Finding a Rental Property Fast

[aidan80 9]

Looks like we're staying in Florida for another year. Mostly due to lack of employment opportunities further up north no doubt due to the economy circling the drain at the minute. Those that read my post about our ghetto landlord will understand the urgent reasons why we need to find another property. We now have lost power to half our "house" and our landlords tell us, "find electrician". When we did use the electrician they "found" they tell them (the electricians) they charge too much and are (in their broken English) a rip off!! They also tell us "find cheaper electrician". The electrician wanted $500 to install a new breaker, panel and box on a hot line. It was a deal if you ask me, I wouldn't touch it if it was still hot! The landlord said "too expensive" and "get one at hardware store for $150, put it in myself" We're reporting them and shutting this place down ASAP!

We're on the hunt for a rental property, big enough for 2 persons and 3 small furry (toilet trained) animals in the Central Florida area (not Orlando, we'd sooner stay here!). We are of course checking the local papers, the internet and the usual. I'm looking for any advice, anything anyone else has done to find a decent place at a decent price in a hurry. As we not exactly super rich we're of course on a budget!

[Jason-Sasha 1]

No good advice here, not from Florida. Sorry. Your landlord is horrible. Sounds pretty typical though for larger cities. Good luck to you. Why not consider buying something small and nice outside of the city as opposed to renting? Each month I pay rent it makes me cringe to think that money isnt being invested wisely. And nothing gets done correctly when you're dependent upon a "landlord" for maintenance. Can't wait to buy.

[KarenCee 3]

I do sympathise with your situation....I had a landlord from hell too. She wouldn't fix anything and the final straw came when I was hospitalised for a week because of a severe asthma attack brought on by mold and god knows what else inside the walls (heard mice scratching inside the walls - ACK!). There were electrical and gas issues as well...we figured it was better to be in debt with a mortgage than for me to be dead.

We finally contacted a RE agent to help us find a place. We bought. We went through USDA Rural Development and got a low income loan. We don't make a lot of money and believe me, this place was a godsend for us. Just something to think about.

Now, if you want to rent that's fine...a RE agent can help there too. Newspapers, look at listings online, ask around at work, etc. Ride around neighbourhoods you think you would like to live in and look for signs. It's amazing what you can find when you get out. That's how we found this little house we live in now...just got out on a Saturday afternoon and looked. We wound up moving about 10-15 minutes from where we were living, so the commute isn't too bad.

Best of luck finding a place. I realise I also don't know what the area is like where you live, but the things I mentioned might be of help to you.

[Fandango 1,439]

Pennysaver rentals.

And if you're not against living in Deltona, you could pick up a blinder of a deal.

Oh, also...you could go to any real estate office which deals in property mgmt. It's a formal situation, so if anything breaks, you call the PM dept & it's sorted. I know for my company though, it's harder to pass a check for the PM dept than it is to buy a home. Sounds crazy, but true. So if there are any credit issues, this might not be the best option.

Good luck!

[KarenCee 3]

Pennysaver rentals.

And if you're not against living in Deltona, you could pick up a blinder of a deal.

Oh, also...you could go to any real estate office which deals in property mgmt. It's a formal situation, so if anything breaks, you call the PM dept & it's sorted. I know for my company though, it's harder to pass a check for the PM dept than it is to buy a home. Sounds crazy, but true. So if there are any credit issues, this might not be the best option.

Good luck!

Hey Lisa! Glad to see you and D finally filed! Hope it goes through without any snags. Life with Joel is....gawd....more than I could ever have imagined!!!!! Fantabulous!

Sowwy for hijacking your thread Aidan.

[aidan80 9]

Thanks for all the advice! We've been out there looking, checking the papers and driving around. We've noticed tons of property for sale but we don't quite have $150k - $200k to spend on a house. We don't even have the $99k and less we've seen some foreclosures going for. We're still planing on moving to another more northern state next year. We had originally planned to move this year but it isn't going to happen. Renting is really the only option at the minute as we don't want the hassle of selling and buying again. That is of course assuming we've enough credit to even buy, which I doubt. Another year's worth of building our credit and we should be able to do it!!

[Flames9_RN 358]

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/fl good old craigslist

[Jigi 0]

hey

how about the ebays RENT website

Jigi

[brtlmj 0]

We're still planing on moving to another more northern state next year.

The standard advice is not to buy if you are not planning to stay put for six years. That's in a "normal" market, which is not the case in much of the US now - and certainly not in Florida.

My advice is: keep on renting. Each month, calculate how much money you would waste if you had bought. Your slumlord is probably stingy because your rent covers half of his mortgage.

[Krikit 1,163]

Check out this link, Aidan. There's a 2 bedroom apartment for $650/month.

[Krikit 1,163]

Oh look, Aidan. There's some great deals on the Tavares Chamber of Commerce site. Found it totally by accident on towngreeters.com.

[aidan80 9]

Check out this link, Aidan. There's a 2 bedroom apartment for $650/month.

Thanks.. we're attempting to find a house if we can. Although all we've found so far is either too big, too expensive due to size or location or too small and too expensive due to location! Anything left that did fit of course didn't allow pets or charged heavily for having a pet! We have called a few places, most of the good deals where done when we called! We did look at one property which was listed as a house.. turned out to be a "fabricated" house!! It wouldn't hold up too well if we got another set of tornadoes in this place.

We're still looking, it's just a matter of time, cost and location! Not easy finding something that isn't going to leave one of us 1+ hour from our jobs which is the only reason we're still looking in this area otherwise we might have left already.

Edited February 26, 2008 by aidan80

[aidan80 9]

Oh look, Aidan. There's some great deals on the Tavares Chamber of Commerce site. Found it totally by accident on towngreeters.com.

Thanks, we will have a look!

[aidan80 9]

We're still planing on moving to another more northern state next year.

The standard advice is not to buy if you are not planning to stay put for six years. That's in a "normal" market, which is not the case in much of the US now - and certainly not in Florida.

My advice is: keep on renting. Each month, calculate how much money you would waste if you had bought. Your slumlord is probably stingy because your rent covers half of his mortgage.

believe me our slumlord has bought and paid for this place long long ago!! The man has a couple of businesses and his garage at his house is bigger than the front half of our house! The man lives in one of those private gated "communities" where the lawns are all perfectly manicured and life is all fine and dandy because everyone there is so rich they don't know what else to do with themselves but complain if they spot a weed growing in your yard!.. That and I've seen how much this place was bought for a few years back.

[aidan80 9]

Well.. we may have found a place after all!!! The wife stopped by a place on her way home the other day and came across a nice wee house for rent!! 2 bed, 1 bath, more than big enough for 2 people or more if we had any visitors from back home, hard to beat a cheap holiday!! They allow pets and it has a nice big yard in the front and back!! The rent appears to be affordable for this area and it looks like it was just listed for rent when she found it! We had a look at the place already, filled out an application, met the lard lord and talked to him for a while. If everything goes well we could possibly be moving in, in a few weeks time!

It was a big shock to talk to a landlord who is willing to have repairs done, said he'd have the carpets shampooed, the place painted and ready for us! Said if there are any problems that are not minor then he has a handy man that would be sent over to carry out repairs!! Our current landlord last seen this place just after we moved in.. only reason he never came back is we always paid the rent on time.. Our most recent electric bill was just over $60 because we have no power in half the house ah well..