Hi all ! I am currently living in Plovdiv and I am looking to potentially move near the center of it, so I started looking into imot.bg, [homes.bg](https://homes.bg), [alo.bg](https://alo.bg) and the likes.

I am aware of the fake ads schemes, which I kinda already got from alo, trying to point me to different apartments than the listed ones, which i pretty instantly rejected.

A lot of these apartments look too goo to be true in terms of price. Problem is, there are so many of them, I do not really know what to trust lol. I don’t mind spending near 1000leva for a very good apartment(single person) and I am finding tons of them at significantly cheaper listed prices, yet I really don’t want to spend the time contacting all sorts of agencies just to be redirected to other worse apartments.

How do you guys assess the reliability of these ads? For modern aparments, with good furniture and pleasing presentation, what is your expected price range for 1-2 bedroom ones in the center (say 70-80sqm). I’d love to get some tips 🙂

Thanks!

8 comments

  2. Imot.bg is much more widely used than the others. Try the listings that have “top” or “vip” banner in the top right corner – that means they are paid for. Agencies don’t typically promote fake ads.

  3. Best thing you can do is just go to some real estate agency office (the bigger the agency the better) and ask them to show you what they really have in your budget. They’ll show you what they really have and if the landlord has left a key in the agency you can directly go and view the rental place.

    Also as others pointed you can use [imot.bg](https://imot.bg) and look for agents that are representing their agencies(again the bigger the agency the better) as this reduces the chance of the ad being fake.

  4. I would recommend Rental Agency. I switched 4-5 places with them and even bought an apartment recenly. preffisionals, that will not lie to you, they will simply show you what they have to offer. Best of luck and YNWA 🙂

  6. When I was lookin for a place in Sofia I used some facebook groups where only the owners of the apartments can post, there are much less scams there. I am guessing there should be something similar for Plovdiv. I think this is a good place to look, also as the others said [imot.bg](https://imot.bg) is the most legit side I know.

  8. As someone who changed 7 rental apartments, and searched for 5 more for friends and family, it’s pretty simple.

    When you call, they’ll either pick up or they won’t. If they don’t, sometimes they’ll call back, most often they won’t. Keep track of which numbers to which offers are, so you are not struggling to find out which apartment they are calling you back for.

    – If they tell you the apartment is available, you schedule a time to check it out.
    – If they tell you it’s already taken, but they have another available, or they need you to describe what you want, so they can look up for you, you reject them and move on. Most of the time it’s a shithole they can’t sell to anyone, so they’ll be trying to convince you how good of a deal it is. You are just wasting your time so don’t bother.

    If it’s an ad that has been up for months, it’s either fake, or there’s a specific detail you are not seeing which has been intentionally not put in the pictures.

    After you visit to check it out, you can most of the time take it right at the spot, unless the landlord is looking to select the most desirable tenant from a ‘contest’ (i.e. they are looking for a couple, or a tenant that has a good-paying job).

    Always have a contract, even if it’s for a kaparo (money paid upfront to lock down the offer). Most often it’s the rent for the month + deposit (equal to the monthly rent) + 50% for the broker that intermediates the deal. Rarely they’ll require 2 deposits, but it’s often because they are afraid of the high heating bills.

    [imot.bg](https://www.imot.bg/pcgi/imot.cgi), is usually all you need. Just expand your search parameters if nothing good comes up. It’s easier to see for yourself if you like it, than wait for a rental agency to find a suitable one, as some people here suggested. Also using a prepaid card so the brokers can’t pester you is a bit overkill (as offered in a linked post). Most modern phones can block numbers, so it’s not a big deal if someone is *that* dedicated to getting you as a client.

    Finding a suitable rental apartment is mostly luck, sometimes you can find in a day, sometimes you can be looking around for a month.

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