richard )

Has anyone used the swiss relocation service and care to share any experiences? We'e thinking of using it and wonder if it is worth it to spend the money

Hello - finding housing in Zurich is difficult. Even more so if you don't speak German and/or you have kids. We used a wonderful relocation agent, Karin Randstrand of Moving Matters: www.movingmatters.ch. She arranged our temp housing, found the perfect school for our boys, and helped find our permanent home and get settled in. Her number is 41 (0) 76 48 015 68. Good luck!
Susan

When are you moving over? I'm living in Thalwil but am moving in October so my apartment is up for grabs.

When I came over I used a company called Active Relocation, they were AWFUL. They set me up in temporary accommodation beside the red light district and when I complained about getting harressed and asked would it be possible to move they basically told me they didnt want to know about it.

homegate is good for looking for places, and then if necessary just copy and paste the text you dont understand into babelfish et voila.

Thank you all for the advice and help. I've been looking at homegate but have heard that often the houses on the lists have been there forever and aren't actually for rent. Is homegate reliable? can people just call the numbers and expect to view it or is it more complicated? many thanks

Hi - when I came over my company paid for Touchdown Relocations to help me find somewhere. http://www.touchdown-reloc.ch/en/portrait.html I had an agent called Susanne helping me out and she was very knowledgable about Zurich and the renting situation. In the end I ended up in my current apartment partly because she already knew the letting agent (although this isn't in any way a guarantee that this always happens). They knew all the documentation to have, got a letter from my HR dept saying how great I was, managed to get around the tricky issue of me not having a credit ref as I was a foreigner. Susanne also accompained me to all viewings to answer questions and explain what was going on!

I don't know how much this service costs (prob. fairly pricey) but its very useful if you don't speak much German, aren't sure where to look and don't know how to apply for apartments properly (i.e. in order to beat the competition).

Hope this helps - and good luck with your hunt!

sounds like you're in the same boat as us. I'm shopping around different relocation services to check prices and etc. I have no idea if a foreigner has a chance of getting an apartment listed on homegate.

Here is a link to a recent thread about this where I recommended Office Pool. They are near the airport and did a great job for me 2.5 years ago. I have posted about them a couple of times if you do a search on Office Pool Kloten.
www.officepool.ch

apartment search firms?

good luck

Thanks Susie,
One company will take us to see 10 flats and help find all insurances, and set up banking and etc. for 3000 cf. Does this sound like a decent deal?

My husband's company set us up with a relocation agent as well, and we had good luck with her: http://www.sandor.ch/ . We ended up in our apartment due to her contacts--although it was advertised on Homegate, we were able to get first refusal on it, and learned of it before it was ever listed. She also helped us get our daughter registered with the local school through the gemeinde prior to our move. She was quite helpful for us, although it did take a couple of months to find a place.

If they limit it to 10 flats, then it sounds like a sham. Particularly since there is no guarantee that you will get anything. Homegate is still the way to go. I didn't have the budget to use a relocation agent, so just kept visiting places regardless of time of day. Within 3 weeks I had an (my only) offer. As for insurance and banking, they are easy to set up - everything you need to know is on your friendly forum

My relocation package was limited to 9 viewings. I guess from a cost point of view for the relocation company they have to limit the number of viewings... otherwise you could be really fussy and turn down 50 before you find the right one!

If you go with a company then its a good idea to also use homegate before or at the same time to do your own market research - get to know what you are likely to get in an apartment, and get to know which areas you like and are happy to commute from - then you can use your 10 viewings wisely!

http://www.alle-immobilien.ch/home

This website searches all the homesearch sites for you so you're not just limited to homegate. Hope it helps.

Thanks again for all your suggestions. I'm guessing that the only way it will work is to pay them if they are successful, though i doubt anyone will agree to that!

In short - I found using an agency a waste of money (the one I used anyway).

Not sure if this will help you but this is my experience with a relocation agency...

The company I work for organised an agency to help a bunch of us relocate. Their contract boasted a complete service to remove the hassle of relocation from an orientation to the area, searches based on our criteria, viewings, applications, red-tape etc.

This is where the rant really starts.

They were pushing me to take unsuitable apartments (both in terms of size and budget). I was told my expectations were unrealistic.

In the end I started searching and arranging viewings myself. When I found a place I liked, I asked them to put in an application for me. They said I was not likely to get it and at the same time I should apply to this other apartment that they had found for me. As time was ticking, I agreed but said that the one I had found was my first choice.

A couple of days later I get a call from the agent saying I didn't get my first choice but my application for the apartment they had found me, was successful. During this time I was losing patience so called up the other management agency that was letting the apartment for the one I really wanted - just to see if they had all the paperwork they needed etc - They told me that my relocation agent had called earlier and withdrawn my application telling them I had already signed for another apartment! This was before he even called me to say I wasn't successful!

I was livid!

It turns out this agency has a 'good relationship' with a particular housing management company and they pretty much only use apartments managed by this company. It would seem they have first dibs on any of their property. Obviously using this agency can help you, if the property you like is 'one of theirs' but this wasn't the case for me. I can only assume that the apartment I found meant no commission for the agent.

I was so angry. I realise that in their line of work there will be an element of cut throat sales activity but not to this extent surely?!

Ra ra ra!
Anyway all sorted now.

Best of luck

Wow... that's really horrible! A slight feeling of dread is coming over me...

The company I currently work for seeked the services of the company below for me whilst I am was looking for a place to rent in zurich, I found them to be very pleasant and quick of the mark,

http://www.network-relocation.com

Good luck

I could use some help. I just arrived in the country. I'm based in Kirchdorf, just outside Baden, at the moment , and I'm desperate to find some accommodation quickly.
I have three lads and I'm no sure what sort of size will be the best for us.