House Hunting

    We currently miss the convenience of the "apartments for rent" section of the Morning Sentinel. Further, we miss the simplicity of being able to determine, for the most part, whether or not an available apartment suits our needs simply by doing a drive by scout of the exterior on our own. While we realize that we've only ever "apartment searched" one other time in our marriage, we feel pretty confident in saying that the process is much more time-consuming and difficult here. Here are some of the obstacles involved in house hunting here in Morocco:

• There is no public listing of "apartments for rent". Finding an available apartment entails talking to a local friend...who will then talk to their Moroccan friends...who will then talk to their friends who have heard of an available apartment. Then that friend will pass their knowledge back through their chain of friends, and then back to you.
• To look at an apartment entails an evening spent with one or all of those Moroccan friends who discovered the apartment on your behalf. A 15 minute glance at the apartment, or even a drive by scout for that matter, is unacceptable. Plan on being invited for an elongated Moroccan dinner of couscous where you will meet spouses, children, siblings, nephews, and cousins. Then plan on a 20 minute (or more) period of relaxation with the family while enjoying Moroccan mint tea and cookies. Eventually...you will get to see the apartment. But be prepared to pay a small fee to the person showing it.
• No matter how many times you insist on having an apartment with an American toilet, hot water heater, etc.... plan on being shown apartments that are still unfinished and are not even hooked up to running water. We think that this is their way of "amazing" you when they show you a second apartment that 'does' have running water (even if the second one is just as awful).
• Lying is a part of Moroccan culture. When a landlord says that his/her available apartment is within 5 minutes of where you want to live, don't be surprised if he/she tries to drive you 45 minutes outside of town. 
• It is unacceptable to ask questions about the apartment before seeing it in person. Therefore, all of those important questions (i.e. "does the apartment have running water?" or "how much is the apartment?") in which the answer would likely determine your interest in seeing the apartment in the first place cannot be asked. You just have to go look at all of them, and try to smile politely when they show you something absurd. 
• If you are white and don't speak the preferred language of Arabic, the landlords here will typically quote a rental price that is double what it should be. You will have to negotiate; and the negotiating never seems to work in your favor since you are incapable of either changing your skin color or miraculously obtaining fluency in Moroccan Arabic. So you will ultimately get ripped off no matter what...
• When you finally find "the" apartment, you must pay whoever showed you the apartment at least half, but up to a full months rent in return for their service of helping you (even if their help was minimal).

Wish us luck as we try to find our future home...

-David & Nicole