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MONEY & PROOF OF FUNDSPosted by Aggressive-Bagel-4413 🇳🇬 Nigeria · 1 month ago
Do you pay an agency fee for a goshiwon?
for normal korean rentals there's a 부동산 fee. someone offered to find me a goshiwon and wants 200,000 won for it.
is that a normal service or am i paying for something i could do myself
is that a normal service or am i paying for something i could do myself
6 comments
OFFICIAL ANSWER
KyaALLO TEAM
Founder & Head Consultant · Seoul
No, there is normally no agency fee for a goshiwon, and 200,000 won for finding one is a lot for what it is.
Why there is no fee in the normal case: goshiwon operators fill rooms directly. There is no 부동산 in the loop, no contract to draft, no deposit to hold in escrow. You phone or walk in, view, and pay the operator. The 부동산 fee you have read about applies to jeonse and wolse leases, which are a different legal transaction entirely.
What a person charging 200,000 won might legitimately be providing:
- Doing the search and the phone calls in Korean for you
- Coming to viewings and translating
- Being physically present in your first days
That is a real service and some students happily pay for it, especially arriving alone with no Korean. But price it honestly: it is a few hours of someone's time, and 200,000 won is roughly half a month's rent.
What should make you walk away:
- Anyone claiming a fee is required or standard for a goshiwon. It is not.
- Anyone asking for the fee before you have seen a room.
- Anyone who will only show you rooms in buildings they have a relationship with. You are then paying to be steered.
What we would do instead: use the free routes first. Korean listing sites with browser translation, Naver Map searched for 고시원 in your neighbourhood, and walking the streets near your school where buildings advertise vacancies with a banner and a phone number. Between those three you will find more stock than any intermediary shows you.
If you want help, ask your school's international office first — many will make the call for you at no cost, and they have no incentive to steer you anywhere.
Why there is no fee in the normal case: goshiwon operators fill rooms directly. There is no 부동산 in the loop, no contract to draft, no deposit to hold in escrow. You phone or walk in, view, and pay the operator. The 부동산 fee you have read about applies to jeonse and wolse leases, which are a different legal transaction entirely.
What a person charging 200,000 won might legitimately be providing:
- Doing the search and the phone calls in Korean for you
- Coming to viewings and translating
- Being physically present in your first days
That is a real service and some students happily pay for it, especially arriving alone with no Korean. But price it honestly: it is a few hours of someone's time, and 200,000 won is roughly half a month's rent.
What should make you walk away:
- Anyone claiming a fee is required or standard for a goshiwon. It is not.
- Anyone asking for the fee before you have seen a room.
- Anyone who will only show you rooms in buildings they have a relationship with. You are then paying to be steered.
What we would do instead: use the free routes first. Korean listing sites with browser translation, Naver Map searched for 고시원 in your neighbourhood, and walking the streets near your school where buildings advertise vacancies with a banner and a phone number. Between those three you will find more stock than any intermediary shows you.
If you want help, ask your school's international office first — many will make the call for you at no cost, and they have no incentive to steer you anywhere.
Was this helpful?Updated 1 month ago
6 comments
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You can still post anonymously after signing in.there's no standard agency fee for goshiwon. the 부동산 fee is for actual leases with deposits. completely different transaction
18
so they're charging me for the search itself, not a required fee. that reframes it
8
200k is half a month's rent for a few phone calls. i'd pay 50k for someone to come to viewings and translate, not 200k to find a listing
14
and check whether they only show you buildings they get commission from
6
my school's international office phoned three places for me for free. ask them before paying anyone
11
korean here — nobody pays an agency fee for a goshiwon. you walk in and pay the owner. that's the whole system
9
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