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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: SyZ on May 25, 2016, 10:35:36 AM

Title: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: SyZ on May 25, 2016, 10:35:36 AM
I've been looking in Sacramento for 2 weeks. Craigslist, Apartments.com, Padnapper, AirBnB, everywhere. There's like, 20 postings a day, of which 10 are spam, 5 want females, and 4 are 2 or 3 bedroom houses. I find something new at 3 pm, go over at 4:45 pm after work to tour, there's already 3 applications in and the first person approved (read: first person applying) gets it. Like, I just don't understand? I'm losing productivity at work trying to find something. Rooms are even worse - view it Monday, get told a decision will be made in a week, then in 9 days get told they went with the first person who applied. I'm out of a place in 8 days and have NO leads or prospects anywhere
Title: Re: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: pbkmaine on May 25, 2016, 10:40:53 AM
Have you asked at work?
Title: Re: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: Hotstreak on May 25, 2016, 05:34:03 PM
Yikes, sounds like a busy market.  With 8 days left can you even get a place?  Most around here will advertise as soon as they know it's coming available, usually 30 days out.  Other than booking a weekly room at the budget inn, I recommend finding the apartments you want to live in and calling them every morning.  If they had somebody put in notice that day, or get denied or back out of their application, be the first one there.  That may mean you have an application already filled out & ready to go.  Good luck!
Title: Re: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: TheMoneyWizard on May 26, 2016, 12:43:46 PM
Not sure about the Sacramento area, but when I moved to Denver and was feeling lost, I had good luck driving from apartment complex to apartment complex and just walking into the leasing office and asking if they had availability. Just google mapping "apartment" or "apartments" was the best way to find them.

Many of these places weren't listed on craigslist or any similar listing service.
Title: Re: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: galliver on May 26, 2016, 01:09:20 PM
Contact some realtors and see if any of them deal with rentals. Can't hurt to try.

We got a very sweet place at a very sweet deal (for the LA area) by working with a realtor that was recommended to us by a friend. They didn't actually have a lot in their system in our price range, but a unit came up on Saturday that didn't go up on other sites until Monday, by which point we were already signing the papers. All in all it took us 5 days from arriving in town and starting to do tours to being in our own place. Another day prior to that of cataloguing potential places/numbers and setting up appointments (we did our own independent search separate from the realtor).
Title: Re: Really lost at how you find an apartment
Post by: dpfromva on June 24, 2016, 10:42:43 AM
Be careful out there! Definitely consider working with a real estate agent or apartment broker. 
I recently bought a property to rent to my daughter, who is starting her career in a nearby city. In between offer and closing, some guy broke in, changed the locks, advertised the rowhouse on Craigslist, met two young victims at the place, had them sign a lease agreement, collected first and last month's rent and deposit, and would have gone on who knows how long if not interrupted by my purchase. This is an extreme example -- usually the scammer doesn't actually physically possess the property, they just take deposits and run.
My buddy the real estate agent tells me scammers routinely scrape property info off of his MLS listings to advertise as rentals. Clues are that they pressure you to act fast, rent is a little "too good to be true," and they don't ask to do a credit check on you.