Oh my gawd!

[Kirschlein]

I am so excited! My SO said he wants to come even sooner to live in Vienna! He just wants to learn a bit more German and then he will come and finish learning here! The only problem is, that i don't have an apartment yet ... And all of the apartments are so expensive!
*stressed* D:
Well, how was your first apartment? What did you do? Was it big? etc.
I just want to hear some stories of you, maybe it helps me too. I have already contacts and i know more or less where to go, but its nice to hear how other people have done it o_o;

[Silviar]

My first apartment was in college. It wasn't huge, but it was very comfortable and I really enjoyed it. I found it by searching online at rental places, and it was one of the cheaper ones while still being close to my school. Sure I had some obnoxious neighbors, but seeing the type of people who live there and asking questions like "Oh, so a lot of students live here?" help get an idea of what sort of people you'll be dealing with.

It's pretty normal to have a small apartment for your first space - I mean, you're lower income, you're just starting out, and you want to maximize the use of your money. One thing you'll want to consider is your total bottom line. Some apartments will add in some utilities in the price, others won't. Sometimes the addition is a deal and other times it's not. You can always try talking to a few people in the apartment complex when you're not on tour and see if anyone would tell you their opinions of the place.

Now, I know that you're in an international relationship - I don't know where your SO is, but if they're from a country where spaces like apartments are generally larger (like America/Australia), then you might want to ready them for some culture shock. What seems small to you will feel tiny to them if they're from a country where spaces are bigger. I don't know how much international travel experience your SO has or anything like that, so I'm just trying to add some things in that may crop up for you. you may need easy access to bus routes depending on if you guys can drive, and if you're really hesitant about a place, a short lease (6 months) or a month to month is always good.

If apartments are costly, consider getting a place with some roommates to help defray the cost. It helps.

[Kirschlein]

He lives in Sweden and me in Austria, so the conditions are pretty the same, except that he isn't used to the hot summers here yet. We have a good alternative now, i will get a house with my mum and we make divided households out of it. I can care about my mom then easily, she also can take care of our things and we have a garden and later a house for our own. But thank you for your reply it is still interesting how you did it and such.

[William]

I always think it's essential to have an extra study room, so that you don't have to be around each other 24/7, but can have some time to yourselves

[Kirschlein]

Oh yeah, me and my SO discussed about that already and we are pretty sure, that we want some time for ourselves too. Especially in the morning, we gonna avoid eachother, because we both don't like talking then xD
Thanks for the post <3

[Zephii]

My first place was on the larger side of average, for what it was. It was a semi-detached house, one bedroom, a bit run-down, for $120 per week (Just for rent, no utilities or anything) in a small country town. I've rented four other places since, not including this one.

This is my first place with Obi though, and it's tiny! It's the smallest place I've ever lived, a one bedroom basement suite for $700 a month (includes all utilites and laundry). It has a bedroom, a bathroom and everything else is in the main room. The kitchen is a small space along one wall, our computers are along another and we have a dinning table inbetween. You can vacume the whole place from one power socket without fully extending the vacume cable. But, despite the size, it's great for us, because when we are both home we spend that time doing things together anyway.

Renting is the one time I will say "settle for less than you want." Make sure it meets the things you can't live without (for me, this was laundry and the ability to keep my cat. Obi wanted only for it to be near the bus route) and then let the rest go. Don't pay for features you don't really need because renting is a huge waste of money in the long term. An extra $50 a month might not seem like such a big deal, but it adds up.
The other thing we made sure of was that we rented a property that one of us could pay for alone if need be. Both of us earn enough to pay the rent and food here without help from the other person, so that if one of us loses our job or gets in an accident and can't work, we'll still survive. It'll be hard and uncomfortable, no doubt, but we'd be able to do it. This also means if I have to suddenly fly home in an emergency or something Obi wont be left high and dry.