Finding a Flat

So I had an advantage here because of the fact that my boyfriend already lived in Germany.  He was able to look around at apartments, take pictures, and to compare them to each other in person.  I however, only got the photo version of all the apartments and helped make the decision without even seeing the apartment. These are the few pictures I made my decision with.

A few things you need to know about apartments in Germany.  When it tells you that it has two rooms, that doesn't mean it has two bedrooms that means it has one bedroom and one other room to use as a living room or whatever you would like to do with it.  The bathroom, kitchen, and in our case storage room are also in this two room apartment.  Another thing about flats or apartments in Germany are that there are two different kinds of rent, warm rent and cold rent.  Warm rent includes all utilities such as water, heat, and electric.  Cold rent obviously does not include anything.  One final thing about the rent and the usual deposit, is that in Germany it is very common to have a brokerage fee for the realtor. For our brokerage fee it cost us two months cold rent.  Unlike a deposit this is a fee we will not get back in the end.  This was a shock to me because I have never heard of this unless you were buying a house (this also could be because of my lack of experience in renting apartments).

Most apartments in Germany (probably like apartment buildings in The U.S.) offer storage.  They must either offer you a storage room in your apartment or a storage unit in the basement. You can also rent more storage in the basement if needed.  Something else different about the U.S. and Germany when deciding what floor you want to live on.  The first floor is not the ground floor.   The ground floor is usually called E.G. or I have seen in elevators the button is 0.  So if you choose to be on the first floor you are actually on the second floor (based on American thinking).

The final and biggest shock to me was the kitchen... After we decided on the apartment I came to find out that our apartment doesn't include a kitchen.  Nothing!   So I found out that we can buy a kitchen from the realtor for an added fee. So we decided that would probably be the easiest and cheapest thing for us so we signed up for it only to find out that it did not include a fridge or an oven... So while we were buying a kitchen this is what we bought.

A stovetop, a sink, one drawer, two cupboards, and a little shelf. 

So our next assignment was to find a used fridge, an oven, and maybe some more storage.  So far we have found a fridge.... We are looking for some storage and back a mini oven that looks like a toaster oven. Sooooo! Make sure you know what you are getting (or not getting in this case).  Do not assume.  I talked to some of my colleagues who also had this issue when they moved here but fortunately I found out before I moved in.