Best method for apartment/rental searching?

k8888

I'm totally ignorant here... how does one go about looking for houses, apartments, townhouses to rent? 

I've been using Trulia (they have a really good iPhone app FYI) and my local newspaper for some initial searching.  FI and I have a small dog which has made our options seem extremely limited, so we're leaning towards renting a house/townhouse over an apartment community because it looks like most don't allow dogs at all (is this a Jersey thing?).

Anything else I should start doing?  Contact a realtor?  Pray we win the lottery this weekend?

MeaganR12

Craigslist.org

I've found every rental I've lived in on there. 

butterflyjumper1

in indiana we have a realtors association which has the BEST website for searching home rentals along with homes for sale. i wound find out if there is one of these types of groups in your area.  it is a board of realtors who has this website. 

bells24412

hahaha. I wish I would win the lottery it would solve a lot of debt (school loan ugh.)

Here we have a listing called riliving which is a website that you can search for everything pretty much in our local areas.

Have you tried zillow or something to that nature?

Madisonpenny

Many big home builders will also build rental units as well, the last rental we lived in before we bought our house was one of these.

LADY324

Sorry I have no advice since I have only rented once in my life and it was actually the 2 family house that I grew up in.  I only knew it was for rent b/c my friend lived upstairs and told me it was for rent.

It is very hard to find places that will rent to people with dogs.  Good luck!!  Some places will let you have the dog but you might have to put down a bigger deposit.

AllyG303

apartmentguide.com

Most apartment complexes out here will let you have a pet up to 25lbs.  You typically have to pay extra, too.  We have a "pet rent" of $20/month

sara814

Last time I was looking for an apartment I googled "apartment complex in (zip code)" and it gave me a good place to start. We also tried the craigslist route, but prefered a managed community. You could also try a real estate agent, but be prepared to shell out big bucks in fees plus 1st and last month rent and security. Ug. We live in an apartment complex that allows dogs, but that's here. We don't have one, but I remember the lease said it cost extra. Good luck apartment hunting! Sorry, I know it's stressful. And with a wedding!

penny12986

I have found all of my rentals on craigslist.org too.

DO NOT hire a rental agent!  In my area, they charge a 1/2 month's rent fee for something that you can easily do yourself.

If you are considering moving into a complex, search on Apartmentratings.com
Do not trust what leasing agents tell you.

mekiakoo

We found ours online- we searched through a lot of websites, I can't remember what they were, but we did not hire a realtor.

FI and I rented an apartment at the start of my junior year in college and my dad made sure we picked a safe location. He called the police department to check on the crime rates in the areas we were looking at. A police officer actually gave my dad a recommendation and we ended up going with the apartment that the police officer recommended!

Talk to people from the area if you have friends/family around and see what they say.

We are currently renting a house because after living in an apartment- we knew we'd never want to live in one ever again. And we have a 85 lb dog so a house worked the best for us.

BrightFirefly

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_july-2012-weddings_best-method-for-apartmentrental-searching?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:066005ef-215f-48b1-8655-328b41e07c52Discussion:dfee5edc-7c68-4384-b3e0-b667f7f4cc66Post:0b4a7dd9-ceb6-4b09-b6ba-6b4fa2d8683f">Best method for apartment/rental searching?</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm totally ignorant here... how does one go about looking for houses, apartments, townhouses to rent?  I've been using Trulia (they have a really good iPhone app FYI) and my local newspaper for some initial searching.  FI and I have a small dog which has made our options seem extremely limited, so we're leaning towards renting a house/townhouse over an apartment community because it looks like most don't allow dogs at all (is this a Jersey thing?). Anything else I should start doing?  Contact a realtor?  Pray we win the lottery this weekend?
Posted by k8888[/QUOTE]

We used apartmentguide.com to find our apartment. Some apartments around here allow dogs - with an extra deposit + extra rent per month.

Craigslist isn't a bad idea either - though some of those landlords can be a bit odd. My first apartment was found on Craigslist - and the landlord was not the best.

ginadog

Cragislist.  They have a dogs OK option.

Rent.com, has a pets option.

The online classifieds for your local paper?

amygodfrey10

When FI and I moved into our apartment now, I did the whole internet search. Google, all the apartment search websites, etc. There's a lot of apartments in Austin so it was pretty overwhelming. We ended up going to an apartment locator and he asked us a few questions and found apartments based on what we wanted. Then he drove us around to look at all of them. Best of all, it was FREE :]

For a house or townhome, i'm not sure. Zillow are Truilia are great. I'm ready to move into one of those, pet deposits are expensive in apartments

bridetobe71412

I have always found my apartments via Craigslist. But I think it's a slightly different situation in NYC than in other cities because there are CONSTANTLY new apartments for rent (90% of people rent here - maybe more).

You just have to watch out for bait-and-switch ads that say "No fee apartment" and then you meet with them and they want you to pay 15% of the yearly rent as the "Broker's Fee." I'd watch out for that in other cities, too.

Fiance found our current apartment by walking into the building and asking for an application because they had a sign out front that said "Aparments for Rent." And there were. So he did. And it worked out.

k8888

You are all angels Thank you!!

michelle11988

I would go through rent.com as well.  I found a number of apartments on there before.  Also word of mouth we have a great apartment here that we only knew of because of a guy my dad works with.

littlemoments324

I used apartmentguide.com.  It was pretty easy to use.  I called on a few places before we actually went there to see them.  We drove by a couple to make sure they were in neighborhoods we liked.  A LOT of apartment complexes in our areas do not allow pets, and those who do normally only allow cats or dogs no larger than 30lbs (or less)...so thankfully we found one that we're in like with and we just signed another year lease with them!

I also used rent.com.