Apartment rental services? Worth it?

[firestar]

Anyone know if these things are worth it? You know, those services that charge you a fee and give you rental listings not found in newspapers and such. Do these work? Are there actually lots of properties?

There's always those ads in the provice that say. "1 bdrm, west end, hw flrs, pets ok, $750. Rental Fee" or something like that. Anyone ever tried any of those type of services?

[dj_soo]

i'd only use those if there was absolutely no time in my schedule to look for an apartment, otherwise I'd say it's a waste of money.

try craigslist

[Sir_K]

Originally Posted by bassline!

Anyone know if these things are worth it? You know, those services that charge you a fee and give you rental listings not found in newspapers and such. Do these work? Are there actually lots of properties?

There's always those ads in the provice that say. "1 bdrm, west end, hw flrs, pets ok, $750. Rental Fee" or something like that. Anyone ever tried any of those type of services?

I've bought into them, they do give you a lot of listings if you go down to their office or subscribe to their fax services. A lot of the listings wouldnt be available as they target the larger landlords.

However after paying their fee for a month I still ended up finding a place in the regular classifieds.

I'd suggest that if you are looking for a hard to find or larger place, it's well worth it for the extra choice - but if you're just looking for a regular apartment on the cheap not really worth the extra.

[bebu*funfun]

not worth it.. all they do is call the classified apt rentals and ask them if they could put them in their list. not worth it.. you're better off just hunting down all the websites, newspaper ads by yourself and not pay someone else to give you the same info that's right in front of your face.

[gnosis]

^TRUTH!!!

I used that service, twice, w/ roommates, looking for places.

We did pretty thorough searches, on our own, and found that the "paid-for" list was mostly made up of already advertised locations.

Rental services are RIP-OFFS!!!

W/ the specs we gave them, they could not come up w/ more than 2 at a time for us to consider, and even then the choices were not up to what we had requested.

Your best bet is to literally walk around the neighbourhood you wanna live in.
Look for the "For Rent" signs in the windows and doors.

The best places NEVER advertise, since they get gobbled up through word of mouth, or site-seen.

Which is another point: if a place is advertised, it's not going to be as sketchless as you'd like.

Happy hunting.

Frosty
(steadily paying off a place)

[Prissypants]

I used one to find the place I am in right now and it is DOPE!!! I really recomend using one. :)

Originally Posted by bassline!

Anyone know if these things are worth it? You know, those services that charge you a fee and give you rental listings not found in newspapers and such. Do these work? Are there actually lots of properties?

There's always those ads in the provice that say. "1 bdrm, west end, hw flrs, pets ok, $750. Rental Fee" or something like that. Anyone ever tried any of those type of services?