Looking to rent in Naperville. Should I find a realtor? Help a small town girl out! (Sandwich: real estate)

[ReubenSandwich]

We narrowed it down and decided on Naperville. Some friends had suggested that we find a realtor to locate the right apartment for us.

Where I currently live is very rural. Typically apartments are just listed in the classifieds with the owners phone number. (no company owned places around here) In this area, a realtor would tell you to come back when you are ready to buy a home.

So my question is, should we use a realtor? I have been using padmapper and hotpads, but is it likely we might find more options if we go the realtor route? What does a realtor typically charge for something like this?

Thanks in advance.

[chet everett]

The "good news" is real estate agents typically "take their cut" out the landlord's end and the renter would not have any "fee". The various smaller landlords that do list their rentals on MLS also count on the agents to do at least a preliminary screening so there is less time wasted; for serious renters and time conscious landlords this works well.

The not so good news is that given the fairly large size of Naperville there really are not huge numbers of rentals to choose from. If you are looking for a value priced duplex or even a larger home there are some listed on MLS but the majority of larger complexes (most of which are in rather nice shape as Naperville has always been fairly strict about higher quality residential development) are doing their own advertising.

It is worth contacting agents, and if they can help you save time it will pay off, but don't expect a secret channel to be uncovered.

[Vasily]

For condos, townhomes, and home rentals, I'd check out Zillow. For apartments in complexes, I'd look at Apartments.com and apartmentratings.com ... But take the reviews in the latter with a grain of salt. Personally, I've never known someone who's used a realtor to find an apartment.

If you post information about what you're looking for, where you'll be working and your price range, some of us can probably give some suggestions for what to look at and what to avoid.

[Aonia]

Hi ReubenSandwich,

I just went through an apartment hunt in the same area and found plenty of options just searching sites like Apartment Ratings and then calling them directly. There seem to be a lot of good options in Naperville and the nearby suburbs. The place I landed on is the Grand Reserve. Hope that helps!

[ChicagoMeO]

You might like to look at Trulia on the internet. they have a huge variety of homes and they give the realtors name in the apartment ads, so you can use that as a reference point.

[mattywo85]

Coming from someone who works in real estate I would avoid Zillow, they don't update very often and can be inaccurate, Trulia is decent. Agents will do rentals but tend to be hesitant because it's a lot of work for a little reward.

OP, I would be happy to recommend a rental agent who is very familiar with rentals. Let me know!!