adventures in apartment-hunting

[pepsi_alum]

I will be starting a new job in late August at a university in a new city (new to me, anyway). The first order of business is finding a place to live. I'm getting ready for an apartment/house-hunting trip to New City next week. Between scammers on Craigslist, high-pressure sales tactics by property management companies, and clueless realtors which say things like "you're a professional; you should buy instead of renting," it's all a bit overwhelming.

Feel free to post your own rental hunting experiences, tips, or questions here.

[monarda]

We're landlords in a city with a very tight rental market. Not sure about your New City, but here, - once you get to know the neighborhood you want, and find a place, I'd recommend that you are ready to sign paperwork on site. If you want to 'think about it' and you take an application home with you, you'll probably miss it. We typically only need one day of showings and we find plenty of good candidates.

[octoprof]

Look for rental agencies that handle rentals for corporate professionals. You might get better service that way. I did in my previous move.

You can also look for rentals on realtor.com. Just change the choice from buy to rent.

Take notes and photos if you look at several places. It's hard to remember details after a busy day.

Good luck and let us know how it comes out for you.

[Anselm]

I am resolved at my age that if I ever get another apartment it will have to be on the first floor.

[tuxedo_cat]

Aha! -- I have found my opportunity to unload and record all the new (some of it painful) wisdom I have acquired from trying to find an apartment in one of the most expensive and tight rental markets in the country.

Here are a few things I've learned:

Trulia: definitely the best new site for apartment hunting.  Usually pretty good photos, easy to read list of features and amenities.  It clearly indicates both the exact address and the general neighborhood -- even better, it also gives you info about crime statistics for each listing (with a map! it is *awesome* because it shows you the proximity of neighborhoods that may or may not be sketchy) plus more consistently organized info than on craigslist.  You can also fill out your own "resume" as a renter with your bona fides and preferences to share when you send them a request for more info, which some people do seem to review before they contact you.  I found this site the most transparent and informative, and the least likely to have fraudulent postings.  The one thing that is hard to sniff out right away is whether or not a listing has been posted by a realtor or broker (see further notes below).  No one on this site seems to be compelled to shout at you in ALL CAPS about the fact that the rent covers heat and hot water or that this property will go fast!

craigslist scammers:  common sense is helpful: if the listing sounds too good to be true, there's a good chance it's a scammer.  Lately the scammers use a similar formula: rent way underpriced, all cats and dogs of the universe allowed, furnished, wheelchair accessible, etc.  Here's one surefire way to sniff them out:  click the "reply" box in the upper left corner.  If they are using an @aol.com address, they are very likely scammers.  I've already had someone try to hack the gmail account that I was using to correspond with people.  Not sure if that bit of advice will work for all locations.

apartmentlist.com: I also found the set-up on this site very user-friendly and handy for keeping track of what I had searched.  I originally ended up on this site because I was looking specifically for apartment communities, which do not always advertise open listings on craigslist or Trulia

brokers! gah! I know, these poor people are just trying to make a living, but holy cow.  It is not uncommon in a competitive apartment market for people to expect you to cough up:  first, last, deposit, broker's fee. . . and *each* one of those equal to a full month's rent.  If your rent is close $2000?  Yeah, we can all do that math. Yikes.

single property rented by home owner: this may be the most common of the common sense pointers, but I have always found these the most sane, least rapacious people to deal with, and able to negotiate a little about things like the deposit, the date to begin the lease, having a pet on the property.

For pet owners: don't restrict your search parameters only to listings that explicitly allow pets.  Some homeowners are not *eager* to rent to tenants with pets, but they won't clearly say so in the original listing.  And then if they meet you and you don't have two heads or reek of cat urine, they might be willing to negotiate about a pet.

apartment communities: when I was having my darkest moment with this process, I thought well, I can deal with living in an apartment from a planned community of the blandest-looking suburban houses that sprung up in New Jersey in the 1970s (something I happen to have personal knowledge about).  If you have to travel far to a place where you're moving, it's worth contacting a few of these places in advance, since they will probably have an online application, which you can complete or at least examine before visiting town.  And the people you'll be dealing with are likely to be very solicitous recent college grads who are super nice to deal with, although they have no power to negotiate much with you.  At least they're friendly.   The best red flag to pay attention to at this late point in the season: an apartment complex with a *lot* of openings.

