When Jen, Nick and I arrived in Istanbul, we were charged with two simple missions: find housing, find jobs. This is the story of the first.

We were actually out that day to find jobs, walking merrily from our digs at the time with CouchSurfing buddy Kerem toward Sultanahmet. The walk was pretty long, and before we knew it, we’d stumbled into an interesting, but completely non-touristic part of the city, called Beşiktaş. Walking through the back alleys, we noticed a local real estate office (peppered liberally throughout all neighborhoods of Istanbul) with an attractive ad in the window. 4 + 1, YTL 2,000 per month. We wanted to see the place on a whim. We walked away with an apartment.

It is worth noting, as a side-story, that we went to another agency two doors down. The lovely real estate agent showed us an apartment a little reminiscent of an old woman’s forest hovel, complete with poorly maintained antique furniture, porcelain figurines and exactly one bed for 6 people (everyone else would have slept on couches). Thank God we passed on the place, because the next apartment we found was suitable for Jesus himself.

The second place we looked at struck us at first sight as perfect. For the same amount of money, we would get three times the space. After touring the place and deciding that we pretty much had to live there, we had to negotiate. They started by asking for 2,250 YTL per month, upped it to 2,500 YTL when we told them about the three month lease. Add to this a 12% commission for the real estate agent (amounting to a negotiable YTL 2,500), and one month’s deposit and we’re talking about around $6,000 out of pocket. Basically not an option.

So we negotiated the price back down to YTL 2,000, and cut the commission to a bearable YTL 800, signed the lease and walked away, no longer homeless.