Finding an apartment?

[Pretty Flaco]

What's the best way to find an apartment? I'm looking with some friends and we're trying to find a 2 bedroom for less than 600 a month... but im not sure exactly how to look. What should I do?

[Deicide]

Well.. I use the internet, local newspapers and estate agents to find apartments. Try that?

[The Douche]

www.rent.com will generally have all the locations which are owned by bigger rental companies in your area, occasionally they may have some independent property owners.

Craigslist will have lots of stuff.

Call around some real estate agencies in your area and ask if they have any rentals available in your price range/if they can direct you to agencies that might.


The first place I lived was owned by a small (local) rental company, they mainly market towards college students. They sucked. The house we rented from them was in terrible condition (but had been prettied up when we toured it), and they would never come out and fix shit when it was broken. On the upside, they never once came to the house for any sort of inspection or anything while we owned it, and when we moved out they were almost completely unconcerned with the state of the property, they actually said it was the cleanest property they'd ever seen after tenants moved out.

Then I lived in a complex owned by a really big company with complexes all over the country. The office people were super nice, and responded to our service calls within an hour every time we needed them. They also never once had to come inspect our apartment or anything.

Now I live in a complex owned by a different big company. The property is in decent/really good shape, but I think its over priced, and the staff at the office are absolutely terrible. They are seriously the worst people ever, I recently told the office manager that I will not speak to her, and if she needs to communicate with us, to speak with my girlfriend. They are terrible about fixing shit when we make service calls, we went without hot water for 3 weeks in the winter because our hot water heater went out. They also randomly show up in the morning sometimes and knock on the door saying "oh we need to do this or that", which is shitty, cause legally, they have to give 24 hours notice to come into your apartment, but they make a huge stink if you bring that up. I can't wait to move.


My friends all rent from private parties and love it, landlords never come around, there is no service staff, but their landlords reimburse them promptly if they have to make repairs. And its almost always cheaper to rent from an individual than a company, and the properties are usually a lot cooler.

[NewLeft]

Check craigslists.

[The Douche]

Honestly, for your first place, with some friends I'd suggest going for the most laid back agency/landlord you can find. If there is a college in town then find out who markets to the students and try and rent through them.

Unless you're not into drinking and partying, then fuck it, rent whatever. But the agencies that market towards young people tend to be more understanding if you're having parties and shit, and you'll end up living near other young people and not have to worry as much about disturbing your neighbors.

[Deicide]

Yeah, try get a student place, they're usually cheaper.. and there are parties going on most of the time. Which is always fun..

[Veovis]

This site is pretty ballin'

http://www.padmapper.com/

[lombas]

When I first searched an apartment, I tried a dozen places before I finally chose to go for this one.

Let your gut feeling speak. And it's no mythical journey to your inner self. You'll know when it hits you.

[Pretty Flaco]

a friend of mine found a 2 bedroom apartment for $700 in a suburb north of indy, but im not sure if we can afford that (theres gonna be 3 of us, all making minimum wage and working no more than 40 hours a week). im gonna try to find any listings in broadripple, the college town, probably through craigslist.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Good luck finding that, you're going to have about no standards if you want a 2 bedroom for only $600(at least in California where I live, I don't know about prices in your area).