Google review page for apartment communities: check reviews on Google or Apartmentratings.com which can be surprisingly helpful.  But also be aware that reading reviews there can be like reading Amazon reviews: after a certain point, you can start to feel marginally insane, like you have no idea what to trust.  The other advantage of looking at Google reviews is that when you search for one apartment complex, if you scroll down you will find a list of "People also searched for. . . " and that may spit out a whole list of such properties in the area, all nicely laid out on a map so that you can see which ones might be too far from work.

Ok, that's all I got for the moment.  And in case people are curious, the very first place I visited this weekend was miraculously the apartment that was like some secret treasure waiting for me, and the owner just contacted me to let me know that she would be very happy to rent to me.  It probably helps that I just got hired for a faculty position at one of the local universities. But I feel like I got incredibly lucky, or the deities of apartment hunting were looking after me.  So this is obviously how I am trying to pay it forward!

Happy hunting, everyone!

[chemigal]

craigslist scammers:  common sense is helpful: if the listing sounds too good to be true, there's a good chance it's a scammer.  Lately the scammers use a similar formula: rent way underpriced, all cats and dogs of the universe allowed, furnished, wheelchair accessible, etc.  Here's one surefire way to sniff them out:  click the "reply" box in the upper left corner.  If they are using an @aol.com address, they are very likely scammers.  I've already had someone try to hack the gmail account that I was using to correspond with people.  Not sure if that bit of advice will work for all locations.

single property rented by home owner: this may be the most common of the common sense pointers, but I have always found these the most sane, least rapacious people to deal with, and able to negotiate a little about things like the deposit, the date to begin the lease, having a pet on the property.

For pet owners: don't restrict your search parameters only to listings that explicitly allow pets.  Some homeowners are not *eager* to rent to tenants with pets, but they won't clearly say so in the original listing.  And then if they meet you and you don't have two heads or reek of cat urine, they might be willing to negotiate about a pet.

This!  If anyone claims to be out of the country at the moment and can't show you an apartment but will show pictures - run!  It's definitely a scam. 

I was a renter in Boston for many years (least pet friendly place in the world!) but I found TC's advice to be true.  Homeowners renting out properties were my best friend when I had chem_pup.  Once they met us they usually allowed us to rent with just a pet deposit.  Large companies are notoriously awful when you have a pet.  They often want a full month's rent or monthly fee to have them.  One company refused us due to "breed restrictions" when chem_pup was an 18 lb mutt.

Good luck in your hunt!

[bioteacher]

There is a really good blog on Tumblr called "your new apartment" that is full of all sorts of advice. Some is just life skills and surviving on a budget, but there are a ton of apartment seeking tips there, too. I've bookmarked it for when I need to help my own kiddos locate a place.  https://yournewapartment.tumblr.com/Index 

[pepsi_alum]

Excellent advice, Tuxedo_Cat!

I ended up finding an apartment in my new city on Craigslist, from a family-owned investment property group. The owner-manager was a bit smarmy in-person, but the rent and deposit were both reasonable for the area and I could tell from walking around the property that it's been well-maintained. So that will be "good enough" for now. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to buy in the next few years, but that will depend on a number of factors not entirely within my control.

[writingprof]

I am resolved at my age that if I ever get another apartment it will have to be on the first floor.

Since you were born in 1033 A.D., that's probably the right call.  :)

[Anselm]

I am resolved at my age that if I ever get another apartment it will have to be on the first floor.

Since you were born in 1033 A.D., that's probably the right call.  :)

Another thing:  a dish washing machine and my own laundry machines. 

Usually your own school housing office has some leads on vacant apartments from good landlords.