Having serious difficulties renting in Darmstadt - any help?
Hello, sorry in advance for the rant...
Months ago I obtained a job as a lab leader at TU Darmstadt and since then I've been trying to find a place where to stay with literally 0 results. Here is what I've set up so far:
- I'm looking for flats on Immobilienscout, wg-gesucht, kleinanzeigen
- For Immobilienscout, I paid the premium, confirmed my identity and generated their reports. The only things I cannot create are those requiring a German bank account as I don't have one yet (I never lived in Germany).
- I have my SCHUFA (which says they have no record about me),
- My message to landlords includes details of myself, my hobbies (such as reading, cycling and hiking). I also emphasize that I'm single, non-smoker, have no pets and that I'm not a student.
- I also include my professional links (I'm a researcher, so through Scholar, LinkedIn etc. it's pretty quick to verify my identity)
- For Immobilienscout, in my "personal documents" section I have my SCHUFA and proof of employment.
That said, I wrote for ~70-100 places in these months and received....maybe 10 replies. When I received them, the moment I asked for a virtual viewing (as I'm in Czechia and cannot pay for a flight for a 30-minute viewing, and didn't manage to put multiple viewings in a specific day) they just stopped replying. I can't make up my mind how someone ready to put ~4000€ of deposit and rent in a city with lots of expats can struggle so much to get a damn virtual viewing.
What can I do at this point? I'll be in Darmstadt from Oct 13 and as of now the only choice seems to spend a ridiculous amount of money on booking/airbnb for a small studio and hope I'll get a viewing (I don't know how, since 90% of the people don't reply even without knowing that I'm away).
Please tell me what I'm doing wrong, I really am desperate at this point.