Unfortunately I write to you from one of the few pet-friendly hotels in Cairo to have open rooms - the Lotus. I think pet friendly here means that they just don't clean your room because you have a pet in it. Glowing internet reviews about the friendliness of this place convinced us to stay, but in reality, the disagreeable porter and ancient furnishings make it a less than salubrious habitation. Even our cat is displeased. However, the bare bones room is still a good place to get to Dokki and Mohandiseen where we have been looking for flats. Maadi is a bit of an American outpost and Zamalek is similarly full of foreigners and accordingly priced flats. Mohandiseen is also an upscale neighbourhood, but there are some less posh areas there and in Dokki and Agouza, which is sandwiched between Zamalek and Mohandiseen. I didn't come to Cairo to live amongst foreigners, so we've been pretty choosy about where to rent, much to the bewilderment of our brokers, who can't understand why we would want to live in a "sha3bi" or popular area.
I originally tried to locate a flat through the listserv Cairo Scholars (now open only to those with .edu addresses) which proved to be a better bet for those looking for a flat share or individual rooms. I saw a couple of flats off the list which weren't all that, but were in supposedly nice areas (not really). So we tried a two-pronged approach - craigslist, and neighbourhood flat hunting expeditions. We managed to find three brokers off craigslist (and another contacted us off CairoScholars, but was a complete bust). Most of the listings are obscenely priced or dubious, though. The first broker was unprofessional and made us foot the bill for transport to the various flats, the second one looked like a yeti and brought his girlfriend to work with him, and the third was luckily, a decent dude.
We also walked around different areas where we wanted to live, asking the bowwabs (doormen) and corner grocery shop owners - basically anyone plugged into the neighbourhood - whether they knew of any empty flats in the area. If you can speak a little arabic, this is a good way to go, but almost all the flats you'll see are decorated Egyptian-style - i.e. major carpeting everywhere, excessive (and often tacky and bulky) furniture, grand old curtains, and so on. Brokers are more likely to have flats that may appeal to non-Egyptian sensibilities, but also more likely to overcharge for the privilege, typically half a month's rent for a 6 month to year long lease. I've heard that simsars or brokers are meant to charge the landlord only and NOT the client, but in practice most tend to double dip. For the amount of flats and effort that the last broker put in, I felt that it was worth the half month fee, but not more. Negotiate!
We saw about 20 flats all told - big flats, small flats, unoccupied flats, flats occupied by old people, tenement flats, stinky flats, tacky flats, passable flats, renewed flats.... most of them were overpriced because of the area (Mohandiseen) and some of them were just awful. We did see a couple of decent ones, mostly shown by the last broker. One of them was beautiful, but the second bedroom was unusable, and the bowwab fee was far too much. So, we've settled on a gorgeous flat at the edge of Mohandiseen and Agouza. The building doesn't have a bowwab or nice entrance and it's a 4th floor walk up, but the kitchen is the size of a living room and the living room is the size of a yoga studio. There are loads of bakeries on our street, in addition to the various 'ahwas (coffeehouses)... Sha3bi chic, innit! Plus, it's a 3 bedroom and every room has its own balcony. Tonight we meet the owner to negotiate removal of tacky furniture and all the curtains and carpeting so we can see the lovely hardwood (real! not laminate!) floors and hopefully convince her to give us a new fridge....
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