Apartment Hunting

[BigMoneyJim]

My past apartment hunting ventures have mainly used the local apartment magazines (Apt Guide and Apts For Rent) aided by internet for floor plans and driving around the area of other apartments.

I'm now searching in an area I'm fairly familiar with and notice a lot of apartment complexes aren't represented in the mags or online. And while the online info is good the search tools suck. Even each magazine has plusses and minuses for searching, so I tend to sit at the PC using each book and the aforementioned magazines' sites to decide where to drive to and look around.

Has anyone found a better way to apartment hunt? I'd like to also be able to find just the townhome/loft styles for comparison, but I haven't found a workable way to do that.

While typing this I was thinking what I really want is a localized map with all the apartments in it, then thought I should try Google Maps. I just tried this, and the early results are quite promising.

EDIT: The Google search is still missing some apartments I know exist but seems to have more easy-to-locate results than the other methods I've tried so far.

EDIT 2: Just noticed that Google Maps search is limited to 10 results per page, and the apartments that I thought were missing were on a different page of the results.

 

[HFWR]

Yahoo - Real Estate - Apartments for Rent...

 

[dex]

Go to local churches/synagogs and ask if they know of anything

 

[Brat]

try www.housingmaps.com for a map of housing for rent/sale on CraigsList

http://www.apartmentratings.com/ is also a great resource.

 

[tryan]

Buy a copy of the local paper. Look under Apartments for Rent in the classified. Been my best source. Also put a sign in the window with my phone ##. This helps let the neighbors know (in case they have family in need).

 

[vvsonikvv]

craigslist. it's been the greatest thing for me in apts, real estate, cars, furniture, computers, everything. give it a shot.

 

[Nords]

craigslist. it's been the greatest thing for me in apts, real estate, cars, furniture, computers, everything. give it a shot.

It's not everywhere and it takes a few months to ramp up, but we've learned to check every Oahu Craigslist post every day to see what possessions we need to be buying.

 

[bssc]

When I go apartment hunting, I use a 155mm howitzer.

I would check around and see if there are any deals, like the first month rent free, depending on the market. Or look for signs with balloons outside the complex and see what sort of deal they can offer you.

 

[vvsonikvv]

It's not everywhere and it takes a few months to ramp up, but we've learned to check every Oahu Craigslist post every day to see what possessions we need to be buying.

wow... I did take that for granted. I've lived in 2 big cities and 1 smaller suburb and it was second nature to me when I moved to DC...

I hope it gets to where you are, because the concept is great.

Haha.. I do the same, I always browse what's on craigslist to see what one man's trash could be my treasure.

I would read craigslist every day and pick out a bunch of apts/roomates and visit them after work or on the weekends.. It was almost like speed dating (which i've never done so i dont really know how it works). But i'd visit like 30-40 roommates in a few weeks and I decide which place I want to go... If i don't find anything I keep waiting.

I was looking for roommates so that has more choices than just apts for rent. But try yahoo or rent.com or the local papers.