If you ever move to Dubai...

... and have the option to take a furnished apartment or housing allowance, choose the furnished apartment!

Renting in Dubai is a nightmare.  NIGHTMARE.  We heard it was bad, but nothing can prepare you for how bad it really is.  When we got our jobs, we had the option to take a furnished apartment in a place called Discovery Gardens.  It's nice and most of the other teachers live there, but it's kind of out there on its own and after watching House Hunters International, we decided we wanted to live in the Dubai Marina.  We naively thought we'd be able to find a place in a few days or a week at the most, you know, like the people on House Hunters, but it took 5 looooooooooong weeks to get a place of our own.  Here are a few of our least favorite things about renting in Dubai...

1.  You have to pay for the entire year in advance.  Bam, 12 months of rent right up front.  Who has that kind of money???  Some landlords are nice and will let you pay in two checks, but that's still asking for a lot of money.   I think most Americans would try to get a loan and pay it back monthly, but we couldn't even do that because our visas are still processing, we still don't have UAE bank accounts, we have no idea when they'll be ready, and they don't take American checks.  Basically, you either have to move here with a big company who takes care of all of this for you, have at least $20,000 ready to hand over, or be prepared to wait a very long time.

2.  Agents are pretty skeezy.  Some are really great, but the vast majority of them are only there to make money.  They lie, show up late, and waste your time by showing you things you specifically do not want, and I'm not actually sure why we need them anyway because it seems like they don't do very much.  One agent raised the price of the apartment we wanted by 10,000 dirhams in one night.  We saw it Tuesday night, went back Wednesday afternoon to make sure we still liked it, and when we said yes, we want it, it was magically 10,000 more.  Um, no thanks.  Luckily we found an agent we trusted, but even then, the process is almost unbearable.

3.  Nothing is ever ready when they say it will be.  Our apartment is in a brand new building, so new that half the units are still being rented.  You'd think everything would be working when you move into a new building, but our hot water didn't work, one of the drains in the bathroom emitted an awful stale water odor that filled our apartment, and a light has already gone out.  When we called about the hot water, they said, "Oh yes, yes, we will send someone up right away."  Two hours later... "Oh yes, yes, we will send someone up right away."  Two hours later... "Oh yes, yes, we will send someone up right away."  Two hours later... "Oh yes, yes, we will send someone up right away."  Yeah... sure... Same thing for the drain.   Luckily our apartment is "chiller free" which means we don't pay for air conditioning, so we've been leaving the balcony door open while the a/c runs so we can air out the stink.

Speaking of things not being ready when they're supposed to be, the car company did the same thing with our rental.  They finally showed up on our fourth scheduled appointment (after I harassed them with phone calls for two days) and only because I said I was canceling my order and going with a different company.  Then when they did show up, it was the wrong contract, and they argued with me for 30 minutes in the sweaty hot sun before they finally gave me what we agreed on... which saved us 1,000 dirhams.  I felt good about that one.  It sharpened my bargaining skills for the souks :)

Here's our building, Bay Central.  We're in the one on the left.  Kelly, my co-teacher, moved into the tower on the right, so it's extra convenient for carpooling and having fun in the marina :)

Now that we're in our own space, we LOVE it and are super glad we chose to take the housing allowance, but waiting and waiting and waiting for something that you think will never come is agonizing.  We finally have the Internet.  We have a bed, nightstands, a couch and a few dishes, and our washer/dryer is being delivered on Monday, so we're getting there.  The advantage of not taking the furnished apartment is we get to pick everything out, which will help it feel more like home.  And it's a-m-a-z-i-n-g waking up in the marina!  I've never lived in a place like this.  If only we had a couple kitties snuggling on the couch, everything would be perfect...