Renting houses is a major scene in Guangzhou, with people constantly changing homes every year for various reasons, which I won't elaborate on here. The reason we are looking for a new place is that the current house has a lot of dampness, and today I suddenly discovered that the top of the house is covered with a lot of colorful mold.

On one hand, this house is poorly ventilated and quite stuffy; on the other hand, it has a lot of moisture. When these two conditions are met, it is easy for black mold to thrive. Just yesterday, I noticed that my hardcover books had also developed black mold, which shows how poor the quality of this house is.

In the afternoon, we walked along Chenjiazhijie and saw many houses for rent, but we didn't call to check them out because we had a clear target: a village we had arranged to visit.

I asked my wife if she had ever been to this place. She hadn't.

It seems that children from the city are different from those from the countryside. In the countryside, we would at least know every street and alley within a five-mile radius, but for city kids, they might never figure out the streets and alleys within that distance in their entire lives.

Since I often got lost using navigation in the past, this time I decided to rely on my instincts to reach the destination. To my surprise, everything went smoothly, and I quickly met up with the landlord.

The landlord asked us what kind of place we were looking for, and when we said it was just for two people, she recommended a large studio to us, mainly because she didn't have any one-bedroom apartments available.

The landlord took us on a bit of a detour to an apartment building. We followed her up to the fourth floor to check out the place. Overall, it was not bad, just very simple. However, one advantage was that the house was dry and wouldn't have the kind of black fuzz that my current house has.

In the end, we decided to consider this as a backup option. After checking out some houses around Xiangqing Garden and walking for a while, we contacted the landlord via WeChat. The landlord was a woman who rode over on an electric bike. Then, under her guidance, we wound our way into a place right next to Xiangqing Garden.

Her building is a private residence, and currently, only the one-bedroom apartment on the first floor and the one on the third floor are available for rent. Usually, we wouldn't consider a first-floor apartment because, especially during the rainy season in Guangzhou, the dampness is too much. We just took a quick look around the first-floor apartment before following the landlord to the third-floor unit.

Unfortunately, the third-floor apartment is a studio, and the windows facing outside do not allow for good airflow, making it feel stuffy inside. However, the benefit is that there is a small yard right outside the door where you can plant flowers and grass.

The landlord mentioned that she has over forty properties, and now only two are still available for rent. She is indeed a landlord, and her business seems to be doing quite well.

After leaving that place, we arrived on a main road, where we saw a house with an advertisement for rent. We thought it must be close to the main road, so we quickly contacted the landlord and met up with her without delay.

It turned out that this building is an apartment hotel, with only three units available for rent. We checked the first two but were not satisfied because they lacked sunlight; the last one was slightly more acceptable.

However, my wife inquired in detail, and when she heard the landlord mention that patients from the Red Cross Hospital had stayed at her hotel, she immediately had second thoughts.

My wife is a very meticulous person. She told me that since patients had stayed there, it was possible that germs were brought in. She once made a video showing that some sick people might put dirty things in the showerhead, and if the next guest is not careful, they could get infected with germs.

I didn't think much of my wife's concern. Although it's undeniable that there are such bad people, they are very few, and we are unlikely to encounter them.

However, once someone has a worry in their heart, it tends to grow. Perhaps my wife's concern is also necessary. I once visited a village that was sunny and quite satisfactory, but there was actually a nest of nosebleeds on the wall, which completely extinguished our desire to rent there.

It seems that house may not be our first choice anymore. However, after this visit, we basically confirmed our preferred house.

After returning, I messaged the first landlord to inquire about how the water and electricity fees were charged. The other party replied that the electricity fee was 1.5 yuan and the water fee was 5 yuan. Seeing this result, I realized he was not the primary landlord but a secondary one. However, last year, Guangzhou had reformed the water and electricity fees, prohibiting such charges, yet he still held onto this old mindset.

If he were the primary landlord, it would usually be billed according to the actual usage of water and electricity, not in this manner. However, for those who use little electricity and water, it might not be a big deal.

At this point, I checked with another landlord, who had actually replied to me at three o'clock without any unnecessary talk, directly stating the various conditions and costs of the house. I then arranged to go see the house tomorrow morning.

Regarding renting a house, my biggest feeling is that going through an agency is generally not very reliable. The houses introduced by agencies usually have some issues. For example, the village I currently live in was found by my wife through Beike, and the agent took us to see several houses, but each of those houses had this or that problem. In the end, we had no choice but to find a house close to my parents' home, but we didn't expect it to turn out like this.

So when looking for a house again, I usually prefer not to go through an agency. The houses found through agencies not only have certain problems but also the landlords' tempers are usually not good. They either don't want to spend any time dealing with tenants and act like they are above it all, or they argue over everything, making tenants share costs for any issues with the house, even if they are due to the landlord's objective reasons.

Many people think that going through an agency provides protection, but in reality, when real problems arise, the agency usually has no authority to handle them, and ultimately, it falls back on the tenant to deal with it.

For example, in the past year, the water meter malfunctioned. Even though I informed the landlord, she insisted there was no problem. In the end, I had to call the government hotline to handle it, and it turned out the original water meter really was faulty. After replacing the water meter, the water usage also significantly decreased.

The landlord's refrigerator had a leaking problem, but she refused to handle it and said that if it cost a hundred yuan, she wouldn't want to repair it, and even if it were repaired, we would have to share the cost.

She didn't call a repairman; instead, I had to call one. After inspection, it was found to be an aging issue, and I ended up spending over a hundred yuan. She even tried to lecture me on why I should share half the cost, but I interrupted her and said, "Half is half." In fact, I looked down on her attitude. If she were a true local from Guangzhou, it would be a disgrace to the people of Guangzhou. The repairman also said he had never seen such a stingy landlord.