Meeting the landlord June 10, 2011

Carola dropped us back at the hotel around lunch time and told us she'd be heading to her office to put in the application.  In the States, you pretty much just say, "I'll take it," and it's a done deal.  Not necessarily so in Switzerland.  For flats, there may be 20 applications within days of it becoming available.  Houses can also be that way as well, so anytime more than one person looks at a house, there's potential competition.  We already knew someone was going back to see House 6 again and seemed to be interested.  We had no idea the interest level on House 1 or if the landlords would wait to make a decision on an application until they had more than one to choose from.  It's a seller's market!

If Carola turned the application in on Friday, we had the weekend to wait.  Then a holiday on Monday, so no action there.  We thought maybe we'd hear something Tuesday, but more likely Wed. or Thursday.  Imagine our surprise then, when Carola called around 4 and said the owners wanted to meet us!  It seems that he managed his properties (more than one) himself instead of using an agency and he had already reviewed the application.  He had offered to pick us up and take us out the house so he could talk to us and if we were going to be acceptable, what furniture we might want him to leave in the house.  Another detail here--you can rent a house furnished or unfurnished.  Most of the time it's unfurnished.  In fact, they even take the light fixtures, leaving bare bulbs hanging in most rooms like the Grinch.

We had been at my office and scrambled back to our hotel so we could get ready for the  interview.  At 5:30, a 6' 3" Dutchman with blond gray hair and blue eyes walked in and introduced himself as Hans.  He was jolly fellow and walked us outside to his car--a Bentley.  A really nice Bentley.  All the way out, he chatted about his business (he's a PC component wholesaler for Europe) who clearly runs an extremely profitable business.

When we arrived at the house, what should be in the driveway but another Bentley driven by Hans’ wife Sophie.  This one was a convertible.  Sophie is French and as it turns out, she has been tutoring a number of the Transocean employees in French, so she knew a little about drilling companies.

They let us know right away that we had the house, which was a huge relief!  And they walked us through the house and asked what we would like to stay and go!  That was an unexpected surprise because we assumed everything would go!  But being able to keep all the light fixtures as well as some of the storage is great!

Well, our house search was over.  We have a great place and we’re looking forward to the move.  But there’s still lots to do.