Agents are short term specific, they are real estate agents. they will search for what you are looking for, price point, location, contract duration etc. you need to get a Chinese speaker to help you if you can’t speak Chinese. they will also help you find a proper place. but, you will have to sublet the last two months of a minimum 6 month contract to someone else, and subleting is often not allowed or complicated with the tennent, especially if you don’t know them and are not around to enforce your agreement should they decide to flake.
4 months can only be found with room mates. you can find these on 1. english expat website classifieds (shanghai expat, enjoyshanghai.com, smartshanghai.com, cityweekend.com.cn, chinacities.com (has good classifieds).
you might also want to find a Chinese person to help you search the Chinese classifieds for Chinese people looking for room mates.
expats looking for roommates are going to charge you higher rent for three reasons, 1. they probably are paying an inflated rent because they are expats, 2. they will want you to pay more so they can cover part of their own rent & 3. 4 months is an extremely inconvenient period of time to ask a landlord for accommodation.
There are other options that you can use to get “free housing.” there is a cool new nightlife venue called “the Mansion” that has a hostel attached. you can stay there for free as long as you help them with parties on the weekends. if you are interested, let me know I can get you in contact with the right person.
