Author Topic: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.  (Read 3234 times)

frpeebles

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Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« on: April 01, 2014, 06:08:08 PM »
I mostly lurk these forums and I realize this likely isn't the appropriate place for this thread so if someone knows a more suitable location please speak up.

Basically my fiancee and I are looking to rent a modest single family in north Houston, TX and are having difficulty finding something. We just drove here from Tucson, AZ as she transfers to a fancy new engineering job. I have never had so much trouble finding a place to rent before I came here. I am a CNC machinist with an A+ credit score and she is a Mechanical Engineer with a trouble spot on her history. Everywhere we apply either no one will give us the time of day or respond to us in a timely fashion. Apparently they all have loads of cash and aren't worried about getting a place rented.

Again I know this probably isn't the place but if there is anyone looking to fill a house in Houston please drop me a note. I have excellent references available.

Thank you!

Fishingmn

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2014, 12:52:28 PM »
Some thoughts -

- Not sure if you are just using Craigslist but also look at places like hotpads.com, padmapper.com, zillow.com or trulia.com as they may have some places listed that aren't on CL

- Seems odd to me that someone would be taking your application and then not following up. Are you seeing places in person and filling out application or is this all sight unseen? I always meet tenant at property and if they fill out application I then proceed through approval process. Maybe you need to find someone who self manages their property vs. a property management firm

- You might want to get a relationship with a local realtor. While most don't have any incentive to find you a rental they still might help. For example, my RE/MAX office runs an internal newsletter every day that goes out to all local 300 agents and has a spot where we can say we have someone looking for a rental property. Many realtors have their own rental properties so you might get in front of a realtor looking for a tenant. If you tell realtor you might be buying in future they may be more apt to help this way.

Good luck

thesinecure

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 03:39:18 PM »
i think it's mainly because it's not hard to get things rented, or sold for that matter, if it's anywhere near market

where more specifically are you looking?  "north side" is a pretty large area here  :)

FrugalZony

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2014, 11:25:23 AM »
You drove the wrong way! Instead of driving East, you should have driving North!
I'll be looking for frugal roommates later this year ;)

But seriously, good luck with your search!
Make sure you let folks at work know you are looking!
And leverage your social networks

frpeebles

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2014, 03:34:13 PM »
Man, we finally got into a house and I just flew back to Tucson to pack our stuff into a truck.

I appreciate the responses. We were working with a Realtor/relocation agent paid for by my better halfs employer. She was great. She was paid for one day but she stuck with us for two weeks. During the process we found one scam on Craigslist and the rest were through Zillow or HAR. I have no idea why everyone was so slow. The second to last place we rented from said they didn't want our dogs there despite being listed as pet friendly. We offered to leave them with my Dad in Tucson and they just flat out replied they did not want to rent to us. Another place offered to reconsider us if we paid off the house my fiancee is cosigned on (which is the source of her poor credit). Unfortunately I don't have $200k laying around to pay off a house that isn't ours.

Anyways we're paying significantly more than I was shooting for ($1325/mo) for a house thats much larger than I wanted (just under 2k ft^2) but it's only temporary and we're 5 minutes from work, 5 minutes from grocery stores. Given we drive a 70mpg Insight out fuel bill should be about five bucks a year.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: April 09, 2014, 04:58:51 PM by frpeebles »

TomTX

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2014, 05:18:28 AM »
The market in Houston is going to be really hot - tons of people moving in for oil/NG-related jobs. While the actual drilling is out in the hinterlands, a lot of refineries and HQ locations are in Houston (or Houston-ish.)

frpeebles

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Re: Looking for fellow mustachian to rent from.
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2014, 10:54:18 AM »
They were listed as pet friendly though. Who knows.