Or a guest house or duplex?
I’m moving in a hurry (my room mate has started using heroin again). I can crash at mom’s place for a month, but I work impossible hours and really need to find something.
What methods would you use? Or did you use?
I found my current place on the internet. Even though I lived in Madison before, and stayed in the city, I found it easier to screen out possible sites online.
Just about every large complex had a page with pics, layout drawings, residency rules (pets, etc).
But you WON’T find the small “mom&pop” places where you might find an exceptionally good deal.
There are two types of apartment - ones run by corporations, and ones run by individuals. You can find either online or through your paper’s classifieds.
Online, here are some sites:
www.apartments.com (I think this is it; there used to be a rent.net, but I believe Homestore swallowed it up)
Also, there’s a guidebook you’ll find in any city in boxes (free) near newspaper boxes; it’s called Apartment Guide, I believe.
Now, if you know the general area in which you want to live, it’ll be even easier - you can google “City” and “apartment rentals”; and when you get to either of the above sites you can set such variables as number of bedrooms, amenities, and so forth.
When you look online, reputable sites (such as Homestore) will have floor plans, and they’ll list square footage, too.
I used mainly online sources for my most recent move (3 weeks ago, out of state) and only made the drive up a couple of times to look at places.
Along with those already mentioned, I checked things out on apartment ratings - what I saw on there led me to rescind one deposit and rent at another place.
I checked with the Chamber of Commerce in the city I moved to, and got pretty good results. That’s how I’d suggest starting.
We moved blind to our current apartment, which was out of state for us at the time. I found it using the Homestore link dantheman posted. The reason I used online resources was because I didn’t really have much choice; it wasn’t as though I could drive down to Washington from Hawaii to look for a place.
I searched (in order of importance) by price range, area, and parking and number of bedrooms. About a month before our move, I picked the top 15 places and started calling them, asking if they had units available and for whatever info (brochures, applications, etc.) they could send me. I never heard back from roughly half the places. Of the ones I did get information from, I narrowed them down to a list of the top five best. The roomie and I then reviewed each of them. Once we picked our top choice, we filled out the paperwork, made photocopies of the necessary documents, and express mailed it all back. A couple days later, the assistant manager called me to let me know we were in. In all, the search took us just under three weeks.
My move was blind too, Audrey. I emailed scores of them, but they never seemed to answer their emails, so I tried eliminating some in other ways. I called a bunch, but they always said they had openings available - until I went there, of course. 
Check the obituaries of course.
I also set up a spreadsheet with certain variables - rent range, square footage, location, closest train station, and so forth.
Something that really worked for me was to drive by an area where there are lots of apartments (this works better if you have someone in the car with you), and quickly write down all of the phone numbers on the “for rent by XXX realty” signs that are outside of the apartment. Then, call the realtors and ask if they have any 1 or 2 (or however many you need) bedroom apartments available for whenever you need them by. I’ve found that this is a great way to find a ton of apartments that you wouldn’t necessarily find otherwise.
You always hear about folks looking for apartments, why do so many people lose them???
Tell me about it. I got the impression, using Homestore, that there are a lot of Internet-unsaavy apartment managers. When I said I found them online, most sounded mildly confused and surprised.
I ended up calling them all. This was difficult, as they were on PST and I was three hours behind, on Hawaii Standard Time. I’d either have to get up super early (and, being me, this happened maybe once) or rush home from teaching in order to catch them before they left the office for the day. It was yet another detail that made the experience as much fun as it was. 
Oh, and spooje, as you’re looking for places, ask yourself what’s important in an apartment and location. Laundry facilities, parking, proximity to public transportation, schools, libraries, malls, supermarkets, tourist attractions, freeway access… these all can play a part.
One cool thing to do: go to mapquest.com. Map the apartment’s address. On the map that appears, click the ‘aerial photo’ tab. It’ll spit back… you’ll never guess!.. an aerial photo of the area. You can use this to check out the area, see what’s nearby, and stuff. It’s pretty neat. I’m using it to look at my apartment as I type this.
Yeah, that aerial photo’s spooky.
I’m probably gonna move next year, though, so it’s always good to research ahead of time. I’m gonna try that apartment ratings site, too (I think it gave a mixed review to my current pad).
I second the notion of driving around and checking out “For Rent” signs. That’s how I found 3 of the apartments I lived in.
Even if you only have an hour or so, it could be worth it. Just make sure you write down the street that you saw the sign on, since even ‘mom and pop’ landlords have multiple properties these days.
Good luck. I hope you get out of that situation quickly.