How to find a commission-free apartment

Hey all.

I´m moving to berlin to further saturate the English teacher situation and want to rent a flat for a month or so until I get my bearings and know where I want to live in the city.
I´d like to sort something out before arriving. I´ve found an agency called crocodilian, the flats look pretty cool but the agency fee is quite high (30% for 1 month). Are there more agencies you could mention or is there a website for renting flats missing out those pesky agencies.
cheers. this is my first post on here. looks like a top site.

kev

immobilienscout24.de

thanks.

For more info see http://www.toytowngermany.com/wiki/Apartments_in_Berlin
Includes a useful bunch of tips for househunting.

there is a site... http://berlin.en.craigslist.org/sub/, great for temporary stays because it is direct from the renter of the apartment...everyone sublets their apartments here when they go away.
goog luck

Fine & Mine has a lower commission but not by much
www.fineandmine.de

Best sources for commission-free rentals are www.studenten-wg.de and www.zweitehand.de.

You should not under any circumstances pay an agent for getting an apartment in Berlin. There are very many good apartments in all areas available without commission (provisionfrei). I have never paid an agent (Makler) and you should not either - they are useless and will not help you find anything that suits your requirements better that you will without them.

In general, most apartment for rent are advertised in the Berliner Morgenpost, and their web site is pretty good for searching for apartments, as long as you can read at least a little bit of German. Here is the URL:
http://immonet.morgenpost.de/search.do?fed...marketingtype=2

The best sites that we used:
http://www.studenten-wg.de/angebote_lesen.html?stadt=Berlin
http://www.wg-gesucht.de/wohnungen-in-Berlin.8.2.0.0.html
http://berlin.en.craigslist.org/

Plus there's these ones:
http://berlin.kijiji.de/f-Immobilien-Wohnu...IdZ39QQAdTypeZ2
http://berlin.markt.de/category,3/search.htm

This is an agent that we looked at a few with, but as you've realised agents can charge you a hefty fee:
http://www.taekker.de/Mieterservice
There's a spreadsheet with all the properties and the viewing times.

You may find it best to look for a sublets, the two sites at the top show these by having a start and end date, but you also see "Auf Zeit" eg in Zitty or Tip
Zitty
TIP
some terms that might be useful:
Mieten = to rent
Nachmieter = literally "next renter"
WG = shared house
Biete/Angebot = offered
kalt = the rate without the nebenkosten (the additional costs for cleaning, bins, and sometimes heat..depends if there is block heating or not)
warm = including the nebenkosten (sometimes includes some heat, sometimes not)

There's an extensive list of useful abbreviations right here on TT: Rental Advertisement Abbreviations.

Thanks for these replies.