@skinnylatte @SRLevine You'll see stuff like that in most cities, to some degree. Back when I was living in Munich, it was the same thing; get the weekly paper that had the rental ads in it (this was before there were online rental listings), call every single one that's in your price range, hope they still have an appointment left to tour the apartment, make your bid, hope you don't get outbid by another renter.
By 8am, usually all appointments for the week were taken.