Rumah123 - How to use it if you don't speak Indonesian

Puspawarna

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Rumah123 is a useful site for finding a place to rent, but it can be a little intimidating to navigate if you don't speak Indonesian yet. You can still use it effectively to find rental housing, though, if you follow this step-by-step guide (last updated July 2016):

1. Go to rumah123's website: Rumah123

2. Look below the large photo at the top of the page, and you will see a white box that says "masukkan kata kunci yang diinginkan". In that box, type the name of the neighborhood where you would like to look for housing - for example, "Kebayoran Baru." As you start to type, a drop-down box will appear with a list of places, titled "lokasi." Click on the item on the list that best identifies the area where you want to find a place, then hit return or click on the "cari" [find] button.

3. This will take you to a page where you can enter search parameters. Near the top on the left you will see a button that says "dijual." Click on this and a drop-down menu will appear with 3 choices (dijual, disewa, properti terbaru). The one you want is "disewa" - a rental property. Check that one.

4. Look a little lower on the page. There are four more buttons. Make your choices as follows:

A) Rumah: Gives you the choices of Rumah, Apartemen, Ruko, Tanah. You almost certainly want a house (rumah) or apartment (apartemen). Ignore ruko, tanah, and komersial - they aren't going to be relevant to the search of an expat looking for rental housing.

B) Kisaran Harga: Lets you enter a price range. First, figure out what your ANNUAL budget is in rupiah - for example, if you can spend USD 2500/month that is USD 30,000/yr; if you aren't sure what the current exchange rate is or you get lost in all the zeros, this handy site will do the conversion for you. At the moment that means your budget is about Rp 394,000,000 million/year. Note that Indonesian uses periods where English uses commas and vice versa, so in Indonesian "twenty-three thousand" would be written as "23.000".

Click on the Kisaran Harga button and two new boxes appear, helpfully labeled "min" and "max." I generally ignore the "min" button. Go to the max and either enter your maximum annual budget in rupiah (digits only) or choose from the list. Either way works.

C) The next button is "luas bangunan" which the area (of the residence, not counting surrounding property). Make a choice from the list.

D) The next button is "luas tanah" which is the area of the land. Again, make a choice from the list.

5. A list will appear below of properties that meet your criteria. If you want, you can go to "reset filter" and start again, and/or to "tampilkan filter." If you go to the latter and click, a dialog box will appear that allows you to further narrow your search parameters. Many of the words are cognates and it should be easy to use the box, but here are a few translations of terms that might not be clear:

k. tidur (kamar tidur) = bedrooms
k. mandi = bathrooms
garasi = garage
sekolah = school
warnet = internet cafe
kantor = office
rumah sakit = hospital
keamanan 24jam = 24-hour security
pintu tol = toll gate (as in, is it near the toll road)
mesjid = mosque
kolam renang = swimming pool
kafe/kantin = cafe/canteen
pasar tradisional = traditional market
taman bermain = playground

Then hit "filter" to get a list that matches your parameters.

To get rid of the detailed dialog box, click on "sembunyikan filter" in the upper right.

At this point you should have a list of properties that you can at least partially evaluate without speaking Indonesian, using the vocabulary already provided above and the frequent cognates ("kontak agen" is not exactly hard to figure out!) Scrolling through the photos will help too.


To arrange to see a property, click kontak agen and a dialog box will pop up for you to enter your name, email and phone. NOTE: THIS DOES NOT WORK WITH THE SAFARI BROWSER! When you are done you will not get any immediate feedback on the website to let you know that your information entry worked, but within a few minutes you should get a confirmation email. Within 24 hours or so, maybe a little longer, you should be contacted by the agent.

The agents I have encountered through Rumah123 all have decent English skills and will be glad to communicate with you in English if that is your preference.
 
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Pintu Tol is Toll Gate, like the closest toll entry/exit.
 
OLX is another option.
OLX, location you are searching, choose property, choose rental, fill in any information block you desitr for the search, viola.
 
Great thread Puspa. I'm sure will be useful to many newbies.
Another thing that's often listed is bebas banjir -free from flooding.
 
Excellent and very useful post Puspawarna!

Also, check out www.rumahdijual.com

It's very popular because it's free to advertise on and anyone can post an ad, not just registered agents on rumah123.com.

Also, notice anything familiar about www.rumahdijual.com?
 
Most browsers have translate capabilities. For example if you right click on IE you should see an option "Translate with Bing". I took a look at the site translated in English and it looks pretty good. Already found a prospective property.

Much Thanks!
 
what I've always done is just type into google "rumah123 english" & voila again, there it is
 
Personally, I always disliked Rumah123. Most of their listings are placed by agents and they add quite a bit to the price then if you are dealing with an owner personally. I would much rather use OLX or the local newspapers. I compared prices between Rumah123 and what the asking prices for the same type properties are in the same areas and found Rumah123 to be Rp10 juta to Rp15 juta higher per year then what owners are asking. There are plenty of houses out there and you don't need an agent to find one. An Agent for the property owner is not going to do you any favors except they will show you a house. Hire your own agent to find one and the same thing, they find a house for you to look at.
 
We found the same thing with rumah123 & agents but we usually peruse it as part of market scoping. Another thing I am highly suspicious of is that many agents take photos of their competitors properties or private rental properties & then advertise them as their own. It's just a little suspicious when they only have a photo from the street & upon telephone inquiry can't tell you anything about the place. These same shysters usually say something like "you'll have to come to my office for more info".
My wife did her block at one of these clowns one day, shouting at him that she wouldn't deal with someone as unprofessional as him.... made our day, you know, real estate agents & used car salesmen, wouldn't piss on most of em' even f they were on fire.

It's not easy though when you're removed from the area where you're looking to rent & don't have much choice but use agents or whatever compared to being within reasonably close vicinity & just scouring the streets looking for owner signs on houses for rent or sale.
 
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This link actually goes somewhere else (do you use hide.me vpn?)

Thanks for catching that! That is pretty weird...I don't use it with Safari, only Firefox, and I do all my forum stuff with Safari. But obviously I must have accidentally mixed stuff up. Hopefully I can fix that.

ETA: I think it is fixed now - please click on it if you feel so inclined, and verify. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to check every link I've posted recently. Ack! That's a lot.
 
and there is another apartment listing website that anyone can have a look. Its bilingual and very user friendly.
we have integrated map that let you find apartment based on locations.
I hope you can find your most suitable apartment in town!

https://www.rukamen.com

aand the detail of an apartment including developers, towers, number of floors, developers and video tour! Rukamen was created to simplify the search of apartment informations for all. Be sure to check the map as well, exact locations and Google Street View integrated to see the surround areas!

Cheers!
 
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