I need to move. My boyfriend and I ended up in a crappy apartment complex on our last house hunt because we had spent two months looking and found nothing worth living in. Apartment life is not ideal for us. I have a dog who, while small, really needs a yard to run around in. Prior to our move here, I was living with my pregnant sister and her husband and needed to find a place in a bit of a hurry, as they needed my room for the baby.
After looking and not finding anything that we liked, the plan was just to move here for six months (the length of the lease) and then find something better on our own time, when there wasn’t a deadline to move. Well our lease is almost up and we desperately want out. Our complex is loud and there is a crap ton of loud domestic arguments in the parking lot, police activity, loud music at 2:00 a.m. on weeknights, and barking dogs that no one seems to give shit about, etc. I want a house. With four walls that are not connected to anyone else. Preferably in a rural area with some property attached. The only place we have ever looked for a house is on craigslist and the options just get more and more abysmal every time I look on there.
So finally my question. Did you ever find your dream rental? A place you lived in for a long time, where you had a great landlord and/or a beautiful home? Where or how did you find it? Is there some secret website I don’t know about where the best landlords post? I though about looking at a property management company, but there are a million choices and none of them either (a) have a website; or (b) update their website regularly. Is there a trick to finding a good property management company? I would ask around but most of my friends own their homes (we are not quite ready to take that step yet, maybe after we are married).
Where is the best place to go to find a great place to live? My boyfriend and I both have good jobs and can afford a decent place, if only we knew where to find it. Please give me any advice you can give. Or, if you just want to share stories about how you lucked into your dream rental, I would love to hear those as well, just to give me hope that it is possible.
I think the best opportunities are through your social network. Let people at work, relatives, friends, know that you are looking. People that have a nice home to rent out are usually reassured if they can find somebody reliable thorugh someone they know.
Maybe you could house-sit for someone who has their home for sale, if you keep it neat and lived in and allow the realtor to show it to prospective buyers?
We used hotpads.com and found a lovely, newer townhouse for rent through a real estate company (Coldwell Banker). Try hotpads and also try looking at RE company websites for rentals they might be managing on behalf of the homeowners. When you find a rental of interest, try to drive past at different times of the day and night to see how quiet it is. Good luck in your search.
I went out looking for apartments and was feeling pretty down about it. Most of the apartments in the area I was moving to were owned by a specific company and wouldn’t allow more than one pet or any pet greater than 15 lb. We have two cats, one of which is about 20 lb.
We ended up picking up a newspaper and browsing the ads just to kill time waiting to talk to a manager at a complex. There was an ad for a house to rent about 5 miles away from the highway in a smaller town about 15 minutes from where I would be working.
We called, talked to the owner for a minute, drove down there and paid a deposit that day. He said we were the first callers on the first day the ad had been placed. Instead of a 2 bedroom apartment (what we were looking for/could afford) we rented a 4 bedroom, newly remodeled house for less than any of the apartments we had seen.
The landlord has been friendly and quick to repair any issues we have had. My wife now has an art room full of painting, sewing, drawing, and other crafty supplies, and I have a room for my brewing (currently has 4 batches of wine in it, adding another batch of beer this weekend). Sometimes, things just line up nicely.
For finding your own place, I second the networking suggestion. Put the word out at work, in any social groups you are part of, on facebook or whatever social media you use, or any other place you can think of. Avoid craigslist if you can, I haven’t heard anyone happy with the results yet.
In my view there are two kinds of rental properties;
[ol]
[li]Properties that are managed as rental properties, and[/li][li]Properties that individuals are holding until they can (or need to) sell.[/li][/ol]
The first kind are almost always apartment buildings of some sort. Very likely you got stuck in the one you did because it allows pets. Many don’t. This also explains the barking dogs. Your complex likely contains more dogs simply because other places don’t allow them (actually, I might be wrong about this, but it would be true where I am - it may vary by region). These types of properties have the advantage of stability - if you pay your rent, they are not likely to throw you out. This is not true of the second kind. When they are ready to sell, you are gone. It won’t matter that your kid is in the local school and you now have roots in the community, if they need to sell and the new owner doesn’t want a renter, you are gone. The problem is that you are likely to find your dream rental in the second group, only to have that dream go bad at the worst time. They may be the nicest landlords in the world, but their need to sell will trump your need to stay every time (I have been on both sides of this situation in my life).
This is, to my mind, the best argument to buy a home. Not because it is financially a good idea (and in fact it might not be such a good idea), but because it is the only way to get a home rather than just a place to live.
Do you have estate agents that specialise in rental properties where you are? If you’ve got the money, that has always seemed a good way to find nice rentals where I’ve lived.
I tend to prefer private landlords, because agency fees for tenants here are really high (this varies depending on location), and if things go wrong, you’ve got the phone number of the person ultimately responsible for sorting it out, but agencies have more of an interest in addressing things early to avoid any reputational damage and they don’t get as emotionally attached to the properties as private landlords can do. (Which is helpful when it comes to objectively assessing the condition of the flat when you move in and when you leave!)
I get the impression that renting is maybe different in the US to here, though. (I’ve rented lots of places in both France and the UK - there are differences between them, but they aren’t huge differences.) So my suggestions might not be at all helpful - but there are good rental properties out there, no matter where you are, and I’m sure you’ll find something that suits you! If you don’t find them at first, don’t sign any long initial rental contracts and move until you do find somewhere you like; there’s nothing that says you have to stay in one place for a long time if you don’t like it, after all.
I think my biggest factor at the moment is that I want to find a place that we can stay in for awhile, at least a couple of years. I really hate moving. As ethelber noted, it seems most management companies only have apartments or duplexes. Done both, want neither with this move. All the actual houses we have found have either been very poorly maintained or are being rented temporarily while the owner finds a buyer or travels or what not. I am checking out hotpads.com right now.