We Have a Home!

It took a good while, but we finally found a home here in Morocco. What we thought would take a week turned out to take a month! Here’s a quick overview of what our apartment search looked like.

Go for a walk around the neighborhood we liked and ask the apartment “concierge” if there are any openings. Every two or three we’d get lucky and either there’d be an opening in that building or the concierge’s side job is rental agent and through word of mouth he knows about a few other spots. He says, it’s just down that sreet and around the way…. 10 blocks later we arrive at the spot. He calls out to the concierge of the apartment building with a rental, if we’re lucky he’s there and has the keys and can actually show us the place. More often than not, the concierge isn’t there and we have to come back later or he’s there but doesn’t have the keys.

In those lucky instances, we get to see the place. Again, more often than not, the apartments are not tidied up to show potential renters. We don’t consider ourselves picky, but I mean we do have some basic sanitary standards. We did find a few spots we liked, but then came the part of negotiating with the concierge his commission so we could get the owner’s number. When we finally called the owners, we were too honest at first. Most owners don’t want short term renters and want some kind of proof that you work in Morocco, so that threw us for another loop. We learned that stretching the truth is a necessity.

We (and mostly Imad) spent more hours than we’d like to share walking the streets of Rabat meeting one and then another concierge. Finally, literally our last hope before we were going to rent a place a little far from where we wanted for a month until we could figure out a better situation. We had heard of a furnished apartment in Agdal, where we want to live. We’d driven by the spot where the concierge who told us about it sits but he was never there. As we’re driving down a street, Imad spots him, Omar, out of the corner of his eye. So Omar hops in the car and we drive to the building….. and of course, concierge isn’t there. Later that night, Imad goes back and lo and behold there’s the concierge. He checks out the place and liked it! The next morning, we all go back and yes, it’s the one!

Now, to talk to the owner. We call the owner, an older woman and we decided just to be totally honest with her. It was destiny because she had rented several times to people on a short-term basis. Now we have a home! It’s furnished and has everything we need. It’s a small spot, a one bedroom, so we’ll learn to be very tidy and minimalistic, something we’ve been striving for a while now.

We have a big traditional “salon” so guests are welcome!! The cushions are very comfortable and meant for overnighters, so small space does not mean no room for visitors. We’re located by la Place Bourgogne next to Bab Marrakech, a piece of the old city wall that is still standing. Here are a few photos of the view from our neighborhood and the salon. I have to say the best part, sunshine. We get great sunshine in the afternoon which heats up the house for the cool nights and it feels so good. Vitamin D does wonders.