After living as digital nomads for nearly two years, my husband and I decided to move from the US to the Netherlands.
We’d visited several times and fell in love with the walkability and bike culture. Plus, I have a connection to the country, since my great-grandparents were Dutch.
With the help of a real-estate agent, we found an apartment remotely from the US, signing a yearlong lease in the city of Utrecht before ever setting foot in the home.
We encountered some surprises while looking for an apartment
Emily Pogue
Since the process of finding an apartment abroad can often take months, we chose to search remotely from the US. To make things easier, we hired a Dutch real-estate agent with local connections who could view apartments for us in person.
The prep work was much more intense than I was used to. In the US, I’ve leased apartments in three different states, and the extent of the application typically included filling out a basic form and sometimes completing a background check.
That wasn’t going to cut it in the Netherlands.
Our agent gave us a long list of materials to prepare, from 12 months of bank statements and links to our LinkedIn profiles, to a “get to know us” letter, which included our hobbies and photos of us. Then she went looking.
Rentals often get snatched up within a few hours or days, so my husband and I were regularly waking up at 4 a.m. in Colorado to read our agent’s emails about the new listings each day.
When we finally found one that checked all our boxes, we asked her to schedule a walkthrough. Luckily, she recorded a video for us to review, so we didn’t need to wake up early for this part of the process.
It was during the walkthrough, however, that we learned Dutch apartment listings aren’t as detailed as the ones we were used to in the US. When our agent arrived, we discovered the listing had omitted several important pieces of information.
Emily Pogue
For example, there was a fully fenced-in back garden, complete with a shed, picnic table, and blackberry and rose bushes. The kitchen had a dishwasher. And there was a washing machine hidden away behind a cabinet door — and a dryer (which is not as common in Europe).
Score, right? So we jumped at the opportunity, put in our bid, and jumped for joy when our offer was accepted.
Despite a few setbacks, we fell in love with our apartment
Emily Pogue
We arrived in the Netherlands a few weeks later, traveling directly from the airport to our rental. When we unlocked the door for the first time, hoping we’d fall in love with our new home, it was … freezing.
Turns out, the heat had stopped working, and the rental company couldn’t send someone to fix it until the next day. So, we spent our first night in the Netherlands at a hotel.
Thankfully, the heat was fixed the following day, and then we could start unpacking. This is when we began to notice some of the more nuanced differences of a Dutch house compared to an American one.
The first thing to get used to? The alarmingly steep stairs (a hallmark of skinny, tall Dutch houses) which made moving furniture up to our second-floor office feel like a Herculean feat.
We also learned to accept moths and gnats as houseguests, since Dutch windows don’t typically have screens. However, with no air conditioning and a 100-year-old house that was built to retain heat, we definitely want to keep those windows open.
Overall, aside from a few stowaway insects and some hot days, we’ve been very fortunate with our rental. I particularly love the neighborhood and how we can walk to a grocery store, bakery, or park within five minutes.
The biggest lessons have come from being part of a Dutch neighborhood
Emily Pogue
Although finding our rental was a whirlwind process, I’ve found the most interesting parts of living here have come from the cultural differences between American and Dutch neighborhoods.
For example, shortly after arriving, our neighbor invited us to the neighborhood WhatsApp group. If you need to borrow a drill or lose your cat, you send a message to the group.
It’s very active, and joining the group helped me feel like I was part of a community before knowing anyone here. Although I’ve heard of similar groups in the US, I’ve never been invited to join one.
Ordering packages is also very different. Back in the States, packages would be left by my door. In the Netherlands, however, they aren’t left unattended.
Instead, the delivery driver will start ringing the neighbors’ doorbells until someone is home. Then, they’ll leave a digital note about which house has your package.
One place I didn’t expect to feel such a contrast is the sidewalk. On sunny days, my Dutch neighbors bring out their dining room chairs, park them on the bricks outside their front door, and enjoy a cold drink. Sometimes, it’ll feel like an impromptu block party — and I couldn’t be happier to join in the festivities.
After leasing an apartment across the world, sight unseen, would I do it again? I sure would — especially if I could hire a real-estate agent to check out the home in person.
The quirks of our apartment and neighborhood are all part of the experience of living abroad, and although I may not have expected them, I’ve now grown attached to these cultural differences.
