Apartment hunt

So after two months of searching and many sympathies shared to us by Israelis also frustrated by the apartment hunting process, we are glad to announce that we have signed a lease on a new apartment. It's a reasonably priced three bedroom, two bath recently constructed apartment. The two greatest things about this apartment are: 1) we get to stay in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood which we love and Jana and Atom are considered "locals" by the community and especially by the retail shops. 2) the rent is almost 20% lower than what we are currently paying and almost half the price of what the landlord has our current apartment listed for (more on that in a bit).

 In this apartment hunting process, we learned a few things about the Tel Aviv housing market:

1. Overall rent prices are disproportionately high compared to the average salary of Israelis. The recent tent protests which originated as a protest on the high price of rent are indeed valid, especially given the skyrocketing rates seen the past few years. 
2. Many landlords' expectations and resulting asking price are completely unrealistic. We saw apartments that were shit-holes with high asking prices, and we saw nice renovated apartments with exorbitant asking prices. Most of those remain on the market even after many months of vacancy. I mean why would someone rent these places when there are also reasonably priced places on the market like the one we found? 
3. As much as we tried not to use a real estate agent to avoid the 1 month fee, it was almost impossible for the apartments in our neighborhood. Even when we were able to contact the landlord directly, they directed us back to their real estate agent. Why do I have to pay a finder's fee when I did all the work?
4. Google translate and google chrome's automatic translation function are awesome. 
5. I hate my current landlord and am so glad we are moving out. 

One last parting shot at my current landlord: how can you ask for 16000 nis ($4300) a month when there is mold growing all under the floor and the moisture continues to cause the dry wall to bubble and crack?