Looking for a Apt/House in Heidelberg

I am currently set to PCS into Heidelberg Jan 2010. I am currently a single mother and well I am having the hardest time finding a place for my daughter and I. I have talked with my sponsor and he had stated to wait until I arrive there. I would just like to research ahead of time so I can plan on what I would like to take with me and what I would or should put into permanent storage. Any help would be greatly appreciated. also if anyone has any helpful information that would be great.

One thing to consider is how large is the place you have now, convert that into square meters For example, 2500 square feet is 232 square meters. It is unlikely that you will get a house this large here so if you have a house that size it might help you to decide how much to store.

Depending on how much LQA you get, a row house with 120 square meters is more likely and for German standards would be considered luxurious for a single mother with one child. If you search the Baden-Württemberg forum you will find many posts on housing in this area. I suggest reading them and you will get familiar with the communities that have the type of housing you will need. The military housing office does not pay real estate agent fees here as far as I know (believe it or not but the person *seeking* the housing pays the agent for the privilege of renting here) so they only restrict to properties that are rented Provisionsfrei or "commission free". Your sponsor can tell you all about this.

Good luck with your move!

Are you a soldier or Civilian? Typically the soldiers are not allowed to live off post anymore. I ask because you use the term PCS.

It is a good plan to wonder what housing will be like over here to decide what to bring. My advice is to forgoe big items like your grandma's antique china cabinet unless you plan to live here for longer than your tour of duty. My co-workers brought fancy stuff like that over and it was just trashed when it arrived. It also took 1 whole year to settle with the movers to fix it.

Things like king size mattresses may cause an issue as german doorways, hallways, and stairs are not big and roomy like back in the US. most places will have spiral stairs!

Not only do you need to find a place to fit your stuff, but you need to makes sure it is going to have easy access to the school bus routes and is close so your daughter will have access to other Amercians especially if you're not planning to learn German etc.

However, worrying about this stuff now is kinda silly, when you arrive here you will use the Army Housing office which will match you up with your LQA and a house suitable for you and your daughter. You will have 90 days to find something. Although you can also use a realtor, but you will then have to pay the associated fees. Also understand that you will have to pay a deposit 2-3 times your monthly rent. Right now the exchange rate is 1.53USD to 1 EUR at the military banks on post.

So again, I would not worry about this now. YOu should instead spend this time thinning out your household goods and taking over what you really must have and making sure it matches up with your relocaton allowance.

Spend time figuing out how you want to do your banking. Your Germans bills require German Bank routing numbers. The banks on base offer this service but they also have poor exchange rates. Banking with BofA back home is a good option because they partner with Deutche Bank and can faciliate transfers. Or if you have a Credit Union part of the CU Service Centers network you can xfer money to the Credit Union on post painlessly.

Use this time to tie up loose ends at home and use your 90 days to figure out where you want live once you are in country. Because not being here you have no clue what the various communites have to offer until you come and experience them for yourself.

If you are coming over here as GS/NSPS then your best bet is to go through housing. Specifically ask for a place that does not uise a broker otherwise you are gong to have to pay ther broker fee (2 months of rent) out of your own pocket sinc eit is not reimbursable.

Pretty much any electronics that are not dual voltage should be left behind. You can get new ones here. Using yours from the US require transformers (power converters) which eat electricity like crazy. You should be able to get the basics from supply.

Get a Bank of America account if you dson't already have one. The ATMs on base and the DOD Community Bank are run by them. When you get here get a DOD Community Bank account. They will get you the Euro bank routing numbers you will need to pay bills and you can manage it online.

Listen to your sponsor. They have been in this same position before. They will take care of you. Relax.

Hopefully you'll have a sponsor who had similar circumstances as you (ie, has children) or they'll forget a lot of little details. We just PCSed here a few weeks ago and our sponsor, nice enough person, failed to mention a lot of little details that were major pains in the hiney to deal with once we were here as he was single when he PCSed here.

housing - I'd kill (well, no, not really - figure of speech) to live on PHV in officer's housing, the convenience just can't be beat. But yes, for temporary as well as long-term you want something that's on a school bus route. If you're going to be on the economy, I'd wait until you can visit the housing office, with patience you'll find a decent place in a decent village with a reasonable bus trip for your child.

Our stuff hasn't arrived yet but I can tell we're going to have a problem getting our bedroom furniture installed; on the top floors a lot of houses have low, sloping ceilings - do not bring your queen size canopy bed. As others mentioned, the houses will typically be 3 or 4 floors with a narrow, spiraling staircase, though allegedly the movers will use some sort of conveyor system to load furniture into the upper floors over the balconies and whatnot. I'll find out in another month or two.

On the other hand, if you have a really comfortable chair or couch that you love, bring it.

do not bring any 110v major appliances, just get the 220v appliances here. the transformers cost you money to use due to inefficiency, and the larger transformers (2,000W) may very well be unusable as they might trip the circuit breakers on their own (ask me how I know... ) The px in mannheim (20 minute drive) sells 220v appliances.

tv - the px sells multi-voltage multi-tuner tvs for an okay price, plan on getting one of them.

cable/internet/phone - easy - www.kabelbw.de - way cheaper than anyone else. I foolishly went with tkmobile; slower, more expensive and no cable tv.

do you have the study guide for the usareur driver's license yet? if not, download it and take the test ASAP when you arrive. You need it before you can buy/register a car or buy the discounted gas.

Also worth noting, the first 60 - 90 days you will hate it here, guaranteed. It's an incredibly inconvenient place to get settled into, you'll spend a lot of time taking forms from one base to another, and most german businesses close early and aren't open on the weekends.

Is this your first overseas deployment? Notify your credit card companies that you'll be here (so they don't freeze your card), convert some $$ to euro before you come so you can shop/eat after you arrive (cash is king here) and don't forget your child's birth certificate. A GPS with european maps is hugely helpful as well.

There's probably a lot more to know - good luck.