Renting out my apartment

JUST TO MAKE THIS CLEAR: THIS IS NOT A COLLABORATION.

Before leaving Sweden for Australia I needed to rent out my apartment – I'm leasing an apartment and I wanted to rent it out as "second hand". Why? Well, I don't want to loose the apartment and also, I want some security after my one year in Australia.

Step 1:
I started with a post on Facebook and I had some acquaintances who seemed interested but then backed out. After a few recommendations from friends I decided to use a site called Samtrygg. I just put up an ad on their site and then opened my calendar for viewings of the apartment. This was a bit scary for me and I really had to go outside my comfort zone. I didn't expect that so many people would be interested in my apartment considering my rent is not so low. But, to my surprise, I did meet some cool people that could be potential tenants.

Step 2:
After the first viewings I got a call from Samtrygg. We talked about the potential tenants and what I thought about them. In my case, I liked two out of five the most (two didn't even show up) – and at this point I still had three or four booked viewings on other dates. I wanted to have all of this done as soon as possible but in the end, I still decided on having three more viewings. BUT. One of the potential tenants were very interested in the apartment and could not wait. I decided that a quick deal might be a good idea. So I told Samtrygg that I was happy to go with this tenant. Samtrygg quickly took down my ad on their website, cancelled the viewings I had left and started the process.

Well, the potential tenant did not have all the papers ready and therefore asked if I could maybe wait a bit. This was a warning flag for me and I just told Samtrygg to put my ad back up. I had no time to wait for a "maybe". So this sucked a bit. I had a few more viewings and met a lovely young couple that seem to fit perfect. Again, I started the process via Samtrygg. This time it went better!

Step 3: 
When I had decided who was going to be my tenant, we wrote a contract via Samtrygg. After this, I needed an approval from my landlord as well. More papers to fill in and send away – if my landlord, for some reason, would say "no" then the contract with the tenant would not be valid anymore. BUT, the landlord approved. Woop woop!

Did all go well?
Everything went very smoothly. Before leaving the apartment for the new tenant I had to clean out all the clutter and dust, pack my things, write an inventory list, write an/fill in a inspection list with the new tenant and have all the keys ready. It was hard work but I was truly happy in the end.

Finishing words: 
All in all, the whole process with Samtrygg went fast. Because I might not be available during all hours of the day from Australia, my mom will (very kindly) be my contact person in this case. I think it's important to have someone who can represent you when you can't. 

THIS was SO awesome to check off as "Done" on my to do-list. 

Swedish apartment – living room 

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Swedish summary: 

Innan jag drog till Australien ville jag hyra ut min lägenhet i andrahand då det kändes som en viktig trygghet. Det är som sagt inte lätt att få lägenhet i Stockholm, iallafall var det inte lätt för mig. Jag provade först intresset på Facebook men det var något svalt, därför gick jag på vänners rekommendationer – Samtrygg. 

Samtrygg är ett företag som hjälper till med allt möjligt när det kommer till att exempelvis hyra ut sin lägenhet. Dessutom har de ett trygghetspaket som gör att alla parter känner sig något säkrade i denna deal. Trots att det var krokigt och jag hade något bråttom då jag hade en hel del andra saker att göra innan min Australien-resa gick allt smidigt. So far so good!