Finding an apartment in a city I've never been to?!

[febreze]

Does anyone know approximately how much it would cost to hire a realtor to help me find an apartment? Do realtors even do this for people renting?

Thanks for any advice!

[iphi]

Yes, they do it for rentals. How much it costs probably depends on the area.

 

Why do you want to hire a realtor instead of doing it yourself? Just curious. I like padmapper, if you're looking for a resource, because it consolidates the listings from Craigslist et. al. You can also look up an address's "walkability score" which should tell you a few things as well about what is nearby, etc.

[Meanyus]

I would recommend not paying for this. You can find places you like online and call the property manager. Many of these property manages are real estate agents who manage a few different places. You can tell them your budget and what you are looking for and they will be able to tell you what they have available if anything. My wife and I spent about 2 hours on Craigslist checking out potential places, we'll compile a list of the top 10, then give those people calls for when we fly out at the end of the month.

[fuzzylogician]

It depends on the market/city. In some places you can just find something on Craigslist and that's what most people do, and in that case you can look online and do most of the process without being there, and you'd want someone local (e.g. a current student in your department) to take a look at places you are serious about, because you do not want to rent a place sight unseen. You can learn a lot about neighborhood from google and googlemaps. In other cities you often work with one or more realtors.  Where I go to school, it's been my experience that good places almost always work with a realtor, and the market is competitive enough that they can require the tenants to pay the realtor fees. The fees are normally around one month's worth of rent, but it can be anything from none or 0.5 to twice the rent. I'm sure you could get a realtor to work with you even in a market where that's not normally done. I'd start by googling for realty agencies in the city you will live in, reading some reviews - which can help you decide if they work with rental properties or only properties for sale and also how good they are, and then emailing some of them to ask for information. They should be able to tell you about fees and what kind of properties they have before you make any kind of formal arrangement with them. At least when I've worked with a realtor in the past, I signed an agreement saying I'd pay a certain fee if I take an apartment that the realtor showed me, but there was no fee involved in just seeing places. I had these agreements with three different realtors who had access to different properties I was interested in, and I only paid the fee once, to the realtor who showed me the apartment I ended up renting. 

[skylarking]

Depending on your uni, they may also have an off-campus housing authority. That's how I lucked into the place I live in now. Some people prefer to rent to students (and my landlord loves grad students), so they put them up on a site geared specifically toward students. It may still end up that you have to fly out there to check the place out, assuming you can. You should definitely do as others have said and check out Craigslist or check with current grad students who know of people who are moving and whose lease you could take over. 

[febreze]

Thanks for the responses. I was thinking of hiring someone because I'm kind of picky and I've had really bad experiences in the past with landlords. Multiple landlords. I also was thinking that this person might have more (hopefully unbiased?) insight into particular areas. My biggest concerns are safety and not living in a place with undergrads partying every night. Im strongly considering a school in a big (ish) city so, again, safety is my biggest priority. I'm also a little weary of Craigslist because I'm hesitant of the validity of some of the ads on there.

Good idea about checking with the school to see if there's someone who assists with off campus housing. Some of the schools I applied to have websites for students living off campus.

[neuroneurotic]

You should also post what city here because I am sure there are people on this site that can offer some advice with respect to what neighborhoods are safe and grad friendly.

[febreze]

Cleveland

[neuroneurotic]

Are you going to Case? What program? I happen to know a lot about Cleveland.  I used to live near there and I have good friends that go there.

[febreze]

Are you going to Case? What program? I happen to know a lot about Cleveland.  I used to live near there and I have good friends that go there.

What a coincidence! Yes I was accepted to Case for an MA in art history. I have another offer and 9 more schools to hear from but it was one of my top choices so am I strongly considering going there.

I'd appreciate your thoughts!

[neuroneurotic]

Everyone I know that goes there loves it.  I am interviewing there for the BSTP Ph.D. program so I may end up there as well.  Cleveland is a great city, lots of things to do and fairly easy to get around.  It is relatively safe, there are some bad areas but like any city you just need to be smart and not be walking around alone late at night.  Little Italy which is right next to Case is safe.  Coventry is a cute, trendy place to live and not that far from campus.  There are lot of apartment buildings along Cedar at the top of the hill as its called.  I believe Case has an off campus housing website.  It all depends how much you want to pay.  There are lots of grad students, med students and law students living around campus.  You are better off taking public transportation to campus as parking can be pricey.  I do think they sell parking permits although I don't know how much they cost.   You can try Zillow they have apartment listings as well. Have you been to visit there.  Where are you from now.

[febreze]

I did look at their off campus housing website and one thing I noticed about the vast majority of the apartments was they don't have washers and dryers. It may sound petty but that's a deal breaker for me and my boyfriend. We have to have one in the apartment.

Otherwise, pricing seems reasonable. The budget isn't a huge concern but I definitely want to be reasonable.

I'm from northern virginia just outside DC but I'm finishing my bachelors in a smaller town in southern Virginia.

No I've never been to Cleveland and don't know anyone who has hence my inquiries here.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll check out zillow.

[neuroneurotic]

If you find something and you want to run the address by me I would be glad to help as it relates to neighborhood.

[febreze]

Great thanks! I'll PM you when I know for sure if I'm going to accept Case's offer.

[PowderRiver]

It sounds like you have things sorted, but one last suggestion would be to email a graduate student already attending.

I serve as a contact for incoming graduate students in my program and work with them to find the right neighborhood/budget as they come to the program. I'm in a relatively large program that has quite a few graduates either finishing or heading overseas for research, and we tend to "recycle" some of our apartments and landlords within the department.

[Neeko]

I did look at their off campus housing website and one thing I noticed about the vast majority of the apartments was they don't have washers and dryers. It may sound petty but that's a deal breaker for me and my boyfriend. We have to have one in the apartment.

Otherwise, pricing seems reasonable. The budget isn't a huge concern but I definitely want to be reasonable.

I'm from northern virginia just outside DC but I'm finishing my bachelors in a smaller town in southern Virginia.

No I've never been to Cleveland and don't know anyone who has hence my inquiries here.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll check out zillow.

I went to Case a couple years ago and lived in Cleveland Heights. It was like a 5 minute drive to the school and 10 minute walk to Coventry. I don't think I ever saw a place that had an in unit washer and dryer but most of them have them in the building. Your best bet is to drive around and find signs in yards, there are tons. I still have all the property management companies bookmarked. If you decide to go there and want all their info, let me know.

[Peter Higgins]

Honestly, I see no reason to hire a realtor in the 21st century for multiple reasons:

• There are multiple rental sites, that have significantly improved over the last 5 years. Most of them, provide now so called apartments map, which allows you to choose needed location. Also, you can filter price there, utilities (for example you want rent cat-friendly studio with a doorman, but unfurnished). You can choose among all of these parameters, saving your time and money. 
• Using online rental services also give you an opportunity not to go across the whole country in order to sigh you lease or to attend an open house. New trends - online lease agreement and open house online. The same situation with tenant screening: you can ask for face to face conversation in Skype and your background/credit reports will be checked online.
• Commonly, realtor will ask you to pay 50% of the regular month payment and it's getting really expensive to pay for rent, for security deposit and realtor fee. Rental websites ask only for 20$ payment once and only after lease agreement being signed. 

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by fuzzylogician
edited to remove link