How do people search for apartments (or other rentals) nowadays? I’ve tried Craigslist but about half of the entries are obvious scams. The university used to have a decent off campus housing website, but it got killed by enforcing stricter listing standards. There’s not too much in the local penny rag. Zillow and Trulia are promising, but still not as many listings as one would expect, and they seem to be centered more on basement or two-family house type apartments. I haven’t seen any apartment listings for actual, you know, apartment buildings. And there seems to be a lack of listings in the areas where I would expect there to be more reasonable prices. Mostly, where are the cheap apartments? There are tons of students and immigrant families in the area, so there must be affordable housing somewhere…I’m just not sure how to find them. Help me, SDMB-Kenobi…
Well, where are you?
My searches take place in many different locations, so I begin by googling “apartments [place]” or “flats [place]” or “rental [place]”, rather than try to hit an already-known site. The same site which is very good for a given town may for some reason be real bad in another one 60 miles away.
I prefer larger buildings with management companies, so use Craigslist as a jumping off point to find listings by management companies, and then search their websites.
Other people I know have gone the more labor-intensive route and go to the neighborhood they want to live and look for rental signs.
You can go to the area where you want to live and check out individual apartment complexes. You can also go online to websites like apartments.com and check out what they have listed there. If you are moving a far enough distance away that looking on your own is problematic you can hire an apartment finder. It is expensive to hire an apartment finder but having someone do all the legwork and then showing you half a dozen places in one morning is well worth it if you are driving for several hours to get to your soon-to-be new neighborhood.
Landlord here. My properties are on a busy street, almost central to downtown but not "in "the city center.
I only ever put signs out. I have never ever advertised. And they always rent within a week or 2 from someone who simply wants that neighborhood. So I would say find the neighborhood you want and drive thru it.
I’ve found rental listing booklets in racks at the entrance of many grocery stores.
I have had great success with Craigslist. Have found my last 2 rentals on there from private parties. Both have been very nice/clean units with good landlords. The key is to know what you want, what price range you’re in, and then scouring the listings almost daily and being quick to make phone calls for walk-throughs when something meeting your criteria opens up. My current rental is very nice in a great downtown area, but I had looked at 3-4 “meh” units before finally finding it. Persistence pays off.
If you’re looking more at large apartment buildings (which I don’t care for as much), be sure to search online for tenant reviews. I dodged a couple bullets by learning how poorly rated the largest apartment company in my city was.
Check Craigslist daily or more than daily - and use a freebie E-mail account that you’re willing to ditch, if you’re worried about spam - but I also agree with the poster who suggested driving around areas that you’re interested in. Not only might you turn up opportunities that won’t get posted somewhere, but you’ll also get a better feel for the neighborhood.
It really depends on where you are. I can tell you plenty of places to look in Chicago, but they’d be useless anywhere else.
If you’re seeing a lack of apartment building listings, it may mean that there just aren’t that many openings. If your city is dominated by a university, there may be a few listings for January, but probably more for the summer.
You mentioned that the university no longer has an official housing website. Nonetheless, perhaps you could call the university’s student services, admissions, or housing departments? The people working there know the area and know what students are looking for. They may also be able to put you in touch with current students that can share their experiences and advice.
Every apartment I’ve ever rented, I found in the Chicago Reader. Obviously that won’t work everywhere, but there are probably equivalent local free publications wherever you are.
When I moved here, I excluded any apartment complex that had a big sign by the driveway that said “NO LOITERING”. That, to me, indicated that it was probably not a place where I wanted to live.
I found out about my current residence from a friend who’s lived in this city for many years; it’s the same complex where her ex-husband and oldest daughter live. They allow non-declawed cats, which was important to me.
My best results have always come from driving around a neighborhood I like and checking the signs - a LOT of places aren’t advertised any other way. My first place in the city, I wound up in a courtyard building right off Lake Shore Dr for the same money asked by a larger bldg with tons of advertising, but the unit was half the size in a noisier area.
Bear in mind the “cheap” places frequently deal with problem tenants - students are among the worst people to live near, lots of people struggling to make rent so evictions or moving out at odd hours happens, and sketchy landlords a bit too free with their keys or think the lease is just a pile of suggestions on maintenance.
Try googleing “my city” Housing Center or something like that. Many large communities have non-profits that help finding apartments.
This. The BEST places don’t need to advertise. The landlord just sticks a sign out, and the place is rented within hours. Just keep driving around the area you want. I’ve rented many, many times in my life, and although I looked in the classifieds, and more recently, the internet, I only ever found a place by driving around.
[hijack]Side note . . . I’ve been getting spammed by Trulia in recent weeks. Their e-mails and everything I can find of them on-line sure looks sleazy. Are they in fact a legit real estate group? If so, damn, they need to put some work into their on-line PR![/hijack]