A Little Background
As anyone who has watched House Hunters International knows, it's often impossible to get the exact combination of desired features at the budgeted cost. Unfortunately, before we even started our apartment search in October, we began to question our initial budget. Due to continued and increasing tensions in the East, refugees with the means to do so were moving to Lviv due to its stability. Additionally, there are several universities in Lviv, and when we came to Ukraine, there was a huge influx of university students seeking apartments. In addition to the usual students returning for the Fall semester, there were also many transfer students from Crimea and the East. Demand was increasing and supply was decreasing. Thanks to Professor Katz at Virginia Tech, we know this results in increased prices. Before even looking at the first apartment, we determined that we would increase our rent budget to about $400/month. We also decided to offer a potential bargaining chip - instead of agreeing on a price in hryvin (the Ukrainian currency), we would offer to pay in hryvin, but would do so each month at the current exchange rate with the US dollar. This would protect the landlord from currency inflation risk, as the hryvnia is very unstable right now.
Starting the Apartment Search
The first apartment we saw seemed perfect. Near the center, good access to transportation, a great market nearby, furnished, with fairly big living room, and in an Austro-Hungarian building. It even had a second half-bath for guests to use, a newly renovated kitchen, and was across the street from a botanical garden and around the corner from Lviv's biggest park. Unfortunately, however, this apartment was $500/month - paid in hryvin at the current exchange rate. What we thought was bargaining chip was a requirement, and the price was well above what we were hoping for. After a day of praying and thinking about how to manipulate our budget to make it work, we turned it down.
The next two apartments we heard about were from the second realtor. Both were far from the city center but not close to church either, and one wasn't furnished at all. Both were $400/month - paid in hryvin, but at the current exchange rate. Once again, our offer to pay at the USD/UAH exchange rate was a required condition, not a bargaining chip. This realtor said that finding an apartment in our price range with all we wanted would not be possible, so she was looking for the next best options. At this point, we had lost hope of paying less than $400/month, and were even questioning whether we should just go ahead and take the $500/month after all, trusting God to provide the rest of the rent. Before we had the chance to look at the two less-than-ideal apartments, the first realtor called with another apartment for us to see immediately.