Rental Homes

Ganluan

Alright, simple question time. Does anyone have recommendations on the best way to find a rental home (not apartment)? There seem to be a bunch of different sites and they have different listings, some more than others. Is it a better idea to drive around prospective neighborhoods and look for rent signs, or can MLS be used?

A Bear

I just recently found a new rental home (ok, a duplex-type thing) on Craigslist for my upcoming move a few hours away, but it came after visiting a large number of prospective properties and driving around checking out the surroundings over a period of about a month or so. I found that a number of rental companies used Craigslist, and from their posted ads I was linked to their company webpages and could check out more complete listings from there.

In all the time I spent driving around checking out online leads, never once did I really go after any "for rent" signs I just happened to come across, even though my search area was pretty small and I happened to come across a pretty good deal of such homes. I went into my house hunt with pretty specific search parameters (2 beds, 1.5+ baths, W/D connections, price) so I didn't really want to bother randomly calling up numbers I found on signs just to ask if the properties I happened to see even had what I wanted.

Another good idea is, if you can find anyone who lives near or around where you are looking to move to, ask them if they know of any good rental companies or landlords to work with. Having a great landlord makes all the difference.

Rubick

I found a real estate agent via Craigslist that hooked me up with a slew of homes to view - we wound up renting one of the ones she showed us.